Strange times at the headquarters. We’ve been packed and ready to rock for (it seems) weeks. We’re at the far end of three escrows and the first one was held up last week due to incompetence. We were stuck dragging our feet for another week.
It’s strange, being forced to burn daylight, waiting for someone else to get their act together, listening to lies and bullshit, and grappling for solutions. Sometimes, no matter how proactive you are, there’s still some geek holding up progress. There’s two or three people I’d love to line up and take a baseball bat to their kneecaps. But I take a shot of Jack, watch another fuckin’ movie over boxes and wait.
On top of that, there’s heartbreak at the headquarters. I’ll touch on that at the conclusion. This sounds down, but it’s not. I’m anxious as a kid waiting for the latest video game to hit the porch. I’m like a rider standing at the backdoor waiting for the UPS man to deliver his first custom paint job by Harold Ponteralli or Dave Perewitz. I’m biting my nails, gritting my teeth, anxious as hell to get my feet wet. There’s a ton of work ahead, but I can’t wait. Let’s hit the news.
The Talafuse Project
I can send you a pic of the motor as it is now. I’ll take one this weekend.
Once we get the motor together, there should be a lot of activity with making the shifter and hooking up the break and finishing the oil tank.
I’m Lynn Talafuse, sometimes called Lucky, and my partner is James Holik. I do wrenching work with Bro’s Cycle, south of El Campo, when something comes in. The owner is Tooty Brown. Some of your south Texas readers will recognize the name. He’s got a total loss oiler Flathead that is in almost new condition. If you want, I’ll ask him if I can take some pictures. His girlfriend has a ’58 Sporty in boxes.
–Lynn
We like to show projects coming together with tips for readers. Just send us a couple of shots and paragraphs to match and we’ll pass the info along every Thursday and Sunday.–Bandit
Big Dog Motorcycles Receives Awards For Innovation And New Model Of The Year
Easyriders Magazine named the 2004 Ridgeback the New Model Bike Of The Year while IronWorks Magazine recognized the company’s innovative component designs
WICHITA, Kansas (March 8, 2004): Big Dog Motorcycles (the leading designer and manufacturer of high performance, highly-styled heavyweight cruisers), received two awards at Easyriders Magazine’s 4th Annual V-Twin Expo held in Cincinnati January 31 through February 2. Both awards recognized the design capabilities of the ten-year old company.
Big Dog Motorcycles’ 2004 Ridgeback, the latest in a tradition of bikes built to demonstrate the company’s passion for performance, handling, and style, was named “New Model Bike Of The Year” by the event’s host, Easyriders magazine.
Scott McCool, managing editor for Easyriders, said, “Big Dog Motorcycles continues to be a leader in this industry by watching the trends in customizing and listening to their customer base. The engineering and design of their new Ridgeback model exemplifies their dedication to providing their customers, and the marketplace, with a well designed and built, comfortable riding rigid motorcycle, using top-quality components, at a very affordable price.”
Nick Messer, president, Big Dog Motorcycles, accepted the award.
A full year of planning, testing, and designing resulted in the Big Dog Motorcycles’ most radical bike in its 2004 line of six motorcycles. “Big Dog Motorcycles has always been at forefront of design. The Ridgeback is a natural for us. At almost nine-feet long, a super-fat rear tire, rigid frame, and aggressive, rebellious design, it’s a perfect balance of extreme performance, power, and an edgy attitude,” Messer continued.
A Ridgeback was recently chosen to represent the company’s 10,000th commemorative bike. With a misty midnight frame color and exclusive patriotic graphics, the special motorcycle was unveiled during Daytona Beach Bike Week, held February 26 through March 7.
IronWorks Magazine, another major industry publication, presented the second award to Big Dog Motorcycles. Also taking note of the company’s innovative designs, IronWorks, however, focused on the company?s new proprietary components found on the 2004 line-up. “If we felt a product was innovative, then we selected it. And in the case of Big Dog Motorcycles, our magazine staff felt their new proprietary parts, especially the falling-rate clutch mechanism for their entire 2004 line of bikes, deserved the Innovation Award,” stated Dain Gingerelli, editor, IronWorks.
Big Dog Motorcycles’ Chief Technical Officer, Dustan Hahn, accepted the award.
Crazy Shit History
Motorcycle stunts have long captured the nation’s attention. Here are a few memorable examples:
? In 1968, Evel Knievel cleared the 150-foot-long fountain at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas. He crashed upon landing and remained comatose for 29 days.
? Bob Duffey, a veteran motorcycle stuntman, set a record in 1981 when he rode a motorcycle 122 mph while facing backwards. In 1974, Duffey performed a jump over a helicopter while its blades were rotating at more than 30,000 rpm’s.
