Motorcycles & Cars

Archive for August, 2009

Harley Davidson Motorcycles The King Of Bikes

If you have heard of motorcycles you have heard of Harley Davidson motorcycles. Motorcycle buffs swear by these motorcycles that have an iconic status in the motorcycling world.

The history of these motorcycles goes way back to the year 1901 when William Harley came up with a bike fitted with an engine. Arthur Davidson a friend of Harley backed him in producing a racing motorcycle in the year 1903 which was bought by a childhood friend. However soon the popularity of these motorcycles moved out of the realm of buddydom and into the real world when one of the Harley Davidson motorcycles won a race. It was also the time when the production plant of these Motor Company moved out of a wooden shed and into more modern production areas.

In the 1950s the these motorcycles featured in many wins and soon became a household name. The popularity of these motorcycles can be gauged from the fact that in 1983 the Harley Owners Group was established and within six years it boasted of over 90000 enthusiastic members. It was the biggest motorcycle club worldwide to be sponsored by a manufacturer.

The worth of these motorcycles was further proved when it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1987.

With every passing year the quest to invent and add more such motorcycles continued. The race wining spree also carried on unabated as did the feat of selling more bikes than any other manufacturer.

In the year 2006 another milestone was achieved when the first authorized dealer of Harley Davidson motorcycles was chosen in china. Today there are dealers of these motorcycles in more than sixty nations with over 9000 people working under its banner. So in most parts of the world you can hope to buy and enjoy the delights offered by such motorcycles.

There is a wide array of these type motorcycles offered by the company in various shapes colours and styles. There are touring bikes recreational and sports racing bikes etc. the Ultra Classic Electra Glide is one Harley Davidson motorcycle that has several attractive features for the greatest comfort and style. Its advanced audio system is the cherry on the cake.

Understanding that motorcycle clothing and accessories are an integral component of biking style the company produces an entire range of to jazz up the Davidson motorcycles and their riders. The accessories that they produce are sidecars chrome covers windshields seats mirrors backrests sissy bars hand controls saddlebags and pouches.

The clothing line caters to the needs of men women and children too and includes all kinds of leather goods jackets vests shirts pants eyewear boots racing gear and also gear for different kinds of weather.

So for an overall enjoyable and thrilling motorcycling experience all that you have to do is to pamper yourself with these attires and accessories and ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Rohit Chopra has written several useful articles on Motorcycles likeMotorcycle insuranceMotorcycle accessoryMotorcycle partMotorcycle dealer etc. Get moreuseful information on Motorcycles at http://www.luxurycarriers.com/

Harley-Davidson Helmet..Protection And Fashion

I was cleaning out my garage and accidently knocked my helmet off the shelf. It hit the cement hard and made a huge smacking sound. After calling myself an idiot I decided to see if I needed to buy another helmet.

I asked my lady if she wanted to take a ride over to Adventure HarleyDavidson with me.

Sure Babe I love checking out the new MotorClothesreg; at Adventure. When do you want to go?

I’m ready now I said as I revved the engine on my 2007 Road Kingreg;.

Arriving at Adventure HD we both headed for the MotorClothesreg; Dept. I need to ask some questions about helmets! I growled as we approached as salesperson.

Sure said Chelsea. By the way what are your names?

I’m Gary and my wife’s name is Rita. I dropped my helmet in the garage and was wondering if I should replace it.

Gary Helmets look tough and sturdy but you have to handle them with care. If you have dropped your helmet or it has been impacted you need to replace it right away. A very important fact is that a helmet is only designed to take one impact even a small one. An impact could fracture the outer shell or compress the impact absorbing liner. The damage may not be visible Chelsea continued Even if your helmet has never been damaged it needs to be replaced every three to 5 years. You can judge this be how much you have used it. As time passes UV rays adhesive and component aging will damage the helmet. Its protective features may deteriorate and wear with time making risky for your safety.

Chelsea I did not have a clue about when and why I should replace my helmet. I figured I broke it because I did see a crack but I’m glad I found this out before something bad happened.

Gary and Rita I want to give you this tidbit of info also. Never use expose or store helmets around the following: Insect repellent gasoline cleaning fluids exhaust fumes or excessive heat. The exposures can result in the degradation of helmet materials and protective components and the damage may not be visible.

Chelsea Now that we know about replacing our helmets can you tell us a little about the different Helmets HarleyDavidsonreg; has available I inquired.

