Tag Archives: C. Jane Taylor

Rocker MC at Bard College: New School Meets Old School

Rocker MC Bard College Simons Rock
Rocker MC regulars, clockwise from far left: Luck Henderson, Jason Stafford, Jake Aloia, Amanda Bury, Monk Schane-Lydon, Tyler Farnsworth, Messiah Vision, and Helen Cohen. (Photos by Gregory Cherin and Dan Carp)

Some think the face of motorcycling is aging. Not so in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where one man is bringing the biker zeitgeist to Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Known as “The Rock,” it’s an early college that gives 10th and 11th graders the experience of post-secondary life at a tender age. Many students graduate with a bachelor’s degree at age 20, which I did in the ’80s, and it was the smartest decision I ever made.

Monk Schane-Lydon hopes students will also leave the school with a love of heavy metal thunder. Monk, a former Air Force helicopter crew chief, is an adjunct instructor and advisor to the Simon’s Rock Motorcycle Club, or “Rocker MC,” a self-funded club that restores old bikes.

“Our first bike was a Honda CX500,” Monk told me. “It came in boxes and was essentially a $100 donation of parts.”

A couple years ago, the Rockers hosted me for a reading during my national book tour for Spirit Traffic. I was so inspired and impressed by their passion that I chased them down for a series of phone interviews.

Related: Riding From Gunnison, Colorado, to Hovenweep National Monument,
by C. Jane Taylor

Rocker MC, or just “Club” as the students call it, is the brainchild of Sean Lamoureux, who brought bikes to students for a spring term workshop in 2015. Later, Bill Powers, a parent who wanted his kids to get out of their dorm rooms and work with their hands, bought the club its first motorcycle lift. Since then, Monk has been slowly accumulating tools.

Monk said only two students currently ride. “The ‘over-my-dead-body mom’ is still a reality for some. Tyler even named his bike ‘The Mother Disappointer.’ Our students are ages 15-19, so they must have permission to ride. But it’s not about riding for most of them; it’s more about building and creating.”

Rocker MC Bard College Simons Rock Monk Schane-Lydon
Adjunct faculty member and club adviser Monk Schane-Lydon teaches students how to use tools and the ins and outs of maintaining, repairing, and rebuilding motorcycles.

Monk added that besides mechanical skills, bodywork, and painting, students also learn patience. “These things are not done overnight. They also learn self-confidence. We had a fork seal that needed to be replaced. I said, ‘Okay, Helen and Jake, take that front end off. The book is right there.’ In two hours, they had taken it entirely apart and replaced the front seal. They were so satisfied with their work. Students here learn to complete their goals.”

“When I show them bodywork,” Monk continued, “I tell them to close their eyes and feel it. Being able to dial in and trust your feelings is a talent.”

In addition to advising Club, Monk teaches graphic design. “One of my students, Luck Henderson, created graphics for a Virago to give it some attitude,” he said. “I taught them how to use Photoshop and Illustrator. Another student, Ava, took off mechanically and tackled her Mazda Miata, pulling the rear end and putting her own brakes on. She [did it] on her own in her driveway. The wild thing is her dad was not mechanically inclined at all.”

What are the big takeaways for Club students? “You’ll have to ask them.” 

Rocker MC Bard College Simons Rock Helen Cohen
Rocker MC teaches students to solve problems. Here, Club member Helen Cohen rewires the headlight bucket on a 1978 Honda CX500. Later, she’ll test the new indicator lights for the turnsignals, neutral, high beam, and oil pressure.

Helen Cohen is an 18-year-old psychology major. She doesn’t ride motorcycles (her mom “has quite an aversion” to them) and steered clear of Club until the second semester of her junior year, when a friend invited her to join. 

HC: [Club] appealed to me. I wanted more technical experience and a better understanding of how machines work. I drive an old car – a 2006 Volvo S60. I wanted a better understanding of how to keep it going.

Listen to Rider Magazine Insider Podcast Episode 45 with C. Jane Taylor

CJT: What are you getting out of Club?

