May 25, 2013

Last July I did a post on Cutting Edge Illusions (see it here) writing about the shop and how they donated a paint job for the Chris Kilcullen Memorial Ride in 2012.  If you've read my previous posts, you'll recall Chris Kilcullen was a motors officer for Eugene Police Department who was killed in the line of duty in 2011.  You can read more about Chris on the Officer Down Memorial Page.

Guess what?  Solomon at Cutting Edge Illusions has donated a $1200 factory finish paint job for our 2013 ride.  Check out Cutting Edge Illusions's great work...from what I hear, the local Harley shop uses Cutting Edge Illusions for their custom paint and Cutting Edge does work all over the United States.  

We are doing a raffle for this awesome Cutting Edge Illusions paint job.  Tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20.00.  All the proceeds to go the Chris Kilcullen Memorial Ride which will take place on July 28, 2013.  The money will go toward funding the Chris Kilcullen Memorial Scholarship that will benefit local college students from University of Oregon and or Northwest Christian University in Eugene, OR.  

The coolest thing is, you don't need to be present to win.  We'll be selling tickets at our booth at Cottage Grove Bike Fest on June 23 and at other venues.  We will be drawing the winner on our July 28 ride.

I'm thinking Runkle needs some flames...

If your ride needs to be tricked out and you are interested in a paint job and can't wait for our raffle, give Solomon a call at

Cutting Edge Illusions
120 Cleveland St, Unit 1B
Eugene, OR 97402
P 541.359.3340 F 866.322.0175
Monday—Friday 8am—5pm PST
Please email us for a free estimate.



Volunteerism...gets me into trouble all the time....

This week has been WET.  Rain has been spilling down the gutter spouts like tiny rivers and has definitely made me want to stay inside.  So when my fellow volunteers decided to have a booth at  Thursday's Bike Night at Cycle Gear in Springfield, I thought it sounded miserable.  I mean, how many bikes were going to show up in the rain?  We were about to find out.  But first, we needed to set up our booth.

Skylar, Winston Churchill and Kenzi setting up the banner
We've all been going back and forth about this banner holder for a few days.  Sure, I wanted the banner frame made, but I was thinking for the smaller banner, you know, less height, less width, less of a wind catcher.  Imagine my shock and awe when we put the sign on the holder and it worked!  Holy cow, I was trying to figure out how I was going to apologize to the PVC pipe banner designer (who goes by the name of Cardinal) when the wind picked up.  Skylar was standing in front of the booth admiring the sign when all the sudden the sign fell on top of her.  I was too busy laughing to help save her life.  Whew.  We ended up putting the frame next to the tent to stop some of the rain and wind from coming into the tent.  Worked like a charm!!!

We realized burgers and dogs would be served, so the day wasn't a total loss. And, shockingly, at one point the rain stopped and some bikes showed up.  We were lucky enough to sign up a few people for our ride, and one for our party bus!  The free gifts probably didn't hurt our cause.

Skylar decided to take a photo of some of the people who signed up for the ride and they all stood by the downed banner and smiled.  I, being the only one who has a sense of humor, decided to spice up the photo....

Unfortunately, later on Facebook, someone else decided to find their funny bones...and this was posted....























































Everyone thinks they are a comedian.

Touché, Funny people....touché!!!








Riding again....

Despite the nice weather that blessed us here in Oregon for a few weeks (which coincidentally has since been replaced by buckets of rain), I haven't ridden much.  Earlier this year I was commuting on the bike on a daily basis into downtown Portland, rain or shine (mostly rain).  Once I got the company car it was all dry clothes and heat billowing from the vents.  So, for the last few months, I've been walking past Runkle (my faithful BMW G65GS) in the garage watching the dust gather and the mice droppings collect.

Perfect Oregon riding day....
Finally, last weekend I agreed to go on a ride in order to attempt to fine tune the route for the Chris Kilcullen Memorial Ride in July.  Attempt being the operative word.  First, since Runkle had been ignored, I had to check the tire pressure which took FOREVER since I bought this really cool mini Husky air pump that I couldn't get to work....I know what you are thinking, you just plug it in and the air goes in, right?  Yeah.  I ended up letting all the air out of the front tire on accident.  I'm an embarrassment to riders everywhere.  Then I had to clean all the spider webs off the bike.  Living in the country is awesome...but the bugs and spiders and mice...you'd think I was in a huge city living in a sewer pipe.

Finally, I took off to meet the boys who showed up about an hour later than they should have.  I stood, I sat.  Eventually I realized there were hundreds of tiny spiders crawling all over my jacket so I also jumped up and down, swatted, screamed like a sissy and ended up almost beating the crap out of myself before I could get the jacket off.  Yeah, I'm impressive.


Waiting, waiting...and waiting.....for the boys....

When the boys arrived they explained a couple wrong turns had slowed them down.  Apparently we're going to have to put some serious signage up for the ride.  Great!  More work!  We jumped on our bikes and headed to our planned lunch spot (taking a wrong turn first thing) and eventually wound our way to the Harley store where I was able to find ONE bike I liked.


My pick at the Harley store....I'd rather be riding a Vespa....

The first half of our ride done and no time to do the second half, we decided we (or I)  could route the last half later ...and the boys had to rush home to their women.  Geez.  Wimps.  Or maybe priorities?
Naw.   That's crazy talk.  




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