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President’s Corner…Greetings Top Cats
The theme for thismonth’s article is“Getting the BusinessBack in Top Cats”.Over the past fewyears, for many rea-sons, we have lost ourbusiness connections.If we review the follow-ing statement that ap-pears in our bylaws,you can see where wehave fallen short.
“TOP CATS- Illinois isa forum for the ex-change of ideas affect-ing motorcyclists; fos-ters member develop-ment through network-ing, business, educa-tional and social op-portunities; and actsas motorcyclists’
rights and interests ad-vocate.”
There is no doubt thatwe have plenty of op-portunity for network-ing. Our meeting atten-dance has been excel-lent and the member in-teraction each monthseems strong. But weare lacking something.That something is theknowledge of what ourfellow Top Cats bring tothe table outside of ourriding activities. Not thatthe purpose of the TopCats was to increasesales for any particularmember, in fact the op-posite is true. However,we have expertise inmany areas and we havelost the linkage to it. Ifthat expertise leads to a
benefit for a member,that’s a bonus.
In any case, some stepsare being taken to steerus back toward our busi-ness roots. Our new, pow-erful web site can becomea vehicle for our membersto display their busi-nesses and give us all apeak into what they offer.Watch for more informa-tion. If you are a businessowner or have other skillsthat may be a benefit toyour fellow Top Cats, thiswill be your opportunity tocommunicate. Perhapsyou can provide guidanceon business or personalissues. This is where theeducational componentcould be exploited.
Continued on page 8
Official Publicationof Top Cats — Illinois
Inside this issue:
President’s CornerPage 1
General MeetingMinutesPage 3
Safety ArticlePage 5
PhotosPage 6
Board MeetingMinutesPage 7
Activities CalendarPage 8
October 2008, Volume 09-9
Page 1
by Gary Brandt
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ELECTED OFFICERS
President Gary [email protected]
Vice President Bob [email protected]
Treasurer Tom [email protected]
Secretary Mike [email protected]
Past President Chuck [email protected]
Director Greg [email protected]
Director Andy [email protected]
Director Eileen [email protected]
Director Wayne [email protected]
Founder Carl ‘Virgo’ Bender1941-2001
COMMITTEE LEADERS
Activities Muriel [email protected]
Charity Tom [email protected]
Membership Brian Rainey—-
Email Muriel [email protected]
Safety John Lunde—-
Website Brian [email protected]
Hotline Muriel [email protected]
ROAR Editor John [email protected]
ROAR Publisher Mark ‘Ducky’ [email protected]
THE BIKERS WHO MEAN BUSINESS
TOP CATS—Illinois is a group of motorcycle enthusiasts with similarinterests. Members consist of responsible Leaders, Presidents,Chairmen, Owners, Proprietors, Partners, principals, CEO’s, andother ‘Top Cats’ of large, medium and small organizations, institu-tions, and companies. The content and opinions expressed in arti-cles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of TopCats—Illinois.
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ner of the $5,000 grand prize. RicCase, speaking on her behalf,said she wanted the club to knowthat she was thankful and gratefulfor winning.
Thanks and appreciation wasgiven to Tom Nichols, our chair-person for the Ride for Dreamsand all who assisted with the ride.Tom and others, giving their timeand efforts ,made this year’sevent happen and with everyone’shelp, enabled the Top Cats to do-nate $8,500 this year to N.I.S.R.A.
Eileen Perry and Joan Durangoare holding a meeting for anyonewho wants to help or has ideas fornext years charity ride on Septem-ber 9th at Gino’s East located onHighway 22 in Lake Zurich.Come to discuss the ride withyour ideas and ways to keep itgood and make it better.
Gary Brandt (President) pre-sented a check from the Ride forDreams for $8,500 to BrianShahinian from N.I.S.R.A.
Brian thanked Top Cats for thisyear’s $8,500 donation. Top catshave given $210,000 in total do-nations from the club over thepast 11 years. Our donation isused in 3 ways. 1/3 goes toscholarships. N.I.S.R.A. providesscholarships to 71 out of 229 par-ticipants in their programs. 1/3goes to the transportation fund.N.I.S.R.A. recently was able toreplace their 15 seat van for asafer vehicle. And the last 1/3goes to staffing. N.I.S.R.A.
serves 13 communities andBrian said they are very appre-ciative of our support.
Eileen Perry (Membership Direc-tor) announced 4 new Top Catmembers since the last meeting.Paul and Jill Hansen, Mary Wal-ters and Pat Michaud are allnew members. Eileen pre-sented Pat with her new mem-bership flag and patch.
