Jay Green, who writes the "Road Captain USA" blog, writes about his frustrations dealing with RideGear.com, an online retailer of motorcycle gear...

http://roadcaptainusa.com/2008/06/28/my-own-jacket-quidick-fiasco-with-ridegearcom/

What started out as a purchase of a jacket, turned out to be 80 days of e-mails, phone calls, and headaches.

Labels: Bad Customer Service, Websites

The US Department of Transporation now has its own blog called "Fastlane", headed up by the DOT's leader herself, Mary Peters.

Peters, pictured here, has made a name for herself in the motorcycle circles, because of her self-appointed campaign to get every state in the Union to make helmets mandatory.

You might want to bookmark this one, and post your thoughts and feelings everytime she talks about helmets. Or you just might want to introduce yourself right now, and let her know how you feel...

http://fastlane.dot.gov/

Via Bruce and Ray's Biker Forum

Labels: Helmet Laws, Websites

Those of you who love to talk about Harley's Evolution Motor, arguably the best engine the MoCo ever produced, there's a new web forum just for you...

http://forums.delphiforums.com/ BlockHeadGarage

It's called "The BlockHead Garage", hosted by CueBall, a guy who lives and breathes the Evo. Here's what he has to say...

While there are many fine Harley Davidson Forums out there that I visit regularly, they all seem to be dominated by the latest and greatest Twin Cam owners. I have some friends on those forums and they will be welcome here, but this forum will be focused on the BlockHead motor, whether it is a Stock bike or a Custom or Chopped and Dropped as long as the mill is a Evo/Blockhead.

Labels: Websites

Harley Social is a new social networking website for Harley-Davidson lovers...

http://www.harleysocial.com

Biker social networking sites have really taken off over the past 12 months, spawning several others, as biker guys and biker gals seek out friendships and other benefits.

Harley Social seems to put greater emphasis on photos and videos, since that's the stuff the Internet is really good at producing lots of. But being that Harley Social is brand spanking new, there isn't a lot there yet, but I'm sure it'll add up quickly.

Social networking is really about hooking up with other people, on the other hand. The fact that we now have websites to help us find love and friendships is kind of a commentary in itself on the state of modern culture.

Seems like I hear more and more stories of couples finding each other online. I've never found any of my dates online. I got married before the Internet came around, and am still married. Throughout highschool and college, I picked up girls by meeting them in person, chatting with them, befriending them, and so forth.

What ever happened to that skill set?

Well, if websites like Harley Social can find you a gal to sit on your bike, or even find a riding buddy, it's nothing to complain about. Even the biker world changes with the times.

Labels: Websites

Mike Werner, who publishes the well read, "Bikes in the Fast Lane" motorcycle news website, posted an editorial today that his site is faced with severely declining income...

Over the last 3 months, ad revenue has decreased 700%!!!! I know we're not the only site suffering from this, others are in the same boat. Some sites are now blocking Firefox users altogether (you can't see Adblock, only Firefox). Adblock is killing the internet!

Labels: Websites

Harley Monthly and Motorcycles Monthly are two new "online magazines" entering the already flooded online motorcycle magazine community...

http://harleymonthly.com
http://motorcyclesmonthly.com

Their editor posted an appeal on HDForums, asking anyone to contribute their articles on rides, tips, and whatever other stories you can send them...

http://www.hdforums.com/m_2088884/tm.htm

Harley Monthly seems pretty obvious as to what it's about, basically anything about Harleys. Motorcycles Monthly appears to be anything about motorcycles, which is a pretty deep subject. After poking around it's website, I didn't see anything about dirt bikes, for example. But then again, it's still early.

I mentioned the "already flooded online motorcycle magazine community". There's a couple of dynamics driving this thing. The first, obviously, is the increase of people buying motorcycles. The second, is a sharp increase of online advertising sales across all markets, including the motorcycle riding demographic.

Thus far, all the advertising on Harley Monthly and Motorcycles Monthly appear to be from affiliate marketing programs. Here's a tip to the publishers of these two websites: I've tried them already (JC Whitney, Bootbay, Ride Gear, and others), they don't monetize well. My recommendations are Google AdSense, eBay Editor Kits, and BikerKiss.

And speaking of BikerKiss, that's a third dynamic, sex. There is a ton of people doing searches on Google for such phrases like "biker chicks", "real biker babes", "naked biker chicks", etc. And biker rallies are breeding grounds for new photographic material. It's a powerful way to generate traffic to your motorcycle website.

I don't know that Harley Monthly and Motorcycles Monthly are eyeing this potential; as it is right now they don't have any naked biker chicks on their site. But like I said, it's still early.

But good luck to them, they're going to need it.

Labels: Websites

Harley-Davidson, the iconic American motorcycle company has published a feature on its iconic American website dubbed, "Sturgis Rumblings"...

http://www.harley-davidson.com/....&locale=en_US&bmLocale=en_US

It's a collage of stories and photos from the people who attended the 2007 Sturgis Rally. If you went to the Sturgis Rally this year, then share it with Harley-Davidson, and they'll your story to the list.

Labels: Harley Davidson, Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Websites

I was perusing a website called, "LifeTips", and noticed a whole section on "Harley Davidson Tips".

The Harley tips are actually a concoction of small pieces of information, some relating to Harley Davidson, and other relating to riding motorcycles. There's useful stuff in there, while others are kinda humorous...

