Check out my site

[Sweater Cows!]

http://coffeeshopbikers.ning.com/

It is a specialized site for motorcyclists who want to ride alcohol free.

I want to create routes around west Michigan and lists of coffee shops along these routes.

Last fall my DH and friend D. went for a ride with a group of guys on a poker run. When they got back they told me they were surprised how much alcohol some of them were drinking.

We usually ride with my kid and go at a safe pace and visit restaurants, street/art fairs, playgrounds and coffee shops.

If any of you know of some coffee shops, playgrounds, reasonably priced restaurants and any other stops that we may like please let me know.

And i could use some ning set up advice too.

[XLFD]

It's a good time to start a website dealing with this right now, before the main biking season and the blessing of the bikes that will happen in Baldwin May 14-16. Be sure to advertise your site there if you can, and later at the county's bike events, like Bike Night in Ludington.

Sounds like a great idea-- motorcycle accidents have been on the increase as a general trend and any site that can advocate safe routes, sensible riding, and sobriety has got my endorsement, and the stamp of approval from the BUMPS group. Drop a line if you need any help, and let me know if you will allow real bikers (ones that don't require motors) to join in to give/receive input.

[Sweater Cows!]

Sure you real bikers can join. BTW, I hope you don't mind but if you check out my first post down at the bottom I linked back to here and the soup. Heres the quote

"I intend for this site to focus solely on riding, so if ya want to talk politics, religion or popsicles take it to one of these local Forums. www.lakeshoresoup.ning.com or www.ludingtoncitizen.ning.com."

Sorry no link to those who banished me.

[masonco]

Who would banish you?

[XLFD]

She refers to Ludington Talks. As I understand it, Sheila had the audacity to ask the LT administrators why a non-offensive thread she put up was deleted. She was told the video therein had nothing to do with Ludington, and consisted of copyrighted material. Being that most of the threads put up in LT have nothing to do with the Ludington area, and contain copyrighted material (used properly, in most cases), she posted that observation in several threads. A very valid protest, IMHO. I have been monitoring the LDN for quite a while, and have found that their editorials very rarely deal with local issues, and are far from original.

When I was on LT, I put up many threads dealing with Ludington and having totally original, factual material. I have continued that trend here, much to the chagrin of several local officials. For that I was thrown off Ludington Talks. Apparently I was too subversive or damaged the reputations of too many of LDN's close friends.

At Talks you have to walk a tightrope. The goal here at the Torch is to allow free discussions among thoughtful participants. Please advise the current leadership if those objectives are not met.

[masonco]

The ones who complained about that stuff were the ones who love the soup forum. Rather than be accused of taking sides, LT had to ban anyone who had a certain number of complaints. They tried to ban the "Kool Aide jammers" group, but since there is mostly stuff about how to defuse the radical mouth diseased ones, LT let it stay up. Some filed complaints, but it still stands.

Now the extreme libs feel discriminated against in LT (for the most part). The mods know who are in the jammers trying to keep situations from getting out of hand.

[masonco]

You might contact the Ludington Daily news about this being a life saving idea and ask them to publish stories about it before the Blessing of the Bikes in Baldwin in May.

We used to ride. I know how much bikers drink then run their motorcycles. Sometimes I wondered how they could even hold those bikes up.

[AQUAMAN]

The Jammers was started by Edie, she had the gonads, and perserverence to dedicate a group for a specific purpose. And she was right. Nowthen, the opposition of Libs/socialists, have the same right to form their own group, don'tcha think? Well, they haven't yet, have they? Sorry bunch of peeps, they complain when someone comes up with a novel idea, and don't have the sorrrrrrriest idea of how to oppose it. And be constructive about it. Pitiful!

[Sweater Cows!]

Hey, are you guys magooing my thread or what? LOL.

Oh, btw, the thread I was banned for was about cats. (and had properly sourced) Here's a link to a similiar article as I believe the one originally posted linked back to yahoo but this is close enough. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7129952/Cat...

Once I stated(politely) my position about my feeling of the post being deleted being ridiculous I was banned. Whatever you do don't talk back over there.

[Dave]

That whole deal with your getting banned was pretty silly on Shorelines part.. couldn't believe they did that. I remember when that went down and there being a few non-Ludington related threads on the forums, at least one being mine, but they still pulled that. I have a hard time figuring out Shoreline sometimes. Maybe they had some sort of weird fear of cats.