There are few cities in the United States that are as perfectly suited for motorcycle riding as Miami. Riding season lasts all year in South Florida; when most bikes up north go into the garage as their owners mournfully accept the onset of another bitter winter, the Magic City is at its most glorious on a motorcycle. There's nothing quite like tearing hell across the western arch of the Julia Tuttle at 2 a.m. and seeing Downtown sleeping over the waters of Biscayne Bay, or cruising down Old Cutler, ambling for miles and miles through a surreal tunnel of trees.

And yet, there is a conspicuous lack of motorcycle culture in Miami. Sure, we have our fair share of bikers, but the iron horse has never been a part of our city's image the way it has in other metropolitan areas like New York or Oakland. But that's beginning to change.

If you walk the streets of Wynwood on the right night, you may find yourself entranced by an array of vintage bikes -- some days, only a couple, other days, parked by the dozen. You might be inclined to ask yourself, "Where the hell did these come from?" The answer can be found at the south end of Wynwood, in a shop where four friends are building bikes under the moniker of 76hundred Custom Vintage Motorcycles.

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Monica Gras

Nikki Novo

Dating in Miami can be downright daunting, especially for women. From one disappointment to the next, we encounter the wrong types of men -- men rife with fakeness, narcissism, and always, always that one annoying thing that sends us packing. Miami women with the desire to find true love often feel like they need to move to another city, state, or, hell, even another country to find someone they are compatible with.

Nikki Novo -- Miami native and author of the blog the Art of You & Me and an in-the-works advice book -- believes the answer to women's bad luck in love in Miami is never about the city itself. It's an inside job.

"Yes, you're going to meet the same type of guy over and over again, like that guy who has lots of money and finds the need to show it off all the time, or even the starving artist," Novo says. "But as long as you are you and in line with yourself, you're going to be able to spot who's the fake and who's not."

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Inside Jonathan Adler's Miami store.

You may recognize Jonathan Adler's name from the Bravo show Top Design. But the TV personality is also a potter, designer, and author, as well as the owner of his namesake design empire. With 19 stores and counting, an e-commerce site and a wholesale business with 1,000+ locations worldwide, he's pretty much become a household name.

The talented Adler -- who incorporates a mid-century mod aesthetic with pop and art culture -- is making his way to Miami, to celebrate the expansion of his Miami location, as well as his new book, 100 Ways to Happy Chic Your Life.

We caught up with Adler to discuss the future of his fun, cheeky design company, his new tome, and gift giving in Miami.

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Swampdog

Ready To Ride

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Fertile Earth's Ladies of Manure Calendar 2013

If you've ever toyed with the idea of a kitchen compost -- or growing tomato plants in your own feces, for that matter -- but didn't know where to start, there's a Miami-based organization called Fertile Earth Foundation that would like nothing more than to help you become less wasteful with your, uh, waste. And if this talk about growing tomatoes in your poop didn't get your attention, maybe their calendar of near naked women bathing in tubs of fish excrement will.

Lanette Sobel, creator and co-founder of the Foundation, had the idea for the calendar while at a workshop on a farm in Homestead. "Something inspired me to say, 'I love poop,'" Sobel said, "and one of the other girls, actually a model for the calendar, she really took that to heart. She said, 'I wish more people would say 'I love poop.' And that sparked the idea for a project that would get people more connected to poop, something many are so disconnected from now."

The end result is a whole year's worth of women in their birthday suits and bathing suits, basking in piles of cow feces, squatting on toilet seats, and slathered in all kinds of South Floridian shit. Each calendar shoot was staged on a different sustainable farm in the region, and each model was chosen not just for her lovely lady lumps, but because she contributes in some way to sustainable living in South Florida.

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via @barlabcocktails, Instagram

Miami Beach is hardly a surfer's haven. With the Bahamas blocking off any swells from the east and Cuba locking us away from any southern waves, it takes a very peculiar set of circumstances for our stretches of ocean to come alive with the sharp crests and strong peaks for which surf rats of all credos long.

While this hellish bitch we've come to know as Sandy, the savage freak of a storm, has spent the last day and a half lashing away at the cities of New England, ripping cranes out of the sky in New York City, and bringing the Hudson River's frigid waters into the streets, we in Miami were witness to a very different kind of hurricane weather. For us, Sandy's effects created a perfect moment along the coast, one that transformed the Miami Beach coast into an unfamiliar but welcome setting -- a place where something rare and magical happened both in and out of the water.

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It's always summer in Miami, which means our population is just a little more fitness-obsessed than the denizens of the average flyover state. We're also a city obsessed with the shiniest, latest trend. So we're putting our asses on the line (literally) and sprinting, swimming, and suffering through the world of the latest designer group fitness classes in the Magic City.

The Class: Diva Flow Yoga, a ladies-only yoga fusion class that ends with some upside-down acrobatics.

The Venue: The Sweatshop, 4200 Laguna St., Coral Gables. This boutique gym, steps from the Village at Merrick Park, largely functions as a private training facility, but hosts a number of weekly classes open to the public. You can attend classes a la carte, buy class cards, or buy various memberships that get you unlimited classes and gym access.

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Photo courtesy of Kiehl's Corp.

Celebrity Bikers sounds like the premise for a new VH1 reality show. But even better than cheesy scripted drama, it's the idea behind the upcoming Kiehl's LifeRide for amFAR, a nine-day charity motorcycle ride to benefit HIV/AIDS research.

Lucky for us locals, this year's ride kicks off in our neck of the woods with a celebrity-hosted, pop-up urban picnic at the Kiehl's store on Lincoln Road Friday, July 13. Picnic attendees can hope to see the likes of John Corbett, Tyson Beckford, Jason Lee, and Marguerite Moreau, all aboard hogs to benefit AIDS research.

This free-to-the-public party is the first leg of the ride's next eight stops in various cities. The ride itself is an 1,800 mile hog trip across the U.S. to raise funds and awareness for The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). Kiehl's will make donations at each city along the way, totaling $90,000.

We spoke to Kiehl's President & CEO Chris Salgardo on his commitment to HIV/AIDS research, his hog of choice, and how he gets celebs to climb aboard for charity.

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You just know he's not gonna want to come home, don't you?

How does a beachfront weekend in South Beach for only $50 a night sound to you? Not into surf and sand? What about a five-star hotel in Coconut Grove, surrounded by parks and lush mangroves, for $40 a night?

Oh, and by the way, these vacation spots aren't for you. They're for your dog.

Dog Vacay is a dogsitting service set to launch May 23 in Miami, providing bed and breakfast listings for the city's canine companions. Now, instead of feeling guilty as sin going on a cruise and leaving Fido in some crate at the vet, you can sail away knowing your furry friend's hanging out in a real home away from home.

But it's not just a bonus for the pups; dog-lovers can earn cash on the side by signing up to care for the dogs through the site, too.

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