JoeRides Black Friday Weekend 2011

To show my appreciation for your being a valued customer and supporters of JoeRides.com, I'm offering a Black Friday discount of 25% off your order (does not include shipping charges). Share with your love ones and friends your passion for riding by purchasing them a print or gift item from a photo I shot of you. Or buy yourself that 11x14 lustre print or that coffee mug that you really wanted.

Beginning Friday 11/25/11 at 12:01am through Monday 11/28/11 12:59pm, select as many items as you wish, proceed to check out and enter BlackFriday11 for the coupon code and save 25% off your order (does not include shipping  charges).

Thank you for being a valued supporter of JoeRides.com

Her name is Harley

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Her name is Harley and she rides a motorcycle. You might think that’s a typical name for a biker but you would be wrong as Harley is anything but typical. You see she is a one and a half year old mix breed female dog rescued from a heartless roadside abandonment and her favorite ride is on a Honda Gold Wing. Her best friend Wade, whom she rides with, has been a motorcycle enthusiast for over forty years and has owned around thirty different bikes in his time. Most recently, he and Harley ride a Honda Gold Wing as well as a Harley Davidson Road King.

According to Kimberly, Wade’s wife, “he wasn’t much of an animal lover when they were first married but that changed over time” through their experiences with a dog that she loved for over eighteen years. Kimberly rides with Wade on occasion and has even ridden a bike of her own at one time, but now she gives up her passenger seat to Harley or Gold Wing. Wait a minute; shouldn’t that be on a Gold Wing? No, actually Gold Wing is a four-year-old mix breed female that too was rescued from eminent death by roadside abandonment. “Gold Wing”, Kimberly said, “took to riding immediately” but unlike her adopted sister Harley, “prefers riding on the tank” and usually on the Road King.

Gold Wing and Wade

When asked if they did any long distance touring on their bikes, Wade said, “my current job in sales and industrial design doesn’t allow for much extended travels via motorcycle right now.” He went on to say that they have trailered their bikes on vacations and ridden them then but nothing long distance. But Harley probably holds the record in their family of pets for the longest duration of time spent in the saddle, two and a half hours according to Wade. Like any hard-core biker, both Harley and Gold Wing dress the part usually donning goggles and a helmets that are topped with a bright safety orange mohawk hair piece. Wade secures both Harley and Gold Wing with a special harness and seat-belt like straps that prevent them from accidentally falling from the bike as they ride.

Now I have photographed Wade on several occasions as he rode to the summit of Mt. Cheaha but on this particular Saturday, I was fortunate to catch him with Harley in the passenger’s seat. “Mt. Cheaha is close to where I live” said Wade, “so on nice days we make a loop, riding up one side of the mountain and down the other.” On that day it was a nice day to ride and Harley certainly appeared to be enjoying it. What impressed me were her manners as she and Wade cruised by. Not once did she bark or appear anxious as many dogs would, when she saw me, a stranger, standing there on the side of the road. “She never barks” said Wade, “nor does Gold Wing when they ride”. Instead it appeared as though she knew why I was there, knew what I was doing and she knew she had to pose for that perfect picture, which she did. No, as I said before, Harley is anything but typical.

Shots from the Tail of The Dragon

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One of the Shinbone Valley Hooligans from Alabama on the Dragon's Tail June 8th 2011

I traveled to Robbinsville NC, known for the tail of the dragon, to test my skills of shooting riders as they maneuvered the twists, turns and switchbacks of the dragons tail. Little did I know that I would be shooting one of my regulars from Alabama, Jeremy, as he was dragging knees through the curves on US129. As it turns out, the Dragon's Tail is the third unscheduled location where I've shot Jeremy in action. Our first encounter was on a popular stretch of road just outside of Leeds Alabama, Highway 25, that I liked to call "Hwy25 Switchback to 29Dreams". Later came Mt. Cheaha and now on the infamous US129 better known as The Dragon's Tail. The Dragon's Tail or Tail of The Dragon as some call it, offers up to riders in eleven miles, 318 turns, twists and switchbacks that challenge the skills of novice and veteran riders alike, winning at times as evident from the body parts (bikes) that hang from the "Tree of Shame" found at the Deal's Gap riders resort. 

Jeremy is member of an extremely talented group of Alabama riders as evident from this shot of him, that call themselves the "Shinbone Valley Hooligans". Sounds like a rowdy bunch doesn't it? But to the contrary, they are a great group of guys and gals that simply love sport-bike riding both on the street and on the track. Even though I ride a clunky, in comparison to what they ride, Suzuki M109r, they invited me to join and participate in their forum discussions, an honor that I will never forget. When they aren't sweeping the curves along the back roads of Alabama, the Hooligans are participating in track days on two well known Alabama tracks, the Barber Motorsports Park and the Talledega Gran Prix Raceway better know as Little Talledega. There they fine tune their riding skills by laying it all out, gaining experience and confidence with every lap they make around the track.


For more photos of Jeremy and others riding the Dragons' Tail that day, go to www.JoeRides.com and look for the Dragon's Tail US129 Deals Gap 2011 gallery.