Social February 10, 7 p.m. CNC Links

February 18^th Chapter J will be bowling with Chapter C, at 3p.m. at  Ledgeview Lanes in Fond du Lac dinner to follow.  Come watch us bowl and stay for dinner.

February is a busy month with everyone making plans for what to do when riding season is here.  Please check the Chapter’s websites for see what activities are being planned and make your plan to attend the various events thorough out the year.  Hope to see you are some of the events.

February Birthdays

10-Tim Wolf

24-Lynne Frank

26-Hal Seider

29-Karen Simon

Social Friday, January 13^th, 7 p.m. CNC Links Cty Hwy C

Saturday the 21^st, Game Day at Jeff and Peg Schulz’s house Sheboygan Falls  3 p.m.

Chapter J  January 2012

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year’s Eve.

This year Chapter J has changed were their socials will be.  We are having our socials at CNC Links golf course on Cty Hwy C exit 144 off I43.  When the weather gets better (during our summer months) our socials will be in held in different places and some socials will be on different days, but we will always hold the social on the second Friday or weekend of each month.

Hope everyone is exciting about riding again, especially if some members received new toys or new stuff to be put on their toys.  Over the course of the next months there will be fundraisers and many opportunities to visited and socialize with members from other chapters.  Hope everyone enjoys the many events that are scheduled over the year.  Maybe Tim and I will see some of you at these events.

Birthdays

7- Ann Proulx

30-Leon LeClair

Anniversaries

23- Randall & Carlyn Roethel

The Wisconsin District Convention is going to held August 24^th & 25^th 2012 at Olympia Resort Oconomowoc, WI.  This is the week before Labor Day weekend and two weeks before the Davis Rally.

It sure is nice to know about events happening before fall OPP’s so everyone can plan ahead.  We all are grateful for the time and effort the district team puts into getting the place where our next convention will be.

The weather this summer has been great for riding and I’m sure a lot of you have been doing just that.  I hope nobody got caught out east when Irene hit.  It’s going to take a long time to fix everything.

Fall will be arriving soon and with it the cold air and the beautiful colors will be here.  Every year Mother Nature seems to out due herself when displaying all the colors.  We must all be on the lookout for those four legged animals that also like the weather.  Hope everyone has a safe ride this Fall.

            SAFETY TIP OF THE MONTH

Don’t ride next to cars or trucks in other lanes if you don’t have to.  You might be in there blind spot.  FINE-C Choke & Clutch – Set the choke ON for a cold start.  Squeeze the clutch lever when you start the engine as a safety precaution.

For more information on safety go to wisdot.com

Chapter Social

Friday, October 14 – 7:00 – The Other Place – Sheboygan Falls

Events

October 22^{nd -} Planning Meeting, The Other Place, Sheb. Falls

October  Birthdays

10-Bonnie Delsman

11-Laddie Frank

31- Ashley Delsman

October  Anniversaries

12-Steve & Bonnie Delsman

The tank is running low so you pull into a service station next to a pump. Down goes the kickstand. The next few things you do could save your life.

1) Turn off your motor

If gasoline were to spill as you bring the nozzle to the tank or as a result of overflow or as you take the nozzle out of the tank, you risk setting it ablaze. You should be concerned not just about a hot engine or exhaust pipes, but also any electrical system.

2) Take your helmet off

If your helmet is on you cannot determine if a fire has started as easily as you can without it and, particularly if the helmet is attached to the bike with an audio system cord, you cannot evacuate the area quickly should a fire be detected.

3) Get off your motorcycle

For some reason this step seems to be ignored more often than any other. Maybe it ‘looks’ good. Maybe it’s just too much work to get off when you’re tired. Whatever, putting fuel into your tank while you’re straddling the bike is dangerous! If there is a gasoline spill your crotch will get wet. Then what do you do?

4) Fill the tank, but not to the top

Gasoline expands as it warms up. Some gas tanks are not sealed units and if you fill them to the top they can easily leak. Some motorcycles have dual (side-by-side) tanks that are connected internally. There is a ‘secret’ you should know about filling these bikes – when putting gasoline into the higher tank WATCH the level in the lower one. Since you are on your side stand the bike is leaning and overflow from the higher tank will go to the lower one. Obviously, with this kind of system you cannot fill the highest tank without overfilling the lower one. This is one reason why owners of these bikes tend to sit on them when they fill up – to keep the bike vertical so they can load as much gasoline as possible. But it’s obvious why you shouldn’t do so (odds are good you will stop and put your side stand down before you have burned up enough gasoline to prevent leakage.)

Do not smoke within 20 feet of a gas pump

Keep your ignition switch in the OFF position any time your filler cap is off your tank. (Especially do not use your CB.)

