Annual Ride To Work Day! We ask for your support on Monday, June 21, 2010 to demonstrate:
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If you don’t know now you will. Airtran Airways is a no go!!! I was in Dallas, TX for training about a week. Friday my flight was leaving at 7:35pm. I checked in and went thru security, no problem…
The problem started once I arrived at the gate. They instructed us to move down to another gate because our flight will leave from this gate. Moved to the new gate and then they said the flight will be delayed an hour. That was fine about 15 minutes later they said the flight was canceled due to bad weather conditions in Atlanta.
Confused yes because I spoke with my friend and he said it was raining and lightening but blowing over within the hour. I called my companies travel agency and booked the next flight out for me and my co-worker which was 7:30am Saturday.
Told to go to the counter to change ticket for tomorrow’s flight. Well this is when it gets good. The guy and girl at the desk first told me we had to pay $300 plus to secure the flight. They told others there were no flights til Sunday.
Called travel agency again and went to the counter with the phone and now they told us that we would need to pay the difference combined of over $300 plus because it would be more to leave on Saturday. What the hell…
They canceled the flight and me the customer had to pay more to go home? I didn’t make this decision, they did. Never new Airtran new how to play “Three Card Monty“. The said if our companies travel agency canceled the flight they had canceled, they’d apply that money toward our tickets and then we’d owe the addition money. Catch this, we were told there were no seats available on the flight leaving out Saturday morning but if we paid the $300 plus maybe, just maybe we’d have a seat. How do you go from not having seats to having seats if you pay the money. Airtran got game!
They had a flight that left at 5:10pm going to Atlanta and another one of our co-workers was on that flight. We thought he was home by now; not so fast. As we were walking to get our luggage and take a taxi back to the hotel; we passed the gate they moved us from. What an amazing thing we saw. The flight that left at 5:10pm didn’t. The people from that flight was at the gate we were moved from and they were leaving on our flight to Atlanta.
What happened to the bad weather being the reason to cancel our flight. Airtran was so horrible that they didn’t try to accommodate this family who the mother was going to her father’s funeral. The manager at the gate told her he couldn’t help her. He could have made arrangements to get her on our original flight…since it did leave for Atlanta without us.
I said I was going to give Airtran Airways a shout out but not in a good way. Bad, sorry, horrible customer service and liars at that. I almost forgot when I did get back to Atlanta there was a female employee of Airtran that was checking luggage to make sure baggage claim check was the same as the one on your ticket. She asked me to fly Airtran again. I told her the story…the short version. It was like this, Hell no never again!
She said that the pilots make the decisions on canceling flights and they get away with it because they are Union…I don’t blame Frontier Airlines from dissolving their partnership with Airtran; they suck!
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Sasha is my friend and a wonderful woman. Her spirit is so warm and fuzzy. She is beautiful inside and out.This article was captured from American Iron Magazine.
The Chrome Cowgirl Guide to the Motorcycle Life ($24.95) is part biker chick-lit and part author Sasha Mullins’ personal photo album and diary entries. The book is billed as a “primer for women entering the motorcycle community.”
That it is, but with a twist. Mullins sees life through rose-colored glasses with gold-sparkling scribbles on the lens. That’s the only way I can describe the tone and feel of this 192-page book, which provides inspiration to ride more through imparting the empowering and spiritual benefits of motorcycling rather than any concrete factual reasons.
To read Chrome Cowgirl is to buy into a whole new vocabulary invented by Mullins. Words like ridelicious, roadacious, windsister, windini, and motocure appear in chapter titles. “Motocure: manicures for the motorcycle, mind and mood” is the title of the section on maintaining your motorcycle. It explains how to do a tire burnout and advises carrying fun bandannas, a compact umbrella, and a Chrome Cowgirl attitude hat in your motorcycle tool kit for the road. You get the picture.
Mullins’ material is gleaned from her years riding a Sportster she’s named Tigerlily; she’s had the privilege of experiencing the motorcycling lifestyle through a proverbial backstage pass to the action and by rubbing elbows with the who’s who of the Harley world. She’s learned a lot and is a changed woman as a result of spending time on Tigerlily.