HC: Confidence and an appreciation for the machines that take us places. There is so much involved, but it’s not as complicated as I thought. When I first walked in there, the only thing I was brave enough to mess with was sanding a gas tank. I later learned how to solder and am learning more about auto mechanics. Motorcycle knowledge can apply to cars. The skills give you a way of thinking, so you’re not quite so concerned by things like blown fuses. 

I feel much more confident now. And it’s a way to learn about motorcycling and the motorcycle community.

It’s fun. Being in Club demystifies things and makes me feel like I can take an active role in repairing things. It has already saved me from having to call roadside assistance. It has nothing to do with my career, but that confidence will follow me forever.

Rocker MC Bard College Simons Rock Jake Aloia
Under the watchful eye (and camera) of advisor Monk Schane-Lydon, Club member Jake Aloia tightens down the rocker arms on a 2004 Triumph Bonneville T100 after adjusting the valves.

Jake Aloia is also 18. He is a double major in psychology and criminology. During the summer before starting at The Rock, he took an MSF course with his dad. They got their motorcycle endorsements together, and they share a Triumph Street Twin. Jake joined Club as soon as he got to school and has been part of it ever since. “Such a niche club at a niche school. It felt so perfect. I showed up at my first meeting; it took me less than an hour to fall in love,” he said. 

CJT: How’s Club going for you?

JA: I get a lot out of it. A big part is having space to work with my hands. It’s meditative. Creating something with your hands is a nice step away from the hustle and bustle of being a student. Showing up and tinkering is therapeutic. At the same time, you gain so much knowledge. Every time you go, you have a new problem to solve. Having the limitations of a not-decked-out shop gives you better problem-solving skills. 

CJT: What are your biggest takeaways? 

JA: Two. Every problem has a solution. In life when you don’t know the solution, you want to give up. You think, ‘This is too complicated.’ But you don’t have to be an expert. Every problem can be solved in one way or another.

The second is: Less is more. You don’t need every tool to solve these problems or repair these bikes. You can do a lot with a little. Each time, we must ask ourselves: How can we do it with what we have?

I’m much more confident as a rider and troubleshooter. If something happens, I might be able to take care of it myself. It all boils down to confidence, problem-solving, and understanding how the machine works. 

CJT: How will this experience influence your life?

JA: It is monumental for me. I have always loved working in this kind of mechanical setting, and I’ve gained a big enjoyment of it in Club. Being able to maintain my own vehicles, being able to carry that confidence, knowing the machine is not in control of me, and knowing what is happening under me as I ride make me a safer and smarter rider. For as long as I ride, I will feel that. 

Rocker MC Bard College Simons Rock Messiah Vision Helen Cohen Monk Schane-Lydon Rosie Echols
Left to right: Messiah Vision, Helen Cohen, Monk Schane-Lydon, and Rosie Echols work on Rocker MC’s 1978 Honda CX500.

Tyler Farnsworth is a 20-year-old biology major. He has been in Club for three years and initially joined because he was interested in riding and realized he did not know much about how engines work. He wants to apply that knowledge to other things, namely his car.

CJT: What are you getting out of Club?

TF: Obviously knowledge in terms of mechanical skills, but possibly more important than that is friends. I met people here I would not have met otherwise. I met my roommate, Jake, who is now my best friend.

I have always been interested in
mechanical stuff. I wanted to try the robotics team in high school, but the kids were not willing to teach you what you didn’t already know – that is the opposite of Club. Even if a student only comes once or twice, they are still going to learn something and meet some really cool people. 

Club proves that anybody can work on and learn about this type of stuff. It doesn’t matter who you are. Even if you never ride or never need to work on your own car, you’ll learn problem-solving skills that will apply to many different areas of your life. 

What makes it fun and interesting is that every time you show up, it’s never the same. I’ve done electrical work, I’ve taken apart a carburetor, replaced parts, and done bodywork.

Rocker MC Bard College Simons Rock Rosie Echols
Rosie Echols uses a grinder to modify the rear frame loop of a Yamaha Virago, which is being converted from a cruiser to a bobber. No mechanical knowledge or experience is required to join Club. All students are welcome to learn and have fun.

CJT: Do you ride?