? Motorcycle jumper Johnny Airtime earned the “Stunt of the Year” award in 1990 when he performed a motorcycle jump over a moving, three-car passenger train, 180 feet long and 17 feet high.
? In 1999, Robbie Knievel – Evel’s son – successfully jumped 228 feet over a section of the Grand Canyon.
? Doug Danger was featured in the 2000 television show “I Dare You: The Ultimate Challenge” when he completed a 160 foot jump over an L-1011 airliner wing tip to wing tip.
– Compiled by news researcher Jo Wilson
Motorcycle Sales Stats
Motorcycle sales nationally have skyrocketed from 278,000 bikes sold in 1992 to 937,000 sold in 2002. Sportsbikes are among the fastest-growing segment, gaining a larger market share each year since 1996. These were the top selling types of motorcycles, 2002:
Cruisers (street bikes): 56 percent of sales
Sportbikes: 21 percent
Touring Bikes (large cruising bikes): 18 percent
Traditional, or “naked” bikes (exposed engine): 3 percent
SOURCE: Motorcycle Industry Council
Daytona Stunts At Hess Station
Now and then a tribe returns from deserted stretches — an industrial park behind a McDonald’s, Tomoka Farms Road — where they’ve been pushing their bikes to the extremes of speed and agility they were built for. Races at 160 miles an hour, wheelies at 70, stunts leaving smoke everywhere and thick black lines on the asphalt.
“That kind of thing used to happen right here,” at the Hess station, said a rider from Indiana. “Anything you wanted to see happened here.”
Two years ago, also right here, a homeless man was killed crossing ISB by a 28-year-old New Yorker on a sportbike. Police have kept close tabs on the station since, and Wednesday brought in troopers from Orlando to patrol the west side of town.
The stunt riding “is something we’ve noticed since about 2001,” said Daytona Beach Police Sgt. William Rhodes. “It’s built and built ever since.”
Bike Week organizers have designated some stunting areas on City Island, but the gas station — surveillance and all — remains the Main Street of sportbikers, the fastest-growing slice of the motorcycle industry and an increasingly visible Bike Week presence.
And if industry trends are any guide, future Bike Weeks might look more like the thrill-addicted, candy-colored spectacle at and around the Hess station than the beer-soaked chrome scene a couple of miles away.
“This segment is big and important to us,” said American Honda representative Bill Savino. “This is Generation X and Y.”
THE WAIT
On Tuesday generations X and Y seemed dispirited, unsure what to do with their bikes or their testosterone.
The Orlando troopers were still in Orlando, but about a hundred yards east of the Hess Station, a Daytona Beach patrol car sat parked.
“This year is weak,” said Dizzo, a stunt rider from Detroit. “The cops are weak.”
Riders snapped pictures with digital cameras, or stood around talking and smoking cigarettes. They were expecting the arrival of the StarBoyz, a crew from Ohio that was getting so well known to police, Dizzo said, that they pulled over one of his own riders — who call themselves Scooter Trash — and asked “if he was one of them crazy StarBoyz.”
Sgt. Rhodes acknowledged he reads the stunters’ magazines to figure out who’s coming for Bike Week.
By midnight, the StarBoyz still hadn’t shown up.
Most of the sportbike riders don’t stunt; they just come to watch. And most of those gathered on this night have little interest in Main Street.
“What’s there?” asked one. “A Confederate flag? Some T-shirts?”
“I like Harleys, I like choppers,” explained Brad Shaw, a 21-year-old from Milwaukee. “But while I’m young I’ll be riding sportbikes.”
YOUTH MARKET
The sportbike market has increased dramatically since the mid-1990s, some years growing at nearly 10 percent as makers including Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha scramble to load the newest racing technology into each year’s bikes — and still keep prices within the reach of younger riders.
Many sportbikes retail for less than $10,000, whereas the average price of a new motorcycle is $11,500, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, and Harleys can run much higher. Harley claims only a sliver of the sportbike market through its Buell motorcycle line.
Sportbike riders are more ethnically diverse, says the council: 18 percent are black, Asian, or Hispanic, as opposed to 5 percent of the “cruiser” market segment, which includes Harleys.
And industry experts say they’re more urban, which is why they’re not often seen in Sturgis, N.D., where bikers must camp out, but they come in droves to Daytona Beach, where hotels and motels abound.
“Bike Week is changing,” said Don Graves of the Power Sports Group, which is putting on the expo. “And the type of people on motorcycles are changing.”
But culturally, he said, Harley is still king in Daytona. Even if you can’t do a highchair wheelie on one.
WELCOME TO THE SHOW
The California-based Motorcycle Industry Council has nothing good to say about stunt riders, and its emphasis on motorcycle safety is rather fervent.
