When I first began this blog it was directed at archiving and sharing my riding experiences. Since that first post a lot of changes, direction, and evolution of this blog has taken place. I never expected it to become what it is right now. For a very long time the blog just didn’t really go anywhere. It had some riding videos with landscapes and a bit of video at each stop. Those videos in my opinion became boring to watch and didn’t hold any real context. It wasn’t until I began making maintenance videos that the blog began to grow.

I didn’t know what to expect when I started uploading those maintenance videos. I was skeptical and assumed that there would be no place for that information that anyone would utilize. I was wrong. It turned out to be quite helpful to a lot of people. I didn’t set out to do tutorials on major engine work and I still have no interest in doing so. My direction was to provide riders with good tutorials to maintain their own bikes instead of paying a shop or someone else to do the work. This would give them a hands on experience that would help them better know their bike. It would also allow them to take pride in telling others they maintain their own bike. I still encourage readers and viewers to take the bike to the shop for major repairs though. By doing your own maintenance and getting more personal with your bike you’ll begin to know when something is not right that needs attention from a certified technician. Many riders that never do any work on their bikes never know when something is going wrong because they don’t have that familiarity with their bike to know any different.

Because of the change in direction I decided to change the name of the blog and You Tube channel to better reflect the information I provide. I will still be writing, posting pictures, and making videos about rides and maintenance but under a different name. As riders we maintain our bikes to ride. That’s the underlying purpose for having a bike. Riding however will require the bike to be maintained. The enjoyment of riding comes from continual and thorough maintenance. Maintenance is what keeps the bike on the road instead of in the back of the garage broken down.

The new name will be Ride It Wrench It. This will better reflect what the media I began has come to be. I have some concepts that I will be adding to the site and will point those out as they become reality in the future. The depth of wrenching will be about the same. I am not going to lead people too deep into repairs. I will still be focusing on making it feasible for riders who are not mechanics by trade to maintain their bikes. I am personally very proud to have ridden my previous Street Glide 63K miles and never had to take it to the shop for any maintenance. I was even more proud when the technicians went over the bike to get it ready to be put on the floor for sale said “This bike is in great condition and nothing needed to be done to it”.  It sold within 2 weeks and I am proud to know that the maintenance I was so diligent with provided another rider with a solid bike. I feel quite sure others have developed that same sense of pride as they began maintaining their bikes as well. It’s also a great feeling to be able to hop on your bike and know you can take it on a trip whether short or long and on short notice to know your not going to have any concerns since you know and understand whats been done to keep it running. After all, you did it and can take pride in that.

The new name will reflect that maintaining your bike properly and thoroughly will lead to many miles of enjoyable riding in the future. You ride it, wrench on it to maintain it, and keep riding. Better maintenance also means its not sitting in the shop broken down waiting for high cost repairs. It also means more money available to keep riding since the cost of maintenance at most shops is about double if not more than you will spend doing it yourself.

Rumbling Rider will remain up for quite some time due to links that have been shared with others to give them time to re-link to Ride It Wrench It. Rumbling Rider however will no longer be updated with new content after this post. Because RR has a deep history on many of the topics that led to the upcoming change, I copied the entire RR blog history to Ride It Wrench It and will grow on that from this point on. All RR maintenance videos will also remain on You Tube and will still have the RR intro. The RR You Tube channel will be migrated over to Ride It Wrench It and eventually a new intro will be introduced to lead into future videos.

My hopes are that the transition will move forward smoothly and that Ride It Wrench It will grow.