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DID HE SAY ?BOBBERS??–Hey, I really dig your site. Love the Tim Conder stories. Take a look at my site if you get a moment.
Take care,
Anthony
ABATE Handlebar Bill Signed into Law–Governor Schwarzenegger Signs ABATE Handlebar Bill into Law.
Sacramento. ABATE of California, a motorcycle rights organization, is pleased to announce the signing of Assembly Bill 2844 into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on August 23, 2004. The common sense measure will modernize the outdated motorcycle handlebar height restrictions contained in California’s vehicle code section 27801, instituted in 1963.Assemblyman Jay La Suer of La Mesa is the Bill’s author. Denise Ducheny brought the bill to the Senate floor. ABATE of California consulted with the California Highway Patrol in sponsoring the measure which will allow a rider’s handgrips to be up to, but no higher than, 6 inches above shoulder height. The bill passed by a near unanimous vote on both the Assembly and Senate floors.
The current law limits handgrip height at shoulder level. AB 2844 was drafted in response to a rash of selective enforcement coupled with aCalifornia Judicial Council ruling which modified the offense from a simple fix it ticket to a non-correctible offense worth a point against amotorist’s driving record.
While the new legislation makes no change to the recent judicial ruling, ABATE Legislative Director Jean Hughes predicts the new law should put an end to 95% of the traffic stops.
The new law will go into effect on January 1, 2005.
SECTION 1. Section 27801 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:
27801. A person shall not drive a two-wheel motorcycle that is equipped with either of the following:
(a) A seat so positioned that the driver, when sitting astride the seat, cannot reach the ground with his or her feet.
(b) Handlebars so positioned that the hands of the driver, when upon the grips, are more than six inches above his or her shoulder height when sitting astride the seat.
Contact:
Jean Hughes, Legislative Director, ABATE of California
(707) 446-9432
Submitted by Splatt
ROGUE REPORT –ROGUE REPORT Hurricane Frances came to Florida and kicked ass!125,000 still with out power but there are power companies in from all over the country working 18-hour shifts to restore power.
My family and myself are fine and though we are on generator power at least we have refrigerator, water (showers), TV and fans. There is minor damage to the roof and some trees down.
We just got phone service back and the cell phone only works in certain areas. I am doing this on laptop, as my cable hook up is not working so I use the phone or cell phone.
We had some hard times through this but are very lucky compared to some others nor far from us who lost roofs and buildings and are living at shelters.
I have good neighbors and a lot of friends and we are all helping each other and it is working.
Fema is setting up along with the Red Cross and helping a lot of people. The National Guard is doing road duty as traffic lights are out in many places. Most of the cops have been pretty decent and there is a curfew in effect and the Sheriff is telling places not to sell beer or alcohol. That is not going over to well.
Ivan is being watched now.
I have to get back to work around here but wanted to let all know what was going on.
Florida People – Check In When You Are Able To. If you are in need of something let us know and we will see what we can do.
BE SAFE ? Rogue
WILLIE G?S BASTARD–From Suds and Butterfly News Letter
Recently I was riding my daily work commute bike, a 2002 Buell X1W White Lightning. Now I have an old panhead, but when it comes to making it to and from work without having to stop and wrench something back in working condition, the little Buell does a fine job of keeping me from being late for work and running the gauntlet back home in rush hour traffic, fast acceleration, great brakes, great handling, nuff said. So I am sitting at a traffic light, and two yuppie bolt on chrome owners pull up and one hollers “HEY LOOK IT’S ONE OF WILLIE G’S BASTARD STEPCHILDREN” So as soon as I got the front wheel back on the ground after my powerful little Buell made it’s exit from the light, I started thinking about how those of us who ride every day, good weather or bad, sure get a lot of disrespect from these yahoos who happen to have more money than common sense and enough credit to keep their local HD dealer in business. I bet neither of them has ever made a run from Oklahoma to Santa Cruz California on a motorcycle just to keep a process server off their back. They probably stay in a nice motel or guest ranch if they go to Sturgis, just so they can have a t-shirt. And I know damn well that there isn’t a tool roll under their seat to make roadside repairs with.