TF: I have a license but no bike. My dad doesn’t want to deal with my mom’s anxiety about it. But once I have a job and my own place…

CJT: What’s your dream bike?

TF: There are a lot of bikes out there. Right now, my dream is to finish the [Honda] CX500. I am graduating at the end of this semester, so maybe that will happen! 

Related: C. Jane Taylor Rides 6,000 Miles on National Book Tour

CJT: How will your experience at Club influence your life?

TF: When I showed up for the first time, I was new at Simon’s Rock and did not feel good about doing things by myself. I came to Club alone and felt okay about being on my own, meeting new people, and making new friends.

At Club, I felt more affirmed that I can try something on my own, that I will be accepted and welcomed. I was talking about how anybody can and should show up – it’s important that you mention that I am transgender. Nobody ever mentions it. I want to encourage people that ride motorcycles – and everyone else – to embrace who they are and be themselves.

Are these smart young early-college students the new face of motorcycling? All signs point to a resounding “yes.” They share a love of motorcycles, individualism, and kinship with all generations of bikers. The future of our two-wheeled family looks bright indeed.

C. Jane Taylor is the author of the moto memoir Spirit Traffic, published in 2022. Her second book, Riding the Line, and her Sunday Love Letters are available on Substack. Subscribe here.

The post Rocker MC at Bard College: New School Meets Old School appeared first on Rider Magazine.

Source: RiderMagazine.com

Riding From Gunnison, Colorado, to Hovenweep National Monument

C. Jane Taylor’s moto memoir Spirit Traffic was published in 2022. That summer, she and her husband embarked on a 97‑­day cross‑­country book tour on their BMW F 650s. She said her book tour was characterized by deeply rewarding and completely exhausting work. It also featured great roads. During her vacation from what some might already consider a vacation, she enjoyed many memorable rides. The leg from Gunnison, Colorado, to Hovenweep National Monument in Utah was a favorite. –Ed.


C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument Wolf Creek Pass
My husband, John, and I rode for 97 days – from Maine to California and back to Vermont – on a national book tour in the summer of 2022. We snapped this selfie at 10,856-foot Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado.

West of Gunnison, Colorodo, U.S. Route 50 was closed. We’d seen signs about the closure for at least 100 miles. Those signs were for other people, right? We’d planned to stay on the famous Colorado byway through the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests as long as we could. But as we approached Gunnison, our shoulders slumped with the reality that the signs were for us. We’d have to rethink our whole route. And the weather was starting to look iffy.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument

Scan QR code above or click here to view the route on REVER

At the Gunnison County Chamber of Commerce, a note taped to the door underscored the closure. We went inside, paper roadmap in hand. At the desk, the clerk proffered her own map, opening it in front of us. She and John pored over it like kids seeking clues to lost treasure.

She confirmed that U.S. 50 was closed and suggested State Route 149 instead. It had less traffic and was more beautiful, she assured us. We compared her map to the Butler map for the region. (Butler Motorcycle Maps highlight the best roads, rating them on twisties, traffic, road surface, etc.) SR‑­149 was G1 (gold), Butler’s highest rating – perfect!

After filling our water bottles, we headed to the gas station. SR‑­149 is quite rural, so we wanted to be prepared. As John filled our tanks and I surveyed the darkening skies, a bolt of lightning ripped through the clouds. Thunder crackled. A guy next to us gassing up his pickup was watching too.

“Hope you’re not going that way,” he said, nodding toward the storm.

“Not anymore,” I said.

We paid for our gas as the storm clouds gathered closer and closer. Thunder rumbled, and lightning struck from cloud to ground in the near distance. We sped back to the park next to the Chamber and ran for the cover of a gazebo. Just as we stepped under, buckets of rain dumped from the sky, and lightning dashed all around us. The thunder was so loud that we ducked our heads each time it clapped.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument
John snaps another selfie on SR-149 along the Lake Fork River. As two cross-country-and-back trips have taught us, body temperature management in variable conditions demands a good rainsuit – and a good attitude.

