UPCOMING EVENTS. HOG Pen Chapter Secretary / Historian

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4/09 Director Tom Foster Assistant Director Bob Block UPCOMING EVENTS Remember please show up for Chapter rides with a full tank of fuel and HYDRATE starting the day before. June 20th H.O.G. General Meeting @ 9:00 a.

m. HOG Pen Chapter Secretary / Historian This year is turning out to be a great year for Superstition H.O.G. Chapter. I find myself very busy with my Secretary and Historian duties.

1 4/09 Director Tom Foster Assistant Director Bob Block UPCOMING EVENTS Remember please show up for Chapter rides with a full tank of fuel and HYDRATE starting the day before. June 20th H.O.G. General 9:00 a.m. Every H.O.G. member receives a free ticket for the door prize drawings and 50/50 tickets, will be sold as well. FREE hot dogs will be served, for card carrying H.O.G. members, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. HOG Pen Chapter Secretary / Historian This year is turning out to be a great year for Superstition H.O.G. Chapter. I find myself very busy with my Secretary and Historian duties. April was a very busy month of riding and H.O.G. business. There was a great chapter turnout for the Fire Fighters Poker Run on April 3 rd. On April 2 nd, 3 rd, and 4 th, Chapter Director, Big Tom, and I attended P.O.T. (Primary Officer Training not the smoking class) which was put on by National H.O.G. in Las Vegas. I know you are thinking, Las Vegas Party Wrong! It was two days of 8:00 to 5:00 classroom time on how to better run a chapter and make it more fun (Ride and Have Fun). It was quite interesting and I did pick up a lot of great ideas to share with the chapter. We met many chapter officers from all over the western U.S. I came away with an appreciation I would like to share with you all: Not only do we have a great chapter, but we are also lucky to have the best sponsors of all the chapters. Thank you to Mark and Beverly LeResche for making all this happen and for all you do for the chapter. Let s get caught up on some history of the past five months. January started a great riding year. We had four Sunday Impromptu Rides, four Wednesday Impromptu Rides, three Friday Night Dinner Rides, and two Saturday Night Dinner Rides. We held Bike Night at the Rock Bar and our first Meet the Members in the H.O.G. room. Many members attended our first General Meeting on the 17 th. In February, we had four Sunday Impromptu Rides, four Wednesday Impromptu Rides, two Friday Night Dinner Rides, and two Saturday Night Dinner rides. LOH held their Valentines Day Sweetheart Ride. We had two ERC courses, one for two wheel riders and one for trikes. Congratulations to all riders for taking and completing these courses. Our monthly General Meeting had a lot of chapter members and guests in attendance. Spirits Bar and Grill rocked during Bike Night with great chapter support. In March we had five Sunday Impromptu Rides, four Wednesday Impromptu Rides, two Friday Night Dinner Rides, and two Saturday Night Dinner Rides. We held our 7 th Annual Tombstone Run. All I can say about that is, What Happens in Tombstone, Stays in Tombstone.. It was a great time had by all. We rocked the Rock Bar on Bike Night. We held a Bike Blessing with the Black Sheep and AZ bike got underway.

-ATTENTION ATTENTION- IF YOU HAVE NOT YET PICKED UP YOUR REWARDS CARD FROM THE DEALERSHIP, PLEASE DO SO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

