Category Archives: Blog

CHP Guidelines For Lane Splitting

LaneSplittingAt the February 21, 2013 chapter meeting, our safety officer, Roger Allen, gave a quick overview of lane splitting and the safety issues surrounding it. As Roger said, it is best to say that lane splitting is allowed in California, as it isn’t explicit forbidden in the law.

The CHP has given its guidelines and Roger mentioned this in his talk. Here is the link so you can read the full article.

The video below is the KCRA broadcast on the issue after the CHP posted their guidelines.

Keep Up To Date On Site Changes

Rural Mail Carrier on a Harley Davidson, Courtesy State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory
Rural Mail Carrier on a Harley Davidson, Courtesy State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

There is a lot going on at Orange Coast HOG. We are blessed to live in an area that allows riding year round with fantastic scenery. The desert, ocean and mountains are all literally minutes from each other. Just like we have a wonderful variety of locations to go on rides, we have a variety of ways for you to keep up with what the group is doing.

  • Email notifications – just put your email address in the “Get Site Updates By Email” box on the front page.
  • RSS Feeds – Just click on the Google or Yahoo link if you use their RSS reader services. That too is on the home page near the bottom.
  • Twitter – We’ve had our OCHOGRideAlerts twitter account for over a year, and that is absolutely the best way to keep up with last minute ride changes. But did you know we also have a Twitter feed that just updates you when there are new posts for ride maps, pictures, and more? Just click on the “Follow OCHOG” button either on the home page, or use the button below. For more info on follwing the Ride Alerts feed, see this page.
  • Facebook – Like our Orange Coast HOG Facebook page All site updates, and more, are posted there for you to see in your Facebook feed.
  • This Website – Do it old school by just checking the front page of the site regularly. You might be a day or two late, but you won’t miss anything. The 7 most recent posts are listed on the front page, and the rest are a search away using the search box.


Add The Ride Calendar To Your Phone Or Tablet

A few months ago I told you how to get the ride calendar into your Google Calendar and then sync it with your phone. The problem is, to get that to work, you must have a Google Gmail account, and not everyone does. Here is how to get it on your phone or tablet even if you don’t have a Gmail account.

First of all, this only works for Android devices and Apple devices, like the iPhone and iPad. If you have a Windows Phone, you must follow the instructions linked to above.

The easiest way to do this is to view this page on your phone and click on the following link: https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/rcnjg09bcfvr7ju6ds9jetkvds%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Your phone should tell you that you have subscribed to the calendar. Now you just need to pick the color you want the calendar to show as. I believe you need to have iOS 6 or higher to do this, but this is available for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 5, so most should be able to do this. I don’t have an Android device to test with, so if that is what you have, you’ll need to poke around in the calendar settings to see what you can and cannot change.

You should pick the calendar color you want the ride events to show up as so they stand out and you don’t confuse them with work or personal events. I like orange since it reminds me of Harley Davidson’s orange color.

Launch Your Calendar App and select the Calendar button
Launch Your Calendar App and select the Calendar button
Select the arrow next to the OCHOG Ride Calendar listing
Select the arrow next to the OCHOG Ride Calendar listing
Select the color you want the calendar entries to be displayed in
Select the color you want the calendar entries to be displayed in

Once you select the color, select Done and that’s it. Note that I do not set “reminders” on the event itself so you shouldn’t get any sort of alarm. If you have any questions or problems, track me down at the monthly meetings or rides and I’ll try to help.

Info On When Day Rides Officially End

Here is a message from our director regarding when the ride officially ends as we are riding back towards Orange County.

Hello All –

I know it’s been over a year since we implemented this policy so I want to remind all officers and road captains of the official “end of the ride” for both day and overnight rides. Days rides officially end when the group hits the Orange County line. Please do not split from the group until we’ve entered Orange County. Overnight rides officially end at the final gas/good-bye stop.

Thank you-
Kim
Director

Thanks for helping to make our rides as safe, organized and fun as possible!

Making The Most Of The Google Calendar On The Event Page

We have been using Google Calendar on the event page so you can easily see when rides and other OCHOG events are coming up. How can you make the most of it though?

The easiest way to use it is to just click on an event, like the image below shows where I have clicked on the Nov 30, 2012 New Member Ride.

There are 3 areas of interest:

  1. Click on the “map” link to get a map to the ride start location or event.
  2. Copy the calendar event to your Google calendar. This will make a copy of this one event and place it on your personal calendar.
  3. More details will sometimes reveal additional information about the event beyond the start time and location.

The problem with doing it this way is if an event changes for some reason, your calendar won’t get automatically updated. There is a way around that.

If you go into your Google Calendar, there will be a section on the lower left called “Other Calendars.” Click the little dropdown arrow on the right-hand side of the “Other Calendars” title and select “Import by URL.” Now, copy and paste the following URL into that box:

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/ochog.activities%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics

Now all of the OCHOG calendar events will show up in your calendar. You can select the color on that screen as well by clicking on the drop-down arrow next to the “OCHOG Ride Calendar” so you can tell OCHOG events from yours.

Now when events are added, changed or deleted, your calendar will automatically be updated.

But wait! How do you see this on your phone? Well, this assumes you are using Gmail on your iPhone, Android phone or Windows Phone using CalDav, which is how Google Calendar syncs.

Now, you should have all of the OCHOG events on your phone and computer, all dynamically updated, so the only thing you have to worry about is making sure your bike has enough gas!