VideoBiker Productions started by accident.  It all started when I discovered I had cancer, and I decided I might want to get on with all the things  I'd always wanted to do but never got around to. There's something about thinking you're gonna die sooner than later that makes you reassess your situation. Anyway, I always wanted to buy a motorcycle and ride around the country.  So I did that. I took a video camera along, thinking I would make some memories of my trip. That first video wasn't too good, but it wasn't bad either, and it occurred to me that other riders might like to see what it looked like. That all happened about 8-9 years ago. Along the way, I got better at making m\videos. I had help and advice from an old and trusted friend named John Plattner, who also turned up with cancer within a year of my diagnosis. I survived. John didn't.  All I can say is it's a damn terrible disease and you just never know.  You gotta live each day like your allotment of days is limited.  I kept on with the videos.

 John's been gone over three years now. The videos are selling okay. You can get them on Amazon.com, but I prefer you buy them thru Createspace since I get a bigger cut of the take. Amazon gets the lion's share of the revenues. Sometimes I feel like I make the movies so they could make the profits, but I guess they earn it. They do make it pretty painless for me. A check arrives in the mailbox each month.  Once it adds up to something useful, I'm gonna use it to finance the creation of another video. I got some ideas just waiting on the means.

Meanwhile, I now work in a motorcycle shop. I have a title and everything. Service Manager. I try top treat the customers as I would like to be treated if I were standing in their boots. It seems to be an effective way to do business. I wrote for a motorcycle magazine for a few years. Some of those articles are finding their way onto my web site. I finally gave that up - writing a monthly colum or feature article is a lot more work that I realized, and I just don't always have that much to say.  

Somewhere along the line, Playboy Enterprises called about using some of my video in some TV show they were ginning up, but that never amoun ted to anything. The State of Tenessee did use some of my footage in a commercial that ran statewide. That was kinda cool and they pay by the second for footage like that.

I also got married along the way. Re-married, to be precise. One of the changes during the days of dealing with cancer was a divorce, which was long overdue. While it wasn't exactly pleasant for anyone concerned, I think now all concerned would agree that it was a good decision. Getting remarried was a good decision for me too. I didn't think I would ever do it, but then I didn't think it was real likely I'd ever find someone I'd want to be married to. Turns out I did.

So life goes on. I'm pretty healthy these days for an old guy. I have several motorcycles. I bought them used but they are in pretty good condition. The Vstar that I made most of the Videobiker videos on is gone to a better home. The Nighthawk on which I made the talimena Winding Stair video is still around but showing it's age. It's going up for sale as soon as I fix a few niggling problems. I Bought two Honda Ct-90's (Trail 90's) that were not running and pretty rough. They both had titles, so I fixed them up and made them street legal and sometime sI ride one of them to work on the back roads. I bought a Suzuki DR-650 SE dual sport so I could hammer down the Interstate and mix it up in the dirt all on one bike. It's a lot of fun, but like most Jack -of-all-trades situations, it doesn't do anything really well except tread thru traffic in town, which is not a riding situation I much enjoy. On my last birthday I bought myself a Honda ST-1100. I've wanted one for years. I love it, even if it is too tall for me.  The ST and I will be making more videos before it's over.

Joe

The VideoBiker

VideoBiker was an accident that turned into  a dream. It started when I discovered I had cancer, and I decided to get after all of the things I'd always wanted to do but didn't do because I was too busy "living life". There's something about thinking you're gonna die sooner than you expected that makes you re-evaluate what living life is really all about. Anyway, I always wanted to buy a motorcycle and ride around the country. And since I was facing some operations and treatment, I wanted some "brightness of the future"...something to look forward to. So I bought a bike. Then I proceeded to get well enough to go ride it around the country. Did I mention that I was getting a divorce while all of this was going on?  That wasn't doing wonders for the ol' mental attitude either, and a good long bike trip was looking like a fine idea by the time I was well enough to go do it, so I did it. I took a video camera along, thinking I would make some memories of my trip. That first video wasn't too good, but it wasn't bad either, and it occurred to me that other riders might like to see what it looked like. It also occurred to me that I didn't want to spend any more of my life behind a desk, so the idea of VideoBiker started evolving. And it's been a evolution....a steep learning curve on video production; lots of problems to solve, an endless list of equipment I really needed but couldn't quite afford, and lots of miles out on the road in all kinds of weather to make it happen.

I had a little help from my ol' pal Johnny P., who also knows firsthand the joys of cancer and nasty divorces, and who also happens to have both some marketing know-how and the ability to push me forward during those times when I thought this was all just too much for me to ever figure out. I owe John big-time. He's told me that if I am successful, a nice shiny Road King would be a good start towards compensating him for his troubles and assistance.  I'm not sure he was joking, either.

Anyway, at the end of the day, what we have here is a couple of guys, a couple of cameras, a motorcycle (mine...John likes his creature comforts too much to ride his scooter cross-country), and a lot of work invested in making these videos. Everybody's heard that saying: "If you build it, they will come."  Well, folks, we built it; John and I. Yaknow, the truth is, after 50 years I've finally discovered what I really love doing, and I have to convince you to turn loose of some of your hard-earned dollars and buy these videos if I'm going to get to keep on doing it.  I think you'll like them; they make great gifts; and John wants to start living in the style to which he'd like to become accustomed, so please go on back over to the home page and order a video or two that looks good to you, and please tell your friends about VideoBiker.

Thanks,

Joe at  VideoBiker