So anyway, I came up with these patches, so if you know any Buell hooligans, let em know. I am selling these things for $10 each and I pay the postage. Sure liked your website, I used to work oilpatch out in the Tejas panhandle back in the day, rode a scooter to the rig every chance I had. Kinda miss huge grasshoppers bouncing off me.
Thanks, Rusty
PICTURE OF PATCH : http://sudsandbutterfly.homestead.com/files/Willie_G_patch_-_fr_Rusty_sm.jpg
Man Goes to Jail for Putting a Sign in his Yard–
“You can look through ’em all.”
Up to his ears in legal documents, Phillip Dean is fed up with the judicial system.
“That’s the kind of court system we’ve got in Jackson County, Alabama and I want everybody to know,” Dean says.
So he put a sign in his front lawn saying “Our Court System Is a Joke.”A message landing him behind bars.
“I was in a cell about four foot wide and six foot long and nothing in it but a toilet,” he explains.Arrest orders signed by Judge Haralson claim Dean to be in direct contempt of court, even though the sign is on County Road 107, not in the county courthouse.
“The signs were so derogatory to the court they could not be ignored,” Haralson responds in a local paper.
With Dean locked up, the signs were removed.
“Before they would let me go in front of Judge Haralson,” Dean says. “They put leg shackles, they put handcuffs, they put chains from my legs up to my waist. They put a chain around my waist. They put chains from my waist up here and had my hands pulled up like this.”
With an apology, Haralson released Dean after a day in jail, but the experience leaves Dean with unanswered questions.
“When it gets to where a man hadn’t got any free speech in this world, what has he got?” he asks.
Answers he hopes to find with a message already back in place.
Rogue
BIKERNET CARIBBEAN REPORT–I squeezed one more news day before heading out, so here we go.First of all , I want to thank everyone that has sent e-mails and posted on your shot about my writing. I want you guys to know that I really appreciate it, no bullshit.
I have said a thousand times, it still amazes me of the people we reach, and the people who know of me and what I do. I was thinking about how “open” my life is to a bunch of people, how simple is to find me, or e-mail, or how much of what goes on and my life is open for anyone to read. I guess not enough, since I don’t have any hot chicks stalking me yet, but then again, there’s still time.
Funny, the other day I was looking at the News archives, then I searched for the first news report I had ever done, it was August 2000, at least the one I could find. That is 4 years ago, and what amazes me the most is how things have changed, and changed for the better. I also got to read an old interview Bandit did on me, many things have happened and others are still waiting. It?s bizarre how a life is plastered all over a computer screen, week after week, more so, not only my life, but also of others who contribute to this site. It is our own little “family” and we have millions of spectators, we might know a percent of a percent of those.
Funny that some people hate you, while others enjoy the success. It?s also an art to be able to figure out e-mails and see the truth in them; that is without knowing the person or ever seen them. Like I said jokingly the other night, If every person that read the news would send me a mere dollar, I would be able to pay a lot of rent and build a few bikes, but it’s not a matter of money, it’s never been about the money. Although I have to pay rent, utilities, car, etc,etc, like everyone else, this is kind of a labor of love. It?s a compromise from me to Bandit and Sin, plus all the other readers, those who like it and those who don’t.
Sure I would love to be able to walk out the door and buy whatever I wanted, or not worry about all those bills every month, but if it’s going to happen , it will happen. Will I change or change what I’m doing? I really don’t think so, first and foremost I build bikes, and I enjoy what we do. “Grown kids” as Glenn so eloquently put it. Sure there’s better times and there’s times that we want to call it quits, but no one gets off the boat on this trip. We lose some very dear friends, but that also gets us closer to others. Life has a very funny way to portray itself to us.
In those old news columns, I did a little introduction and then went to the news, but how everything has changed….. What Bandit called going “editorial” is what I do every single week, and it looks like a lot of people follow those “lifetorials”. What shocks me the most is that I have always been very private. I would not even like people to know if I was taking a trip or my destination. Some of my friends ended up calling me the myth. And here we are, half a World reading all this, every week, bizarre, once more. Thank God there’s no hits on me, since it would be very simple to pop a cap in my ass. Then again, sometimes there are some things better left untold.
