First, The 52 Cameras Project. Everyone with a smart phone has head about Instagram, the app that makes digital photos look like they were taken with cameras from the 70′s. It’s hugely popular. Well, photographer Jodi Bates has 52 old cameras and is taking pictures with each of them to create a book. Her photos are on Flickr and so far it’s pretty fantastic. She’s only $150 away from her funding goal, so go on over and drop her a few bucks and let’s see this book become a reality.

The second project is called Highway Child, and it’s going to be an art film set in the motorcycle culture of the 70′s. This one looks really cool. Everyone knows I’m a biker, and I just love the idea of this movie. I can’t wait to see it made. If you like bikes as much as I do, head on over and help them get this movie made.

Check out some of the other projects on Kickstarter as well. There’s a boatload of creative ideas out there folks, just waiting to become reality.

I think it’s interesting that the debate around this issue always centers around weather or not wearing a helmet is safer than not wearing a helmet. To me, that’s a no brainer. If you wear any kind of protective gear at all, you are obviously a certain percentage safer against harm. That shouldn’t be the argument here.

The real argument is whether or not the government has the right to force people to do a certain thing, even if it means the citizen will be safer because of it.

When it really comes down to it, this isn’t about saving people. It’s about saving money. The government is a major payer of healthcare services in this country now, and so I think in the coming years you will see all sorts of very restrictive and personally invasive laws being passed in order to try and mitigate their costs. The other major liable party is insurance companies, and you can bet that every single law that has to do with safety was directly influenced by them.

Now, even if the government is acting out of pure self interest, shouldn’t we pass these laws simply because they really do help keep people safe? I mean, the ultimate outcome is better right? I say no, because you can’t put a price on personal freedom and responsibility. We’ve seen a steady reduction in personal freedoms even in my short lifetime and I honestly believe that the founding fathers would be shocked at what we’ve become.

The kicker though is that you can’t have real freedom without actual responsibility. You can’t scream for freedom and then complain that nobody protected you when something goes wrong. We in America have a huge problem with that.

Anyway, the helmet debate is and interesting one because it’s a perfect micro-example of some of the challenges our country is facing.

And for the record, I always wear a full face helmet, armored motorcycle jacket and steel toed boots.

You can easily find car tires for $50 each and often times the shop will put them on for free. This is not the case with motorcycle tires. Tires for my bike run at least $125 can go up to $180 a piece depending on the performance of the tire. Then you have to pay to have them mounted which can run another $60 a tire. So despite the fact that you only have two tires, you easily pay the same as outfitting a car with four tires.

Highway robbery!

Well, in my continual quest to get things done for as cheap as possible. I decided that this time I would change my own darn tire and save the labor fees! Now, on a bike this is not trivial. On my bike you have to remove the pipes and the rear fender to get the wheel off. Then when you put it all back together if has to be aligned perfectly. Luckily for me the internet is a great teacher and I was able to strip the bike apart, take the wheel apart, and get it down to the shop for a new tire with no real problems. Of course I had to buy new tools. Seems I can never do any project without buying new tools. This of course negates my savings, but I figure I’ll make it up with the next tire change, and hey, I have new tools!

I also think it’s cool just to be able to sit down with a beer and a cigar after doing something you thought you couldn’t do and know that you’re not helpless.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s riding season, and it couldn’t have come soon enough. My buddy Jeff and I decided to take off yesterday and head to Monterey on the bikes. Of course it wouldn’t be any fun if you just took the highway, so we cut straight across the valley, through Firebaugh, then over to Little Panoche pass to cross the mountains.

Little Panoche pass is a cool little two laner than runs up over the foothills and then turns into (big?) Panoche Pass which drops you just south of Hollister. These little passes are the best roads in the world for riding. They always suck in terms of smoothness; this road looks like it had never been repaved since they laid it. They just keep patching it and so it’s a rough one. But the scenery is amazing; rolling hills carpeted in emerald green and spotted with the orange and yellow of spring wildflowers.  Once you get further up you become totally isolated as the mountains rise to either side and the vegetation encloses the tiny two lane road. It’s absolutely amazing.

