2003 Thanks

2003 was a year filled with a lot of growth for us here at Sound RIDER!

Some people have this notion that 'I' am Sound RIDER!, and at times it's been that way, but never long. There's almost always one or more persons working with me in the background.

A lot went on here this year and it's because of the support of a number of people that things went as well as they did. In reflection I'd like to thank the following for their contributions to SR! this year

Sportbike Northwest Support – The names are too many to list here, but you can read them all at . Two people really stand out though from that list of names and that's Scott Renaud and Harvey Gilkerson. Scott pulled all the strings with AMA to make the insurance policy and poker run come together. Harvey put a tremendous amount of effort into pulling together some of the best door prizes I've ever seen anyone assemble for a group – and he was still riding even after he got a bee up his nose! Special thanks to everyone who attended the first year event.

Northwest Motorcycle Display Kudos – Thanks to Jeff, Summer and Andrea at Advanstar for making the Northwest Motorcycle Display a reality again this year. A tip of the hat to Kevin McDonald who has been a long-time friend and volunteers his time in the booth each year. And thanks to everyone who put their bike in the display this year.

Motorcycle 101 Team – Thanks to Dave Preston for writing a great book. Thanks to Mike Hew, Danielle Scoggins and Tamara Timmons for bearing with me through all it's layout incarnations. A special thanks to Kurt Gorham and his staff at Gorham printing in Rochester, WA for the final printing of the book and having it done in time for the motorcycle show.

Ride West Insurance 3 Pass Blast – Title sponsorships are not always easy to sell, but in the end Ride West Insurance came through and took the title Sponsorship for this years 3 Pass Blast. Thanks to Liz Calourie at Café Veloce for hosting the awards ceremony and to Gerbings and Nikwax for being supporting sponsors.

Store Vendors – Part of what keeps Sound RIDER! alive is our small online store. We don't sell helmets, jackets and boots there, instead we latch on to what we think are the next products to break in the market. Thanks to Mike Curtis and Chris Mork at Nikwax for their continued support all year. There are a lot of vendors who could learn a thing or two from these two when it comes to developing a strong vendor/customer relationship. Also special thanks to the Bow Tie staff for shipping Proficient Motorcycling books to us UPS instead of FedEx.

Mr. Proficient Motorcycling – A special thanks to David Hough who did numerous autograph sessions with us throughout the year for his Proficient Motorcycling series. David contributed a number of great articles to SR! this year as well and was a speaker at Sportbike Northwest!

Sound RIDER! Sponsors and Readers – Sound RIDER! needs two things to make it happen. Readers and sponsors. Without either there's no way it can happen. Thanks to all of you. As long as both find value in it and support it we'll continue to publish it every month! A special thanks to our newest sponsors - Lake City Honda/Kawasaki, Tacoma Motorsports, The Evergreen Safety Council and Aurora Suzuki. SR!

TM/Winter 04