CruiserLife.com
Dedicated to Motorcycle Cruising and Customizing
[ Home ] [ Cruising ] [ My History ] [ Garage ] [ Rides ] [ Customs ] [ Other Bikes ] [ Links ]

Use the links above to visit the different areas of the site.  Contact me for comments or suggestions:

This site is dedicated to motorcycles, particularly cruisers.  If you like motorcycles, cruising, customizing things, performance, touring, or really anything about motorcycles in general, we probably have something you will enjoy.  Our riding group consists of people in central Iowa (Des Moines area), Omaha, and Kansas City.  Mostly, we do it for the fun of the open road, the fellowship of friends, customizing our bikes, traveling and relaxing, and enjoying life.  Cruiserlife.com also sells custom motorcycle accessories for your Harley bagger, such as body parts like extended fenders, extended bags, replacement OEM style bags, fender extensions, saddlebag extensions, fairings, speaker pods, vented lower fairings (lowers), speaker lids, replacement lids, and quick detach kits.

2011

Winter's here and we've got maintenance and projects to do.  I'm adding speaker pods to the lowers gloves boxes, as well as fixing oil leaks by replacing the seals in the primary and shift shaft.  Others are doing fat fender, deep bags, and speaker pods, and some motor work.  Should be a fun year to come.

Our annual Mississippi River ride was great as usual.  We didn't think all would be able to go due to some last minute mechanical issues but it all worked out.  This year we started by crossing the river on the Cassville Ferry into Wisconsin, heading to Potosi Brewery.  We rode in Illinois the next day, visited Galena (congrats Matt on your new ride), continued to Poopy's and Iron Horse Social Club for some fun in Savanna.  Next was Davenport, the air show was going on, went to the rally, and parking lot partied.  Good times.  Congrats to Jeri on the snagging back the Lucky Bastard award again.

We had a good time riding and enjoying festivities at the Sturgis 2011 rally this year.  Areas visited were Spearfish, Sturgis, Deadwood, Hill City, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Needles Highway, Custer State Park, along with some fine stablishments along the way, The Knuckle bar in Sturgis, The Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis, and the Coyote Ugly Saloon in Deadwood.

2010

Davenport - Annual river ride / Sturgis on the River - We had to leave at different times and some people got the business end of some pretty serious storms riding in to Davenport, but all worked out.  Congrats to Mike winning Lucky Bastard, probably deserved after enduring the torrential rain on the way out - karma has it's way sometimes.

Colorado - 6 days riding the state we hit all extremes - hot/cold, up/down, great/freaky.  What a ride.  Wonderful country.  The bikes complained some and we had a few malfunctions but eventually everyone got home.  Congrats to Patrick winning Lucky Bastard.

Arkansas - BBB 2010 this year was a guys ride, as well as a celebration for Patrick and Sheri getting hitched.  We saw them married shortly after and wish them the best of a long happy life together and with us.  Good to ride with you again Hank.  Congrats to Dan as he "shit on his neighbor" and won the coveted Lucky Bastard for the last group ride of the year.  We need to get picture of that thing on here for everyone to gawk at.

2009

Bike Blues and BBQ (BBB) 2009 in Fayetteville, Arkansas is getting better every year.  This year was no exception.  Riding the Arkansas hills is impressive.  Popular visits are the city of Eureka Springs, Beaver Lake, War Eagle Cavern, War Eagle Mill, Pigs Trail HD, and of course all the fun in Fayetteville at the rally spots.  I had to turn over the poker run trophy - congrats to Preacher.  The Ultra Classic made the trip pretty different having cruise and radio (I like it).  Good times.  Special salute to M & M for their first BBB run.

Sturgis on the River / Hannibal 2009 was a little different this year.  We first went down to Hannibal, MO for some historical site seeing.  Heading north leaving Hannibal, we caught a ferry ride across the river and rode up the Illinois side through Naavoo, meandering our way up to Savanna, IL, where we stopped into Poopy's again.  The next day it was off to Galena, IL for the afternoon, before heading to Davenport, IA for the Rally Weekend.  We had some good BBQ at "Mom's" house.

The two pictures above were NOT taken by us this time but scoured from the web.

