Lived to write about Book Tour

I didn’t get a thing done on the road but talk to a million people, find my way to a new location daily, and make sure my two girls were fed and decently clean. I’m home now so  let the blogging begin…

The grey skies of Portland spit upon me to say – no one is coming out on a weekday night to see  Chicks On Bikes. But the warmth and welcome of the small crowd at Cascade Moto proved me wrong. Laurie Winslow the water restistant avon lady rode in on her nicely styled Triumph:

A true Portlander rides in the rain

Vrrooom - Avon calling

Here’s a link to her Avon website. All Portland Bikers should go to Laurie for their Avon needs.

This photo is by my 9 year old Ella. The perspective and composition are spot on. The gentle giant who welcomed us:

Welcome

And my name in lights!

My name in lights!

And these two sisters have been riding dozens of years. I love this kind of family and biker bonding.

Sisters

And a special thanks to the R.A.T. Pack for coming out.

More to photos and adventures of the northwest to come… because sometimes you just have to get started.

Northwest Book Tour Dates

THE places to be for Chicks on Bikes ROADSHOW:

Thursday July 1st 7pm

Cascade Motors

14705 SW Farmington Rd.   Beaverton OR 97005

(503) 574-3353

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Friday July 2nd, 6:30pm

MotoCorsa

2170 Northwest Wilson Street
Portland, OR 97210
(503) 292-7488

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Sat. July 3rd & Sun. 4th

Latus Hareley Davidson

7421 Northeast Beech Street, Portland, OR

(503) 249-8653

All Weekend event – FREE

I’ll be at a book table with the famous Wall of Death trick rider Cookie Crumb who rode The Wall back in the 50′s.  And I’ll be doing my show a couple times daily.

The Wall will be there and you can see the show yourself. Food, live bands, games for kids…

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Wednesday July 7th, 7:30

Cretin’s MC presents Rubberneckin’ night

	Seattle Cretins MC clubhouse 3600 E. Marginal Way south 98134
	* due to street construction approach the clubhouse from the west
	Seattle, WA

Come early 5:30 to view vintage motorcycles and stay late for punk rock band to follow.

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Friday, July 9th 4pm- 6pm

South Sound BMW

3605 20th Street East, Fife, WA –

(253) 922-2004

Come on down Beemer folks – I’m on the cover of BMW owner magazine on the Level next month!

Woman biker envisions the future on electric motorcycles

Jennifer Bromme raced the first ever electric motorcycle race in America at TTXGP last month. She’s among my favorite photo muses. There’s so much to say about this that I’m paralyzed into inaction. But does every blog need to tell all? Wouldn’t you rather just see the pictures?  Good. Because I find writing really hard work. Hats off to those of you who do it so well and blog so diligently. Read these articles by Suzanna Schick instead.

I’ll just get to the photos because that’s what I do.

photo Jennifer Bromme at Infineon Raceway on Mavizen electric bike

Plug in the electric motorcycle

to the future and beyond...

Jane Jetson knows electric bikes are the in thing.

Book me for a Chicks On Bikes tour show

What better public image for motorcycling than a mom and her kids thumping up the coast talking about women motorcyclists? Its a good thing, maybe a bit mad, but surely its good. Chicks on Bikes is coming to a town near you (if you live in the Pacific northwest).

As I make my way up the grand coast from San Francisco to Vancouver, I’ll be hualing audio visual equipment, cameras, my two girls ages 3 & 9, and if can’t get a grasp on my common sense I’ll bring camping gear too.  Now the pacific northwest is a hard territory to dazzle, maybe they don’t take to dazzle at all. But I’ll be putting on the best dang video projection show with all my hero’s in Chicks On Bikes.  I’ll be telling their stories along with my own personal stories of how I found these women and what went down over the course of making the photos. I’ll be including some of those heartbreaking images left behind on the editing table and everyone’s favorite game “where are they now?”

And what’s best: ITS FREE!  Yep, I’ll come dazzle you with my show and afterward sign your Chicks On Bikes book myself with a sparkly silver sharpie.

I’m keen to book events all along the way and I’m taking bookings right now. I’m particularly looking for some venues in Seattle and Vancouver. You are my ideal contact if you:

a. love women and at least suspect that women are indeed smarter than men.

b. Think motorcycles are the perfect vehicle

c. are fascinated with the frozen moments and million words embodied in great photography.

d. own a motorcycle related shop

e. belong to a motorcycle club. I love clubs, great excuse to gather your buds.

