Open Road Biker

Have you ever thought about becoming a motorcycle tech? Well Penn Foster is just right for you. They have convenient courses designed to train you for your desired vocation. With the craze for choppers driving the sales of motorcycles up you are almost guaranteed a job in a fast growing field with many opportunities. I know good mechanics are needed all of the time. Heck I just had to put my bike in the shop (I will have it back by next Friday hopefully). Just click the banner below and check them out and see if it is for you. The tuition could easily be made back up with less than a month on the job.

I am not sure I agree with them, it should be number one but maybe I am just partial;

Here is an article I found today. It seems the federal government (National Transportation Safety Board) is urging to states to adopt helmet laws. Where do you stand on helmet laws?
Here is an excerpt from the article;

Panel urges mandatory motorcycle helmets

By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — States should require motorcycle riders to wear proper helmets, government investigators urged Tuesday as part of several recommendations that seek to stem a steady rise in motorcycle deaths.

Read the rest here.
Head on over into the forums and talk about it or post a quick comment here (just click on comment below this article)

You have waited a whole week on another beer article right? Well here it is and today we are trying a Belgian beer called Achel. It is a brown (bruin) with 8% abv. Now it claims to be a Trappist beer (beer made by monks adhering to strict rules of production). It is one of two Trappist beers that I was not fortunate enough to try while in Belgium (there are seven). If you would like to know more about the beers history you can go here.

Now, my first impression of the beer was made very quickly. As I was pouring it I could smell it. It has a tart almost flowery smell. I am not sure how to explain it because I have never really had one that gave off a smell as strong as that. The head was very foamy and I couldn’t get but half of the beer in the glass before the head was at the top. It was also one of the thickest I have seen that lasted for quite a while. As for the taste it wasn’t quite as hearty as you would think. It was a fairly light or thin beer. I thought it would have a fuller or thicker flavor. Now the first taste wasn’t very sweet and it had a tart finish. It had no bitterness at all but the tartness was kind of hard for me to get past.
So here are the ratings that I give it (all ratings are on a 10 point scale with 10 being the best);
Aroma 7/10
Appearance 8/10
Flavor 4/10
Palate 4/10
Overall 5.75/10

Aroma; The smell while strong was somewhat appetizing. I was really looking forward to drinking the beer.
Appearance; I am here to tell you that it was a good looking beer. If you chose a beer on appearance alone then this would be the one. I was so disappointed when I tasted it.
Flavor; While the beer looked and smelled good the flavor was a let down. It barely had any distinguishable flavor at all until the finish and then it was tart. I was expecting more.
Palate; This was probably the flattest, least exciting beer that I have drank (that includes domestics). It was hard to distinguish any of the flavors and it just left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Now I know I said in the last beer article that any beer with an average better than a 5 that I would drink again but this one will not be something that I will be drinking that often. I have one more and I am going to give it a second chance but I am here to tell you that it isn’t looking good for a better review. Now who else out there has tried it? If you had a different experience with it I want to know. Because I cannot control the storage of these beers while in transit or the age then you never know if I have just got a skunky beer, especially with beers that I have never tasted. So please keep that in mind. Some of these beers come from thousands of miles away and you never know what they have been through.
As always drink responsibly and please don’t drink and ride (CDR, Cherry, Chip, Frankenstein, and crew).

Well how does every one like the new look of the site? The old home page looked a little messy to me so I decided to change it. If you have any problems just let me know. I will be moving all of the old articles over to this site and will eventually get rid of www.openroadbiker.com/joomla

In the mean time make sure you check out all of the stuff in the forums and we have some great pictures in the galleries. Heck if you have some good pictures that you would like to share then please feel free to add them to the gallery. Eventually I want to start adding biker stories, tech, and any reader submitted stuff to the front page here. If you have a story or an experience that you would like to share with the other readers then head on over to the forums and put it up. If it’s good enough I will throw it up here on the front page.

Well until next time ride hard but ride safe.