Celebrating our excellent timing, we stretched out to nap on top of the picnic tables just as two vans arrived and disgorged two dozen kids. It was the local mountain‑­biking camp escaping the weather. We were instantly surrounded by kids eating popsicles and playing a raucous game of tag. Now each thunderclap was accompanied by the ear‑­piercing screams of prepubescent mountain bikers. One of the camp counselors checked in on our welfare, asked about the bikes, and offered popsicles, which we accepted.

The lightning eventually abated, though the rain drizzled on. The camp counselors packed their charges and drove away. We wrestled into rainsuits and got back on the road.

Related: C. Jane Taylor | Ep. 45 Rider Magazine Insider Podcast

SR‑­149 was as wonderful as described: a narrow, almost abandoned two‑­lane road snaking seductively through the San Juan Mountains and the Rio Grande National Forest. The weather was cold and drizzling, but the road was curvy, and the air smelled like earth and springtime in New England. We were in motorcycle heaven.

Ten miles down the road, oncoming cars flashed their headlights, gesturing to slow down. Thinking they were trying to warn us about a cop, I laughed. It had taken me five years to get up to the speed limit. We continued with caution until a mudslide stopped us in our tracks. If we hadn’t been wearing helmets, we would have scratched our heads in a “Now what?” gesture. Like U.S. 50, it seemed SR‑­149 would soon be closed too, but we gingerly traversed the shallow edge of the slide at the far‑­left side of the road. Alert to the changes in road surface and rambunctious streams in the gullies flanking the road, we pushed forward like children anticipating candy at Halloween.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument Powderhorn
SR-149 near Powderhorn, Colorado.

Instead of candy, we sought groceries as we rolled into Lake City and its tiny country store whose proprietors seemed to be a badly mismatched couple. The woman in long braids glared at us as if we’d tracked mud onto her freshly mopped floor, while the man – handsome in a Willie Nelson kind of way, if Willie Nelson could be considered handsome – happily greeted us, teasing about our florescent green rainsuits. “We are not men, we are Devo,” he joked in a robotic voice referencing the ’70s New Wave band famous for their quirky spaceman costumes. We bought vegetables, tortillas, and cheese for quesadillas we would cook once we found a campsite for the night.

Lake City is an eye‑­blink of an old mining town with the down‑­at‑­heel aspect of a climate-change ski resort in shoulder season. The cold, damp weather did not bring any charm to the Grizzly Adams cabins lining the road.

I attributed the town’s creepiness to its horror‑­movie sepia tones and bad weather, but I later learned that Lake City gained notoriety in 1875 when Alferd Packer, the “Colorado Cannibal,” was charged with killing and eating the prospectors he’d been hired to guide through the San Juan Mountains after the group had become snowbound. In the spring, five bodies with human teeth marks were found at the foot of Slumgullion Pass. Lake City’s Hinsdale County Museum has an extensive collection of Packer memorabilia, including a skull fragment from one of his victims and several buttons from the clothes of the five men he ate. The area where the bodies were discovered is now known as Cannibal Plateau. Odder still, the area hosts an annual Alferd Packer Jeep Tour and Barbecue.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument Slumgullion Pass
As we approached the peak of Slumgullion Pass near Lake City, Colorado, the rain abated, and the skies cleared.

My unease was supplanted by the fear and exhilaration of climbing out of town along steep, wet switchbacks to Windy Point Observation Site and Slumgullion Pass. As we climbed, I chimed into the headset, “Don’t look right, Johnny.” The narrow two‑­lane highway had no guardrail, and the drop-off induced a vertigo that made me tighten my grip on my handlebar and tank. At Windy Point, we stopped to look back at the long narrow valley thousands of feet below us.

Evening was approaching, and we were still in the middle of a sheer climb on our way to North Clear Creek Campground, a destination we were not sure even existed, but the sky finally opened, and the tight switchbacks loosened as we topped 11,530‑­foot Slumgullion Pass.

The map we consulted – and re‑­consulted – showed the campground within 50 miles. Trying to keep from being swept up in the National Geographic beauty of the broadening landscape, I kept my eyes peeled for a Forest Service campground sign. We were hungry and cold, and it was getting late. We’d passed so little traffic, I was game to pitch the tent at the side of the road, but John persisted.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument Rio Grande National Forest
North Clear Creek Campground in Colorado’s Rio Grande National Forest was our home for the night after an eventful ride.

