by Road Captain
Dog and bike fans can definitely relate to at least one of these thoughts below. We would bet that out of our 10,000+ fans, there are probably over 5,000 of you who have had or currently have a dog. If you have a dog and a bike, send some pictures – we are fans of both. We only have 9 – suggest the 10th on Facebook. [Images below]. Both have to be broken in before they are truly useful. A […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations
Video of Northern Riding toward Portsmouth New Hampshire on a Road Glide and Road King. Turn the volume UP! If you like this video, check out some other White Knuckle Productions Videos. Throttle in my hand Playin’ in a traveling band
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Videos: Riding & Event
by Road Captain
Let us know why you ride? Tell us your story and you’ll have a chance to win a pair of tickets to this Sunday’s SOLD OUT showing of Why We Ride. The website for the movie is shown below the image. An inspiring celebration of the motorcycling community, Why We Ride is a documentary film that shares the passion of motorcycle riding and shows the camaraderie of the friends and families who ride together. As told by the many racers, […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations
“I live for myself and I answer to nobody.” – said like a man We highlighted recently, Steve McQueen’s 1938 World Solo Sport in the Guess that Bagger post. Here, we do this bike justice by sharing more about it. Sold at Mecum for $125,000 with 21k mileage, this famous and also innovative Harley is an icon as it helped enable Harley-Davidson make a big comeback out of the Great Depression in the mid 30s. This Flathead features the recirculating […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
Having a great group to ride with who would put their lives on hold for a bike trip of a lifetime through Utah, Jackson WY, Yellowstone , the Colorado Rockies Malibu and Sturgis. For helmets that work For hot chicks who like bikers For the awesome New England bike building scene and the shops who support our events For those who showed up to ride 300 lightning fast miles and the ones who made it all the way to the […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations
Admit it, you wanted to be Reno Raines at some point in your life. Ladies, we know what you wanted when watching this badass bounty hunter on Renegade. Looks like Lorenzo has gone on to do some building! I’d be a Bounty Hunter any day if I could ride this through the desert. Check their Road King Custom out:
Categories: Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
If it’s too cold for you to ride, at least live vicariously through this blast! Enjoy this ride through some beautiful rural roads in frigid New England November weather. View from a Road King’s Carlini Pissed Apes! Turn the volume UPPPPP! If you like this video – click here to view other Beantown Baggers riding videos. Thanks for looking at this and our other videos of motorcycle tours in New England including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.
Categories: Videos: Riding & Event
by Road Captain
Turn up the volume! The music makes this ride. Great video montage of Utah, Montana, West Virginia and Wyoming Riding! If you like this video – click here to view other Beantown Baggers riding videos.
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Videos: Riding & Event
by Road Captain
Look forward to the snow lined roads in central MA for some great riding in the “off season”. Turn the volume up and enjoy!
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Videos: Riding & Event
On this Veteran’s day of 2013 we at Beantown Baggers would like to honor our veterans and their Baggers.
Categories: Readers Bikes, Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
3 minutes of serious BIG group riding and some hairy corners to Linkin Park and Straylight Run. Big Shot…Put ya hands in the air! Volume…UP! Sorry if we ruined your plans – guess you’ve gotta ride now and Home Depot can wait until Sunday! Special thanks to Southie Johnny for capturing the great footage.
Categories: Videos: Riding & Event
by Road Captain
Categories: Art in Motion, Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
If this video doesn’t get you fired up, ride directly to the doctor and get your pulse checked – something’s wrong with you! Make sure the sound is ON. This video was taken in Vermont by Southie Johnny – just a minute of what was a 10 minute stretch of RT112 in VT. If you like this, you should check out the White Knuckle 300 Shirts!
