Winter Riding anyone?

Click on the newspaper clipping and it will explode to full size.





While thinking about all the high performance motorcycles I've seen on the roads already this winter; I detect a trend of riders who will ride all year long.

I ran across this great website that has myriads of photos of motorcycles; many that are part of newspaper or magazine articles from the past. It is a lot of fun to spend some time on this website.

Ride Safe this winter!

Hi From Triumph of Tacoma

Robert J Grawet
General Manager
.advancedMethod
robert.g@advancedmethod.com
360-481-6176
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

---

From: vena@triumphoftacoma.com
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:52:11 -0700
Subject: Hi From Triumph of Tacoma

 

 

Hi,

GERBINGS - We will now carry Gerbings gear at our shop. Our inventory will arrive in two weeks. 

APRIL 18, 2009 RIDE TOMORROW - Meet at the shop at 10:00 a.m. for a 1.5 hour ride on back roads leading to GERBINGS in Tumwater, WA.  Gerbings will provide a FREE BARBECUE beginning at 11:30 and serve until 2:00 p.m.  The latest in heated products will be available as well as door prizes.  Various motorcycle vendors will be attending beginning at 9:00 a.m.  Make sure you stop by our Triumph tent to say "HI". 

 

APRIL 20, 2009 RIDE MONDAY - Many of you have commented that all the rides are held on weekends and not week days so this one is especially for the weekday crowd.  Meet at the shop at 10:00 a.m. to go riding.  We'll ride from 10 a.m. and head back before rush hour traffic - approximately 3 p.m. 

 

APRIL 26, 2009 SUNDAY - The 4^th Annual Northwest RAT (Riders Association of Triumph) Lunch in Chehalis takes place at the Kit Carson Restaurant at 1:00pm. 

 

APRIL 28-MAY 2, 2009 TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY - TRIUMPH OPEN HOUSE WEEK  Specials and sales are all week long!

 

MAY 2, 2009 SATURDAY - TRIUMPH OF TACOMA OPEN HOUSE!  10-5 p.m.  Spread the news.  We will be hosting our Open House with special Triumph deals, sales, various representatives for gear, free maps, hourly raffle prizes, free food and a bike wash with proceeds benefiting Fort Lewis' Fisher House as well as guests from Brothers in Arms, Lakewood Police, Puget Sound Safety and the US military.  If you have any questions about endorsements, road laws, etc. this would be the perfect time to ask.  More reminders yet to come.

 

FREE MAGAZINE - This month's issue of Friction Zone is available.  Drop by for your copy.

 

JUNE 5, 2009 - The Advanced Street Skills class is now full.  If you are still interested, please let me know.  I'll make sure you are placed on a standby list.  We are sharing the track with the military and others so there may be last minute absences.

 

2008 DAYTONA 675 SE- I've had many people ask why I parted with my 2008 Daytona 675 SE.  Triumph made a great bike even greater in '09.  More horsepower (which I never used all that I had in the 2008), lighter bike, many updates for performance and it's RED!  The separation anxiety won't be too awful because my bike has been sold to a mature responsible rider and I'll still be able to see it!

 

That's it for now.  Enjoy the beautiful sunny high temperature days this weekend.  Hope to see you at Gerbings on Saturday.

 

Vena

http://www.triumphoftacoma.com/

 

Gerbings 

1145 85th Ave SE

Tumwater, WA 98501

 

Take I 5 to the Tumwater Blvd exit (South of Olympia)

Turn left onto Tumwater Blvd

Turn right at Capitol Blvd/Old Highway 99 and ride past the airport.

Turn right at the second light (88th)

Make an immediate right and follow the dead end road.

Gerbings will be on your left.

 

 

 

 

 

There are now 327 Members in the Virtual Motorcycle Gang....from around the world!

My Bike - from New 'Virtual Gang' Member Kevin

Robert,

Thanks for doing this. I’ve attached a picture of my new bike. A 2009 V-Strom 650

Kevin

Our last ride before winter perhaps!

Joyce and I decided to jump on 'Ruby' (our bike) and take a ride with absolutely no clear destination in mind this morning.

It is Sunday, and it was supposed to be cloudy all day. Instead the sun was shining brightly. About 10 AM we decided we had to go for it. If it turned cloudy and cold, we'd just be prepared and not worry about it.