We finally turned off SR‑­149 and crossed a cattle guard onto Forest Road 510, which fell away to vertiginous Class‑­IV switchbacks. I groaned but also laughed. It was the “dropping hour.” We have a joke that on extended motorcycle trips, we often face the most challenging miles of the day right before arriving at our destination exhausted and hungry. The road toyed with us. I inched down its sharp gravel turns, determined but cautious given the hour. As I eased down one hill, a young woman on a dirtbike blasted up it. Encouraged that there might be an actual campground ahead and inspired by another woman on a bike, I sped all the way up to 2nd gear!

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument
Pink sunglasses reflect the expansive valley near Creede.

After almost missing the 70‑­degree turn into the campground at the bottom of the hill and duck‑­walking the bikes back over sandy gravel ruts, we casually rolled into the nearly vacant campground and found a suitable spot with a picnic table, breathtaking panoramic views, and a glorious sunset reflected off the peaks of the Rio Grande National Forest.

The next morning was cold and clear. With visions of coffee and pastries dancing in our helmets, we headed toward Creede, home to an underground mining museum, the Mineral County Landfill, a cemetery, a chapel, and an excellent little food truck/coffee shop that appeared to be set up during the pandemic like a one‑­way street, with one entrance and one exit. The pastry case was filled with buttery French confections, the air with the scent of espresso. Bon appétit! We took our pastries to a table outside where we lounged, sipping cappuccinos in the sun.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument Creede
The population of Creede, Colorado, swells from 300 to 10,000 on July 4th. After a cold, wet, challenging ride the day before, it was an oasis. We found a mobile coffee shop where we enjoyed the company of locals, pain au chocolat, and cappuccinos in the sun.

The road along the Rio Grande – which far downstream serves as the border between Texas and Mexico – was as good as the croissants. At South Fork, we headed south on U.S. Route 160 and climbed to 10,856‑­foot Wolf Creek Pass. It was cold at elevation, and we encountered traffic and threatening weather, but the road was smooth, wide, and curvy through Pagosa Springs and Chimney Rock. We lunched in Durango after a torrential downpour trapped us under a busy highway underpass.

U.S. 160 through the mountains near Hesperus Ski Area was fabulous despite the cold and wet. Things got warmer as we descended out of the mountains, and by the time we got to Mancos, we were sweltering in the heat of the desert. We took off as much as we could and poured cold water down the backs of our armored jackets. Body temperature management was a challenge we had improved at over time.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument Rio Grande
South of Creede, the Rio Grande snakes along SR-149 on the way to South Fork.

In the blazing heat, we headed west on State Route 184 toward Dolores, then north on U.S. Route 491 past Yellow Jacket and into Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, administered by the Bureau of Land Management and inhabited almost solely by spirits. The road narrowed and then narrowed again. There is something gritty and fundamental about these small roads, something secret and unspoken like the second indents of an outline of one’s life or the dark side of the moon.

The heat kept building. As we crossed into Utah, the landscape gave way to a barren, flat emptiness without trees or buildings. We traveled in silent awe, feeling exposed in the heat but excited about the ruins of Hovenweep National Monument.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument
Our day took us from cold rain and high passes to sweltering heat and desert valleys. The sunset at Hovenweep was a just reward.

Known for six groups of Ancestral Puebloan villages, Hovenweep contains evidence of occupation by hunter‑­gatherers from 8,000 B.C. until AD 200. We were finally going to visit the spirits we’d been sensing on this hot road.

We turned into what seemed the middle of nowhere, but John assured me this was the way. I saw only shrubs, grasses, and sage until I glimpsed a sign the size of a sheet of paper with an arrow proving him right: Hovenweep National Monument. We traversed a lunar landscape of sand, craters, dead volcanoes, and lava flows until we happened upon a herd of wild horses in the middle of the road. We stopped to gape. Shy and beautiful, they paused in their grazing to examine us. Though I wanted to join these beasts on a romanticized journey out of a dream, we had to keep moving. Standing still in the late afternoon heat was a torture neither of us wanted to endure – magical, wild horses notwithstanding.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument
Sunset on the ruins at Hovenweep National Monument in Utah.