The road runs through Mercey Springs which is a tiny little “resort” where you can go and… well… sit in hot springs I guess. But the real gem is the Panoche Inn, a little hotel / bar with the nicest owners in the world. We stopped in shivering from the cold morning ride, and they kindly made us some coffee and let us warm our hands on the wood burning stove. After that we took off and finished the trek over the mountains, through Hollister, and pulled off in San Juan Batista for gas and a beer.

Part of the draw of biking is stopping in odd places and just checking out the people. We pulled into a little bar and hung out with some locals and talked bikes for a bit. Jeff rides a Triumph and so every where we go, people want to talk about it. Nice bike. We finished our beers, gassed up and then head over to Monterey.

Monterey was beautiful. A little cool and overcast, but not uncomfortable. We stopped into the London Bridge Pub and enjoyed some hot clam chowder, fish and chips, and of course some Guinness and Boddington’s. A perfect finish to a fantastic ride.

I can’t wait to see where else the bike takes me this year. It’s gonna be a great year of riding. I’ve posted pictures in my picture section. Enjoy!

Keep an eye on this space for live posts from the greatest gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts on the West Coast!

The real news today though is that Chris Ricci, the guy who throws the monster X-Fest music festival in Modesto every year, is throwing one in Vegas, on the same weekend as BikeFest, and on the same street. What this means is that not only will you have the normal tourist crowd, you will also have 50,000 bikers from BikeFest with 4 stages of music, and now you can add another 20,000 people (at least) and 30 more bands to Fremont Street.

What an event this is going to be! Everything from Hip Hop to Country to Reggae to Classic Rock on the same street! The local Po-Po are definitley going to be busy keeping things orderly, but they are used to crowds like this, and as I’ve seen in the past several years I’ve been attending BikeFest, they know how to manage large events. It should be a great time!

Anyway, it was a nice weekend for us and I hope everyone else had a good one too. This weekend Michelle and I rode the bike over to Hollister for the annual Independence Day bike rally. This is one of the oldest and biggest rallies on the west coast and it’s always good times. Thousands… I mean THOUSANDS of bikes…. awesome food, vendors, bands & beer make for a pretty cool weekend. We ended up going down for half a day since we had family visiting from out of town. We hooked up with my sister and a friend of hers and had a few beers so that was cool. I finally got me a turkey leg though and that was awesome. Every year there’s this vendor out there cooking these giant, Fred Flintstone looking turkey legs on the grill and so I swore that this year I was going to buy one. I did. It was awesome. Good times.

So after we got back we relaxed for a bit with family and then we took Michelle’s little sister out to have a few beers and shoot some pool downtown at The Babylon Club. Babylon is a cool place down in the Tower District that features local bands and has about 30 pool tables. It pulls in a very mixed crowd these days, mostly 20 something hipsters and such. It was way busier than I’ve seen it, but then again, the last time I was there was years ago and it was called Avalon. So apparently it’s got new owners who know what they are doing. So we shot some pool, and I kicked some major butt! I only lost one game and that was because I knocked the 8 ball in on my first shot. So I was pretty happy about that. We got there early so we only stayed long enough to hear the first band. They were called Nebula and they were decent, but nothing to write home about. Typical young band, no stage presence whatsoever, no “look”, and with the variety of styles they played, I couldn’t really tell what kind of band they wanted to be. But they didn’t outright suck, so that’s a good thing.

The rest of the weekend was spent just chillin’ with family. Fairly low key stuff. I have pictures of Hollister on the right so go check ‘em out!

I have a new love, and her name is 2009 Yamaha V-Max. 4 cylinders, liquid cooled, 1700cc’s, and 200 horsepower. Yes, 200. You heard it right, 200 freaking horsepower. And to top it off, it looks entirely wicked and fearsome.

I’m sure it’s God’s will that I can’t afford one right now because otherwise I’d surely be doing my best to kill myself on this thing.

Check out the website and be sure to grab a rag to wipe the drool from your chin. http://starmotorcycles.com