Check the old news archives if you have the time, they used to be one short page, but like I have said, we all have grown.
Like this industry, when will it stop? No one knows, and no one wants it to, but still they ponder the question.
This upcoming Sunday I will be paying tribute to the life of a good friend that is with us no more, but the bright side of it is that other friends will be there as well, to share the moment, to augment the bond. It?s sad that a moment like that will bring many of us together, but I’m sure one will enjoy it the most, the one that it’s all about…He will be scratching his head and wondering how come so many people loved him…Simple man….because you were you.
As I used to say goodbye back then,Saludos
Jose ? Bikernet Caribbean Reporter
Dave MannTo view some of his historical art you can go to the following websites: http://home.att.net/~knucklehead-47/dmannphoto.htm
Rogue
On Loosing David Mann– They say only the good die young. If that?s true, then Dave Mann must have put one over on the Big Man upstairs to have blessed this world with his goodness for sixty four years.
None of us can do everything and be everywhere. David Mann?s vision and his ability to bring the biker?s world alive through his art enabled many of us to experience through his eyes, things that we otherwise might have missed out on or couldn?t be a part of. His was an extraordinary gift that enriched the lives of millions of bikers. In a way, through the art he created over the years, Dave Mann chronicled the history and evolution of what it means to be a biker. How the Hell do you say ?thank you? for something like that?
Like most of us, I never had the honor of meeting Dave Mann. I knew him only through his artwork. But because of that artwork, I feel I owe him a special debt. Like a lot of you, when I learned of Dave?s health problems and the financial challenges he was facing, I sent what I could to help out. I considered it an opportunity to make a small down payment on what I owed him for everything he?d given me over the years. I also sent along my only surviving magazine copy of a story of mine that was published in Easyriders back in May of 1982. The story was called ?Daytona Run?. I thought it was a good story and as I recall, it was well received at the time. But what made the story so special to me, and I have no doubt, what made a lot of folks take the time to read it, was the David Mann artwork used to illustrate it.
I felt then, as I do now, that the reason the reaction to that story was so favorable had a helluva lot more to do with Dave?s illustration than the way I put the words together. To be honest, Dave turned the tables on me. Instead of serving as an accessory to my story, his superb painting made my words seem unnecessary. All you had to do was take one look at his rendering of two bikes loaded in the back of an old pickup truck parked in a dark snowy driveway with the sunny beaches of Daytona appearing in the snow swept shimmer of the headlights, and you could have saved yourself the trouble of reading further. He had told the story far better with his brush than I did with my words.
I believed then, and I believe now, that my story (and a lot of other good stories by other writers) might well have been overlooked by a lot of readers without the power of David Mann?s illustrations to draw them in. I just wanted him to know how much it had meant to me over the years to have my simple story associated with his genius.
A couple of weeks later, I got a personal note of thanks from David Mann. It?s my understanding that, his health not withstanding, he personally thanked all those who sent help and encouragement. In his note to me, the Great David Mann turned the tables on me again. He used some of his precious time to tell me that the illustration used for ?Daytona Run? had been inspired by my story and been painted especially to go with it. I was honored and humbled all over again. Now, in those times when the stories just won?t come, and the words just won’t fit together, his kind message, like his work, will always serve to inspire me to keep trying. How the Hell do you thank someone for a gift like that?
And how do you thank someone for a life lived like that?
I?m no philosopher. I don?t claim to understand why I can look around me and see good people gone way too soon while the bad ones live forever, fat and happy. But maybe, if there is a grand design to all this, there’s a reason why people like Indian Larry and David Mann don?t get to stay with us longer. Maybe the good really do die young. And, maybe, just maybe, the Big Man Upstairs knew that true genius is still young at sixty-four.
Because that?s what David Mann was and always will be, a true genius who died way too young at sixty-four. He will be honored, respected, and missed for as long as even one true biker still draws breath.
Hutch in The Heartland
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