Reminiscent of Death Valley with its lethal sun, long straightaways, and distant bluffs, Hovenweep Road also reminded me of the song by America “A Horse with No Name.” I started to understand the line “In the desert, you can’t remember your name.” In the heat and arid sameness of the landscape, time seemed to stop. I could tell we were moving, if only for the visual cue of the scenery receding in my mirror. I became flooded with the eerie sensation of being watched. It felt as if the ghosts of millennia were hovering just above the heat waves upwelling from the macadam.

“Hovenweep” is a Paiute/Ute word meaning “deserted valley.” As we rode into the scorched campground, I sensed that the ancestors were still there. A clan of attentive ravens seemed to be protectors – or just eager to see what food they could liberate from us.

C. Jane Taylor Gunnison Colorado to Hovenweep National Monument
Hovenweep is a special place, and we had the distinct feeling that the ancestors were still there.

After pouring rationed water onto our heads and down our backs, we hiked off to see the ruins, following a faint path between rock walls leading to a dry creek bed. Walking fast to beat the setting sun, we climbed down into the creek bed then up the other side until we saw what looked like a crumbling brick silo. Hovenweep at last! As we gazed in silence at the majestic ruins of a once‑­lively community, a rainbow broke through distant storm clouds. Back at our campsite, we cooked dinner in the waning light as a million stars began to wink.

See all of Rider‘s touring stories here.

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Source: RiderMagazine.com

C. Jane Taylor | Ep. 45 Rider Magazine Insider Podcast

C. Jane Taylor Rider Magazine Insider Podcast
C. Jane Taylor reads from “Spirit Traffic” at Timbre Books in Ventura, California.

Our guest on Episode 45 of the Rider Magazine Insider Podcast is C. Jane Taylor. We talked to Jane back in April on Episode 32. Her book, Spirit Traffic: A Mother’s Journey of Self-Discovery and Letting Go, had just been released, and we published an excerpt in the April 2022 issue of Rider. During our previous interview, Jane was down in Costa Rica on a yoga retreat with her husband, John. In May, Jane and John embarked on a motorcycle tour to promote Spirit Traffic. They packed gear on their BMW F 650 GS motorcycles and hit the road for 97 days. They rode 15,000 miles, and Jane gave more than 50 readings in bookstores, bars, coffee shops, motorcycle events, and people’s homes. We talk with Jane about her and John’s cross-country tour to promote her book about a cross-country tour they did with their son, Emmett, in 2015. Spirit Traffic is a thoroughly enjoyable book that’s honest, funny, poignant, and original – we highly recommend it.
LINKS: C. Jane Taylor’s website

You can listen to Episode 45 on iTunesSpotify, and SoundCloud, or via the Rider Magazine Insider Podcast webpage. Please subscribe, leave us a 5-star rating, and tell your friends! Scroll down for a list of previous episodes.

Visit the Rider Magazine Insider Podcast webpage to check out previous episodes:

The post C. Jane Taylor | Ep. 45 Rider Magazine Insider Podcast first appeared on Rider Magazine.
Source: RiderMagazine.com

C. Jane Taylor Rides 6,000 Miles on National Book Tour

C. Jane Taylor
C. Jane Taylor and her husband, John McConnell, are on a three-month, 11,000-mile cross-country book tour to promote Jane’s memoir, “Spirit Traffic.” Large QR codes on placards direct curious people to Jane’s website.

C. Jane Taylor is the author of Spirit Traffic: A Mother’s Journey of Self-Discovery and Letting Go, a memoir about a 10,000-mile cross-country motorcycle journey with her husband, John, and their son Emmett. We ran an excerpt from Spirit Traffic, a chapter called “Isaac and Eli” about two curious young boys they met in Indiana, in the April 2022 issue of Rider. We also interviewed Jane for the Rider Magazine Insider Podcast.

