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BIKERNET OZARK REPORT–NEW BIKES RULE–Just a few years ago, maybe four at the most, I had the newest bike of most of my friends. Now, everyone has a new bike. Philip just bought him a dyna. It’s not new but it only has about 1500 miles on it.
He’s been saying he was going to get it but he finally worked it all out on Friday. He’s a big guy. 6’2 or 3 and about 325. He has this little Panhead bike he built that’s a tiny little bike. He always looked strange being that big on such a tiny bike. You had it on the website for a trophy he won at the ABATE swap meet last year.
Anyway, his girl is a big girl and the Pan didn’t have a seat and the fender stopped at his ass, so there was no way even a tiny girl like my girl could ride on it. He and his girl came over Friday night on the dyna and we went riding. this bike is not much bigger than the pan but it has a seat for two. They used every bit of that seat, and both were hanging over the ends. It was funny as hell and, every time we would stop they would both bitch about the conditions. I laughed my ass off all night.
It was freezing cold and we were all decked in winter stuff and that just added more size to us. We rode out to Miss kittys, to the river, over to Rodneys shop, and anywhere Philip thought he might see someone to show his bike to. It was a great time.
I don’t know why everyone is buying new bikes at the beginning of winter. They paid the same price that they were going to pay in the spring. Now everyone wants to go riding. My chaps will see plenty of action this year. At least I hope so…
–Ozark Ed
BRAZILIAN CHAPERONES RIDE HARLEYS– They share their name -“batedores” – with the pioneers who once hacked their wayinto the depths of the Brazilian rain forest with machetes,opening paths through the dense tropical undergrowth.
But the 138 men and two women who serve under Capt. S?rgioMerlo of the S?o Paulo military police as motorcycleoutriders wield no knives. They slice, instead, through thechaos of S?o Paulo astride shiny scarlet-and-whiteHarley-Davidson Police Road Kings, clearing the way for thelimousined entourage of whichever president, princess orrock star is in town.
Their reward? Apart from a modest $300 salary, snapshotswith the stars – Michael Jackson even asked for a uniform -who most Brazilians could only dream of meeting.
In a city with 18 million people, five million cars and10,000 miles of mostly pothole-pocked tarmac, theirs is anear-Herculean task. At rush hour, over 60 miles of snarledtraffic is the norm.
So traumatizing is S?o Paulo traffic that C?cero Barrosmakes his living off a chain of driving schools he foundedthat offer workshops with psychologists to drivers whoalready have their license, but are too scared to brave S?oPaulo traffic.
“The mood in traffic is so hostile that some people developmore than fear,” he said. “It becomes a phobia.”
So Captain Merlo’s outriders need a mix of courage, guileand patience to carve through the traffic. Unlike policemotorbike escorts in other large cities, they are much morethan ornamental. Yet they do not have the luxury of sealingoff whole routes to let a dignitary’s convoy pass.
“If any of my officers totals a bike” – which retail inBrazil for $28,000 – “he’ll be paying it off for the restof his life,” Captain Merlo said.
Hence the forceful style of the “hackers” in traffic.
“They ride by with one boot raised as if they were ready tokick in the car door,” said Aylton Jelmayer, 52, who hasbeen driving taxis in S?o Paulo for 32 years. “But I guessthey have to be like that. Here you see cases where thetraffic won’t pull aside even for an ambulance with itssirens on.”
–from TBear
BIKERNET AUSTRALIAN REPORTER TAKES LEAVE OF ABSENCE– This will come as a shock to those of you who know me well, but I have made the monumental decision to take a complete year off.
There are a number of reasons, but the major contributor to my decision has been my involvement with a guerrilla group in Bolivia, who are fighting for freedom and justice against unbelievable odds.
I have been communicating with this group for several months, and now finally will join them. I know most of you will think I am totally crazy but I have not made this decision lightly.
Nothing you can say or do will stop me doing what I truly believe in.
I hope to see you again when the battle is won…..
–Ray R.
FREE BIKERNET STICKERS– Send us a self-addressed stamped envelope and we?ll send you free stickers. Mail it to:
Bikernet.com
P.O. Box 1168
San Pedro, CA 90733-1168
HAWAIIAN EVENT COMIN’– Our event is 2 weeks away!! And we’d like to thank all those who donated and supported us, Very Much!! And those that couldn’t we’d like to thank you also for your time.
