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THE DAYTONA BIKE WEEK FILE–For many that watch Bike Week in Daytona Beach they use the NASCAR Races as a Guide.
The first big event of the season usually gives some insight to what will be going on during Bike Week.
The Large Crowds are a given and so far reports of Police action is minimal other than some heavy traffic enforcement on I-4 which is pretty standard.
I will keep you posted
–ROGUE
DAYTONA BIKE WEEK COVERAGE FROM BIKERNET– My plans are to go to Daytona the first weekend and then ever couple of days until I stay the second weekend. I want to get as many back-up and stock photos as I can. I’LL keep BIKERNET supplied with a what?s going every couple of days.
Of course I will do the local politics, cops etc.
I will also be doing the Last Resort, also Softails, (Titty Bar) and others yet to be determined. I am suppose to meet up with Billy Lane and Jose at their headquarters on Beach Street. I am still working out some details
–Rogue
Bikernet has five reporters scheduled to cover bike week. Frank Kaisler will bring us the finest bikes of Bike Week and the girls. Crazyhorse covers the women, nightlife and new paint schemes. Mike and Meanest are sending in the girls of H-D and factory activities and Jose chases all the young chicks and reports on Bike Week Activities. Hang on.
THE STEALTH REPORT–Usually when I write the “STEALTH REPORT” I write about my opinions on certain subjects, coverage of events and stories on how people deal with the hands they are dealt in life. This week I am going to try something new, a product review. A product made right here in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The company is called Big City Thunder, and it is owned by Jim Maybeck and Gail Hamilton.
Big City Thunder and their staff make products they call Thunder Monsters, Thunder Blasters and ThunderBoltz. These are exhaust enhancing devices. Most riders buy an exhaust system for a better sound and better performance. Your every day generic baffles kill the sound and running an open pipe with no baffle and no back pressure kills performance. These products provide not only a deeper sound but also deliver big performance.
A little history on Jim and Gail. Jim is an old time Class AA Funny Car pilot from the late 60’s and early 70’s, with six second passes and 240 mph. The car was called the “Screaming Eagle” yeah, way before H-D ever used the name, so Jim knows a thing or two about exhaust and performance.
Jim rides a 1995 super clean hot rod Dyna Low Rider, while Gail rides one of the trickest 1998 Sportsters around, the bike looks just like a Fatboy and has fooled many an onlooker over the past years. Jim and Gail started research on their products back in 1998. There were a number of passes on the dyno here at H-D of Charlotte. A dyno is unforgiving and doesn’t lie. Depending on the bike the Thunder Monsters provide consistently a gain of 5-12 horsepower and 8-15 lbs. of torque. Jim describes midrange “between 2500 and 5500 rpm,” which is where they really perform.
I admit when I first heard about this product, I too was skeptical, so Big City Thunder provided me a set of the Thunder Monsters to try out on my ’91 Softail springer that I call “Skeletor.” The engine has an Andrews EV46 cam, S.E. ignition and an S&S E carb and I run a Samson exhaust. I love the looks of the pipes and I love the way they sound. Old “Skeletor” is basically a high bar, bar hopper and I am not a horsepower freak, but I like my bikes to run strong and smooth. At highway speeds when I rolled the throttle on, old Skeletor would want to hesitate and spit and pop. I thought I would give the Thunder Monsters a try. The installation was simple, pull the pipes, drill a hole in each pipe and bolt them in. Now was time for the test, so I rolled old Skeletor out and headed down the highway, once I reached cruising speed I rolled the throttle on and I couldn’t believe it, the hesitation , the spit, the pop were gone! Nothing but a smooth roll on of power! A few weeks later, “THE MEANEST” and I went for a ride and she even noticed how Skeletor was smoother! Now that says something!
We see a lot of products that claim certain things and more times than not we are disappointed with the results of these products. Not the case here! These products are designed for aftermarket exhaust with an inside diameter of 1 5/8″, 1 7/8″, 2″ and 2 1/8.”
For more info, give Big City Thunder a call at 704-366-8672 or on line at
Big City Thunder is a proud sponsor for the 6th Annual Run for Breath “In Memory of Justin Pullin.” Jim and Gail have also been volunteers from day one for this event.
See you down the road!
–Mike(THE STEALTH)
THE CLUB CORNER–DRUGS– Sioux Falls police made a drug bust with a possible biker connection. Police arrested 48-year-old Robert Worshek and 38-year-old Todd Scofield after a search of a home on North Van Eps in Sioux Falls Thursday night.
Members of the drug task force found a pound of meth with a street value between 16 and 20-thousand dollars. They also found $1,500 in cash, six rifles and shotguns and 10 millimeter pistol.
Police state that evidence indicates the two are members of the “Dead Man” motorcycle club and may be associated with the Hermanos and Bandidos.
SHOOTINGS– A prospective member of Hells Angels has been charged in the shooting last month of two rival motorcycle club members at an Edgemere nightclub, Baltimore County police said yesterday.
Wallace Schnople, 45, of the 2800 block of Pulaski Highway was being held without bail at the county detention center last night, charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault and weapons violations in the shooting, police said.
