(Wo)Man and Machine

You generally find lots of pink and pretties on this blog. I blog about fashion, lifestyle, decor, recipes-- the usual. The same topics that other thirty-somethings cover. Except that when I read others' blogs, I find that they do it better. 

The bloggers I follow either currently have or had cool jobs working as social media directors, interior designers, online fashion editors or freelance fill-in-the-blank. They have endless resources of time and money to shop, travel, try different products, do crafts, find awesome pics on pinterest. It all leaves me, well... feeling a little inadequate sometimes. 

Heidi from the Rustic Modernist recently wrote about this social media syndrome too. Knowing that other people do the compare stuff too made me feel somewhat better and reassured me that it's not just my lack of self esteem making me feel this way. 

Anyway, today you're not going to find any cutesy anecdotes about my adventures with the Sailor or budget breaking home decor trends. Go elsewhere for the usual. While I'm on the topic of impossibly cool, I thought it would be appropriate to write about bikes. Yup, bad ass bikes.

Every year, the Village of Lake George is host to Americade, the world's largest touring motorcycle rally. Although I've never been to the tour expo or any of the demos, I love walking through the village and looking at all of the bikes parked on the road.

They're pretty rare, but I love seeing Indian motorcycles. I saw a beautiful canary yellow women's bike when Americade was in town. It had a skull stenciled on the front part near the handle bars. Totally bad ass (I know that 'front part' has a name, just have no clue what it is.) 

Indians were first manufactured not too far from here in Springfield, Mass., and their factory was called "The Wigwam." While there were twenty motorcycle companies in business in the US in the early part of the 20th Century, Indian had 40% of the market share. The company went bankrupt in 1953 however as a result of mismanagement after the original owners left, and several other companies/investors tried with little success to make it work thereafter. It wasn't until 2003 that the company started to turn around with a new production facility under new ownership. Polaris Industries, the makers of 4 wheelers and off road vehicles, later bought Indian in 2011 and moved the HQ to Iowa. 

If I had the money to waste, I would have this two-tone Vintage Chief customized. I'll take the willow-green and ivory, but the fringe saddlebags would have to go.

Starting at $36,000

How do you think the willow-green would look with a pretty pink monogram decal? What! I've seen the monogram stickers on golf carts?!