We have a good collection of jackets and helmets to select from so we really can ride in almost any weather; although we'd probably not ride in snow.

So, we chose the warmest riding jackets and helmets with full face protection to make sure our ride wouldn't be cut short by cold and wind.

The day turned out to be just great. We rode south from our home in Olympia, Washington on old highway 99. This road used to be the main north and south highway from Vancouver, British Columbia to Tijuana, Mexico...all down the west coast of the United States.

Now it passes thru small town after smaller town and includes lots of interesting things to look at that you wouldn't see if you were on the interstate highway going 75 mph.

We took State highway 507 south from Tenino, Washington on down to Centralia. Centralia is loaded with choices for most anything you'd like for a lunch stop. We decided to pass on them all as we had a late big breakfast. Instead we slowly ended up heading west from Centralia to a very small place called Galvin, Washington. There is one stop sign, and this old gas station/museum, 15 or 20 houses, and thats about it.

A few miles west of Galvin we could see that if we continued west we would ride straight into a dense layer of clouds and possibly hit rain. So, being the 'no destination in mind' kind of riders we were today; we simply turned a u and headed back into the sunshine.

We essentially retraced the ride down, although I believe you'd admit, the ride is quite different when you are going the opposite direction. You see entirely different things.

By now, we'd become hungry enough to stop for lunch in Centralia. We often stop at La Tarasca a traditional southern Mexican restaurant that is serviced by 'mom' and her daughters; straight from Mexico. Their specialty is slow cooked port roast, just like my mom used to make on a Sunday back home in Nebraska in my youth.

Today we decided to eat junk food. We passed many favorite restaurants and headed for Mr. J's on the north end of Centralia...just a little stand.

They have great tater tots...and I had a growing desire to eat some of these.

So....we ended the day after tots and hot dogs....and retraced the route back to Olympia and home.

It was just beginning to cloud up and get cooled off as we arrived back in town.

Will this be the last ride of our season?

You never know....

Please be sure to send me a photo of your bike and I love 'ride' stories.

Ride Safe!

Message from Robert Grawet, Group Founder, WMA, "The Virtual Motorcycle Gang"

I am so excited as we have member #216 join this last week. We have grown at a very steady rate since beginning in April of 2008.

We had a couple of fluxuations in the numbers as our main source of members; LinkedIn.com changes some of their rules for group participation. AND they were very good changes in my mind. The changes they made was to make it impossible for any LinkedIn member to belong to more than 50 groups. There had become a "MySpace" type race to add groups and 'connections' to your profile in order to appear to be well connected.

As a result, many people joined 10 - 25 or more groups on every day. You'd see the same old names on LinkedIn in their update section, and these names would be there to announce that they had joined 25 groups today.

With the change, many were forced to actually drop out of groups that they had no real interest in. This caused us to have a long series of membership bounces.

Things seem to have finally stabilized, and it now appears that EVERY single one of our members ACTUALLY is a motorcycle fan; whether they own one or not.

So, the end result seems good, as I never had expected anyone to join unless they were a motorcycle nut like me.

Let's all get some good riding in before the fall weather begins to slow us down!

Ride Safe!

We now have 201 members in the WMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome all!!!!!!

Thank you WMA Members! We just went over 200 members this weekend and we have truly become a 'Worldwide' Motorcycle Association.

We have members from every continent and representing just about every motorcycle make that I know of.

Now...if I could just get everyone to send in a favorite ride story and a photo....we'd really have something, wouldn't we?

Thanks everyone....and Ride Safe!

A ride from Olympia, Washington to Packwood, WA and back around!

Picture is Barbara Lee and Joyce Grawet at the gas stop in Morton, WA.


On Sunday, September 7th, 2008, Joyce and I hit the highway at 10:30 AM to meet Howard and Barbara Lee in Centralia, Washington by 11:30 AM.

We had decided to meet at McMeniman's Restaurant in Centralia for lunch and then to head out on backroads to make a circuitous trip to the base of Mt. Rainier and back home.

From Centralia we took Hwy 99 South to the cut-across road that goes thru Onalaska, WA and eventually in Morton, WA. The road meanders thru open foothill country with farms and ranches on both sides of the road along with the occasional stream.

