Hey,
Here’s the deal. Just returned from our ride to Half Moon Bay on a peninsula just south of San Francisco for the Legend of the Motorcycle Concourse. I thought it was located at the same austere venue as the car Concourse D’ Elegance in Pebble Beach. Half Moon Bay/Pebble Beach, what’s the difference? Just another 100 miles.
The Ride with Jeremiah, Billy Lane, Tattoo John and Christian, the boss of Sucker Punch was cool, hot and winding. We all rode kicker old bikes, except John’s rusting Evo, so we moseyed along the jagged coast at 60 mph. I’ll bring you a report in a couple of days. In the meantime let’s hit the news. Rumor has it that this Ritz Carlton event is being moved way south next year. We’ll bring you reports:
Brass Balls Bobbers and IronWorks Magazine Collaborate on a Unique Giveaway Bike– Montgomery, Alabama — April 30, 2008 — Dar Holdsworth from Brass Balls Bobbers & Choppers of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and IronWorks magazine announce the building of a one-of-a-kind bobber to be influenced by the readers of the magazine. New subscribers and current subscribers that renew to IronWorks for a year will be automatically signed up to win the bike they helped to design.
The IronWorks readers can visit Brass Balls Bobbers website or click through IronWorks website to access the design page. Twenty-one aspects of the bike will be voted on and the parts with the highest number of votes will be installed on the bike. The magazine will update the winning parts in each issue until all the components are voted on. The build will also be covered on Bikernet.com.
The winner will be randomly selected on January 31, 2008 and will be presented with the bike at Bike Week in Daytona, Florida in March of 2009.
Links:
Brass Balls Bobbers & Choppers
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
www.darwinmotorcycles.com
IronWorks Magazine
www.ironworksmag.com
PANEL OKS REPEAL OF LA HELMET LAW– BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana should stop forcing adult motorcyclists to wear helmets, but begin requiring that new bikers undergo safety training before getting a license, a House committee voted on Tuesday.
Rep. Mert Smiley’s bill, which has Gov. Bobby Jindal’s support, would require bikers under age 18 to wear helmets, but not adults. The bill would create a mandatory training course for anyone applying for a license to operate a motorcycle.
The House Transportation committee voted 10-5 to send the bill to the House floor.
Among other things, the safety course will teach future bikers of the importance of wearing a proper helmet, instead of plastic “novelty” helmets that offer far less skull protection than authorized helmets, Smiley said. Combined with the training course, he said passage of his bill would mean the state will produce better trained and better equipped bikers.
“More people will start wearing helmets and they’ll be better educated than they are now,” said Smiley, R-Port Vincent, who is a motorcyclist.
Louisiana is one of 20 states that require all motorcyclists to wear a helmet, a statute that safety activists say saves lives in accidents.
Smiley’s bill moved forward despite opposition from James Champagne, former head of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, who mocked Smiley’s position as “tantamount to believing in the tooth fairy.”
Louisiana had a mandatory helmet law until Gov. Mike Foster, a motorcyclist, backed its repeal. The helmet law was reinstated under Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
Jindal, a Foster protege, included in his campaign for governor last year a pledge to support the law’s repeal, saying bikers should be able to decide for themselves whether to wear a helmet.
The instructional course on motorcycling would go into effect after July 1, 2009, to be taught by the Department of Public Safety.
–from Rogue
I always find these report to be so slanted. It’s not just about freedom. Helmets cause accidents, break necks, etc. I wore a full helmet to Half Moon Bay, and twice almost pulled in front of a cars because the helmet blocked my peripheral vision and was in my mirror’s blind spot. –Bandit
D&D PERFORMANCE ENTERPRISE GOES DEALER DIRECT
D&D has broken ties with motorcycle distributor Custom Chrome. Dealers that have a need-for-speed and performance-oriented exhaust systems should call 817-834-8961 to place their orders. Customers will still be able to purchase D&D pipes from their local dealers but dealers will purchase direct from the manufacturer. Sighting issues of improved customer support and quicker access to new product, Dave Rash had this to say:
?We have decided to work directly with our national dealer network to increase customer support and reduce distribution costs.?
Every D&D exhaust is American made and dyno-tune for each engine, which ensures improved horsepower, tone and torque gains. Click here to visit danddexhaust.com for the latest in performance oriented exhaust systems.