2 WE RE HAVING CHRISTMAS IN JULY!!!!! Join us for our annual Christmas in July Ride up to the Hondah Casino and Resort on July 24 th, 25 th, and 26 th. Make your reservations now by calling Be sure to mention you are with SHD H.O.G. group for special rates. More details to follow at our next Chapter meeting. -ATTENTION ATTENTION- IF YOU HAVE NOT YET PICKED UP YOUR REWARDS CARD FROM THE DEALERSHIP, PLEASE DO SO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Once again, there was great attendance at our monthly General Meeting and we supported the Angels on Call ride, sponsored by Superstition HD. In April, we had thirteen chapter rides and one great Bike Night at the Rock Bar. Thanks, Jody, you always make our events FUN. On Saturday, the 25 th, Lynrd Skynrd took the group up to Mount Lemmon on an Activities Ride. On Thursday, the 30 th, Bob Block led the group to Tucson for the Arizona State H.O.G. Rally. The rally was a great time, with lots of rides, food, vendors, and entertainment. Next year, the State H.O.G. Rally is moving back to Williams. May brought another great riding month. We did break a record, though. We had the most days in May with temps in the hundreds. Summer is here. Remember to drink a lot of water. (Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate). Stay cool, brothers and sisters. We had four Sunday Rides in May, four Wednesday Rides and five Dinner Rides, along with another great Bike Night at the Rock Bar. I have consolidated five months in this article, and as you can see, we ride. Our Road Captains deserve a BIG thank you. They have led many groups all over this beautiful state and viewed many terrific sites, not to mention the many miles they ride. They have taken us from South Mountain in Phoenix, to Mount Lemmon in Tucson, to Payson, Flagstaff, Sedona, Prescott and Wickenburg. They have taken us to Superior, Globe, Lake Roosevelt, Kearny and Florence. They are on rides and working support for the dealership during events. Many of my stories would not be possible without them and you, my chapter brothers and sisters. Thank you all. I have heard people say that the H.O.G. Chapter doesn t ride.they obviously have never ridden with us. To date, we have had at least seventy rides, including the 30 we held in just the two past months. This has already been a great year of Riding & Having Fun. June, July and August are our HOT months, but we have some great rides coming up. In June, we have the Beaver Creek overnighter and a William s overnighter. Also, in June, is our Million Mile Monday. In July, we will have Christmas in July, our annual charity ride. We have many more great ideas and plans in the works. So let s Ride and Have Fun! Chapter Secretary/Historian Crazy George June 21 st - Fathers Day Impromptu Ride Long Ride 7 a.m.

3 Crosswinds How to deal with them By: James R. Davis Sooner or later you are going to wonder about how to handle severe crosswinds - probably while fighting them. Surprise, surprise - you don't have to do anything and the motorcycle will handle most crosswinds just fine - with only normal responses from you. There are a couple of things that you can do to make the experience less stressful, however. For example, you can quit white-knuckling your grips. When you hold on tight you also tend to stiff arm your controls. That, as we've talked about before, merely allows front-end instability to propagate into the rest of the motorcycle. Relax your grips and droop your elbows. Allow your bike to be a bit unstable. Drive in the CENTER OF YOUR LANE. Lean forward and down to reduce your profile, and snug up your jacket. What about traction? You neither gain nor lose any significant traction when the wind blows from your side unless you are in a curve. While you are leaned into the wind all of the weight of the bike remains on your tires (fancy that) and there is very little lateral force scrubbing that traction away. How much lean do you need? Whatever the bike dials in for you. Should you anticipate those gusts? Should you just respond quickly to a gust in order to remain in control and traveling in a straight line? No, and no. Your bike will NOT travel in a straight line. That is, as long as you allow it to do its thing, your bike will be modestly blown off course with a gust and the result of that movement is EXACTLY the same as any other minor course change - you will need modest counter-steer input to correct it - the CG of your bike will then be on the side the wind came from and the result is that it will lean towards the wind. [Anticipating wind-sheer IS important under a couple of scenarios: the approach of an oncoming large vehicle suggests that severe buffeting will occur when you pass it, and entering or exiting stretches protected from the wind such as tunnels or bridges with relatively high retaining walls. In these cases you will certainly want to position the bike away from the source of the wind-sheer and insure you maintain a firm grip.] Is a heavier bike less likely to be blown around than a lighter bike? Not necessarily. What is primarily determinant of how great the effect of a crosswind is on your bike is its profile. A garage door (GoldWing) will typically be more harshly affected by crosswinds than a lighter low profile bike. Can you mitigate some of that instability in any way? Yes. There are cowling additions that can be designed (some are available off the shelf - called 'belly pans') that streamline the airflow under your bike and help (modestly) to reduce crosswind handling problems. Your side profile area is what determines how your motorcycle reacts to crosswinds. Just as there is a Center of Gravity, there is also a Center of wind resistance. If that center of wind resistance is in front of your Center of Gravity then crosswinds will tend to push you off course while if it is behind your Center of Gravity the motorcycle will try to steer INTO the wind. Thus, mounting a high profile LIGHT object (a stuffed animal, for example) onto your trunk lid or your pillion can have a dramatically corrective effect rather than worsen the bike's steering reaction to those crosswinds. Crosswinds can be murder if you are leaned way over in a curve. Don't, if you can avoid it. As a result of a crosswind your bike will move off course and normal modest counter-steer will lean it into the wind. A strong gust will blow you out of track. So, correct your steering, gently, and keep going.