In May, Jane and John packed up their BMW F 650 GS bikes, said goodbye to their home in Vermont (and their dog Dewey), and hit the road on a book tour. First, they rode east to Maine, then they rode west to Chicago, where they were hosted by Steven Goode, who wrote “The Great American Deli Schlep” feature published in the December 2021 issue of Rider.

C. Jane Taylor
C. Jane Taylor reads from “Spirit Traffic” at Timbre Books in Ventura, California.

They rode south to Springfield, Missouri, where they attended the BMWMOA national rally. Along the way, Jane gave readings in people’s homes, at coffee shops, and in motorcycle dealerships. John was her riding partner, tour manager, and cheerleader.

After battling fierce winds in Kansas, traversing the Rockies in Colorado, and enduring blast furnace heat in Tucson, Arizona, and Palm Desert, California, they found cool respite in the coastal town of Ventura, where Jane and John were hosted by Rider Editor-in-Chief Greg Drevenstedt and his wife Carrie.

C. Jane Taylor
After her reading and Q&A, Jane invites guests to share stories about “what adventure means to me.”

On Sunday, July 10, Jane gave a reading at Timbre Books, a local independent bookstore in Ventura. In attendance were long-time Rider contributor Bill Stermer, several members of the Ventura County chapter of STAR Touring & Riding, and other local riders and residents. One motorcyclist who could not attend sent a beautiful bouquet of flowers in his absence. After the reading, a small group joined Jane and John at a local Mexican restaurant for dinner and conversation.

C. Jane Taylor
John McConnell and C. Jane Taylor with their BMW F 650 GSs at Grant Park, overlooking Ventura, California, on a foggy morning.

The next day, Jane and John repacked their gear and fired up their BMWs. Attached to the large drybags perched on their rear seats are placards that say “National Book Tour” and feature large QR codes that direct curious people to Jane’s website. They spent a few hours riding Highway 33 – one of the best motorcycling roads in Southern California – and then headed north along the coast, bound for Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast.

C. Jane Taylor
Rider Editor-in-Chief Greg Drevenstedt and his wife Carrie hosted Jane and John when they were in Ventura.

Jane has readings scheduled in the Bay Area, an interview with the Motorcycles & Misfits Podcast in Santa Cruz, and many more stops over the next five weeks in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Montana. Jane and John will ride at least another 5,000 miles before they return to Vermont.

Check out the book tour schedule and see if Jane and John will be in your area. (Please note that some readings require an invitation, so inquire via the website.) If you can, attend a reading and show your support – buy a book and have Jane sign it. Whether or not you can attend a reading, please support their efforts by buying a book. Better yet, buy two or more and give copies to friends. Spirit Traffic is also available as an ebook or an audio book.

For more information, visit cjanetaylor.com.

The post C. Jane Taylor Rides 6,000 Miles on National Book Tour first appeared on Rider Magazine.
Source: RiderMagazine.com

C. Jane Taylor: Ep. 32 Rider Magazine Insider Podcast

Ep32 C Jane Taylor Rider Magazine Insider Podcast

Our guest on Episode 32 of the Rider Magazine Insider Podcast is C. Jane Taylor, who describes herself as a writer, a biker, a mom, a wife, a warrior, and sometimes a bit of a chicken. But at age 50, when she received an invitation to join the AARP, she ripped up the letter and bought a motorcycle. On April 19, Jane is releasing a new book called Spirit Traffic: A Mother’s Journey of Self-Discovery and Letting Go, about a 10,000-mile cross-country motorcycle trip she took with her husband and son. You can read an excerpt from Jane’s book in the April 2022 issue of Rider. You can buy Spirit Traffic online or at bookstores, and it’s available as an audiobook. For more information, visit cjanetaylor.com.

You can listen to Episode 32 on iTunesSpotify, and SoundCloud, or via the Rider Magazine Insider webpage. Please subscribe, leave us a 5-star rating, and tell your friends! Scroll down for a list of previous episodes.

Visit the Rider Magazine Insider podcast webpage to check out previous episodes:

The post C. Jane Taylor: Ep. 32 Rider Magazine Insider Podcast first appeared on Rider Magazine.
Source: RiderMagazine.com