A Motorcycle Evening

I spent the evening with my neighbor Eileen (pictured above) and a group of motorcycle enthusiasts. When I pulled up to the driveway at her friend LP's house and saw a 950 KTM (I think the Adventure), a BMW HP Enduro, a BMW 1200 GS and a Honda Transalp I knew the conversation was going to be good.

Eileen took the MSF class last year and has been riding all around the Southwest since. She bought a Transalp last summer and has already logged over 5000 miles on it. This past winter she took the Transalp and rode down to Baja with LP. She moved to Santa Fe from Moab not long ago and has a dream to start a women's dirt bike and off road motorcycle camp based in Moab. Everything about Eileen's life seems adventurous. With just one glance in her garage you'd know she suffers from wonder lust. Bikes, a sea kayak, plenty of skis, a motorcycle and trailer, everything that keeps her bag packed and on a new trip each weekend.

The evening with Eileen and some of her friends was centered around motorcycles. LP is a violin player for the Santa Fe Opera his friend Mark, a bass player for the Opera, Chuck an Engineer (who owns the same Transalp that Eileen rides) and Dan whose garage full of bikes is famous all had interesting stories of riding and experiences with motor bikes. I got lots of great advice on different types of bikes (mostly dual sport). Dan turned me on to the Adventure Rider Motorcycle Forum. Tons of great photos by real riders. Get's me really jazzed to take a trip. One trip that sounded adventurous was the Trans-Am Trail. My favorite part of the forum is reading about people's different adventures in the US and around the world. Perhaps a great place to plan a trip with the help of others.

Mini Mechanical Challenge

I wondered what I would do with my evenings after I graduated with my MLIS a couple weeks ago.


One of my co-workers gave me a graduation present so I spent the evening assembling it.


With a few stickers I customized it.


Tonight the MagnaCycle... Saturday the Mechanical Challenge.

Final Logo Set

Hey all here is the final set of logos - the top one is new. What do you think?

The Dream and the Reality

Wow, I thought June 4th would never get here. After getting a posse together, all I could think about was how I would go about introducing them that day. I was relieved to find out that most of the day would be spent having a good time working with the cast, the crew and with the hair and make-up professionals, Angela and Chaunda. The day sounded more like an adventure. The BMW shop was transformed into a Biker Babe’s Beauty Salon, with bike magazines alongside Glamour mags, melding the feminine with the masculine. Angela and Chaunda helped us become the MotoFemina women; women with a desire to ride but with a more feminine flair.
We also received some great women’s specific BMW gear. Courtney and Greg did a great job with the sizing and ordering, the fit was great! I really like the Light-n-Easy suit, along with the gloves, boots, and well-ventilated Arai helmet (the most important part, in my book).
At the end of the day, the posses arrived. Shana was there in her infamous pink leathers, Troy with a persistent grin on his face because he loves to ride, and Greg with the experience I only dream of and all of whom are on a mission to help me win the bike. My posse has been so supportive and they helped make the shot more relaxed and comfortable.
Saturday the 13th, we were finally on the bike! The new F 650 GS!!! Katherine and Ashley helped us refresh our skills from the MSF course and got us back into a bit of a comfort zone. It also gave us time to become familiar with the bigger bike. I have to admit, I went home wondering if I was really able to ride a bike out in traffic and how in the world does anybody go out right after an MSF course and ride down Cerrillos road or St. Francis drive. Yikes!
By Sunday, I was anxious to get out on the road with Tina and Patti (our riding mentors). I was hopeful the training from Saturday and the MSF course (back in May) would all come back to me. How exciting it was to be out riding!!! It was reassuring to have Patti and Tina along, especially for that first experience. They gave me a great sense of confidence and a bit of security knowing they would be there to help if need be.
I’m jazzed to be able to get on a bike and ride! I am also looking forward with great enthusiasm, mixed with a bit of trepidation, to get more time on the bike and more experience under my belt.
Yippee!

And...Action!

