Hey,
This is going to be an outstanding news column. All week long we collect related news from all over the planet. Each week it takes on a milieu of characteristics. Usually one bastard sticks out to become the overwhelming Zen vibe for this week. We scramble to bring you anything and everything that’s happening in our industry and related items from outside our galaxy.
As we scramble to put all these elements together, I catch a notion of our economic standing, the level of excitement in the industry, a measure of the entrepreneurial spirit, and our relationship to the authorities and the legislative front.
This week, I’m feeling good. You’ll note a heightened level of product development and bike building spirit. The H-D factory is still grappling with our economy, but they will overcome. As you will see, there’s no end to the new products and hot bikes being build. This coming decade, might be the age of the small business, if the fucking, esurient banks will cough up a few loans. Let’s hit it:
OHIOAN GARY ZORN WINS BRASS BALLS MILITARY BOBBER RAFFLE– The Military Bobber was Raffled Off @ Broken Spoke Saloon During Biketoberfest
Gary Zorn purchased his winning raffle ticket at Rick Fairless’ Strokers Dallas motorcycle dealership to support the Intrepid Fallen Heros Fund and won the bike during Biketoberfest on Friday, October 16th at the Broken Spoke Saloon.
Earlier in the year, Gary was in Dallas visiting family and decided to checkout Strokers. He is a big supporter of the military and purchased three tickets, one for him, one for his son and one for his son-in-law.
Gary currently rides a 1995 Fat Boy and is looking forward with great expectations in adding this Digger Bobber to his stable. ?I?m getting calls from family and friends saying that they want to help me out by riding the bike for me,? said a laughing Zorn. ?And since this bike represents so much, from supporting the troops to American ingenuity, I will be sharing it with my buddies.?
?There are so many individuals that I would like to thank in contributing time and effort in this project,? said Dar Holdsworth, Brass Ball Bossman. ?They include Howard Kestenberg for getting the project rolling, Keith Ball of Bikernet, Chris Callen of Cycle Source, Ray Wheeler, Wacko, Bob Kay of A Bikers Garage, Rick Fairless of Strokers Dallas, Saddleman, Jay Allen of the Broken Spoke Saloon, my wife, our Brass Balls? team and Sal Digiacomo.?
The Brass Balls? Digger Bobber features an army green paint scheme and the logo of each branch of the service etched into the open primary, dramatically highlighting all five branches. The frame is clear coated to show off the welds and construction? a no nonsense military style.
Manufacturers that contributed to the original build of the Digger includes John White of Crazy Horse for his stunning V-Plus powerplant, Jeral Tidwell on his creative paint theme, Hawg Halters for controls, Crime Scene Choppers for their headlight and air cleaner, Tauer Machine LLC. for the open primary, Scott Webster of Leroy Thompson for the hammered brass signature series grips, and Rich Phillips with Bikersaddles.com for the hand tooled leather seat.
The award winning motorcycle won the Military Bike Build-Off in Branson, Missouri held on May 15-18, 2008. Howard Kestenberg purchased the bike for the Intrepid Fallen Heros Fund and Brass Balls spearheaded the raffle program.
About Darwin Motorcycles Darwin Motorcycles was created in June 2006 by motorcycle designer Dar Holdsworth. The firm has mastered the ability to fuse timeless old-school bike styles with key racing designs. The company manufactures a range of custom bikes, including special one-off builds, choppers, and its Brass Balls Bobbers line. The Oklahoma-based custom bike manufacturer specializes in building a line of track-inspired quality bikes for the “average Joe.” The factory is located at 401 S. Blackwelder Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73108. Visit the company online at www.darwinmotorcycles.com.
Dar Holdsworth?s Creed?I believe in America and American made products, especially for the American motorcycling culture. It’s our duty as industry leaders to keep the quality of our products high, as well as keeping our company strong. I source quality American-made products and market American innovation.?
For custom bike and dealer information please contact:Dar Holdsworth, 405.388.8883, EVOLVE@DARWINMOTORCYCLES.COM.
For media information please contact:Jeffrey Najar, 919-383-0500, pr@ bikerpros.com.
BIKERNET ENGLISH CLASS WORD OF THE DAY,esurient ih-SUR-ee-uhnt; -ZUR-, adjective:Hungry; greedy.–
The enemy then was an esurient Soviet Union which, having swallowed up Eastern Europe, had imposed a totalitarian system on countries just liberated from Nazism.
— Arnold Beichman, As Truman envisioned our role, Washington Times, April 23, 2002
Esurient comes from the present participle of Latin esurire, to be hungry, to desire eagerly, from edere, to eat.
1,200 bikers pay tribute to camp, Bruce Rossmeyer– EUSTIS — Riding near the front of the pack as 1,200 motorcyclists and passengers roared through DeLand on Sunday, Mandy Rossmeyer Campbell spotted a woman standing near U.S. 92 with a sign bearing Bruce Rossmeyer’s name and an angel’s halo.
“That was special,” Campbell said after arriving at Camp Boggy Creek in Lake County on an emotional ride that paid tribute to Rossmeyer — her father and the late owner of Daytona Harley-Davidson — and raised money for one of his favorite charities.