You guys I have a ton of info about the helmets. So stop me if I start to bore you OK Chelsea grinned as she continued. HarleyDavidsonreg; takes helmet production seriously. Your safety is highly valued at HarleyDavidsonreg;. HarleyDavidsonreg; performs road tests on their helmets to meet DOT requirements. Harleyreg; discourages selling novelty helmets which do not meet DOT requirements or are not SNELL approved.

What is a novelty helmet Chelsea? asked Rita.

A novelty helmet in not intended for motorcycle wear and does not provide head protection. It is for fun only and when it comes to motorcycle safety its time to stay serious. For your riding safety only purchase a motorcycle helmet that meets DOT requirements and is Snell approved Chelsea smiled as she pointed to three helmets.

I want to know what kind of helmet I should replace this old one with? Can you tell me about the materials helmets are made of? I asked at this point I was anxious to buy a helmet but I wanted to make sure I got a good one.

Gary and Rita HarleyDavidsonreg; offers a complete line of half three quarter and full face helmets for men and women. Helmets in general are made of four primary elements: the outer shell: a liner that acts as an impact absorber; padding for your comfort; and a retention system to keep the helmet in place on your head Chelsea swallowed and took a breath. Here we go. First you have the Thermoplastic construction it is hot plastic polycarbonate that is injected into a mold and hardens. This process is not very complicated and usually results in a less expensive helmet. It usually flexes as a reaction to impact against a hard surface. To meet DOT requirements thermoplastic helmets must have a thicker impact liner which requires a larger shell. You get a slightly larger heavier helmet that is less expensive.

So I bet my old helmet was a thermoplastic because it was less expensive than the rest when I bought it. Rita remember that was the day you got your HarleyDavidsonreg; leather riding jacket I chided at Rita just to get her riled up.

Gary You told me to pick out the jacket I loved the most so if you have any regrets it’s totally you fault Rita wailed as she threw me a don’t start anything look.

I’m only kidding honey. You look great in your black leather HDreg; jacket and I love you I grinned as I turned to Chelsea for some more helmet info.

OK you guys lets talk about fiberglass shell construction. It consists of putting multiple layers of fiber cloth inside a mold and adding resin. After that you must heat the mold so it bonds to the resin while removing the pockets of air. It takes many steps to create the layered weave. This winds up causing more expense. Upon impact the fiberglass shell usually cracks crushes and/or delaminates. This causes the impact to be reduced so the impact liner can be thinner. All of this makes for a reduced overall size and weight of the fiberglass helmet Chelsea went full speed ahead. Ultra Light Hybrid helmets are approximately seventeen percent lighter than fiberglass shell helmets. The fiberglass helmets are made with a twostep process that that has layers of fiberglass and injected resins to form the shell. The resin amounts may vary slightly as they are added to each shell. This causes variances in weight. The Hybrid UltraLight Helmets use a onestep process that incorporates Aramid reinforced fiberglass. The exact amount of resin is built into the fibers known as preimpregnated. This precise mix of materials and stateoftheart manufacturing process gives a smaller lighter shell.

Man Chelsea you really know your stuff I said as I stood there amazed that one person could spit out so much detail about the helmet manufacturing process. I was interested and wanted to hear more.

Well Rita and Gary there is one more process I need to tell you about. Carbon/Kevlarreg; construction is the same as fiberglass. There is one separating factor. The cloth in made from incredibly tough carbonized Kevlar. Carbon/Kevlar’s strength results in fewer materials needed make the helmet impact resistance achievable. For the most part carbon/Kevlar is 20 lighter than fiberglass. The technology required to produce this type of helmet make it more expensive Chelsea sighed and laughed. Now I’ve informed you and you have to make your choice. I’d be glad to tell you which helmet is which.

Ok Chelsea that’s fair. You have given me a lot to think about. So let me look at these helmets and think awhile I chuckled as I seriously started picking out my NEW helmet.

Hey Chelsea. I want to know about us women and our needs. I don’t want to buy a small man’s helmet like I did the first time I ever purchased a helmet. Do you have any helmets that are designed for women only? That fits women and our needs? Rita whined as she took over Chelsea’s attention.