Greg Smith (Activities Director)announced future activities.
September 6th is the MexicanFiesta Ride, Mike Bradbury,road captain. This is a 1-1/2hour ride to dinner at Las Pal-mas in Mundelein. Ride leavesfrom the Shell at Highway 176and 60 by 4:30 PM.
September 12th – 15th is theSouthwest Wisconsin Ride leadby Fred Zimbric, road captain.This is a 3 day, 4 night ride toPrairie Du Chien with lodgings atthe Biltmore Hotel. Fred hasday rides planned for Saturdayand Sunday through the areaand Wildcat Mountain.
September 15th is the Cast IronRide with Carl Marcyan, roadcaptain. Carl is changing theride to go by various airports onthe way to where the Cast Ironride ends in Huntley. The CastIron ride starts at the VintageSpoke Museum in Rockford.
September 20th is the Ride forCheese with Mike Bradbury,
General Meeting Minutes...September 2, 2008
Top Cats General Meeting, Sep-tember 2nd
The meeting was called to orderat 7:40 PM.
One guest, Brian, was introducedto the club.
The Top Cats club picnic was heldrecently at Morraine Hills StatePark. Thanks were given to MikeBradbury who organized it, TerryKumro and Cindy Raybern for alltheir work to make it happen, andLenny Innocenzi for his ham-burger donations from his restau-rant, Buffos in Highwood Park.The picnic had food, games, andactivities including water balloonsprovided by Muriel Brandt whichwere a nice way to cool off duringthe hot and sunny summerweather. The picnic was a goodtime and will be held again in2009.
Chuck Prettyman, Past Presidentand head of the Elections Com-mittee, is soliciting candidates tofill positions for 2009. The execu-tive positions to be filled for 2009are President, Vice President,Treasurer and Secretary whichare held for only 1 year and canonly be filled by the same personfor 2 consecutive years. One Di-rector position is open too.
Gary Brandt (President) presentedchecks to our Ride for Dreams raf-fle winners. Cindy Raybern wonthe $3,000 prize and was there toaccept. A check will be issuedlater. Lisa Neuman was the win-
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General Meeting Minutes...August 12, 2008
road captain. This is a ride toMonroe Wisconsin and theGreen County Cheese Festival.This is an all day ride of about200 miles. Lunch is at the fair.Bring your cooler bags in caseyou want to buy some cheese.
September 28th is The Fall Col-ors ride lead by Joan Durango.Meet at the Citgo on the cornerof Bonner and Rte. 12 in Wau-conda with a departure time of9:30. The ride is a colorful treelined route to a lunch in NorthernWalworth County of Wisconsinand will return to the start pointat approximately by 3:30 PM.
Ric Case presented our meetingSafety Tip(s). We all must beextra careful traveling at night.Bouncing lights in front of youindicate bumpy roads ahead.Eyes reflecting from your headlights indicate wild life is in yourpath. Lower your speed to a
walking pace and be wary.Chasing dogs will triangulateon your position so slowingdown will disrupt them. Thereare 3 types of shoulders weencounter beside the road.They are blacktop, grass, andgravel. Be aware and be pre-pared. Crowned roads arebetter turning to the right thenleft. When turning left yourlean angle is eliminated, soslow down. Rick also offeredthat traveling by interstatehighway can be safer becauseyou avoid the intersections inlocal travel. Watch for beat upcars. They may loose partsand they also tell you that thedriver is careless in their driv-ing style. Avoid driving in atruck’s blind spot. Be visible.
Don Shaffer added that trailertrucks have an extra blind spotin the front from the truck up to20 feet ahead of it.
The floor was opened to mem-ber comments.
The accident scene manage-ment course is open again andis being held sometime duringthe 3rd week of October. Anemail will be sent out with in-formation.
Illinois state veteran motorcy-cle license plates are availablefrom the Secretary of State.See their website;www.cyberdrive.com.
The next G.R.A.S.S. class isbeing held on Sunday, Novem-ber, 9th.
The meeting adjourned at 8:35PM.
Respectfully submitted byMike Bradbury
Wisdom fromthe Ole’Saddle SageAs told to Chuck P’man
“Keep your bike ingood repair.
Motorcycle boots areNOT comfortable forwalking!”
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SAFETY…by Terry Kumro
Sooner or later you are going to wonder about how tohandle severe crosswinds – probably while fighting them.Surprise, surprise – you don’t have to do anything and themotorcycle will handle most crosswinds just fine – withonly normal responses from you.