Florida Keys 2009 - Tired of Winter? (or just want to get away)?  Catch a flight somewhere warm and rent a bike for a day or two.  We took a spring trip to southern Florida and the Keys.  We rented bikes at West Palm Beach Harley Davidson and rode to Key West.  We managed to catch Spring Break so there was plenty of commotion.  The weather was great and it was good to hang with the guys for a few days.  Stopped in Islamorada (Keys) and had a some pretty good burgers and crab dip at Hog Heaven. (they have an awesome bar and grill on the waterfront out back)

 

	Loess Hills, Iowa riding (pronounced 'luss') - A few of us rode over to meet the Omaha gang for a daytrip in this unique area along the river.  There are many nice roads and scenic overlooks.  Pretty nice day of riding.  Check it out sometime.
	Tech Article - Read this article by "Motoman" about breaking in an engine.
	MC Industry - There is more stuff (bikes, products, etc) coming out all the time.  Most makers have new models, there are trikes, reverse trikes, scooters, and mc cars popping up left and right.  Keep your eyes open - it's an exciting time in motorcycle history.
	Great River Ride / Sturgis on the River - The group recently saddled up the iron horses and made our way to the House on the Rock in Wisconsin (pretty cool).  During the trip we stopped by J&P Cycles, Scooter's Bar & Grill, and the National Motorcycle Museum, all located in Anamosa, Iowa.  We spent a day in Savannah, IL (cool town) and stopped in to Poopy's.  You've got to check out Poopy's sometime your in the area.  You can get motorcycle stuff, hang at the bar, get a tattoo, shower, and even camp for free on Friday's after live music for their bike nights every Friday.  We ended the week with Sturgis on the River and some great river road riding around the Iowa / Illinois borders.
	Southern Florida Ride - I was recently in southern Florida and had a free day, so I rented the last Harley on earth (at least in the area) for a ride to the Keys.  American V-Twin Rentals of Ft Lauderdale (also a Bourgets Bike Works and Orange County Chopper dealer) hooked me up with a Harley Springer Softtail.  The ride from Ft Lauderdale to Islamorada (Keys) was just what I needed after two weeks of work.  Someday, I'd like to ride all the way to Key West and enjoy it for a night.  I had about 10 minutes to wolf down a burger at Hog Heaven Grill (I chose this for my Harley minded brothers).  Then I had to jump on the turnpike to get back before my 7 hour time was up.  Coming back was real fun, alternating between rain showers and sunshine.  Overall, it was a great day of riding and I even got a good sunburn to remember it.

Bikes, Blues & BBQ: (Fayetteville, Arkansas) - This rally produces a large amount of money for charity and it is growing quickly.  Awesome riding in hilly northern Arkansas countryside. Usually the last week in September - Site: www.bikesbluesandbbq.org

Previous (but still interesting and pertinent)…

Check out The Horse Backstreet Choppers magazine.  Great rag about custom building and modifying bikes.  Not the flashy TV-series, high-dollar bikes but average Joes doing it.

Take a look at metric-focused RoadBike magazine.  They are doing worlds for promoting the metric market, such as metric bike shows and rallies in addition to the great magazine.  Their Harley-focused sister publication is American Iron magazine.  Here is a link to a podcast of an inteview with RoadBike's editor Jessica Prokup. (recently the editor has changed - Jessica has moved on but still may keep in touch)

Check out the latest Podcast (it's like Internet radio) on MetricThunder.com.  The interview is with Bob Feathers, staff photographer for American Iron and Roadbike magazines about how to photograph bikes.  There many great interviews in the archive area.  Bob Feathers Interview

	The Star (Yamaha) Raider (chopper style)
	Harley unveils two new models, Fat Bob & Rocker (chopper style)
	Kawasaki 900 in custom model, Vulcan 900 Custom
	Yamaha (Star) new midsize cruiser, Yamaha (Star) V-Star 1300
	Kawasaki new midsize cruiser, Vulcan 900 Classic
	Suzuki new power cruiser, Boulevard M109R
	Yamaha (Star) new big cruiser, 2006 Roadliner
	Yamaha (Star) new big cruiser, 2006 Stratoliner
	Triumph vintage style, 2006 Triumph Scrambler

Concept bike - Suzuki Stratosphere Concept

	Concept bike - Victory Vision 800 Concept
	Concept bike - Honda DN-01 Concept
	The 2005 Victory Hammer - pretty cool muscle cruiser
	The Vulcan 2000 - monster v-twin from Kawasaki
	The Triumph Rocket III - 2300cc cruiser inline triple
	The Royal Star Tour Deluxe - versatile tourer/cruiser from Yamaha
	The 2005 Honda VTX1800F - updated VTX big cruiser
	Concept bike - Honda VTX Performance Cruiser