My dates are June 26 – July 11th and here is my flyer. Email me through www.ChicksOnBikes.us or comment here to contact me.

Not a Harley Girl – or am I?

I’m a sport bike girl at heart. I like the speed and focus of flicking the bike through a twisty road. I like the tucked in feeling of the bike bonded to my body. I like the hyper, buggy, plastic body work of performance bikes. I like the general demeanor and style of fellow sportbike riders (not the squids).

As author of  Chicks On Bikes that embraces all kinds of bikes and riders and styles I do my best to disregard personal preferences. I am forever enthused to learn what individuals love about their bikes. The character and the bike they choose are an inseperable part of the story and every rider has a story.

But I’m going to confess the big cruisers have never called to me. Its kind of the way I feel about birds – its fascinating to encounter other people’s birds but never ever do I want to own a bird. They’re loud, they poop on you and I don’t like the herky jerky way they move.

The maverick in me just does not want to own the #1 selling bike in America, the Harley Davidson.  I’ve actually entertained ideas of buying seriously ugly but beloved bikes such as the V-Strom. In part just to be ornery.

But as I contemplate doing a major road trip book tour this summer. Possibly with my 9 year old daughter. It behooves me to take an earnest look at the biggest lux touring ride in the Harley stable -the Ultra Classic Electra Glide.

I think the wonderful writer photographer Bob Stokestad summed it up well in this article on the Big Mama as he calls it. And from now on I shall call all Ultra Classic Electra Glides Big Mama too.

I will just say its the closest thing to a 2 wheeled Lazy Boy and the highly visible color orange with a hue that nods to the 70′s suits me just fine. Here is a picture of me and Ella on it at Dudley Perkins Harley dealership in San Francisco at their recent Garage Party.

seat testing Big Mama at Dudley Perkins Harley, San Francsico

The Garage Parties that Harley dealerships have been putting on this spring are aimed at encouraging women riders.  I gotta love that. I give HD a hearty thump on the back for the wisdom of promoting women riders. Its that kind of smart marketing that keeps them the #1 seller. And another kudo to Dudley Perkins, a SF institution, for being such good people. If were plunking down my change to buy a brand new Big Mama, this is where I’d plunk it.

I just saw a video where a knee is dragged on a massive Goldwing. Now that’s the kind of rider I want to be, comfy but fast!

Motorcycle Riding For A Good Cause – Diamond Posse

Giving back to your community is a basic element to a life well lived. If I were to smash myself to bits in a motorcycle accident tomorrow and lay there dying a slow death and taking account of my life, I’d really like to have some good deeds to cough up.

The motorcycle community seems to be doing this all the time. Is it because life and death seem a bit more in perspective for bikers?

I want to put a plug out for the Diamond Posse. I’ve met a couple of them and they are some big hearted ladies. As they say, they have been “forged under pressure” thus creating diamonds.

As past members of the military or lives of personal challenges, these 5 women will set out to ride this May from San Antonio, Texas to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to celebrate Women’s Riders Month stopping at veterans’s centers along the way. They are fund raising for the Fallen Hero’s Fund to build a privately funded physical rehabilitation center.

Here’s what they need:

Sponsorship
Donations for books.. Heart of a Military Woman Book Donation: Books will be given out to veterans at VA Stops . Proceeds benefit the Fallen Heroes Fund .
Sponsor the Riders
Donate to the Fallen Heroes Fund

Contact Eldonna aka Pink Biker Chick for more info.

Here’s who the are:

Riders of the Diamond Posse

Riders of the Diamond Posse

10 Best Motorcycle Songs

Looks like I’m a bonafide something since  I’m actually getting paid for speaking next Month at Santa Rosa College and presenting Chicks On Bikes: what real women motorcyclists are all about. Its National Women’s Month, you know.

So I’m spiffing up my slideshow and need some music for the intro. I contemplated many songs and dismissed the most obvious right off the bat. I’m going to make a heretic state right now. The fine old song Born To be Wild is a practically embarrassing cliche. That’s why its not on the list.

But first alllow my my motherly rant on ear drums and safety. If you listen while you ride, you’re either cranking it up to hear over wind noise and that causes ear damage. Or you have ear buds that seal out the sound and then you can’t hear around yourself on the road. Best to have all your senses sharp.