There are a couple of things that you can do to make theexperience less stressful, however. For example, youcan quit white-knuckling your grips. When you hold ontight you also tend to stiff arm your controls. That, aswe’ve talked about before, merely allows front-end insta-bility to propagate into the rest of the motorcycle. Relaxyou grips and droop your elbows. Allow your bike to be abit unstable. Drive in the CENTER OF YOUR LANE.Lean forward and down to reduce your profile, and snugup your jacket.
What about traction? You neither gain nor lose any sig-nificant traction when the wind blows from your sideunless you are in a curve. While you are leaning into thewind, all of the weight of the bike remains on your tires(fancy that) and there is very little lateral force scrubbingthat traction away.
How much lean do you need? Whatever the bike dials infor you. Should you anticipate those gusts? Should youjust respond quickly to a gust in order to remain in controland continue traveling in a straight line? No, and no.Your bike will NOT travel in a straight line. That is as longas you allow it to do its thing. Your bike will be modestlyblown off course with a gust and the results of that move-ment is EXACTLY the same as any other minor coursechange. You will need modest counter-steer input to cor-rect it – the CG (center of gravity) of your bike will then beon the side from which the wind came and the result isthat it will lean towards the wind.
Anticipating wind-sheer IS important under a couple ofscenarios: the approach of an oncoming large vehiclesuggests that severe buffeting will occur when you passit, and entering or exiting stretches protected from thewind such as tunnels or bridges with relatively high retain-ing walls. In these cases you will certainly want to posi-tion the bike away from the source of the wind-sheer andinsure you maintain a firm grip.)
Is a heavier bike less likely to be blown around than alighter bike? No necessarily. What is primarily determi-nant of how great the effect of a crosswind will be on yourbike is its profile. Baggers and Goldwings are typicallymore harshly affected by crosswinds than a lighter, lowprofile bike.
Can you mitigate some of that instability in anyway? Yes. There are cowling additions that can bedesigned (some are available off the shelf – called“belly pans’) that streamline the airflow under yourbike and help (modestly) reduce crosswind handlingproblems.
Your side profile area is what determines how yourmotorcycle reacts to crosswinds. Just as there is aCenter of Gravity, there is also a Center of Wind Re-sistance. If that Center of Wind Resistance is infront of your Center of Gravity, crosswinds will tendto push you off course, while if it is behind you Cen-ter of Gravity the motorcycle will try to steer INTOthe wind. Therefore, mounting a high profile LIGHTobject (a stuffed animal, for example) onto yourtrunk lid or your pillion can have a dramatically cor-rective effect rather than worsen the bike’s steeringreaction to those crosswinds.
Crosswinds can be murder if you are leaning wayover in a curve. Don’t, if you can avoid it.As a result of a crosswind, your bike will move offcourse and normal modest, counter-steer will lean itinto the wind. A strong gust will blow you out oftrack. So, correct your steering, gently, and keepgoing…
I admit that sometimes a gust can be ferocious! Iwas on the bridge at Chamberlain, South Dakota inthe rain once when a crosswind blew me into theadjacent lane! But the bike was in no danger of fal-ling down and it was easy to get back in lane. Hadthe gust been a sustained blast I would have beenleaned over nearly 45 degrees. It was not sus-tained, thankfully.
Note…there are TWO times when a gusty cross-wind changes your bike’s direction of travel: when ithits, and when it stops. Both require that you allowthe bike to respond and use normal, modestcounter-steering. (When it quits you will be leanedover and, as a result, your bike will move towardswhere the wind WAS coming from until youstraighten up.
If crosswinds involve huge short gusts, go park thebike. If the crosswinds are moving and sustained,pucker up and keep going.
Terry Kumro
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The charity ride for 2009 was dis-cussed. Joan Durango and EileenPerry are co-chairpersons for nextyear’s committee. Eileen reportedthat the meeting they had on Sep-tember 3rd was small but producedsome ideas and suggestions. Eileenand Joan are going to divide theride’s work into smaller sections tomake the ride easier to manage. Thedate of the ride was questioned. Itcannot be held late August for 2weeks because it would conflict withSturgis. September is a bad monthdue to weather and it being so late inthe riding season. The end of July isstill the best time to have it. Othersuggestions were to change or elimi-nate the raffle. We need to educatethe membership more aboutN.I.S.R.A., and more member partici-pation and assistance is needed.
Eileen Perry, (Membership Director)presented Joe Rominski for newmember applications. He is applyingfor regular membership. He is anattorney in Libertyville. WayneKirkpatrick, (Safety Director) is hissponsor. He will meet his G.R.A.S.S.class requirement when he goes withWayne on their motorcycles to Chilli-cothe, Ohio for Wayne’s G.R.A.S.S.class presentation and training ses-sion. A motion was passed to accepthim as regular member.
