Motorcycle Alabama

Open Letter and Invitation

For the last ten years, BamaRides has been the best internet forum in the state of Alabama for all things related to motorcycling.  Founded in 2007, the forum grew to hundreds of members, but as with all things, the time has come for a change.

The previous forum owner has very graciously relinquished all ownership, content and admin rights to the BamaRides forum.  All of the assets and data were transferred, but we had to relocate the server data and rebrand.  We thank him for his prior contributions and for bringing us all together.

Most of us joined BamaRides to meet new people, go on some rides together, and share in our love of motorcycles.  After people join, they often find that they are exposed to stories and ride reports, different kinds of motorcycles and styles of riding, "How To" maintenance and installation articles, knowledgeable opinions on different types of accessories and gear, history of motorcycles and Alabama, photography, videography, gymkhana and other skills development, etc.  None of that will change on this new forum.

Going forward, this will be a "member-owned" forum with shared and democratic leadership.  We intend to maintain a constant focus on having fun and nurturing a sense of camaraderie, community, and friendship.  Conflict will occasionally happen, but our focus will be to always keep the forum constructive and welcoming to all opinions.

The joy of motorcycling is many things to many people.  As motorcyclists, we love to ride.  We also love to hang out, share riding stories, and plan future rides.  We all enjoy discussing history and trends in the motorcycling industry and markets.  Occasionally, we need some advice or have the ability to offer advice to others.  It feels good to help a new rider gain skills and solve problems with their new bike.  We have launched this new forum to be an open and welcoming environment for all of these things.

Your new forum will be known as "Motorcycle Alabama."  The website will be reached by going to "MotorcycleAlabama.com" or "MC-AL.com."

The staff of Motorcycle Alabama welcomes you to your new riding community.  This will be the place to meet new friends, to share riding experiences, to discuss and plan rides with friends, and to post collective knowledge about motorcycles and riding in Alabama.

With this new forum comes a new name, a new logo, and an updated image.  Many of your old friends are already here with us and hopefully many more will join us as we grow.  Please share with your friends and help us to promote your new riding community.

You will see changes and improvements to the forum over the coming months as we evolve.  We believe that all efforts to develop this new community will benefit our members for many years to come.  If you had an active account on the BR forum, your username and password will be the same.  If not, please sign up for a free account and introduce yourself in the Welcome section.  If you have any issues logging in, please follow the "forgot password" link or use the contact page to send us an e-mail.

With the new ownership, the staff at Motorcycle Alabama are excited to enter this new era.  We hope to expand the friendships and the riding community in Alabama.  Today is a new beginning!

A word to the members, new members and future members of MotorcycleAlabama:

The history of the forum is well documented above. We were brought together by a common passion. The first inception of the forum(lovingly known as BamaRides 1.0) was groundbreaking. It brought a regional group of motorcycle enthusiasts together and provided opportunities for experiences in riding, mechanical knowledge and comradarie. Having shared experiences created strong connections. The bond has continued even through our struggles.

Looking in from the outside, as a new member or as someone considering joining us, it may look like there's not a place for you. That's far from the truth. Come in, sit by the campfire and get to know us. When we start ribbing you and giving you grief, it's just the ink drying on your adoption papers. And the answer to the question "what's the proper number of motorcycles to own?", there is always room for another motorcycle junkie.

Quote from: Chitza on November 19, 2017, 09:12:22 AM
A word to the members, new members and future members of MotorcycleAlabama:

The history of the forum is well documented above. We were brought together by a common passion. The first inception of the forum(lovingly known as BamaRides 1.0) was groundbreaking. It brought a regional group of motorcycle enthusiasts together and provided opportunities for experiences in riding, mechanical knowledge and comradarie. Having shared experiences created strong connections. The bond has continued even through our struggles.

Looking in from the outside, as a new member or as someone considering joining us, it may look like there's not a place for you. That's far from the truth. Come in, sit by the campfire and get to know us. When we start ribbing you and giving you grief, it's just the ink drying on your adoption papers. And the answer to the question "what's the proper number of motorcycles to own?", there is always room for another motorcycle junkie.

Out of curiosity, who consists of the "staff and "leadership"?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

For transparency, I edited all three posts above to correct the funky characters and non-printable characters.  We upgraded the forum software from a basic English character set to the UTF-8 standard, which supports many other characters and symbols, but it choked on any Apple quotations marks that were already existing in forum posts.

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Quote from: lastparrot on November 28, 2017, 05:29:01 PM
Out of curiosity, who consists of the "staff and "leadership"?

We probably should have just said "staff."  Nobody intends to exercise leadership over members.  We only intend to attempt to lead the growth and development of the forum and only in a positive manner.  Current staff members are (in no particular order):

Chitza
Mulley
Buzz
KevinB
Brian A
yamahamer
LawnmowerRG
klaviator
kylepeterson
jrobinson
Nice Goat

Quote from: Nice Goat on November 28, 2017, 05:46:36 PM

We probably should have just said "staff."  Nobody intends to exercise leadership over members.  We only intend to attempt to lead the growth and development of the forum and only in a positive manner.  Current staff members are (in no particular order):

Chitza
Mulley
Buzz
KevinB
Brian A
yamahamer
LawnmowerRG
klaviator
kylepeterson
jrobinson
Nice Goat

Good group of people.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

You can recognize the staff by their forum names being a different color. Red is administrator. Blue is general staff.

Quote from: Chitza on November 28, 2017, 05:56:28 PM
You can recognize the staff by their forum names being a different color. Red is administrator. Blue is general staff.

The colors must not translate to Tapatalk.   Everyone is green.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Actually, I think all the names are blue (at least on my laptop)...it's the squares under the member's name that differentiate.

When you look at the bottom of the page where you can see who is currently signed in, the names are different colors. And when you click to see "Who's Online."

Ah, gotcha...been awhile since I've scrolled down far enough to see that.

New guy from Eva.  Looking for rides/events.
Riding a 2019 Z900RS, 2021 Ninja 400 and Royal Enfield Himalaya.

Long time member ...
I'm getting my bike back ??? on the road and look forward to meeting up with others.

Will see you down the road ...

Just making my first post after meeting some of you at your swap meet booth at Barbers' Vintage Days Festival.  We, Team-HSV, are avid BMW riders here in the northern counties (newer and older bikes). In fact, I'm the current President of the ALaBeemers (MOA CC-05).  Additionally, I host a 2nd Saturday Ride-2-Eat {amazingly on the second Saturday of the month}. So on the 14th, after a lite breakfast with the NAVMC folks at the Blue Plate Cafe [7:30 - 8:30], I will make a quick stop at Murphy's Gas on the South Parkway (depart ~0850). We'll try to head south on backroads (usually cognizant of the posted speed limit) on our 2-hr ride to Porky's Pride BBQ in Hayden, AL (95 mi).  That restaurant should open for a good BBQ lunch ~1100. I hope my group of followers can get there in time to snag the large Group table near the door. We ate there 18 months ago; they're worth another visit.  [ 1128 Al 160, Hayden, AL ]
https://porkys-pride-smoke-house.business.site

Happy Trails whenever U can - Ciao!
HSV-Phil & HSV-Karen
USAF-Ret'd — & — USN-Ret'd
'75 R90S  ————— '82 R100CS
'09 KLX250S  ——— '08 CRF230L
'14 K16GT ———— '16 R1200RS
'05 Vespa 200L

Welcome.  I'm also in Huntsville and normally ride on Saturdays if I'm not out of town riding!

Welcome!  We're glad you're here!  I'd love to make one of your rides!  I'm buried every weekend in October, though.  Have a great month! 
And thanks for coming by our booth at Vintage!