“Stunt riding and general hooliganism is not behavior we condone and we think it shows a total lack of respect for other users,” said spokesman Mike Mount.
By Virginia Smith, Daytona News-jrnl
–from Rogue
Wisconsin Assembly Passes Helmet Bill That Benefits Bikers Hupy Will Contact Governor Doyle
Yesterday, March 2, 2004, the Wisconsin Assembly passed SB223 by a vote of 84 to 12 which, if signed by the Governor, will prevent insurance companies from reducing damages received by bikers who are not wearing a helmet.
Attorney Hupy and Tony Sanfelipo, founder of ABATE of Wisconsin, both testified before the Wisconsin Senate and the Wisconsin Assembly in favor of the original Bill sponsored by Wisconsin State Senator David Zien. Hupy and Sanfelipo also helped write the language of the Bill.
Under current Wisconsin law bikers can be penalized if they receive a head injury in a motorcycle accident although there is no Wisconsin law requiring them to wear a helmet. Injury victims in Wisconsin who are not wearing a seatbelt can only have their awards reduced by a maximum of 15%.
Hupy, Sanfelipo and members of ABATE of Wisconsin recently involved in a lobbying effort to get the Bill sent from committee to the floor and passed by the Assembly. The Senate previously passed the Bill and sent it to the Assembly.
Predictions are that Governor James Doyle will sign the Bill and Attorney Hupy plans to contact him personally to emphasize its importance.
THE MARTIAL ARTS MASTER CHECKS IN
My 12V battery is dead. I don’t thinK there is a warrantee on batteries, but I’m just checking with you of the possibility.
This evening at 5PM the students at IMB will be practicing for a Spearmint gum commercial. The Casting Company will be at the IMB Academy on Saturday at 6PM to pick some female muay thai fighers and extras for this commercial. Those who are selected for the Muay Thai commercial have a chance to earn $550.00 per day and a SAG card. The extras, for the audience participation or those who are training on the side, will be compensated at $150.00 per day.
Aloha, RSBustillo
www.IMBACADEMY.com
The Sunday Religious Message
Despite how you may have personally felt about the issue, there was a good logical reason for removing the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Supreme Court building.
You cannot post things like “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery”, and “Thou Shall Not Lie” in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment.
Chopper Unltd Frames
Here are some shots Choppers Unltd. just sent me of their new (carbon steel) XL rigid going together. They’re working a few kinks out regarding motor mounts, but are basically ready to rock.
–jksiebenthaler@earthlink.net
www.siebenthalercreative.com
Q-Ball Hung In Harrisburg
That’s right brothers and sisters. Q-Ball A.K.A. Doug Barber Photographer was caught making art? He will be hung in the Susquehanna Art Museum along with other conspirators like Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, Thomas Zummer, and James Hyde.
“Motorcycles and Art, If I Have to Explain it…”
March 14, 2 – 4 p.m. Opening and party.
They’ll hang til June 30, 2004.
Susquehanna Art Museum
301 Market Street Harrisburg, Pa. 17101
717-233-8668
It’s A Dog’s Tribute
This pic was of my wife’s little Chiwawa in his leathers, who loved to ride, but died shortly after the pic was taken of Leukemia. Can you believe that, a dam dog getting Leukemia?
Hope your new digs are what ya want .
Terry G.
mailto:tgoode@earthlink.net
Sunday International News The wives of four Presidents and Prime Ministers are talking together about how a penis is called in their language. The wife of Tony Blair says in England people call it a gentleman, because it stands up when women are entering.
The wife of Boris Yeltsin says in Russia people call it a patriot, because it always rises to the occasion.
The wife of Chirac says in France people call it a curtain, because it goes down after the act.
Hillary says in the USA people call it a rumor, because it goes from mouth to mouth. Rogue
TIME TO RIDE–We’ve pumped the site fulla new content, but next week it will collect some dust. I’m not slackin’, just loading trucks for the five mile haul. I’ll be a busy mutha with the help of San Pedro Buster, Wrench, Mark (the blondes new boyfriend), Nuttboy, Sin Wu, Crazy John, Kraig, Renegade, Layla and Kyle. Pray for clear skies and smooth trips.
About break-ups. We all face them from time to time. I have a couple of codes. During the passion of heart break nothing seems to work but what the hell. A brother needs to know that this menace will pass, he needs to be aware that everyone goes through this at one time or another, and he needs to be more of a man than at anytime and not to do something stupid, that he would regret in the future. One more thing. When it’s over and that other person no longer haunts your hears, you’ll wonder, “What the hell was that all about?”
Of course, the touch of another woman can help. Okay, let’s get the hell out of here. I rode the King yesterday, charged the Panhead battery, and adjusted the Shovelhead clutch. When they open the gates, we gotta move fast. Ride forever,
–Bandit