So lets get right to it. As a bonafide biker chick, here my highly personal list of the top 10 best motorcycle songs (about motorcycling that is):

10. For most bizarre and comic the award goes to: Funky Moped by Jasper Carrot.

9. And just to show you everything sounds better in French – check out this Bridgette Bardot song. I don’t know what she’s saying about that motorcycle but I like it. I’m not even going to ask if she’s ever ridden a motorbike.

8. Because I am product of 80′s new wave: Motorcycle by Love and Rockets

7. In honor of guitar hero’s who love to ride: Ride by Joe Satriani

6. Fine, I reconsidered Born to be Wild because I did quite enjoy this performance by The Cult.

5. Warning this silly motorcycle ditty may get stuck in your head. I don’t want a pickle I Just Want to Ride My Motorcycle by Arlo Gutherie

4. I admit I just found this song while cruising around the web, but its immediately catchy rockabilly tune set to the Japanese animation will hook you too. I’m a Mutha Fucker on a Motorcycle by Machine Gun Fellatio

3. I’ve sung this song into my helmet on many a road trip.  Thanks Neil for a putting a woman on the bike and making another classic. Unknown Legend by Neil Young

2. I do love my Bob Seeger and its not just because I’m from Detroit either. It’s all about freedom baby. This is a true classic: Roll Me Away

#1. Not because I’ve been particularly concerned with an accurate list of ranking (nor even in a serious critique of the genre of motorcycle songs) but the song that won me over to go with my Chicks On Bikes slideshow intro: Two Wheels Move the Soul by true biker chick Sasha Mullins.

Oh wait, make it 11 best motorcycle songs: I forgot about this classic piece of 70′s: Motorcycle Mama by the Sailcats

Now that I’ve had my say, comment and tell us your favorites.

Love in the name of motorcycles – a valentines party

I’ve two burning marbles here on either side of my larynx that whine and grate like my over tired 3 year old at the end of a day. ‘Tis the season. Hack hack sniffle sniffle.

But it was Valentines day and I was committed to speak at motorbike night at Tosca’s monthly motorbike night.  I whined, I wallowed in self pity, then I went. Tosca’s opened in 1929 a year before prohibition started. If this classic Italian bar in northbeach could survive that, I can show up for a dang book reading.

Its a perfect setting for a scene out of the Godfather and the bartender set me right up with a hot brandy that soothed the throat and the soul.

Here's the co-owner Peter Ridet with the original espresso machine.

And here’s another reason why I went: Leslie Kaye editor of Urban Moto magazine who know’s so many of the smartest, talented, coolest people in San Francisco and is brilliant at connecting them. Creative endeavors could not exist without people like Leslie. And she’s got great legs!

and she's got great legs...

That night she introduced me to two of them – Ron Turner founder of Last Gasp publishing and midwife (midhusband?) to some of the greatest comic book artists of our time. And I met Kevin Hunsanger co-owner of Green Apple bookstore another SF institution and successful hold out against the corporate bookstore/amazon takeover of america. Green Apple will now be the exclusive bookstore to carry Chicks on Bikes in San Francisco!

She also sweet talked the elusive and fabulous opera deviant Diva Marisa into coming to sing. Marisa’s in Chicks on Bikes.

Diva Marisa sings from La Boheme

I’m getting better at talking, reading and doing a slideshow of Chicks On Bikes. Another warm brandy and a microphone and I was in love with my Valentines audience.

Reading at Tosca's

I came out of love and devotion and that’s just what I got back.

xo, Christina

Zen House & homage to rust

2 Italian bikes

2 tall germanic women

Ed and truck

These things and a spare pair of socks and underwear, and a box of books was the start of a mini road trip up the Nor Cal coast from San Francisco to Point Arena.

The notion to do a book reading of motorcycle poetry and Chicks on Bikes in a remote bike shop on highway 1 at 4 pm on a Wednesday seemed a bit absurd. But any excuse for a road trip with friends was a welcome excuse to escape work and family. Turns out the small but enthusiastic crowd that came out was wonderful. They were the most friendly and engaged crowd, the kind of people that make it worth it to have written book and schlepped it around.

The Zen House is a suprisingly sophisticated motorcycle shop on highway 1 that draws motorcyclists from hundreds of miles to work on their race bikes as well as any general repair from anything from Hareley’s to the off road bikes the locals prefer. Owner Dave is a brilliant mechanic with a pedigreed history and his wife Kelly runs the front desk and teaches yoga across the street.There is a sense of zen with a buddah overlooking the work area and green plants dangling from the ceiling.

Zen House owners Kelly and Dave

If you have the good fortune to be riding along that blissful bit of California in Point Arena, just stop in. Like an old buddy, they will treat you with warmth and kindness and give you advice for whatever you may need along the way.