Categories: Videos: Riding & Event
Currently there are 69 people signed up to attend the White Knuckle 300 on Saturday 11/2 leaving from Framingham, MA. Originally we at BTB joked that we’d be shocked if anybody showed up. There’s still time for people to all bail but we’re riding regardless.. Here is an easy guide to help you determine if you have everything you need for the ride. It will be cold but right now the forecast looks pretty mild: If you like riding in […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
What is it about motorcycles and barbecue that go so well together? Maybe it’s the fact that so many great BBQ spots are on lonely curving stretches of pavement free of traffic. Maybe it is that barbecue hails primarily from southern states where the climate is more conducive to riding. Or maybe it’s just that bikers have better taste in general and food is no exception to this theory! Wachusett Ski Resort hosted a barbecue festival this weekend featuring dozens […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations, West of Boston
by Road Captain
If you have ever taken a ride through Vermont in any season except winter, you can definitely appreciate the amazing views, spectacular roads and inexplicable calm that covers the entire state. On the way up to (and ultimately back from) Canada, we covered some beautiful terrain starting at Quechee Vermont and making our way up to Burlington. Clearly this ride took us much further north but for the sake of a digestible route, we’ll focus on the Quechee to Burlington […]
Categories: Rated Maps, Rides & Destinations, Trip Journals, West of Boston
The White Knuckle 300 ride is taking place on November 2, 2013 and the routes are finally outlined below. Additionally, take a look at the White Knuckle 300 Mapping Ride or the flickr photo-set of the Mapping Ride. This will be 300 miles of challenging but unadulterated fun. The roads twist, the air will be cool and the baggers will be loud! We hope to see you there on Saturday 11/2 at 7:00 AM. Details and register on the Facebook Event page. […]
Categories: Live Events, Rides & Destinations, West of Boston
by Road Captain
I am able bodied, and fearful looking (6-‘3″ 265 pounds) and able to put a hurt on most people! This was the headline from a 62 year old reader’s email – we were wondering who we pissed off this time. The reality was that this came from Doug Fayle, a Massachusetts Local asking about details of the White Knuckle 300 Ride (http://on.fb.me/GM0PHD) . Doug, you got our attention and I hope we answered your questions. [Much more below] This led […]
Categories: Interviews & Anecdotes, Rides & Destinations, Sturgis
If you haven’t already bookmarked the Beantown Baggers Flickr page, you should do it now. We post ALL pictures from our rides, events and site on the Flickr page. Have you missed a photo? Want to find it but don’t feel like sorting through Facebook? Look at some pictures that we didn’t post on the page or site? It’s all here – just click the link below: http://bit.ly/1bYLy0u
Categories: Letters from the Editors, Live Events, Rides & Destinations, Sturgis
Categories: Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
This fall a group of us went from Boston to Montreal (Click here to view) and then up to MT. Tremblant for some late fall riding. The roads were in amazing condition with one or two exceptions and the scenery was spectacular! The pictures can be found on Flickr Here: http://btbaggers.com/1iMWYYH and the map of the Montreal to Tremblant and Saint Domain ride is below. Mt Tremblant is a skiing village with a number of bars, restaurants and stores. Saint Donat is […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Trip Journals
Ride to celebrate the Beantown Baggers First 5,000 Fans! This ride is called the White Knuckle 300! In just two months over 5,000 of you decided that you care enough about motorcycles, riding and most specifically BAGGERS that you joined the Beantown Bagger Community. Date: Saturday November 2, 2013 Meeting Location: Parking Lot at Shoppers World (There’s a Starbucks there) at 1 Worcester Rd Framingham, MA Distance: 300 Miles Duration: Whenever we are done Cost: Free We have been asked by countless […]
Categories: Live Events, Rides & Destinations, West of Boston
by Road Captain
New England in autumn is a favorite destination for travelers the world round. They come for the foliage, the cool air, small town charm and a slice of home baked apple pie. We decided to add a new twist to this Norman Rockwell scene, infusing some horsepower and the rumbling of a handful of big twin motors. There is no better addition to a beautiful landscape than glossy paint and sparkling chrome blowing up leaf piles on the side of […]
Categories: Rated Maps, Rides & Destinations, West of Boston
by Road Captain
After last week’s Bagger Show at Boston Harley Davidson, a dozen of us had two forms of hunger: we had to fill our bellies and feed our souls. Spending a few hours looking at 45 spectacular bikes was exciting and even better to talk with 300 locals who came out for the festivities but all of this conversing created quite an appetite. Furthermore, we had only ridden a few miles that day and needed more to truly feel fulfilled. Food […]
Categories: Rated Maps, Rides & Destinations, South of Boston
by Road Captain
This organization never brings politics into a conversation…it’s just not our place. We would prefer to stick with what we know, bikes, rides, destinations, cigars and whisky. That’s why our readers visit this site so that’s what we write. Unfortunately the government shutdown hits us where it hurts – our roads. We’re sympathetic to all of the government workers who are going to have a difficult October (or beyond) without pay checks. This isn’t something any motivated person should experience. […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