This book is a compilation of that wisdom, written to inspire other women to “ditch life as you know it” and become windsisters. AIM
–Genevieve Schmitt
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Popularity: 15% [?]
Two African-American female bikers are becoming leaders in a traditionally all-male motorcycle world.
Marian Peterson has defied gender roles her whole life.
As a little girl, she had a train set that outmatched any owned by the boys she knew.
As a young woman, she was the only female to compete on her local horse racing team, the L.A. Jayhawks.
And by the time she reached her mid-20s, Peterson — more commonly known as “Miss Showtime” — was one of the few black women motorcyclists in Los Angeles.
Miss Showtime said “When I first started riding I was not on the bike set,” now 64. Instead, she rode motorcycles independently of a club, later becoming affiliated with male riding groups like the Chosen Few MC, who took her under their wing. “Some of the guys felt intimidated because I’m a woman, and by my skills riding.”
THAT’S ‘MISS’ TO YOU — Marian “Miss Showtime” Peterson has been riding motorcycles for approximately 40 years. Currently the road captain for “The Magnificent Seven,” an all-male motorcycle club, she has earned the respect of male motorcyclists “by behaving like a lady rather than mimicking the behavior of men.”
Mostly self-taught, Showtime is now the road captain of the all-male motorcycle club the Magnificent Seven, a feat indicative of how much respect she has in the riding world. Showtime is also one of the elite black motorcyclists featured in the California African American Museum’s exhibit Black Chrome, which showcases the contributions African Americans have made to motorcycle culture. The exhibit will run through April 12 at the museum, which is in Exposition Park, just a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
As a black woman in the motorcycle world, Showtime arguably faced twice the challenges that her male counterparts did. When Showtime won a street race against two male competitors, she had to be very humble and coy, so as not to upset them.
She told her competitors that she had no idea she was racing them. “I was just trying to keep up,” she recalls telling them. Showtime said that she has managed to earn the respect of male motorcyclists by behaving like a lady rather than mimicking the behavior of men.”Some women will go out and put on their gear and put on their bike, and they’re not the same lady,” Showtime said. “Guys respect ladies.”
Showtime also had to exercise caution when she bought a Harley-Davidson in 1999. That famed brand of motorcycle has traditionally been the most sought after by members of riding clubs. In contrast, machines made by Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki are derisively referred to as “rice burners” by bike riders. “They will not admit it, but their dream is to get a hog,” Showtime said of motorcyclists who ride machines other than Harleys. So, when she was able to buy a Harley-Davidson, or hog, some of the male riders thought, “I was stepping on their toes. I’m becoming equal to them.”
But times have changed, Showtime said. “Females are riding. They’re riding hogs.”
Annett “Brown T. Sugar,” circa 2001, on her 2000 Harley-Davidson Softail Springer.
Al “Sugar Bear” Meyers considers Showtime to be a “real rider.” Building bikes for more than 37 years has made Sugar Bear an icon in the motorcycle world. The industry superstar owns Sugar Bear Choppers in Gardena.
“She gets the same respect as any man in that organization,” Sugar Bear said of Showtime and members of the Magnificent Seven. “A lot of male clubs will not allow a woman in their club, so the fact that she is in this club and is the road captain is a stamp of respect.”
As road captain, Showtime directs the members of the club when they’re on the asphalt. She can set the driving speed for the riders and initiate lane changes. In addition to the Magnificent Seven Motorcycle Club, Showtime was voted into a group for older riders called 50 Plus, which is made up of riders from 30 different clubs. Traditionally, the organization is all-male.
Showtime believes she has been welcomed by all-male black motorcycle clubs “because of my status on the bike set,” she said, referring to the motorcycling world. “Now, I’m a living legend.”
Showtime follows in the footsteps of black female motorcycling pioneers such as Bessie B. Stringfield, who, starting in the 1930s, travelled by motorcycle alone through each American state (there were 48 states in The Union at the time). Back then, many black riders were introduced to motorcycle riding during their service in the armed forces.
Despite the long history African Americans have of riding motorcycles, the contributions blacks have made to motorcycle culture were not always acknowledged.
For instance, a black man named Ben Hardy & Cliff Vaughs played key roles in designing the bikes featured in the film “Easy Rider.” Sugar Bear, who has worked with Hardy, also faced blatant discrimination. Motorcycle magazines wanted to feature his bikes without including a picture of him so white readers wouldn’t be put off.