I myself have tried several times to read Robert Persig’s book Zen and the Art of the Motorcycle Maintenance and I’ve never made it to the end. It may be blasphemous to some but I find Phadreus a pedantic know-it-all who starts to bug me and Persig not a particularly good writer.  But the ideas in there are good and I have respect for those who contemplate and embrace them.

And so on to the photos:

Called Tetnus, the famous bike found sitting 20 years in a yard in So Cal. Ed hauled it up here. It will now be made into a racing bike by Dave at Zen House. Really.

TETNUS

An Homage to Rust

Luminous Rust

Christina (yep me), Kelly and Ed

Zen Jen - our tour manager owner of Die Werkstatt if SF

I learned another great use for Duct Tape: use it to get tiny cactus prickles out of your hand.

Free Fun on a cold wet week? Wrenched Word and Chick Pix book tour.

Should I apologize about my bad blogging habits, namely the lack of? To anyone who cares, then yes I do. I have so many fun and interesting things to write about.

Here goes my first blog entry of 2010, may many more fab entries follow. Alas it’s shameless promotion that brings me to shout out today.

What free fun can you have on a cold wet Northern California week?

1.21.2010 “Wrenched Words and Chick Pics” Northern California Book Tour, January 2010

What do you do in January when it’s wet and chilly? Or when you’re just too much of a sissy to get out there and ride? Not me, no never me, I’d never show up in my comfy warm dry cage Camry… its just that I’ve got these books I have to bring.

How about heading out for a night of motorcycle related literature and photography?  Christina Shook and Ed Milich will be touring motorcycle destinations in San Francisco and northern California beginning January 26 2010 to promote their recently released motorcycle books: Milich’s Wrenched: Man and Machine and Shook’s Chicks on Bikes.

Ed doesn’t like to call it poetry, so as not to put off the tough illiterate biker folks. Besides it doesn’t actually rhyme. Ed is an awesome racer who can totally smoke you on the track or on a microphone. His words are raw, funny, dirty, anguished and eminantly readable. See his creds below.

And me, if you don’t know me, here’s what the flyer says:

Christina Shook is a San Francisco based professional photographer. Chicks on Bikes compiles her photographs of and writings on female motorcyclists drawn largely from the San Francisco Bay Area’s diverse population of female riders. The book depicts female racers, commuters, cruisers, and mechanics in their natural environments from San Fransicso’s streets to dirt bike trails, to the racetrack. The hard bound Chicks On Bikes is 154 pages and is $24.99 from www.chicksonbikes.us

Ed Milich is a Los Angeles based writer and contributor to Motorcyclist Magazine, Café Racer Magazine Sports Car Market Magazine, a national roadracing champion (WSMC, AHRMA), proprietor of motorcycle websites Guzzitech.com, Ducpower.com, and Motobastard.com and a professional Mechanical Engineer. Wrenched, Man and Machine, the first book from the Los Angeles based Milich, documents his motorcycle racing, wrenching and riding experiences in largely unrhymed free verse. In March of 2009, Milich debuted Wrenched at the Daytona International Speedway Bike Week Vintage Races where he punctuated the book release by winning four out of four races. Wrenched, Man and Machine is 142 pages and is $15 postpaid at www.wrenchedbook.com

January 2010 Northern California Book Tour stops:

Tues Jan 26 – Subterranean Motorcycles, San Francisco, CA 6:00 PM www.subcycles.com

Wed Jan 27 – Zen House, Point Arena, CA 6:00 PM www.thezenhouse.net

Fri Jan 29 – Santa Rosa BMW Triumph, Santa Rosa, CA 6:15 PM www.santarosabmw.com

Sat Jan 30 – Kilowatt, San Francisco, CA  8:00 PM www.barbell.com/kilowatt

Sunday Jan 31 – Round Up Saloon, 3553 Mt Diablo Blvd  Lafayette CA   3pm

Sun Jan 31 – Godspeed, Oakland, CA 5:00 PM www.godspeedoakland.com

Mon Feb 1- American Sportbike Night, San Leandro 6:00PM www.americansportbikenight.net Ed Milich only

Book Tour Flyer

Heartfelt gratitude for organizing this all to Leslie Kay, editor of Urban Moto. Go see their excellent new website. And Jen Bromme, my germanic soul sister and owner of  Diewerkstatt bike shop in SF – great mechanics for street or race bikes.