August 06, 2009 Part 4

STURGIS THURSDAY NEWS– LISTEN TO THE MUSIC WITH D&D, SCUDERIA FERRARI TRIKE FROM JAPAN, STEVE TYLER FALLS OFF STAGE IN STURGIS, AMERICAN WINS CUSTOM BIKE BUILDING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AND BOGART DEAL OF THE CENTURY.

Continued From Page 3

2WHEELER CORRESPONDENT REPORTS IN FROM STURGIS–The Bikernet Banner made it out of town to a remote area to check out the burnouts. Looks like fun.

–Donna

BOGART FORCED TO SELL HIS SWEETHEART DUE TO ILLNESS–Less than 20 grand. If it helps, $19,950. is not negotiable…I owe about that to H-D Financing and cannot come out of pocket since I rarely make it to work because of health conditions…

This bike won the following:

1st Place-Judged Class-San Diego Easyriders Show
1st Place-Street Custom-Pomona Easyriders Show
1st Place-Street Custom-Quick Throttle Expo
1st Place-PVHD Hot Rods & Harleys
1st Place-PVHD Hot Rods & Harleys (following year)
1st Place-RIP?s BAD Ride
Also in print:Barnett?s magazine, Hot Rod Bikes &Easyriders.

Read photo dialog pertaining to photoBikernet.com – http://www.bikernet.com/bikebarn/PageViewer.asp?PageID=1443

–BOGART
bogartcycledesign@sbcglobal.net

THURSDAY HUMOR – THINGS I LEARNED LIVIN’ IN LOUISIANA

1) A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.

2) There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in Louisiana .

3) There are 10,000 types of spiders, and all 10,000 of them live in Louisiana .

–from Donna O.

FOUR Unhealthy Drinks From Dr. Weil’ Bartender–Whether you are watching your weight or just want to eat healthier, taking a look at what you drink is key. Empty calories can lurk in all types of beverages – especially these:

Coffee drinks with full-fat dairy, artificial flavorings, and extras such as chocolate sprinkles. These can pack as many calories (and fat) as a meal. A better option is a plain coffee with soymilk or, better yet, antioxidant-rich green tea.

Frothy summer cocktails. Whether it’s a margarita or a pina colada, sugary summer drinks pack a double dose of calories due to alcohol and sugar – some can top 800 calories in one drink. A better option is a glass of red wine (60-100 calories) or a light beer (about 100 calories).

Non-juice ?juice drinks.? Before buying juice, read the label and make sure it is 100% juice (not just “made with” real juice) and check for added sweeteners and calories. Many of these products are no better than drinking sugar water.

Soda. There just isn’t anything nutritious about soda, whether it’s diet or regular. If you’re a soda addict, break the habit by eliminating soda as a treat, and stop reaching for it automatically with a meal or as a thirst quencher.

RICK REPORT FROM THE ROAD–Sonny Barger, waiving hello at the Hells Angels USA run in Cloquet, MN.

The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. (waiting for attack) The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

1. Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.
2. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.
3. I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.
4. When seconds count, the cops are just “Minutes” away.

–Rick

American wins Custom Bike Building World Championship–For the first time since the World Championship of Custom Bike Building program made its debut in 2004, an American custom motorcycle engineer has won the market’s top honor of being able to call himself World Champion.

The winner, Dave Cook of Cook Custom Choppers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was voted World Champion by his fellow competitors at an event that defied motorcycle industry downturn expectations with an increased field of 83 custom bikes in total (compared to 67 in 2008), and one that is widely being hailed as showcasing the most advanced and diverse display of custom motorcycle design and engineering ever seen.The 51 year old Cook is an internationally recognized engineer and creative genius whose passion for design and engineering excellence had seen him be the winningest American in the past two years, having been fourth and highest placed American competitor behind an international top-three in both 2007 and 2008.

“This is a dream come true”, said Cook, minutes after receiving the acclaim of the large crowd of motorcycle enthusiasts and fellow industry professionals who crowded into the downtown City of Sturgis Champions Park venue.

During the build-up to the contest, Cook’s highly anticipated, exquisite, hand-crafted “Rambler” was among the early favorites to become the first American built World Champion custom bike.