The last couple weeks have been busy for the MotoFemina cast and crew. We invaded the shop at Santa Fe BMW on a Sunday morning and were transformed into MotoFemina. Thanks to Angela and Chaunda who both helped us play with the theme of being feminine along with serious motorcycle riders. We also learned a bit about the women's specific line of riding gear BMW offers - it was like Christmas morning when we realized the big pile of boxes were ours. We each got a full BMW riding outfit - I got the InoTex2 suit, boots, gloves and a beautiful (and expensive) Arai helmet (Astral-X).

After much anticipation, we finally got to ride the F650 GS. What a great bike! Katherine and her husband Ashley were a good teaching tag-team and eased us into our first day on the bike. The 650 felt quite a bit different than the small bikes we rode in the MSF course. After a bit of practice handling the bike in a parking lot, it wasn't long before we were ready to hit the open road. On Sunday, with Patty in front and Tina behind, we explored the roads of Santa Fe and got a bit more experience on the bike. Tina showed up with her new Ducati Monster (just one day old) and Patty shared some of the tips and tricks she's learned from her BMW 650 CS. Dealing with traffic, the sites and sounds, and the bike was what I had been waiting for. I stalled it a couple times at a few stop signs but I just kept telling myself "okay Laura, you know where the clutch and starter button are, if it stalls, just start it back up and go." A little self help pep talk going on under the helmet.

Pictures: 1) Taking over the shop 2) Chaunda shows us the finer points of makeup application 3)Getting a few last minute tips from Katherine. 4) Patty in the lead. 5) Tina showing off her hot new bike.

Hi, from your mentor, Tina

Hello,

Congratulations on passing the MSF course!

I want to introduce myself and tell you all a little about how I got started motorcycling.

I grew up in Wisconsin, moved to South Carolina, and then to New Mexico. I've been here since 1996 but didn't start riding until 2002. My husband and I were watching a show on motorcycles and decided to give it a try.

We took the MSF course and bought little 250cc bikes. I remember the bikes seemed huge to us. In less than a year I moved up to a 1450cc HD Deuce. It was a big jump. I would get sick to my stomach when I was getting ready to take it out for a ride, but I had to do it.

We went a many rides in New Mexico and surrounding states over the next few years. It was fun to see myself improving. During this time I started to read motorcycle magazines, to get ideas for rides, read safety articles, and to improve my skills. I read something that made a lot of sense to me. The author stated that dirt biking can improve street skills. The reason I bought into this was because frequently during our trips we would run into areas of road construction. It's almost unavoidable in the summer months. The gravel or dirt that we had to ride through would really scare me. So I bought a dirt bike and took the MSF dirt bike class. I really, really enjoy going off road. It is intimidating but it's worth it. The bottom line is that dirt biking does help with street riding skills. The other day while commuting to work, I decided to stop quick because the light turned yellow. My back wheel skidded because I didn't not use enough front brake. The rear end was wiggling around but it really didn't bother me because when you dirt bike that is all the bike does. It's very loose underneath you.

The dirt biking got me interested in the BMW 650GS. I wanted to get off the asphalt and onto some unimproved roads. There are miles and miles of dirt or gravel roads in New Mexico and the surrounding states. I choose the 650 because it didn't look like all the other enduros. It's cool. I always get compliments on it. I took a two day class with Jimmy Lewis (editor of dirt bike magazine) and his wife. The class was geared toward learning how to handle bigger dual purpose bikes in the dirt. It was an excellent class that provided all kinds of challenges. If any of you are interested, now or in the future, in learning more about the class, I'll be glad to fill you in.

My next endeavor was sportbikes. Again, reading the magazines, I read that track days can really help improve cornering skills. It can also provide a "safe" place to test the limits of your bike. This sounded fun. I bought a Kawasaki ZZR 600. I never rode anything quite like it. It was very quick and handled quite differently than my Harley. I could take corners and do it well. I took it to the track and gained confidence in cornering. It was scary but fun.

When BMW introduced the K1200R, I was ready to try it. It's very fast and very smooth. It has the zip and handling of a sport bike but without the discomfort. It's in my garage!

That's my history in a nutshell.

I look forward to meeting each of you this Saturday, June 10th. Our first ride will be Sunday June 11th.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.

Tina