Gary discussed sending the club’scondolences to fellow club member,Stewart Johnson, for the recent lossof his dad. Andy Konescwicz, (WebSite Director) will contact Stewart toexpress our regrets.
Check Prettyman, (Past Presidentand Election Committee Chair) dis-cussed the slate for our 2009 officersand the lack of having the presidentand secretary positions slated.Wayne Kirkpatrick, also on the elec-tion committee, nominated Carl Mar-
cyann as president and MikeBradbury as vice-president. TomNichols was nominated forTreasurer and Dennis Doughertyas Director. Mike will talk to hiscandidate for secretary and letWayne know if he is interested.Mike will call another candidateand see if he is interested.
Mike Bradbury, (Secretary) re-ported little progress on complet-ing the project to document ourofficers and directors descrip-tions of what they do to fill theirpositions. He will have it finishedby next board’s meeting.
The floor was opened to generalcomments. It was discussed thatwe need to look for a person toexpand the current activitiescommittee of Greg Smith andMuriel Brandt. This would be achance to nurture and develop afuture activities director and com-mittee. Greg & Muriel have donean outstanding job, The needexists to begin developing theirsuccessors. Greg has a candi-date and will develop this.
The meeting was adjourned at8:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted by MikeBradbury
Board Meeting Minutes...September 9, 2008
Page 7
Top Cats Board Meeting, September9th
Attendees; Mike Bradbury, GaryBrandt, Bob Carmody, WayneKirkpatrick, Andy Konescwicz, TomMalia, Eileen Perry, Chuck Pretty-man, and Greg Smith
The meeting was called to order at7:25 PM at Gino’s East in Lake Zu-rich.
A motion was passed to approve theAugust board meeting minutes.
Gino’s East has told us that we willhave to pay a minimum of $75 anight in food and beverage costs forgiving us our room for our monthlyboard meetings. If we all eat dinnerthere, we will easily cover this cost.
Gary Brandt, (President) proposedthat we need to create ways to allowmembers to promote awareness oftheir businesses to the general mem-bership. This would be for clubmembers only. Ideas discussed andaccepted included ways to link or lista member’s business on our website.We can create a section in the web-site with business descriptions. An-other way to do this is to advertise inthe ROAR. Another idea is to allowmembers to speak at general meet-ings for 5 minutes or so about theirbusiness when it is motorcycling re-lated. Sending emails to memberswas rejected. Lastly, this effort maynecessitate the addition of anothercommittee chair to manage this. Theboard response was positive. Garyand Andy Konescwicz, (Web Site Di-rector) will work together on theseideas and report progress to theboard.
The membership dues and costswere discussed. A motion waspassed to keep dues the same for2009.
WANTEDThe Top Cats are lookingfor someone to create theROAR publication for the2009 calendar year. Ifyou have the interest andthe ability to do this con-tact Bob Carmody at:[email protected]
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Activities Calendar
Page 8
Classified AdsTop Cats members wanting to post a classified ad may do so for free. The classified ad service is only available tomembers. Put you club/motorcycle oriented ad together, including a picture if you wish and send it to [email protected]. Your ad will run in the next available ROAR issue. Each ad will run once. If you wish to repeatthe ad, send it again.
Date Ride/Event Location Destination Time Leader
Tuesday, October 07,2008
General Meeting Village Tavern & Grill Buffalo Grove 7:30pm
Brandt
Tuesday, October 14,2008
Board Meeting Ginos East Lake Zurich 7:30pm
Brandt
Tuesday, November04, 2008
General Meeting Village Tavern & Grill Buffalo Grove 7:30pm
Brandt
Sunday, November09, 2008
G.R.A.S.S. Class Village Tavern andGrill
Buffalo Grove 8:30am
Case
Tuesday, November11, 2008
Board Meeting Ginos East Lake Zurich 7:30pm
Brandt
Tuesday, December02, 2008
General Meeting-Election Village Tavern & Grill Buffalo Grove 7:30pm
Brandt
Tuesday, December09, 2008
Board Meeting Ginos East Lake Zurich 7:30pm
Brandt
President’s Corner ContinuedWe have seen cases where we have done good things as a result of a member’s background. We have firstaid kits, banners, food items, insurance information, and legal information. The potential is exciting. How-ever it’s really up to each of you to come forward with your information and ideas. The The tools will bethere.
Remember our motto: Top Cats, Bikers who mean business.Gary Brandt
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