New England
Riders
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NER
beginnings
Ed (STAD) and I became fast friends after realizing our matching bikes were twins from different parents, and it wasn't long before we found many other riders from the area in the SRF. It seemed half the posts from the SRF forum were tied up with plans for the New England group, and we all started yakking about perhaps starting something of our own. I worked as sales manager with an ISP at this time, located in the Haverhill MA area. I bought us a domain name, newenglandriders.org and decided to build a little site. My daughter was very ill at the time, and both she and my wife were living in Boston at Franciscan Childrens Hospital, so I spent my sleepless nights playing and creating the original website for the NER. It caught on pretty well, but the guys were still looking for a way to stay in very close contact, and on September 4, 2000, at 5:20pm the New England Riders Forum on Delphi was birthed. Little did the few of us who started this little community know that the New England Riders would affect so many, and spread so wide. At this writing almost 40,000 posts have been written, and the NER group has touched lives in many ways. The first couple years we passed the helmet on our rides, and raised over a thousand dollars in our first try for the New England Ride for Miracles. That money was donated to the Franciscan Children's Hospital, and the contingent that rode in to make the presentation could not have been more proud. We have grown together, and cried together. The passing of loved ones in this extended family has been felt deep, and the sharing of each others burdens and cares has been touching. I know the compassion I have felt from my dear friends at the passing of my daughter, the heartfelt tears shed at the passing of Ed's dear wife Karen, and the extreme heartbreak we all shared at Georges' passing.... this is so much more than just a riding group. The New England Riders are not just motorcyclists. We are
individuals, yet woven together so tightly as to sometime feel
completely bonded in friendship and caring. We are not just riders, we
are a family. We are not ever going to be a club, and no matter what
anyone says, it is not all about the pie.... you have all proven it is
about each other, sharing lives together, making each contribution so
much greater by the multiplicity of our common strength... we are a
family, the truest kind, the best kind ... a family by choice. |
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I
had taken a small hiatus from riding... some 20 years of full time
hiatusing... and had just come back to riding again. I started out
with a very used Kawasaki 440LTD, but quickly tired of the buzzing
and being blown around by compact cars on the road. I got myself an
almost new 1998 Shadow ACE Tourer, and proceeded to search for other
riders who shared my new found addiction. Scant minutes landed me in
the Delphi Shadow Riders Forum, where I not only found riders from
all over the country, and the world, but even better, riders from
right in my New England backyard. 
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