However, as competitors pulled their bikes in for competition run-checks and registration at the weekend, it became apparent that competition for top-honors was going to be wide open and fierce, with up to a dozen stunning machines in contention.

“I have dedicated the best part of three years to trying to win the World Championship, and finally I have achieved the ultimate recognition of my fellow professionals. It is very humbling”, Cook went on to say.

It is the culmination of an annual series of worldwide events, including an annual European Championship, that sees hundreds of custom motorcycle design and engineering hopefuls embark on a quest for the opportunity to compete in USA against many of America’s finest motorcycle industry brains.

Dominated by engineers from Canada, Japan and Europe for the first five years since the Championship program’s inception in 2004, American motorcycle customizing has now convincingly broken through on its industry’s biggest stage with seven of the top ten competitors being bike builders based in USA.

Second place was scooped by another American, Kris Krome, of Freeland, Michigan.

www.amdchampionship.com
We would bring you a shot of the winner, except the AMD Show site is down. Watch for a full report next week.

HELP BIKERNET & BRASS BALLS HELP OUR VETS–Bandit of Bikernet.com and Dar Holdsworth, Brass Balls Bobbers? BossMan, has something special for all motorcycle enthusiasts? A chance to win a $30,000 custom Brass Balls Bobbers? sled for just $10. Click here to enter. Proceeds go to the Intrepid Fallen Heros Fund. Drawing at Biketoberfest. Need not be present to win.

It is the least expensive way to put a custom motorcycle in your garage.

STEVEN TYLER FALLS OFF STAGE IN STURGIS–STURGIS – A huge number of fans packed the field in front of the Buffalo Chip Campground main stage to see Aerosmith, but Wednesday’s concert was cut short when lead singer Steven Tyler fell off the stage.

Tyler was singing the Top 10 hit ?Love In An Elevator? when the sound system went out. He continued to dance around, entertaining the crowd, when he fell off the Chip stage, according to reports.

Aurand, a security supervisor at the campground who saw the fall, said Tyler stepped backward off the stage’s catwalk.

“He does a lot of dancing on the stage and he does a lot of stuff with his mike stand. He put his stand down and twirled around and stepped backwards off the stage,” Sanborn said.

Halfway through the performance, Tyler fell onto a couple of fans in the middle of what was a record crowd, Sanborn said. Security rushed to help him and the crowd cheered when Tyler got back up.

“He was good natured about it,” Sanborn said. “He was in good spirits when he got in the helicopter. He was talking and joking with the physician.”

“It was an unfortunate end to an extraordinary evening,” he said.

Tyler suffered minor head and neck injuries and a shoulder injury, but it wasn’t immediately clear how serious that was, Sanborn said.

After he fell, which was halfway through the performance, Tyler was eventually taken backstage, Sanborn said. Around 12:15 a.m., Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry came out to tell the audience Tyler was being taken to the hospital and that the show would not go on.

A physician at the concert venue attended to Tyler and the frontman was flown to Rapid City Regional Hospital.

Jennifer Horton, the hospital’s vice president of public relations and marketing, said early Thursday that Tyler wasn’t in the hospital directory. Under the privacy laws, that means the person is either not there or chose not to be included in the directory, according to the hospital’s Web site.

This was the first time Aerosmith had performed in Sturgis, but it was Tyler?s second appearance at the rally.

Fans were sure to be disappointed. They had gathered earlier in the day, excited for the big event. Danielle Hudspeth of Pine Ridge said the week Aerosmith was announced as part of the Chip?s 2009 line-up, she decided to go.

I said, ?I?m so going?, Hudspeth said as she clutched her brand new Aerosmith T-shirt. ?Oh my God, I?m so excited, I?m so here.?

Sanborn said the pre-concert ticket sales for Aerosmith were enough for management at the Chip to predict that they?d have the biggest concert crowd in South Dakota history.

Fans were disappointed the concert was cut short but hoped Tyler wasn’t seriously hurt.

Lance Yellow Robe, who said he was 8 eight feet from the stage when Tyler fell off, said “you could kind of see it coming because he was dancing all over the stage.

“I hope he’s OK,” Yellow Robe said. “I could care less about the concert being canceled.”

Associated Press

SCUDERIA FERRARI TRIKE FROM JAPAN–There have been countless attempts to translate the Ferrari spirit from four wheels to two… Now from the land of the rising sun comes the Ferrari trike.