4 Good Friends Good Times In April we had a reunion with 4 good friends, who also happen to be from Staten Island HOG, in New York. They are the Director, Secretary and Lead Road Captain. Ivan (Lead RC) and Arleen his wife, Chris (Director) and Linda (Secretary) his wife. Ivan & Arleen are Jan s friends for over 20 years. When I got the call they were doing a fly and ride to Las Vegas they told us we had to come there and take them touring. I was up for the challenge. It was the last week of April which is usually 100 degrees in Vegas and along the way there. Well we got lucky! Jan and I left Mesa early on Sunday in leather jackets. Cool temps prevailed the whole week. The temps never got over 86 degrees. When we met up with Arleen, she gave us 2 large boxes of cookies from the Italian bakery in Staten Island, which was unlike anything you can get in Arizona. FYI the bakery is Alfonso s Pastry Shoppe which was in the movie Easy Money with Rodney Dangerfield and Joe Pesci.very funny! So off we went via Hoover Dam. The bypass is coming along beautifully and will be an awesome road when completed. For the first day I chose Valley of Fire, Nevada s First State Park. Awesome rock formations that are just eye popping. Then a ride thru Lake Mead Recreation area. The second day the ladies wanted to stay at the pool and go shopping. With this, I decided that the ride would be about 300 miles to and from and thru Death Valley. Like I said earlier, we were blessed with temperatures at around 86 degrees at Furnace Creek, which is 220 feet below sea level. The roads were in great condition and the views were awesome. Ivan, Chris and I were very impressed with Death Valley and will probably go back some day and see more of it. After this day, we needed a good steak dinner and we were off to Sam s Town on Boulder Hwy to Billy Bobs Steakhouse. Good steaks Good company. Good times On the third day we went to Red Rock Canyon. This is another place with great rock formations, views and also donkey crossings. Ironically, we actually saw some donkeys. After the canyon we changed our elevation and rose up to over 11,000 feet elevation on Mt. Charleston. The Ski area lodge was closed, but on the other side of the peak there is always a restaurant open. One road went up thru the pines and one road went down to the Mohave. When their bikes got returned we had a little over 700 miles put on from around Las Vegas for the 3 days of riding and having fun! The nights were great fun in the casinos. Jan actually hit on a machine and we came home even.

In the end, we were way ahead with a great trip under our butts with great friends!! We were big winners!! Jan & John Cat The Pink Section Section (L.O.H.) Our Beaver Creek overnighter was fantastic!

5 In the end, we were way ahead with a great trip under our butts with great friends!! We were big winners!! Jan & John Cat The Pink Section Section (L.O.H.) Our Beaver Creek overnighter was fantastic! We took a couple great side trips while we were there, and had a couple of great evenings of socializing, gambling, and card games. Thank you to everyone who participated, and thanks to all you road captains who helped out. And always remember; Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don t matter and those who matter don t mind. - Dr. Seuss

6 Dealership Happenings

7 Superstition H.O.G. Officer Contact Information Sponsoring dealership: Superstition Harley-Davidson 2910 W. Apache Trail Apache Junction, AZ Phone: Toll Free Ride and Have Fun! The End

GWRRA Texas Chapter P

GWRRA Texas Chapter P Meet the 2nd Thursday of each month @ Spring Creek BBQ Come join us! September MMX From your Director Can you believe it? September already! Awe, alas, cooler temperatures are only