I worked all day indoors, but stepped out a couple times to experience the wonderful weather. My bike is ready, just need to clean off the 100-degree dust and do some riding!

As usual, it was a rushed visit but was fun nonetheless. If you’re a Ducati fan you can’t sit on the display bikes – but their display is quite impressive. It is a completely-enclosed area with a front entrance and actual models strategically positioned with adequate space for standing and gawking with your friends.

The Honda display wasn’t that great, it was too easy to see the four-wheelers over the actual bikes. Yamaha and Suzuki’s displays were nice, but couldn’t spend much time at them.

Harley and Buell had great displays. I’m a fan of Buell motorcycles, just haven’t found one that has emptied my wallet yet. Sat on a couple Harleys, one was nice – the rest weren’t worth the effort.

The Guzzi models were cool to look at, but strange to sit on. Aprilia had some very nice machines available to sit on, but for me it’s more difficult to own a Aprilia than a Triumph. There were some Vespa scooters, but as usual I was the only one out of the group that was impressed.

Some of the accessory vendors were missing, yet still plenty of opportunities to spend money. I liked the vendor demonstrating a new type of motorcycle stand for pickup beds or trailers; wish we had ordered one before leaving.

If you’re a Toyota fan, they had this tricked-out FJCruiser on display. Complete with onboard gaming and GPS System. There’s a couple additional highlight pics of it in my photo Album. For all of the pictures, go to the 2006 Show in the TriumphRat.Net Photo Album.

The folks at Pig Trail Harley-Davidson put on a good show today to benefit a local NW Arkansas Children’s Shelter. The ride was tedious at times, but also a great balance of smooth curves and wonderful autumn scenery. There were hills that so green that the grass looked like it was painted on, topped with bright-orange trees.

Across the country, there are shelters struggling to handle this country’s influx of displaced children. Most are temporary situations, but a few do go onto Foster Homes. However, many areas of the country do not have enough Foster Homes, resulting in dire situations where kids are forced to live in a shelter until something can be made available for them. Even if you did nothing more than put a few dollars in the mail, or dropped off used items that would help put smiles on these kids, it would be an appreciated contribution.

After six months of constant work, I came to the realization that without a local shop to work with there would be very little riding time. When you’re already burning up hundreds of miles per week, coming home to a handicapped bike with just a few hours to enjoy it just wasn’t working out.

In my usual style, the addition is something few riders purchase but many respect. Like anyone else, outrageous speed and power make for fun rides but the focus with this is to make up for thousands of lost miles.

A shop in Bentonville had the 2006 Honda Interceptor on a pedestal (pictured), otherwise known as a VFR-800. A smooth machine with a 781cc v-twin engine with all kinds of features.

The salespeople worked a great deal for me, and handled the situation well. We were all somewhat uncomfortable, given my status as a leading Triumph Enthusiast. Overall, the bike is flawless and I’ve done 10-hour rides (with the usual health breaks) without any excessive fatigue.

One comes to appreciate the love for Triumph when you’re not riding one. The VFR will be with me for a very long time, but I am looking forward to another Triumph next year.

In no particular order:

Suzuki GXSR-600
Suzuki GXSR-750
Yamaha R6
Honda Interceptor
Kawasaki ZX-10

I’m missing my first ride of the year, because I haven’t been able to either sit on or see all of the options. Sometimes it seems better to just find a last-years model in the local paper, buy it, and go have some fun

Although the Daytona675 is still a possibility, I’ll admit that other brands/models are being considered as well. When one can just go down to the end of the street for an R1/R6, Gixxer, or ZX-Ninja thoughts of being able to get back on breakfast runs and last-minute rides seem to be a reality again.

Read the article on the new R6 and it’s new “fly by wire” system, which sounds cool. However, the thought of sticking with a 1000cc bike is still very much a possibility if I can find a good deal on insurance.

• My Daytona 900 isn’t running well
• The Daytona675 won’t be available until Spring 2006
• Triumph isn’t going to be at the Cycle World IMS

With Bikes, Blues, & BBQ just days away I’m starting to wonder if I should start paying more attention to what friends are saying about my unwavering dedication toward Triumph. It might be time to consider being a multi-brand owner so that I can spend more time riding.

I think it is time to consider the larger Motorcycle Portal …

Let’s suppose that one day George W. singed into law a daily requirement that everyone in the US must eat one scoop of Ice Cream. To keep it simple, lets say that only a few major chains were allowed to participate in this effort. In order to make sure that the entire population was accessible, the law didn’t restrict how you got it. One could go to a restraurant, pick up some at the local grocery store, or have it brought to them if they weren’t able to obtain it without assistance.

For many, aside from some weight gain and increased heart disease, this would be a good thing – a reason to celebrate.

However, for those who are very health-focused – or can’t consume dairy products – the new law would be no different than slavery.

The same goes for those who would push their beliefs onto the masses on TriumphRat.Net. The site is designed to push the enthusiasm that naturally surrounds Triumph Motorcycles, and not much else. Meaning that for many subjects outside Triumph Motorcycles, a user is feeling the pinch of being controlled by another. One would assume that folks would naturally avoid such situations.

Instead, I’m hounded by people in amazing and creative ways that they want to be slaves. Using just about every negative descriptive a shallow mind can think of, we witness a group feed on each other’s weaknesses. Creating more posts about myself than has ever been done since my BBS days in the 80′s.

One would think that a Triumph Motorcycle was enough.