Cincy is a dealer show. That means guys from the industry set up booths and attempt to sell shit to dealers, shop owners, you name it. The press is usually on hand, so the manufacturers attempt to impress them enough to foster stories, while the sales end of the magazine world endeavor ardently to expand advertising budgets. That's not all. It's an opportunity for a manufacturer to cajole a distributor into handling his part, make a better deal with another distributor, expand orders and sometime find a source to build a bike. You name it, it's happening on the concrete floor of the convention center.
The Cincy V-Twin Expo has expanded to house virtually anyone who wants to reach into the American custom motorcycle market and take care of biz. There are other shows, like the general motorcycle and even quad show in Indy two weekends later, but Cincy is fervently focused on only the American Custom Motorcycle scene. It's a candy store of anything and everything new in the industry from cams to metal flake paint. News in the industry is at a full throttle buzz for the entire weekend. Guys are making deals, buying shit for their shops, scoring leads, scribbling notes and partying with their brothers.
More than anything this industry, except for a handful of rip-offs, sleaze bags and fly-by-nights, is a brotherhood. We make up a small, dinky percentage of the overall motorcycle market in America and the world. We're not manufacturing high-tech toasters. A major wheel manufacturer once told me that they sell less than one thousand of their most popular wheels each year. That's not exactly a major run of components.
So what happened this year in the hallowed halls of the Cincinnati Convention Center, smack in the middle of downtown, usually coated with a layer of snow in January? I don't know, I wasn't there for the first time in several years.
Sin Wu said, “Don't go baby, I'll take real good care of you here.”
I sent a few feeler spies and they came back with the following. The industry was high with optimism, but the MAG Group closed White Bros down after a 20-year history. American Iron Horse has just about shut its doors, but there's always one company coming on strong and another fading away. The crew from Miami Ink is launching a line of motorcycles. The OCC mechanics have hit the entrepreneurial road on their own and kicked-off a shop in Florida called V-Thunder.
There's more. Baker Transmission announced a heavy touring bike seven-speed tranny. Accurate Engineering unveiled Barry's new aluminum-head performance Knucklehead engine and shared a booth with Bikernet.com and 5-Ball Racing, builder of the World's Fastest Panhead. Accurate Engineering built the engine. Bikernet was celebrating their largest month in its 11-year history (340,000 unique visitors) and 70 percent growth in 2007. We also unleashed our new web site Bikernetmetric.com and will share that news with the metric crowd in Indy this coming weekend.
The list goes on. S&S promoted its new CARB-approved engine line and the fact that they bought Flathead Power, so they'll offer improved Flathead components and Knucklehead parts in the near future. You can imagine what a rush it is to walk up and down the aisles and check all the new shit, including Paughco's new board track chassis based on a design by Rick Krost of U.S. Choppers. It's killer to see all the new shit and ponder your next build.
Plus every night there's a party. Here's Rogue's report on the Sucker Punch Sally's Jam:
Attending the V-Twin Expo the beginning of February every year in Cincinnati Ohio is something that everyone in the motorcycle business should attend if they possibly can. During the day it is all business and that varies depending on whether you are an exhibitor, shop owner, or even media. Everyone is there for something.
After the Duke Energy Center closes for the evening it is time to party. There are plenty of parties going on all over the city, but some are more special than others. One of the best is the one hosted by Sucker Punch Sally’s at the Poison Room on 301 W. 5th Street.
It is by invitation only and always on Saturday Evening from 9:00 P.M. to 1:00 A. M. I make sure it is one of the events I attend every year. If you attended there is a good chance we got to spend some time together. If we didn’t I hope in the future we will be able to.
Thanks, to all those responsible for making this such a good party!!!!!!
–ROGUE
There you have it, Rogue's sober, politically correct version of the party coverage. Let's get to the dirt:
Hey it was a party. Not a whole lot to write about except people having a good time. Well, except for one asshole.
You might want Chris Callen to give you a comment. He was right there, Foy from Accurate Engineering as well,Rico was sitting next to me.
Probably not cool pumping it up. It happened and can be reported but I would prefer it did not get too far from the truth.
I wouldn't call it a fight.Some drunken asshole at the Sucker Punch Sally Party was bumping into me and putting his hands on me. I asked him to stop. I told him to stop. He gave Chris Callen some shit and then called the barmaid a bitch.
For that he got my fist in his mouth! I asked him if he wanted more and a trip to the hospital and he decided he didn’t and left.
The barmaid was a nice person working hard and did not deserve to be called names. Besides that she was making me good Jack and Cokes! I had only had a few when the incident happened, but she sure kept them coming after it.
End of Story!
–Rogue
Rogue kindly offered witness contacts for confirmation, so I reached out to Chris Callen, the big editor of Cycle Source Magazine:
Dude, it was no question the coolest shit I've seen in a long, long time. I've been telling these young bucks for a while about comin' up right, showing respect and the whole deal…. Not being a punk ya' know. Well, on that night Rogue took 'em all to school.
Started out this young buck (maybe 24 and big) was shootin' his mouth off at the bar. Rogue looked at me three or four times like, man is this cat gettin' on my nerves, and then finally asked me, “Is he with your crew?”
I said, “No why?”
“Someone should get him the fuck away from me,” Rogue said.
Being the mediator that I am I slid between Rogue and the kid trying to provide a buffer but as I did I stepped on his toe. He turned to me and said, “Hey you fuckin' cunt, don't step on my toe.”
Well, I'd already had a fewsips of whiskey and I looked at him eyeball-to-eyeball, leaned in and said, “What did ya say to me mutha fuck?
He laughed and said, “I'm just kidding I like you… Ha,ha,ha.”
I grabbed my drink from the bar and turned away, just for a second, and when Ilooked back the kid threw something at the barmaid and told her, “Hey, bitch, I'm talkin' to you….”
Rogue went into action faster than I've ever seen him move. He came off his stool in one motion and cracked that young kid right in the chops, man. The kid's face swelled up and Rogue told him, “I will put you into the fuckin' ground.”
As the kid held his face and shook his hand as if to say, no man, I'm done, I turned to the young dudes that I knew and said, “See, don't be a punk.”
With that Rogue sat back down and went back to his drink, bloody hand and all, like it never happened. I talked to him the next day and thanked him for being the man he is, for not letting the core of who we are go silently into the night.
He said simply, “Well someone had to do it.”
I swear to God, you couldn't make this shit up!
Rogue has always been a legendary Bikernet correspondent, and we're glad to have him in our camp. Seems he's also 70 years old. What's that about old Bikers Never Die?
So there you have it, the party sidebar. Then back to the showroom floor where Big Dog received the V-Twin Bike of the Year award for their new model the vintage styled Pitbull. I'll deliver more reports as our vast Bikernet correspondent wrecking crew are released from Cincinnati holding tanks.