Mirroring the crimson contours and styling of a Scuderia Ferrari F1 car, this one-off trike was spotted at the banzai Tokyo Auto Salon. This is the design house that built a Lamborghini ATV. Based around a 1.3-liter Suzuki Hayabusa engine and frame.

See more Good Stuff in Bikernet Studio.

YOU CAN NOW HEAR YOUR TUNES @ 75MPH–For riders that have a stereo, you can now hear the stereo and run a performance pipe at the same time. In cruise mode the 2009 Boss Fat Cat pipe keeps the exhaust sound low.The new 2009 Boss Fat Cat – 2:1 Concentric Baffle drops 10db at full throttle and moves the peak torque down about 1000 rpms, thus making it pull earlier, more usable power and more smiles per miles.

Cherie Quinn of Texas wrote in and said this:My 2009 Road King Classic now provides smooth and effortless acceleration. The bike takes less gas for the greater performance… it just performs better and provides a rounded and harmonious sound!

Quinn runs her Road King Classic with the 2009 Boss Fat Cat with a ghost pipe, which provides a duals look. The ghost pipe is non-functioning but provides a real classic look.

Get more details on the BOSS Fat Cat at D&D Performance Enterprises.

RETURN RUN HOME FROM THE BADLANDS–If you survived Rally Week, make sure you make it home safe. Someone needs to pay the rent. We’re living through convoluted times. I remember when I drove a ’46 Ford sedan and lived in an old Spanish stucco, North Long Beach home with four other bikers. We rode, drank, chased women and worked once in a while. What the hell happened?

Here’s a helluvan example of our complex tech world.

Shit happens way too fast, nowadays. I’m beginning to wire the 5-Ball racer and had a meeting with my Chance book cover illustrator. It’s all coming together. Next week we will focus on fiction, book chapters and the Cantina Soap opera. I need to spend more time in bars, checkin’ the girls and watching barroom dramas unfold. You should see my saloon napkin notes.

We’re planning a couple of tech notions and rides out to hang with the Chop n’ Grind gang in 2 Palms Joshua Cactus, Tarantula Valley. You almost feel a sense of old desert community, California out in the rolling sand dunes of their region. Except the franchise plaque has unfolded over their region with Target stores and Dennys spreading into the desolated valley once inhabited only by bikers living in rusting motorhomes surrounded by busted swamp coolers. It’s almost sad to see new buildings sparkle against the faded landscape.

Hell, where can old outlaws hide anymore?

Ride Forever,

–Bandit

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Okay, I know I shouldn’t be blowing the lid off this too-good-to-be-true deal, but since I might get back there before you pack your bike and bags and head to the Sunshine State, I’ll take a chance. This is a story about bikes and Florida. No, not Daytona Bike Week or Octoberfest. First off, it’s not in Daytona, not in Miami, notin Disney World Orlando, nor in poshy Palm Beach…but you’re getting warm. The location is Lake Worth which is adjacent to Palm Beach but with a different zip code and a more laid back, bike friendly attitude…and prices.

I had escaped the frenzy of L.A. to visit my brother, my twin brother that is, to celebrate our mutual birthdays. It was getting up there, number wise, and since time and gravity was catching up, I felt it was time to spend time with relativesand to get some much needed R&R in SoFL away from SoCAL. I had grown up in the area before migrating to L.A. to become rich and famous, a plan that still needssome work. In any case I found myself in Lake Worth where my brother lives. Heand his wife ride all over the country and head up a local bike chapter.

So one night I ended up in Lake Worth, population 36,000, which I had remembered as a sleepy little town with not much happening except a fishing pier that had been splintered by a hurricane a while back. Well, the pier had been rebuilt this time out of wave resistant concrete, the public pool and 1920s Casino was being restored, great restaurants had sprung up, and motorcycles had multiplied like rabbits.

I was truly amazed. There were bikes, bikes, bikes, every day of the week and not just on Sundays like you’ll see in wannabee L.A. Also Florida has no helmet law if you're 18 or older. There are no smog checks either, so you can drive that blown big block Chevy hotrod. I think you can also own machine guns. I think George W.’s brother Jeb Bush helped those freedoms along while governator of the state.