Earlier I asked what you would do if gasoline spilled onto your crotch. Actually, I should have asked what you would do if it spilled on any part of you or your clothes. This is so important I will offer my own suggestions at this point.

A) DRENCH with water!

B) Then take that article of clothing OFF!!!

C) DO NOT WALK IF THERE IS GASOLINE ON YOUR CLOTHES!!!

Static electricity can easily ignite gasoline fumes.

Allow wet clothes to dry OUTSIDE. If you happen to be at home, DO NOT PUT THESE CLOTHES INTO A WASHER/DRYER!!!!

If you can smell gasoline on them there is enough to ignite.

  ‘Skill‘ is often no more than CONFIDENCE  
By James R. Davis

Some time ago I was riding with a group down a back-country road when our group leader decided that we needed to perform our ‘mandatory’ U-turn. The road had two lanes (one in each direction) and there was no oncoming traffic.

With only one exception everybody made a ‘three-point’ maneuver. That is, we turned across the road and stopped when we could not keep going without running off the pavement, then backed up after turning the front wheel, stopped and turned the front wheel again and proceeded to complete the maneuver.

There was, as I said, one exception. This rider was on a relatively new Gold Wing and he was carrying a passenger. Further, he is a BIG man – well over 6’ tall and well over 300 pounds.

This man simply aggressively leaned his bike over and drove his bike through the entire 180 degree turn without needing to stop or running out of pavement.

The chatter on the CB was filled with compliments relative to his profound skill with his bike. Those compliments started again at our next rest stop. They were well deserved compliments. But they were misdirected.

That is, what should have been complimented, in my opinion, was the rider’s CONFIDENCErather than his skill.

Don’t get me wrong – the man demonstrated lot’s of skill. He had demonstrated a mastery of his clutch, his throttle, and his HEAD!

With even modest skill almost anyone can lean a bike far enough in a slow-speed turn to drag a peg – but very few of us want to or would even try to get close to that big a lean because we do not KNOW that we can do it successfully. Why? Because we lack confidence in either our machine or ourselves. So, we compromise and do what we KNOW we can do – we make a three-point U-turn on a narrow road.

And how is it that this BIG man developed the confidence to make that slow-speed hard lean needed to complete his smooth U-turn? He had lot’s of experience. Experience gained from lot’s of practice.

Whether you call it skill or confidence, this man handles his bike very well indeed. He deserves recognition and regard, and he certainly gets both from me. Further, his U-turn maneuver took substantially less time than mine did. In other words, he was at risk for far less time than I was. THAT aspect of the value of experience never occurred to me before – confidence can reduce time at risk.

So, schedule some time on a regular basis and go out and practice, practice, practice. Earn the respect and regard of your friends by increasing your confidence/skills. Potentially reduce your at-risk time while on the road.

Practice increases confidence. Confidence shows as skill.  Over-confidence, however, can kill. The difference between the two, of course, is that being confident means you know you can do something, being over-confident means you think you can.

Making a U-turn like my friend did may not be the most important thing you will ever have to do, but failing to negotiate a curve at high speed because you lack confidence enough to lean the bike just a bit more is simply unacceptable motorcycling.

Most of us do not need to test limits, but it still happens that you might someday find yourself leaning too far into a curve and hearing/feeling your peg start to drag. What should you do about it?
Well, let me start by telling you what most people, I believe, instinctively try and what is dead wrong! They immediately roll off the accelerator and lean away from the dragging peg. These are BOTH wrong things to do because each action either lowers the bike (rolling off the accelerator) or increases the lean angle and as a result the peg will no longer be gently scraping the asphalt but will try to gouge a trough into it.

There are three things that can be done as soon as you hear/feel a peg scrape:

Increase throttle – (but note that you are already close to sliding and ANY increase in speed can be all she wrote)

Counter-steer away from the dragging peg – (widen the turn)

Shift body weight towards the dragging peg – (that is not a misprint)

Each of these actions tends to straighten the bike up. Any one of them will ‘cure’ the problem and is sufficient by itself. You can, of course, do two or all three of these things at the same time. Note, however, that doing the wrong things, it seems to me, is instinctive and that you need to mentally prepare to do the right things in advance. But that is exactly why you are reading this tip -to determine what experience has shown others is the right thing to do without having to ‘discover’ by trial and potentially fatal error for yourself.