The victims – Charles Zepp, 23, of Eldersburg, and Timothy McDowell, 38, of Frederick – were identified as members of the Pagans, according to police. They have both been released from the hospital.
Officers identified Schnople and another suspect, Michael James Moore, 42, of Essex, as prospective members of Hells Angels.
Detectives say they believe the rivalry between the Pagans and Hells Angels, who recently have begun appearing in Maryland, was the motive for the shooting Jan. 4 at Club Tattle Tails in the 2100 block of Sparrows Point Road.
Maryland has long been territory for the Pagans, founded in Prince George’s County, and conflicts between the two motorcycle clubs have been intensifying in recent years, police said.
Schnople, who is known as “Bear,” was arrested Tuesday by an officer with the Maryland State Police warrant task force for a charge of driving with a suspended license in Frederick, police said. Troopers then realized he also was wanted in Baltimore County in connection with the shooting.
Schnople, who has been arrested more than a half-dozen times on assault and battery charges, finished serving two years of supervised probation for an assault conviction in 2000, court records show. He received probation before judgment in a 1991 battery and a 1985 harassment charge, according to the records.
Police also have charged Moore, believed to be the shooter in the Edgemere incident with attempted murder, assault and weapons violations.
TROUBLE– Family friends and brothers gathered in south Edmonton yesterday to say goodbye to Joseph Robert “Joey” Campbell. Bikers in red-and-gold Bandidos vests were among the 200-odd mourners for the afternoon service. Campbell’s mother Shannon Trottier said the Bandidos donated a vest for the 34-year-old victim to be cremated in.
“We asked the Bandidos not to make trouble,” said Trottier yesterday. “I talked to a few of them (Thursday) and asked them to stay in the hotel and stay safe. “Joey was a wonderful man, and he had so many friends. That’s how we want to remember him.”
So anxious was the family about gang-on-gang violence, said sources close to the family, that Campbell’s friends in his old club, the Rebels turned Hells Angels, were asked to stay away.
The most emotional moment of the service came during the eulogy delivered by Mike Jerace, who’d known Campbell from their days training as amateur boxers.
Jerace was with Campbell outside the strip club Jan. 30, when he and Bandido “hang-around” Robert Simpson, 34, were gunned down.
PROBATIONARY CHAPTER– Edmonton has had its own probationary chapter of the Bandidos since November.Yves Lavigne predicts the start of a bloody year in Alberta. “That funeral was the first time these guys appeared in public … in their colours,” said author Lavigne, who has written books about bike clubs.
He said the Bandidos Canada organization in Ontario confirmed to him they were responsible for the Edmonton chapter’s charter.
“We’re talking six to 10 members in Edmonton, a probationary chapter … That generally means setting up a drug network of their own”. “But every one that pulled on a Bandidos vest last week is committing public suicide. Alberta is Angels territory,” Lavigne added.
But news of a Bandidos chapter seemed to surprise an Edmonton police spokesman. “We’re not going to start speculating about this, or any connections to any recent events, until we have all the facts.”
INDIAN DEMISE REPORT COMIN’ TO BIKERNET A very fortuitous situation took place yesterday.I got a call to go down to Gilroy. It was the lastday of the Indian factory liquidation. Got a numberof good photos and some scoops! Will put it alltogether. Hope you got the Pancho Villa material OK.
Thanks for posting the Commercial Vehicle story.Have a great weekend.
–Al
INFORMANT–Aime Simard betrayed a motorcycle club and became a police informant in the late 1990s. Police think that caused his death last July.
In exchange for his help, Simard won early parole despite having killed three people. It also made him a prime target for vengeance from Hells Angels, even while being behind bars.
Simard was found face down in a pool of blood on July 18, 2003, with more than 70 stab wounds. Footprints leading from Simard’s to a neigbouring cell made Alvin Starblanket a suspect. But what happened to Simard has corrections officials and police concerned about the growth of violence in Canada’s prison system.
Simard was not a member of the Hells Angel. He was a lover of another police informant. Simard killed three people for a rival club and after he was arrested in 1997, he struck a deal with authorities and began to talk.
Simard allegedly asked for a transfer from British Columbia to the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, where he thought he would be safe.
Shortly after arriving in the Prince Albert facility last summer, Simard was dead. His murder remains unsolved and prison warden Peter Guenther remains tight-lipped about it all.
–Rogue
Mike Lemen’s Monoshock, Turbocharged Sportster
Check out the oil tank swingarm and monoshock.
Wade Jenkins Supercharged Airtail.
EASYRIDERS SHOW–A few shots from the Easyriders Show this past weekend. With the inclusion of two Discovery Channel Biker Build Off participants, Billy Lane and Young’s Choppers and some local talent it was exciting to see some original ideas for a change.
First time I’ve seen anything like this.
I’m including these shots of two bikes built in local shops, these bikes are definitely not cookie cutter clones. The supercharged airtail is from Wade Jenkins here in Louisville. The Monoshock Sportster is by Mike Lemen owner of C&T Cycles in Scottsburg, Indiana. Mike’s bike sports a monoshock swing arm with the oil tank inside, turbo charger and many more mods. Both of these builders do all their own work paint, chassis, engine, bodywork, etc.
–Nick Roberts
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