We have all been on some great motorcycle runs and some runs where we it would have been better if we had skipped. This weekend a few of us from Beantown Baggers went on a run from Medford to Seabrook, NH. The run was created by a group of people who wanted to honor Krystle Campbell, a woman tragically lost in the Marathon Bombings. Proceeds went to the One Fund and the Krystle Campbell Scholarship fund. This was an example […]
Categories: Letters from the Editors, Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
Today is Tuesday August 6, 2013: We are spending two days in Sturgis and have a little work to do. First things first – Jimmy and I have to get to the Victory store and check on parts for Josh’s bike (See August 5 here for details). That was a 35 mile ride from Sturgis to Rapid City but would give us a chance to motivate earlier than the rest of our crew. I was going for moral support as […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Sturgis, Sturgis 2013 • Tags: maps
by Road Captain
Saturday’s ride included heading north from Boston up to a land that most of us “Flat-landers” (name for Massholes in Maine) never see. The ride up 95 is not bad for a highway but when you get 86 miles up in to Maine, you find some of the greatest roads, best food and ridonkulous views existing in the northeast! Take Exit 86 into Maine (off 95N) and then look for Rt 126W When are on 126 you’ll go by a […]
Categories: North of Boston, Rated Maps, Rides & Destinations, Trip Journals
To receive a 10 in the following categories, it’s best to give examples of 10s for specific rides that we have taken. Ratings (all out of 10). Total Rating = 10 Road Quality: Perfectly paved. No sand or rocks in the road at all. Road without creases or frost-heaves. No outlets, cross streets or driveways. Perfect road in 2013 = Tail of the Dragon. There are absolutely no cross streets and the condition was perfect in Spring 2013. Ride Length […]
Categories: Rated Maps
by Road Captain
After a great dinner at the Local in Jackson full of raw elk meat and Black Maple Hill Bourbon followed up by a few drinks at the Million Dollar Cowboy bar the 5 AM wakeup time was not welcomed by anyone. We had agreed to get on the bikes at 6 AM but when 6 AM came only three of the six of us were out by the bikes. Saddle time would be 6:45 today as we headed toward the […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Sturgis 2013, Trip Journals, Whiskey and Cigars
Ever since The Tail of the Dragon the term white knuckle has been given new meaning. Specifically, on our Sturgis trip this phrase became memorialized. What’s a white knuckled ride to one may not be so to another however what remains the same is that this is a ride that shoots sparks of adrenaline through your mid section upwards causing brief perspiration on your forehead followed by ultimate alertness. This is the feeling of truly being alive – pupils dilated living in the […]
Categories: Letters from the Editors, Rides & Destinations
I’ve had the fortunate pleasure of riding to exhaustion and once at that point to where my mind starts to wander about the finer things in life like high thread count Egyptian cotton sheets and plush pillows, I’ve had to find strength to push on to the destination. Nobody likes riding tired and it sure isn’t safe, but it happens and you’ve got to be prepared for it and its implications. I remember when I was a ripe 17 years of […]
Categories: Ride Preparation, Sturgis 2013, Trip Journals
by Road Captain
Today is Sunday 8/4/2013. We arrived Salt Lake City last night around 2 AM and had planned on saddling up around 9 AM today for our trip to Red Lodge. This would be 550 miles including some of the hardest miles on the trip – Yellowstone and Beartooth pass. And then there were 8: Two of my friends with whom I had rode last year met us at 9 AM for our ride. Salt Lake City natives Bert and Jamie […]
Categories: Performance & Repairs, Sturgis 2013, Trip Journals
by Road Captain
Last night I had a chance to see one of my all time favorite bands, Mötley Crüe play the full throttle saloon and they killed it. I anticipated a painful show with a haggard Vince Neil and some band members who couldn’t hold a candle to the original four who I saw at the Worcester Centrum in 1989 when they toured with Warrant. This was one of my fondest childhood memories – it was my first time seeing a hair […]
Categories: Letters from the Editors, Sturgis 2013, Videos: Riding & Event
by Road Captain
After a 300 mile ride that got us into Vegas around 2 AM, a few drinks,some food and more time than we needed at the blackjack tables, we would call it a night around 4:30 AM. Not bad for Vegas unless you have to be on the road early the next day. Sunrise came around and 3 of the 6 of us were awake. A few hours later the rest of us threw down some greasy breakfast sandwiches and guzzled […]
Categories: Sturgis 2013, Trip Journals • Tags: maps
Here I am 34,000 ft in the air rocking like I’m in one of those heart shaped motel beds you feed quarters to. I figure the accommodations that we may be staying at along our ride from LA to South Dakota will be similar. Frankly, if we are lucky this is what we’ll come upon in the early morning hours when our buddies who don’t ride that often anymore are bitching. Ha! Fully prepared over here to be sleeping in […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Sturgis 2013
by Road Captain