As appeared in
WING WORLD Magazine
October 1996

With very few exceptions, little by little, Gold Wingers clean their windshields to death. Take a stroll around the parking lot outside a restaurant where a Gold Wing Road Riders Association Chapter gathering is going on. Look through all the windshields. Except for the brand new machines, almost every windshield shows evidence of well-intentioned abuse by the bikes’ owners. (While that’s what keeps those of us in the business of supplying aftermarket windshields and accessories in business, its largely unnecessary and can be avoided with a bit of care) Sure, you need to keep your windshield clean, both for appearances and safety, but you don’t need to go about it the wrong way’

First of all, you should know a bit about your Gold Wings windshield. Unlike most automobile or truck windshields, its not made of glass. The original equipment Honda Gold Wing GL1500 windshield is made of hard coated polycarbonate. While polycarbonate is great stuff, if you use cleaner containing alcohol or ammonia (including Windex® or Pledge®), you start softening the hard coating exposing the windshield to greater tendency to scratches or pitting. Windex, Pledge and other alcohol-based household cleaners work great on glass, but aren’t meant for synthetics.

WARNING:Do not use Rain-X® on any coated windshield!

Second if you grab one of those service station scrubber wands, you don’t know what kind of abrasives are imbedded in its spongy or squeegee surfaces. It’s worth it to carry your own cleaning materials. At service stations, the temptation is to do a ‘final wipe-off’ with those handy paper towels. Resist the urge! Paper is processed wood pulp. You’re essentially scrubbing your windshield with a handful of ground-up twigs! Is it any wonder your windshield quickly goes from crystal clear to a crazy-quilt pattern of swirls and whorls that’s especially annoying when riding in the rain or n the glare of on-coming headlightsl

Alcohol or high-petroleum-content cleaners are even more destructive to aftermarket windshields made of Lexan®. Spritz a little alcohol on one of these windshields and it immediately turns milky white, had a customer tell me he destroyed his windshield while refilling his fuel tank “‘he hose nozzle sprung loose, gushing gasoline all over the inside of his Lexan windshield. Was he angry!

Here’s how I tell my customers to clean their windshields.

Step 1. Use a wet, not damp, wash cloth or hand Towel you keep for that purpose in a plastic zip-lock bag inside your Wings travel trunk. Allow the water to soften the dried-on bugs. Work crosswise and up and down; if you use a circular motion, you tend, unconsciously, to increase the rag pressure and scrub harder than you need to. Also, if there’s any grit on the cloth to gouge the surface, circular scratches are more annoying to the eye than straight ones. (By the way, I don’t use diaper material because the tightness of the weave tends to pick up and retain grit.) Soft terry cloth is the best for the initial soaking and wiping.

Step 2. With the windshield still wet, sparingly spray on some of Sumner Laboratories’ product called 210®. Using clean tee-shirt material, gently wipe the windshield dry, gain, using straight back-and-forth motions. Sumner’s 210® is available through many motorcycle and plastic supply houses (and Tulsa Enterprises carries it too!) It’s specifically formulated for use on Lucite or Lexan. Besides being anti-static and anti-fog, it helps seal the pores of plastic and leaves a protective coating. From Tulsa Enterprises, a seven ounce can of 210® costs $5.50 plus shipping. Sumner Laboratories’ 210® Plus scratch remover (7.5 oz., $6.50) can improve lightly scratched surfaces. As with any product you’ve not tried before, do a test sample in a small (preferably out of the line of sight) area of the windshield to see if it makes things better or worse.

Of curse, in the final analysis, for severely scratched and pitted windshields the best thing to do is start over with a fresh one, promising yourself to give it better care than you gave the last one. Just as investing in a fresh set of motorcycle tires makes a world of difference in how your motorcycle rides, by making the relatively small investment for a new windshield, you can improve your whole outlook on life!

By James R Davis

You are out on an overnighter and are parking the bike for the evening. The winds are up. Do you use a cover or not? Put it up on the center stand or leave it on the side stand?

Let me deal with the second question first – it is the easiest. Rule-of-thumb: Unless you are parked inside a garage on concrete, use your side stand!

Your side stand provides a WIDE tripod as compared to your center stand. As such, it provides far more stable parking for your motorcycle. The sole exception to this is if you are unable to park such that the bike leans firmly on the side stand. For example, if your shocks or tire pressure are low, your luggage weight is high, or the ground slopes to the right. If the bike is not leaning firmly on your side stand it can rather easily be pushed over to the right side.

Though high winds and bike covers do not go well together, I always use mine when I’m out on an overnighter. This, to tend to minimize the risks of theft and curiosity seekers taking liberties (even good natured parents have taken the liberty of placing one of their children in a bike’s saddle they were walking by without getting the bike owner’s permission.) Further, I’d rather the cover get damaged from windblown sand and other debris than the finish on my bike.

Remember to use some form of fastener to cinch together the bottom edges of your cover under the bike to keep it from flying off (and to further deter someone who might even think about stealing the bike.)