As you approach Morton you begin to follow the route of a river that eventually goes up to Mt. Rainier. At the entrance to Morton there are some gorgeous rock formations in the river that sort of make a natural swimming and fishing hole right in town.

We gassed up in Morton along with about 50 other bikers as it is a great spot to fill up and have a drink of water before beginning the ride up toward the mountain.

We ended up stopping in Packwood, WA. at Pete's (picture) to have a snack and some coffee, and then we were off again from Packwood over the mountains to Ashford. Ashford is on a high plateau surrounded by Mt. Rainier and many other lesser mountains. It is a gorgeous road from Ashford back to Elbe along another river and finally into the little dinky town of Elbe. In Elbe there is a hamburger stand along the road that always has a crowd. This little stand makes some of the best burgers and hotdogs you could imagine.

Finally you make your way slowly back down from high country going west into Yelm and back around to Olympia and home.

This route takes about 5 hours or more if you stop much. It is always devoid of much traffic and you see more motorcycles on a warm day than cars is seems like.

I invite you all to take a look at your Washington map and take the time for this trip one day.

Ride Safe!

Welcome new WMA Member Leda Roth from Los Angeles!

Hi, Robert.
I saw your blog and I want to join your Worldwide Motorcycle Association. My name is Leda Roth and I'm from LA, CA. I'm on blogger as well.

Regards,
Leda

Welcome to new WMA Member Lee Ajaye!!!!

Below is the email I received from Lee.....OBVIOUSLY a very active rider just like me! Lee...thank you so much for the great email.

Best of luck to you in Germany. Watch out for those 250 kph Mercedes, BMW's and Audi's passing you by...... I have to admit, I'd be quite intimidated if I had to ride in fast traffic like that.

Welcome Lee....Please send us a ride story from Europe if you have one you'd like to share!

Ride Safe!

My name's Lee Ajaye and you just accepted me as a member of the WMA, so
I thought that I'd go ahead and provide you with a picture ASAP! Please
see the attached. Please feel free to post either one or all of them.
They were taken when I was living in Alexandria, VA, which was any time
before the 6th of June (from March 31st the prior year). I work for the
DoD (Army) as a Computer Specialist (prior as Helpdesk Chief, then
Network Admin, then Sys Admin, and now Service Desk Chief). So I guess
that I've been around the (GS) block for a little while. It's
interesting doing the managerial thing, and I'm welcoming the time to
actually singularly focus on one thing, instead of the multitudes all at
once, as in the past. Oh, I'm currently living in Laumersheim, Germany
(near Bad Durkheim, which is in one of Germany's many wine regions) and
working in Heidelberg, Germany. So I do the daily commute thing.

I was also reading what you wrote about how I try to wrench my neck when
I'm driving my car and I see another motorcyclist. Not to mention a few
of the other things that you mentioned really seemed to have struck a
chord with yours truly. Uncanny, I must say. I'm considering going to
the Intermot ( http://www.intermot.de/ ) on October 8th up in Koeln, but
am not sure yet if I can make it or not yet. I'd love to ride, but
parking always seems to be a bit of a hassle at these things (unless I
go to Frankfurt, I like and know that area VERY well, so parking's never
an issue), so I may just take the train (more relaxing as well).

Oh, and one last thing. My bike is a 2001 Sprint RS. If there are any
other Triumph riders out there, they can look me up on the
TriumphRAT.net pages as BTR01 (Black TRiumph 2001).

Keep the rubber side down man, and I look forward to crossing your path
one of these days. Maybe if I ever make it back to the states again.

Ciao-Ciao,

Lee Ajaye

Welcome to new WMA member Pina Sicari!!!!!

Hi Robert

Thank you so much for accepting me in the group and for your kind response.


I have sent you three pictures, two of my motorcycle and one of myself and the puppy Smokey, he's not a puppy any more but I love the picture.



Pina Sicari

123 Members now in 'The Virtual Motorcycle Gang'

Including Anders "Iceman" Marker-Olsen from Denmark.

You can join to......look for the url to join on the right side of this page.

and

Let's Ride! Send me your bike shots and stories......let us all share in your ride virtually....via your photos and tales.