Motorcycle Nation Podcast

This is going to be a rather short post but I had to write it. As the price of gas climbed over the past couple of years, we motorcyclists have had a slight escape from the pain. With motorcycles getting 40+ miles per gallon many fair weather riders had to give more thought to riding to work rather than leaving the bike sitting in the garage. We speculated that there would be a run on two wheelers as many people looked for that escape as well. For the most part, it looks like the spike in sales was realized in the scooter area. The scooter is usually cheaper than the low end motorcycles so the consumer went in that direction.

As gas prices leveled off and even began to decline lately, motorcycle sales are still hurting as most people are trying to hang on to every dollar that they have. The fear of the unknown has a huge impact on the opening of the wallet. I was shocked earlier this year when Harley Davidson laid off workers in the assembly plant in York, PA. Since the buyback of the company from AMF HD has enjoyed record sales each quarter. To see them suddenly be forced to send people home and cut production shines a bright light on our sport right now.

This post was inspired by a shocking news story that I read yesterday. On Friday, Honda announced that the Honda Hoot will not be held this year. The Hoot began fifteen years ago in Asheville, NC and moved to Knoxville, TN in more recent years. It is consistently in the top 5 motorcycle rallies every year. Honda felt that the economy would cut into attendance this year and I am sure that the company did not want to lay out the cash to put it on either. The poor economy has reared it’s ugly head and is boring down full tilt on motorcyclists everywhere. What will be next? Daytona? Sturgis? Laconia? Myrtle Beach? We will soon find out as Daytona will be upon us in just over 2 months. We can only hope that the Hoot will make a grand return in ‘10.

Steve

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WOW, it has been a long time!

My last venture at this podcast / blog thing was a frustrating experience and contributed to the abrupt ending of it. The truth is that I tried to work at a tech level much higher than my ability. I tried to host it myself and never figured out how to do everything. Oh, the blog was fine, I just could never figure out how to get my podcast to the blog and on the net. I think that I may have that licked now. I just got an email from Apple telling me that my submitted feed to iTunes was submitted and they are reviewing my request to add MCNation Podcast to the iTunes store. Keep your fingers crossed.

For those of you who are coming back, thank you. To all of you MC Nation virgins, welcome and thank you. A quick intro to me is that I love motorcycles and I am lucky enough to derive a portion of my income from motorcycle related ventures. I manage a motorcycle safety site for ABATE of Indiana and also teach motorcycle safety courses as well. I also hold a motorcycle skills examiner certification for the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Beyond motorcycling, I hold a full time job, attend college, and am Dad to 4 kids ranging in age from 18 to 5. In March, I also became a Grandpa. So, I am a pretty busy guy.

I hope that when we get this thing going that you will enjoy it enough to spend plenty of time here and to tell your friends about it. This is the MC Nation which means it is a place for all of us to hang out and discuss all things motorcycling. We will get into safety, tours, recalls, bikes, anything that we want. i hope that each of you will share through the comments area of the blog. In the future, I hope to give all of you the ability to call in during the taping of the podcast and chat. I will be doing some interviews and you will have the chance to weigh in. Another cool opportunity that I hope to extend to all of you is to be able to chat during the recording of the podcast. I have a ustream.tv account set up and down the road I want to do live video of the show being recorded for the podcast feed. Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

So, I hope this thing grows and that we have motorcyclists from all over the world weighing in here. Since my dream is to tour, I really welcome any ideas of placed to visit. Drop those ideas into the comments section at any time or hit the email link and shoot it over via email.

Ride Safe

Steve “Bullitt” McQueen MCNation Podcast

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WOW, it has been a long time!

My last venture at this podcast / blog thing was a frustrating experience and contributed to the abrupt ending of it. The truth is that I tried to work at a tech level much higher than my ability. I tried to host it myself and never figured out how to do everything. Oh, the blog was fine, I just could never figure out how to get my podcast to the blog and on the net. I think that I may have that licked now. I just got an email from Apple telling me that my submitted feed to iTunes was submitted and they are reviewing my request to add MCNation Podcast to the iTunes store. Keep your fingers crossed.

For those of you who are coming back, thank you. To all of you MC Nation virgins, welcome and thank you. A quick intro to me is that I love motorcycles and I am lucky enough to derive a portion of my income from motorcycle related ventures. I manage a motorcycle safety site for ABATE of Indiana and also teach motorcycle safety courses as well. I also hold a motorcycle skills examiner certification for the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Beyond motorcycling, I hold a full time job, attend college, and am Dad to 4 kids ranging in age from 18 to 5. In March, I also became a Grandpa. So, I am a pretty busy guy.

I hope that when we get this thing going that you will enjoy it enough to spend plenty of time here and to tell your friends about it. This is the MC Nation which means it is a place for all of us to hang out and discuss all things motorcycling. We will get into safety, tours, recalls, bikes, anything that we want. i hope that each of you will share through the comments area of the blog. In the future, I hope to give all of you the ability to call in during the taping of the podcast and chat. I will be doing some interviews and you will have the chance to weigh in. Another cool opportunity that I hope to extend to all of you is to be able to chat during the recording of the podcast. I have a ustream.tv account set up and down the road I want to do live video of the show being recorded for the podcast feed. Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

So, I hope this thing grows and that we have motorcyclists from all over the world weighing in here. Since my dream is to tour, I really welcome any ideas of placed to visit. Drop those ideas into the comments section at any time or hit the email link and shoot it over via email.

Ride Safe

Steve “Bullitt” McQueen MCNation Podcast