Roy Gomez,Hawaiian Dragons MC,And the TOYS 4 TOTS Committee…. We’d all like to say MAHALO NUI LOA!!! Thank you very much and have a safe Holiday Season, God Bless……..
Mahalo Nui Loa,
Darren P.
Dragon Productions
94-823 Kime St.
Waipahu, HI. 96797
dragonproduction@aol.com
ENGLISH JOURNALIST LOOKING FOR A HORSE–Hi Rogue,Been home 10 days and its rained for 9 of them.I have a favour to ask. After an initial contact with The Horse BC via email when they showed interest in my work I’ve sent about 10 e-mails to them since Aug this year, but have not had a reply. Your buddy Bandit seems to be tight with them, maybe you could ask him to ask them if they are receiving my mails and if so why they aren’t answering them. I have a lot of material that’s very much their style – Pan, Knuck and Shovel chops, plus a few Brits and nasty Japs, both from the US and the UK and Europe and the text that’s already written for the features is very much their anti-Yuppie biker style.
I could send the features to Crossroads as they use my material already almost every month, but they would cut all of the sarcasm and acerbic nuances out of the text as it’s not really their style – and anyway, I have enough ‘nice’ HOG-type features for them to use.
I’d very much like to get these features published in the Horse, (and it’s not just the money as they’ve already told me that they don’t pay much, I really like the mag), but for whatever reasons they don’t answer my e-mails. I’ve included a sample text and a couple of jpegs of a rigid Shovel so that you can see that the features I’m talking about would fit the Horse format,
Any pull you have with these people would be appreciated, Regards,
–Bob
Geno will receive a dynamite laden missive in tomorrow’s mail.
BIKERNET FIRE CHIEF CHECKIN’ IN–I’ll be you didn’t know that the Bikernet compound is so large we have our own fire department. Karl Keierleber is the chief. For the last ten years he was the Chief of the Fire Department in Scottsdale, Arizona. He rode with me and Myron Larrabee, Mr. Easyriders, to Sturgis two years in a row. He has recently accepted the position as the Bikernet Fire Chief. His duty generally is to put out fires between the staff members. Here’s a note from the man:
Into an Irish pub comes Paddy Murphy, looking like he’d just been run over by a train. His arm is in a sling, his nose is broken, his face is cutand bruised and he’s walking with a limp.
“What happened to you?” asks Sean, the bartender.
“Jamie O’Conner and me had a fight,” says Paddy.
“That little shit, O’Conner,” says Sean,”he couldn’t do that to you, he must have had something in his hand.”
“That he did,” says Paddy,”a shovel is what he had, and a terrible lickin’ he gave me with it.”
“Well,” says Sean,”you should have defended yourself, didn’t you have something in your hand?”
“That I did,” said Paddy. “Mrs. O’Conner’s breast, and a thing of beauty it was, but useless in a fight.”
–Karl
IN MEMORIUM OF LOU TRACHTENBERG OF STD DEVELOPMENT–Nov. 18th, Chatsworth, CA- Lou Trachtenberg, 52, owner and founder ofSTD Development in Chatsworth, CA, passed away unexpectedly this weekendfrom yet to be determined causes after falling ill and beinghospitalized the day before. Lou had a history of medical problemsincluding kidney failure, which had been resolved 3 years earlier with akidney transplant donation from one of his company employees.
Located in Chatsworth, Ca, STD Development was founded by Lou in 1975. Aspecialist in race car engine building who also had a passion forHarleys, Low saw the need in the Harley market for much strongerreplacement Harley cases for use in high performance applications. Hisnew company was started by designing, building and offering the firstever complete set of performance replacement cases for the American BigTwin. Over the years the STD product line grew to include performancehead assemblies, transmissions, and now complete engine and drive trainassemblies. Lou took pride in building what are renown to be among thestrongest, best performing products for the American V-Twin market.
An honest, no bull kind of guy with a great sense of humor, Lou wasloved and respected by everyone who knew him. In his Last Will, Lou leftSTD company ownership to his employees who will continue running thecompany with the same pride in the products they build.
Any information regarding a memorial ceremony for Lou Trachtenberg,expected to be held later this week, will be noted on the STD websiteat: www.STDdevelopment.com or friends can phone STD Development at(818) 998-0210.
–from TBear
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