Chelsea’s lips curved into a sly grin as she replied Rita we have just what you are looking for The Skyline Helmets by HarleyDavidson. Thy have a 10mm deeper cavity that provides a lower profile for women. Skylines’ also have interlocking side amp; crown liners for a wonderful customized fit fronttoback and sidetoside. Skyline Helmets have an antistatic comfort liner to reduce helmet hair. These helmets have a ponytail notch that provides extra room through a special cutout section in liner. Skyline Helmets from HarleyDavidsonreg; offers half frac34; and fullface helmets to meet women’s preferences. What do you think Rita?

Well I think that I’m gonna get me a new helmet also Rita replied flabbergasted.

Hey Gary and Rita HarleyDavidsonreg; offers a complete line of helmet accessories to go with the helmet line. You can choose from replacement face shields replacement visors helmet bags and helmet communication pouch. They are all on display right here or if you want to shop online just go to www.adventurehd.com Chelsea concluded.

Goodbye Chelsea and thanks so much we yelled as we slipped on our brand new HarleyDavidsonreg; helmets that we got from Adventure HD and rumbled on down the highway of life.

About the writer:  Brenda has been working in the Adventure HarleyDavidson world for over 15 years. She is currently a student at Stark State studying computer science and is working on completing her short stories writing classes.

Great Road Rides – Tasmania: Queenstown

I suspect that everyone knows about Queenstown’s poisonous past by now. The fumes created by smelting the copper dug out of the ground here helped along by the locals’ need for firewood stripped the hills surrounding the town of all their vegetation. For many years even after smelting ended in 1968 Queenstown was surrounded by bare hillsides.

It is rumoured that when the plant life began to recolonise the poisoned earth a local government official actually proposed poisoning it deliberately to keep the hills bare for the tourists.

That’s one thing that has certainly changed with a strong emphasis now on feeding accommodating and entertaining visitors in a much more civilised fashion. You can even go and take a look at the mine and of course the riding around Queenstown has to be seen to be believed.

Heading east along the Lyell Highway you get to sample the charm of what remains of the stripped slopes on your way up and over the range towards Lake Burbury. This road eventually leads to Derwent Bridge at the top of the range and on to Hobart. It’s worth stopping for a look at Lake St Clair and perhaps even staying out there at the campground or in the cabins. Beware the aggressive feral possums. They tried to steal the blinkers off my bike once and I discovered that you’re not allowed to kick them. Derwent Bridge has a pleasant enough pub as well as a servo.

Go west from Queenstown instead still on the Lyell Highway and you’ll find yourself on a constantly twisting ribbon of tar that will eventually take you down into Strahan on Macquarie Harbour. This is one of Australia’s truly great rides but watch out for wildlife and dawdling tourists.

Strahan is a pleasant though extraordinarily touristy place. The club at Regatta Point across the bay to the south used to do excellent seafood platters and may still do so now for all I know.

The Zeehan Highway runs north from Queenstown to predictably enough Zeehan. It’s actually a relatively short prelude to the Murchison Highway which will take you all the way to the north coast at Somerset. Confusingly the Zeehan Murchison and Lyell Highways are all the A10 except for the bit of the Lyell that leads down to Strahan which is the B24. Oh and the last bit into Zeehan is the B27.

Zeehan has an excellent mining museum there’s a lot in it apart from mining stuff and some interesting old buildings dating back to the heyday of the area when famous European acts played the Zeehan opera house. The pub is a bit too modern to be interesting but the beer’s cold. So never mind Queenstown’s past; explore its present!

Know Before You Go:

There are no services including fuel between Queenstown and Strahan Queenstown and Derwent Bridge or Queenstown and Zeehan.

It rains a lot out here on the West Coast; some people claim 300 days a year plus. Take your wet weathers.

All of these roads are pretty good but beware of leaf litter on the Strahan road and debris washed onto all roads in the area.

Allow time to have a go on the West Coast Wilderness Railway formerly the ABT Wilderness Railway. It’s a blast.

The best place to stay in the area is probably Strahan which has a good choice of accommodation and places to eat. Queenstown is less well endowed and there’s very little at Zeehan.

For more information:

Tasmania’s main tourist information site can be found at: http://www.discovertasmania.com.au

For info on Tasmania’s many national parks and historic attractions visit: http://www.parks.tas.gov.au

For more on Queenstown itself including the West Coast Wilderness Railway visit: http://www.queenslandtasmania.com

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;InsureMyRide operates across Australia and only provides motorcycle insurance products to riders. We deal directly with customers online and over the phone. So if you’re a broker we can’t fix insurance for you.

InsureMyRide only covers private motorbikes.