Okay, so I head down to Lake Ave., the main drag in Lake Worth and meet up with a Harley rider named Adam who’s also a local Century 21 real estate agent. In December ’08 he got the weekly Lake Worth Bike Night shindig going, with the blessings of local businesses and police as well. It was an instant success, each Thursday night drawing from 500-1200 bikes of all makes, models, years anddispositions from customs, to touring bikes, to sport bikes, to bizarre bikes, all were welcome. Live music, restaurant discounts, cheap brew, and lots of bike ogling.

Lake Worth offers expansive beach, fishing pier with restaurant, and historic Casino and public pool in the process of restoration.

About three minutes away, after crossing a bridge, you find yourself at a beautiful beach and the Lake Worth pier. The water is very warm since the Gulf Stream comes closest to the U.S. at this point. It's great for swimming, surfing, fishing, boating, para-gliding, and of course riding… you name it.

Adam, the promoter, in the center, under arrest for kicking off this mess.

Now the kicker is that with the recent dip in the economy, house prices are at a lower ebb than the tide at the Lake Worth Lagoon. If you live in SoCal you know that even with the current dilemma, buying a house is not within the grasp of most of us. So when I saw what about 10% of what a house would cost in L.A. could get you in Lake Worth, and we’re talking walking distance to Bike Night and a two minute putt to the beach, I thought why am I not here? If I sold …even just rented…one kidney on eBay, I could own a great little Key West style bungalow…with a/c of course because it does get toasty during the smoldering FL summer.

Talking with the people rolling up for Lake Worth Bike Night only confirmed my first impression… It was paradise at a bargain price. Around 6:00 the bikes start congregating, filling up both sides of the palm tree lined Lake Ave. andspilling over onto adjacent side streets. The arrival of one bike literally stopped traffic, the long bike seen in my pix. Measuring 13 ft. 5 inches, it was piloted by its builder/owner Steve Martino, originally from New York.

Says Steve, “It started out as dream. I guess I was really thinking big. I hand-fabricated it at home in 2004, starting with a custom frame from Killer Choppers in New Hampshire.” Steve stuffed a100 inch RevTech in the frame, stretched the Fatbob tanks to seven gallons and added two shifters and two clutch controls, one up on the custom made bars, the other attached to a suicide shifter on the left side. And yes, the seat and mile high sissy bar can haul three people, although the police tend to frown on it, butcan’t seem to find a law against it.

Another guy that got the local constables’ attention was a rider wearing a t-shirt that said “Demented.” His name was Craig, originally from CT and now a resident of Lake Worth, his bike a root beer colored ’95 Softail with a special accessory not found in the Custom Chrome or Drag catalogs. Strapped to the frontend of his bike was a machete, which he says he plans to turn into a front fender.

“I travel a lot and brought the machete and leather sheath back from Columbia,” Craig said. When he unsheathed the blade, one of the Sheriff’s on duty, apparently there to enforce the $135 fine for walking around with a beer, got on his case, even though Craig assured the officer, who for some reason was wearing a full flak vest, that the blade was dull and simply a gardening implement. That logic fell on deaf ears so the machine went back into the sheath. But I did notice people walking around withdrinks in their hands, if not beer cans, and the police weren’t bugging them. In any case, everyone got along fine.

The t-shirt says it all about biking in the Lake Worth area.

In a slight case of bi-polar biking, we met up with a guy named Rick who was wearing a Ducati t-shirt but riding a Buell, a pristine one at that. Turns out Rick who’s an IT guy has a passel of bikes of various makes including several Ducatis.

We did find a Florida Cowboy in the form of mustachioed Bob Milleege (originally from Washington state) who told me about a house for sale just across the street from his home and only two blocks away from Bike Night. Just renovated as new. The price…I won’t repeat. As the sun was making a beautiful Florida sunset, I rode over and checked it out. It even had a garage.

Let’s just say the whole house, and a nifty one at that, cost less than a small garage in L.A. That’s the report for now. I gotta call the FHA in Florida and see if they’ll lend me any money.

Wildlife include raccoons which amble about even during daytime. Wait, alligators are growing in number, rumor has it they tend to live farther west of town in the canals and in the golf course ponds. I don't play golf…

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