“White bikers and black bikers are in two separate worlds,” Showtime said. She credits the 2003 film “Biker Boyz” for exposing black motorcycle culture to the mainstream. It’s Showtime’s belief that the media doesn’t show black motorcyclists engaging in bike runs and other activities, as it does for white motorcyclists.
According to her, many of the crew members on the “Biker Boyz” set didn’t realize that black motorcyclists even existed. And black women motorcyclists have yet to garner the attention their male peers have.
Annette “Brown T. Sugar” Collins has helped to bring focus to black women riders. A decade ago, she established the Hawg Divas, which she and “Miss Showtime” say is the Los Angeles area’s first black female motorcycle club. The club, like Brown T. Sugar, has experienced its share of challenges. Similar to Showtime, Brown T. Sugar mostly taught herself how to ride. She was inspired to do so 20 years ago, after her then-husband rode her on the back of his motorcycle several times. When Brown T. Sugar decided to ride herself, both her husband and other family members reacted with skepticism.
“My dad told me I was crazy,” she remembered. Many tried to dissuade her from riding. They would say, “‘I know someone, and they got hit on a motorcycle, and they died,’ ” Brown T. Sugar said. Despite the fears of her friends and family, she excelled in riding. She even beat her husband at the time in a race to Terminal Island, which sits between Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors. “I whooped his butt … The man was so embarrassed,” she said.
She joined an all-male motorcycle club, the L.A. Deuces. To be accepted, Brown T. Sugar said she had to show that she was unafraid and that the men would not be able to leave her behind.
She ultimately started a club for women because men didn’t always appreciate the stylistic components of riding: How gloves fit, how hair is styled under a helmet, and so on, is important to women riders but not so significant to men riders, Brown T. Sugar believes. Today, a few all-female riding clubs exist in the Los Angeles area.
“I guess women got tired of being on the back (of motorcycles),” Brown T. Sugar said. “You’re not in control when you’re back there. That guy is in control of your life.” Those who encounter her and her club of female riders exhibit a wide range of reactions — from disgust to awe. The women riders have been referred to as “dykes on the bikes.” Other times, onlookers are delighted to see them.
“People are always pulling out their camcorders,” Brown T. Sugar said. “They stop and they want to take a picture.” Brown T. Sugar said that she understands why the Hawg Divas create a spectacle of sorts:
“It’s not a lot of ladies out here, especially not sisters.”
Article Create goes to Nadra Kareem; a writer for the L.A. Watts Times.
With some changes by Goldie Just Goldie. Reason being is that some areas didn’t include complete recognitions for other iconic black bikers and black motorcycle clubs in Los Angeles.
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Popularity: 39% [?]
I was scouring the web for something new and exciting to share with bikers and found the latest in trends you should expect by 2020 from Harley-Davidson & Rae Motorbike. First let’s look at Harley. The designs are going to be revolutionary and futuristic. The Hogs will be named 2020 Harley-Davidson 1. Okay not very creative for right now but expect the name to change by 2020.
This Bike Drives the Classic Brand Into the Future!
The 2020 Harley-Davidson 1 is nothing like any other Harley you’ve seen before. Designer Jonathan Russell’s take on what the Harley of the future will look like is something straight out of a sci-fi flick.
The unconventional 2020 Harley Davidson 1 by Jonathan Russell will feature non-skid treads, LED screens, and a laser-etched chrome finish. These new hogs are certain to attract a whole new breed of rider.
Now that we’ve looked at the Futuristic Hog; let’s look at the Next Generation of Sportbikes. It’s called the Bubble-Shaped Motorcycles.The Rae Motorbike Offers
Customizable Features for the Next Generation.
Tom Mcdowell’s Rae motorbike, which features special functionality, is designed for young riders who want a customized riding experience. The Rae motorbike looks quite different from traditional bikes, with a geometry chassis that makes it special and unique.
There are many special features of the Rae motorbike which deliver flexibility to the rider according to their individual requirements. Rae’s adaptable forks, swing arm, changeable seat arrangements, wind breaking faring and extensible mud guards make extreme sports riding possible for riders.
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