Are blue hairs and Q-tips cops?

NO. Blue hairs and Q-tips are elderly car drivers. You may be alerted to them as they don´t always see or respect cyclists. If you hear the Q-tip was caging it, all over the road, it means an elderly car driver was driving over all available lanes.

Labels: Harley Davidson, Motorcycle Blogs, Websites

Aside from motorcycle clubs and riding clubs, there's another level of motorcycle society built around web forums.

Web forums focused on motorcycle riding are attracting hoards of riders, or people who think they're riders, and then organize rides and events. Friendships are created and that evolves into circles of riders who ride reguarly. Ultimately, they create something of a club, without it having any kind of formal organization. They become riding clubs, without any structure.

HarleyChatGroup.com is a web forum that recently organized a poker run for its California-based members. The people who run HCG have organized other rides before. HCG even has a patch that members can buy and wear on their vest. The patch is small, and not meant to be worn as "colors".

HDForums.com and BikersBallRoom.com are other web forums that offer patches for its members.

HDForums.com has an on-going ride that has its members carrying a stuffed animal across the country on their bikes. Members post their photos and memoirs as they haul the HDForums mascot around.

The members of Road Star Gallery, who specialize in Yamaha Road Stars, have been setting up mini-rallies on both national and local scales where members get-together for rides and good times.

Many people are adopting their forum account names as their nicknames. As people join a web forum, they first have to create a log-in account. Often, they choose an account name that might incorporate numbers and abbreviations, without really thinking that everyone else on the forum will refer to them by that name as their nickname. Many of them go on to have name patches made of their account names, and wear them on their vest.

These forums also offer exclusive access to members who donate money. By becoming a "paying member" people get access to private forums, or get greater flexibility with their membership accounts.

And these web forums are not without their issues either. They have "political in-fighting" and "power struggles", especially as the forums grow larger and more influential.

And when these forums grow such large memberships, they offer their members benefits like discounts at various dealers and shops.

Historically, motorcycle manufacturers offered their customers club memberships like Harley HOG and Yamaha Star Touring. But web forums are rivaling these clubs with the same benefits, same cohesiveness, but without all the structure and organization. Will these forums create even more cohesiveness among its members that it will rival the riding clubs and motorcycle clubs?

Labels: Websites

My Motorcycle Jobs is an online classifieds website focusing on job openings relating to motorcycles.

From what I can tell, there are jobs listed ranging from sales, test riders, inventory specialists, mechanics, and writers.

Labels: Motorcycle Jobs, Websites

Metric Revolution is a website featuring custom metric choppers and stock motorcycles. It's the online presence for a new television show by the same name, which is supposedly coming out in Winter of 2006.

And it's not just cruisers and choppers, but rice rockets too.

Labels: Metric Revolution, Websites

If you wanted to be a member of a one-percenter motorcycle club, what would your nickname be? Go find out here.

It looks like I'll be "Smokey" of the White Werewolves MC.

Labels: Biker Nicknames, Websites

A new website called Bike America Online launched recently. It provides bikers with an online forum, chat, dating, links to other biker sites, e-mail, post classified ads, and space to create a personal website. They claim to be "America's Best Biker Site", which is definitely something to be proud of considering it officially launched today.

Visitors to Bike America Online are not bothered by intrusive ad banners and pop-ups, simply because they don't have any ad banners and pop-ups. Instead, users pay a subscription fee of $34.95 per year. For a limited time during their grand opening, the fee has been reduced to $19.95 per year.

But you can try them out free for 90 days.

Labels: Websites

The folks at MonkeyMeter.com have announced the official launch of their website. Monkey Meter fields road rage reports from the general public, and then provides driving conditions all of the large cities in America.

So far, being new, it doesn't provide much data. But it could end up becoming an useful tool if enough people use it daily.

Labels: Road Rage, Websites

Harley launched a special section on its website just for women called, "Women and Motorcycling".

The section was created in response to a growing number of women buying and riding motorcycles. The new section includes stories from women about their riding experience, tutorials on how to ride safely, and a history of women riders.

Labels: Websites, Women Riders

NADAGuides.com announced today that it has launched a new motorcycle building and pricing tool at its website.

The tool gives online shoppers the ability to select various new motorcycle makes, models and trims. Once they've made their selection, a detailed specification and price list is provided, complete with MSRP, engine type, transmission type, brake and tire information, as well as additional specifications and features. The tool also allows consumers to compare new motorcycles side-by-side, with pricing and specification information of each motorcycle displayed simultaneously. Plus, the configuration capability lets shoppers build their ideal motorcycles.

Shoppers interested in building, pricing and comparing new motorcycles side-by-side can click on the "Motorcycles" tab at the NADAguides.com website and then they can click on the "Go" button in the "Build your Motorcycle" section of the motorcycles home page.

Labels: NADA Guides, Websites

This is my Biker Blog. I created this because for one, I like to create stuff, and two because I like to ride my cycle around and talk about it. But three because publishing websites is something that I do for a living, and this is just gives me an opportunity to get in on another niche.

I spend a lot of time pouring over news, press releases, and articles written by thousands of people, everyday. And every once in a while I see some stuff about motorcycles. So, when I find something interesting, I'll mention it here.

And you'll even see me vent about this or that from time to time.

Labels: Websites