We left Malibu today at 7PM PST for our first leg to Sturgis. The first 100 of our 300 mile day was jam packed with traffic but still great to get on a bike in the 75 degree California sun. The comfortable climate wasn’t there to stay as we found out later. From the moment we pulled out of Malibu and passed through the canyons on the way to Rt 15 the scenery was spectacular. The ride to Vegas from […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Sturgis 2013
by Road Captain
As the snow piled up in a brutal New England winter, one late December morning greeted five friends with that email subject line: “The Trip of a Lifetime”! The note would go on to call out the crossroads of our lives where we all currently sit. Between ages 30 and 50, live, work, family etc all normally get the best of us. As a result, of the group, only one of us has been to Sturgis though we have all […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Sturgis 2013
by Road Captain
Incredible Ride today starting with meeting some buddies at the Starbucks in Leominster at 14 Commercial RD. After a cup of coffee and bottle of water we were off toward Amherst and Bub’s BBQ. We decided to take all backroads and made our way toward RT 12 N to RT 101 N to Rt 119 W and then ultimately RT 32 S. The beginning of 12 N was pretty rough but smoothed out. 119 was a mess and really needs work. […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations • Tags: amherst, Athol, Holden, Leominster, Petersham, Rutland
After the mishap on the Tail of the Dragon the unyielding Road King needed to be checked out so we made our way to a Harley Davidson shop out by Swannanoa, NC. Great people there by the way! Took me right in, fixed some stuff and gave me the OK to continue on for our remaining 1,500 miles safely even though I was missing some fairly important parts (like a saddlebag for example). Going off of the advice from the […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations
Here he lies with pistons and crank Burried up to his ass In the face of this bank He challenged the Dragon To have some fun As you can see, the Dragon won!! -Carl Cooper Deals Gap, North Carolina is home to the Tail of the Dragon. An eleven mile stretch of more twisties than you can fathom through the Smoky Mountains. No intersecting roads, no houses, many of these hairpin turns are banked, few guard rails and even fewer […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations
Your experiences are yours alone. Many may be shared, but what is impactful to you is unique based on prior life events, outlook, neurological wiring, etc. From the communication of shared experience what emerges is the understanding of how much is actually occurring at any given moment in time. It aids us also with gaining new perspective. How those different experiences are reflected upon and shared with one another matters. My longest ride, which I’d done twice (Memorial Day 2011, 2012) was […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
We met at a local coffee shop at daybreak around 5:30 AM on the Thursday before Memorial day (6/23/13). After a half café (I have been off of coffee for almost three weeks so this will be more than enough to get started) we would fire up the Road King and Glides respectively and set out for our first of 1,050 miles. The route we choose was specific to get us past the 1,000 mile mark, use enough highways to […]
Categories: Ride Preparation, Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
The longest riding day I’ve ever owned was a 750 mile stretch through South Dakota on my way across the country last year. The entire trip logged me 5,200 miles (clearly not the most direct route from east to west) over two weeks. That trip was done solo but this one I’ll have a wingman for the 1,000 miles down south and then whatever miles we decide to tack on after the first destination. The trip: Head down South from […]
Categories: Ride Preparation, Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
Early in the season is a great time to start riding – even if the weather is around 32 degrees and snow surrounds the small town roads you are hitting. Here is a little clip of some small town riding to a Jimi Hendrix classic!
Categories: Videos: Riding & Event
http://bit.ly/Yq0sEv I think a couple extra zeros were added to the left of the decimal place by accident. There may and I stress may be somebody out there who would seriously consider buying this majestic Big Bird chariot which contrary to the look they’re going for – does not fly over the rainbow. Skittles and Necco waffers come to mind. I’ve just vomited in my mouth. Seriously, Kenny Powers wouldn’t even be seen on this thing.
Categories: Rides & Destinations
It didn’t look that far on the map
Categories: Rides & Destinations
by Road Captain
It’s mid-March and for the past four months I’ve been excited to get on the horse and log some miles. Unlike last winter where most New England riders were able to put a few thousand miles on their vtwins, this year’s winter has been slightly more unforgiving. Snow has been a constant and we expect more on the day after tomorrow. There was no way I could wait for another dumping with the added benefit of more salt/sand to get […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations, Riding Gear, Videos: Riding & Event
Great finds come out of nowhere, unexpectedly or from seeking them out as a destination ride. I’ve experienced both and though the surprises take the cake the planned destination rides are still thrilling. After all, you can decide what winding and desolate roads you take to get there and are semi-assured where you’re ending up is going to satisfy your thirst for new experiences. I’m not exactly setting this up to undersell and over deliver, but sometimes a good call […]
Categories: Rides & Destinations • Tags: Eats, Letters from the Editors
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Beantown Baggers