KENNY CHESNEY HEADLINES GLENCOE NATION?S ROCK?N THE RALLY AT 68th ANNUAL STURGIS BIKE WEEK–Glencoe Combines the Best in Bike Week Accommodations with World-Class Entertainment.
STURGIS, S.D. ?May 5, 2008? Sturgis Bike Week, recognized as one of the biggest and best bike rallies in the world, will celebrate its 68th year this August 4-10, 2008. This year, Glencoe Nation?s Rock?N The Rally will host the biggest, baddest entertainment line-up of the week. The series of Rock?N The Rally shows will culminate with a performance on Aug. 6 by one of the biggest touring country acts in the world, Kenny Chesney.
Kenny Chesney?s list of accolades and accomplishments is long and distinguished. Chesney has sold more than 25 millions albums and produced more than thirty Top Ten singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, thirteen of which reached Number One. Additionally, Chesney has received six ?Entertainer of the Year? awards from the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music, and multiple American Music and Country Music Television awards. Chesney is considered one of the most popular touring acts in country music and his 2007 Flip-Flop Summer Tour was the highest-grossing country road trip of 2007. He has sold more than one million concert tickets every year for the last six years. Chesney?s Poets and Pirates Tour, sponsored by Corona Extra, is currently the only country tour to play NFL stadiums.
Tickets to Kenny Chesney?s performance on Aug. 6 in Sturgis, S.D. are available at www.startickets.com. Glencoe camping information and additional line-up announcements may be found at Rock?N The Rally?s website: www.rockntherally.com.
AND NOW FROM THE EUROPEAN FRONT–Poland’s worst air disaster occurred today when a small two-seater Cessna 152 crash landed into a cemetery early this afternoon in central Poland. Polish search and rescue workers have recovered 826 bodies so far and expect that number to climb as digging continues into the evening.
–from Bob Clark
AUSTIN CONVENTION AND VISITOR’S BUREAU– welcomes all Bikers to the 14th Annual Republic of Texas Biker Rally!
The 2008 Republic of Texas Biker Rally will rumble Austin, Texas for 4 days of hard-rocking live music with a diverse showcase of 50-plus bands, Extreme Fighting Championship, Celebrity Bike Builders, the first ever – Austin Speed Shop Invitational, Big Texas Chop Off, Military Bike Give-away, Ride-In-Bike Show, World Famous Wall of Death, Roller Girls, Paradise Bar, Cowboy Bar, Motorcycle Parade, Steamy Texas Heat, Cold Beer, Hot Babes, Ultra Fine Hot Rods and Bitchin Bikes!
Pre-register today, roll up to ROT, and swing by registration to pick up your FREE Official 2008 ROT Rally T-Shirt. Pre-Registration Ends May 15th! Get your Rally Ticket NOW and don’t forget to purchase your Fight Ticket for the Extreme Fighting Championship on Saturday! ROT wristband and Fight ticket are required for entrance into the Extreme Fight Championship. All other ROT attractions are FREE with a paid admission!
MYRTLE BEACH BIKE WEEK : May 9th – 17th — The Ridley Transporter will be setup in Myrtle Beach at Graham Golf Cars with Demo Rides, Factory Staff, Accessories, ‘0eight models, & MORE!
Come by during the event and demo the motorcycle that is changing the way people ride! Made in the USA, Ridley Motorcycle is the innovator who’s vision has brought fully automatic transmission motorcycles to the American motorcycle rider. One ride, and we’re confident you’ll buy!
Featured during Myrtle Beach is the new Ridley TRIKE! It’s the latest innovation from Ridley that incorporates the company’s fully automatic transmission and three wheels.
Also on display will be the ‘eight Auto-Glide Limited Edition. This one of twenty limitedly produced model is a great example of the quality and attention to detail Ridley demands!
RIDLEY FACTORY DISPLAY
3900 S. Kings Highway | Myrtle Beach, SC
One mile north of the original Myrtle Beach HD Dealership.
AMERICAN THUNDER TV — The wildly popular motorcycle show featured on SpeedTV will be filming an upcoming episode showcasing the Ridley’s during the Myrtle Beach Bike Week Event. Ridley wants you! That’s right. If you’re a Ridley Owner or want to be one, we want you to stop by the Ridley Display to participate in the filming with the American Thunder Crew. The episode will feature several Ridley Owners, the Ridley Crew, Ridley Dealers, and Demo Riders
Attending Dealers: Hager Cycle World (Rock Hill, SC), Route 66 Ridley (Carthage, MO), Cycles & Trikes (Frederick, MD), and Boss Hoss Cycles of VA (Richmond, VA).
BUCK LOVELL’S ART BEHIND THE LENSES–Buck?s photo-art captures the essence of the motorcycle. The camera is his paint and brush and through his artistry he is able to record the stance, design and attitude of our American two-wheeled rolling art.
Buck?s been shooting custom motorcycles since Ed Roth published his miniature chopper book in the ?60s. All of our 13″ X 19″ prints offered by Buck Lovell in the Black Market are photo-poster art derived from 35 years of his legendary motorcycle photography.
Buck?s creations are now in the Bandit’s Black Market. Take a look.
–Bandit
HINES AND SCREAMIN? EAGLE V-ROD WIN AGAIN AT GATEWAY–It?s Two NHRA Wins in a Row for Hines; Krawiec Makes Semi-Finals.
MADISON, Ill.. (May 4, 2008) ? Screamin? Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines rode a Harley-Davidson V-Rod to his second Pro Stock Motorcycle win of the season at the 12th Annual O?Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Castrol at Gateway International Raceway. Hines defeated NitroFish/Torco Buell rider Matt Smith in the final round to take his second consecutive win of the season and the 15th of his career. Four races into the 2008 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle season, Hines has appeared in three final rounds, has two wins, and leads the series by 56 points.
?Four races and three finals and two wins, it’s just a tribute to how good my team is,? said Hines. ?They like being on top and they’re giving me a motorcycle underneath me to be there a lot this year. It’s so fun right now. There’s a lot of work back at the shop for the guys and they’re just trying to dig and scrape and find anything they can to help us out. This is a perfect way to go into a month-off swing. It’s going to be fun once we get to Chicago. Everybody else in the class is going to go home and do their homework. At this point last year we went out and made 40 test runs and went out and won Chicago. We plan on doing the same thing. We’re not going to slack off any bit, we’re just going to enjoy this win right now.?
Hines qualified third for the event with a pass of 6.943 seconds, behind Chip Ellis (6.907) and Smith, who lead the field with a pass of 6.901. Screamin? Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Eddie Krawiec was right behind Hines, qualifying fourth at 6.945.
Hines opened Sunday?s elimination rounds with an event-best 6.875 pass to beat Joe DeSantis, and then defeated Karen Stoffer and Ellis to reach the final. Krawiec beat Mike Berry and Angelle Sampey before losing to Smith on the starting line in the semi-final round, as both riders posted 6.965 runs down the track. In the final, Smith and Hines left the line together but Smith?s bike faltered down the track and Hines collected the win, 6.882 to 8.098. Hines has now posted 16 consecutive six-second runs.
The win by Hines and a first-round loss by Matt Guidera shuffled the points standings after four rounds in the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. Hines leads with 405 points, followed by Smith with 349, and Chip Ellis with 325. Guidera, who was second coming into Gateway, drops to fourth with 296 points. Krawiec is sixth with 220 points. NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycles will race next at the Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals, June 5-8 at Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, Ill.
Screamin’ Eagle Performance Parts are inspired by and built in the spirit of the raw adrenaline and power of motorcycle racing. Screamin’ Eagle Pro parts are specifically designed for race-use applications, while Screamin’ Eagle parts offer street-use performance options for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle owner.
The Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines Pro Stock Motorcycle team is sponsored by Ford Truck, Dunlop, Matco Tools and S100.
DOUGZ CUSTOM PAINT HAS A REQUEST– The last couple of weeks we’ve had a noticeable increase in traffic here at the shop which – if they were profitable visits – I’d be saying ‘Praise God’! The problem is 90% of the increase is for no other reason than to just stop by to say Hi and to check out our progress on the 50th Anniversary bike.
We’ve been tracking this and in the last week alone we’ve had 49 separate visits and at least as many phone calls. If you consider each one of these a 10 minute interruption (which many can be well over that) it is really slowing down this build which we ALL know must be completed in 7 weeks.
Here’s what I’m asking for….
If you must stop in PLEASE make sure the reason you’re here is business related NOT simply to visit or ask questions about the build. We appreciate your interest, friendship and patronage more than you’ll ever know, and as good friends we know you’ll understand that we need to devote as much time as possible to this project – as we do with your’s when it is in our shop.
We’ll all have time to catch up during and after the 50th Anniversary celebration and I look forward to seeing you all at that event!
Thanks again for all of your support!!
Doug Wozney
DOUGZ Custom Paint & Fabrication LLC
2323 Palace St. La Crosse, Wi. 54603
(608) 783-3684
doug@dougz.com / www.dougz.com
Harley-Davidson Museum ANNOUNCES GRAND OPENING date–MILWAUKEE (May 6, 2008) ? Nearly 105 years in the making, the Harley-Davidson Museum, located near downtown Milwaukee, will open its doors to the public on Saturday, July 12. Grand Opening festivities will kick off with a Harley-Davidson-style ceremony at 10 a.m. and will continue throughout the weekend.
The 130,000-square-foot Museum will add a whole new dimension to the Harley-Davidson experience. Visitors will get a feel for the freedom, camaraderie and pride that Harley-Davidson riders experience every time they fire up their motorcycles.
Museum visitors will:
? Walk through a variety of exhibits that tell the stories of the extraordinary people, products, history and culture of Harley-Davidson. In addition to the fantastic motorcycle collection, stories are told through a variety of media – including photographs, videos, apparel, rare documents and other fascinating artifacts.
? Peek into a portion of the Archives, never before open to the public, and home base to more than 450 motorcycles, and hundreds of thousands of artifacts that the Archives team can pull from for Museum exhibits
? Read the various personalized messages created by individuals worldwide on the Living the Legend rivets, found on the Living the Legend walls and plazas
? Grab a bold American meal or snack from the on-site Restaurant and Cafe
? Stroll around the 20 acre Museum site, enjoy the riverwalk or just sit back along the waterfront taking in the Milwaukee skyline
? Check out the unique Museum-inspired items at the Retail Store
? Examine the industrial architecture and attention to detail found both inside and outside of the Museum?s three buildings
The Harley-Davidson Museum, located at the intersection of Sixth and Canal Streets in Milwaukee?s Menomonee Valley, will be open 364 days a year.
General admission tickets to tour the Museum are $16 for adults, $12 for students and seniors, $10 for children (ages 5-17 years), and children under 5 years of age will be admitted free with an accompanying adult. Visit www.h-dmuseum.com News just received from Belt Drive Betty regarding the Canadian Championship of Bike Building–“To everyone involved with the 2008 Canadian Championship of Bike Building Apparently the City of East Selkirk and the gentleman who was supposed to be running the show have had some sort of fall out and we will not be able to host the show there. So in light of this rather startling last minute change of events I am announcing that the winner of Regina ? the Western Canadian Championships, to be held this weekend May 10-11, will be representing Canada at Sturgis. See www.reginacustombikeshow.com for more details of the event. I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused everyone, but at this late date there is nothing that can be done to salvage things. We look forward to having the Western Championships become our Canadian National Show for next year and look forward to those discussions coming up this month. Thank you for your time and, again, I apologize.” Belt Drive Betty BRASS BALLS BUILD–OFF FOR THE TROOPS–Attached are some teaser pictures of the military themed bike we are building for the build off. Basically, the “Veterans Rock & Roll Ride, Inc” a non-profit company owns and operates the motorcycle rally known as “Branson Rock Ride Remember. The “Veterans” provide the builders $10,000.00 to build a bike with a military theme. The bike can has to be delivered to the “Veterans” rally by May 15th for the rally which is the 15-18th. The Veterans own the bike. Winner is judged on “peoples choice” and judging goes on each day. The winner is announced Saturday evening, May 17th. –Dar BIKERNET TECH QUESTION OF THE WEEK–I saw on your web site where you talk about the fact that S&S has designedtheir own oil filter. However, I can’t find it anywhere on their site. Doyou know where I can get the S&S oil filters? –Jeff Szlauko All S&S dealers have S&S oil filters but if you want to order it online, simply visit www.sscycle.com www.sscycle.com and go to the “shop online” tab, then to “service parts”. The oil filters, Mobil 1 oil and air filters are available there. –Howard Kelly
AKA Renee Charbonneau
10908-102 St.
Grande Prairie, AB T8V 2X3
Phone:780-402-8892
Fax: 780-830-4947
Email: bdbetty@gmail.com
jeff.szlauko@intertek.com
Communications Manager
S&S Cycle
(608) 627-0284
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