Rossmeyer died in a motorcycle crash July 30 in Wyoming. Campbell — his oldest daughter — her three sisters and brother took their father’s place in leading Sunday’s 15th annual Daytona Harley-Davidson Ride for Children. Their mother, Sandy, rode in a support vehicle with several of her grandchildren.
The event raises money for Camp Boggy Creek, which has served more than 40,000 children with chronic or life-threatening diseases and their families since it opened 1996. Rossmeyer was one of its founders.
One of the children who has benefited from the camp, Bekka Wood of Port Orange, handed out cold lemonade to the arriving bikers Sunday. She later took to the stage to thank the bikers and the Rossmeyer family for their support of the camp.
Bekka, 14, was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 2 1/2 and underwent 2 1/2 years of chemotherapy. The disease is in remission now, but Bekka still under- goes yearly checkups to make sure it doesn’t reoccur.
She has attended Camp Boggy Creek for a week each of the past eight summers. “It’s just a place you can get away,” she said Sunday in an interview. Her favorite activities include boating, fishing and helping to care for the resident animals such as goats, sheep, bunnies and horses.
Bekka, a Spruce Creek High freshman who has five cats at home, would like to be an animal trainer or work at a zoo or maybe be a fashion designer when she grows up.
Sunday was the first time Bekka has been at the camp when the bikers arrived, but she’s been riding on the back of her grandfather’s motorcycle since she was 3 so she could identify with the riders who roared into Boggy Creek late Sunday morning.
“It’s really fun to ride motorcycles,” Bekka said.
Bikers and passengers who paid between $50 and $200 apiece to participate in the event agreed, saying they were out to have a good time and raise money for a good cause.
And she said beginning with 2010, the event will be renamed the Bruce Rossmeyer Ride for Children.
“That will make him smile up in heaven,” she said.
by linda.trimble, Daytona News Journal
–from Rogue
DAYTONA WOMAN CARVES BUSINESS NICHE FOR FEMALE BIKERS–
DAYTONA BEACH — Buying a comfortable motorcycle isn’t easy if you’re a 5-foot tall woman. Most motorcycles are manufactured for men.
But a petite pastor, Kathleen Steele Tolleson of Daytona Beach, has created Roar Motorcycles for Women — catering strictly to female riders. From diamond-tufted seats and matching saddlebags to custom colors and artwork on lowered and modified bikes, Roar’s showroom is crowded with specialty creations for this growing segment of motorcycle buyers.
The Bellevue Avenue shop is where the energetic biker spends most of her time, except when she’s out riding — like during Biketoberfest last week, when she rolled in with her entourage to introduce a designer line of bikes, called “Distinctively Roar,” at the Festival of Speed at the Orlando Ritz-Carlton. Or on Friday when she hosted a “Sisterhood Ride” for many different women riders clubs.
“I want to be the Martha Stewart of the motorcycle industry,” Tolleson said in an interview during Bike Week last March.
And it could happen quicker than she thinks, since a friend nominated her for Martha Stewart’s Dreamers into Doers contest, and she is amazed to have made it through thousands of entries to the top 11. Stewart will pick and announce the winner during a show on Nov. 12, in which Tolleson will appear.
Tolleson has been riding motorcycles for 40 years and was convinced women riders needed their own “stuff.” Research prompted her, along with advice from her business-consultant husband, Rodney, to take a chance on her own shop.
She found Motorcycle Industry Council trade association numbers touting more than 4.3 million women motorcyclists. And a marketing survey from Women Riders Now, an information bureau, indicated a 36 percent jump during the past 10 years. The Minnesota-born Tolleson incorporated Roar in 2005 and began her prowl. She spent more than the first year leveraging credit and studying the market. In 2007, she leased a showroom and work area at 897 Bellevue Ave. and started assembling staff.
Her two daughters, an experienced designer, a leather craftsman and a mechanic are among her motorcycle-customizing crew. And don’t for a moment think Tolleson doesn’t get her hands dirty. She works closely with the team.
First: Gary Lyons of Daytona Beach, whom she had known for 12 years. He once had his own motorcycle business, then was in the business of building houses and later had ABA Door Service. “I shut that down when I came to work for Roar,” said the 65-year-old motorcycle designer. “There’s nothing in the Bible about retiring. I’ve worked my whole life. I wake up in the morning and can’t wait to work on motorcycles. They have to make me go home at night.”
Next: Kevin Steinmann of DeLand. “He’s the project manager — a great mechanic — who was in the military building Blackhawk helicopters. He was working for the Volusia County school system on their computers,” Tolleson said. “But he loves motorcycles.”
Then: Tim Heart, the leather man. “He was working for another operator who closed for health reasons right at the time I was looking for someone,” Tolleson said. She contracts pinstripe artists, air brush artists and hand-art painters for the finish jobs, and the business has two administrative employees.
Much like Martha Stewart, Tolleson, 55, has been developing creative product lines, including an original motorcycle for women, a cosmetic collection for the road and an exclusive fashion line.
Her 36-year-old daughter, Leanne Kaplan, handles merchandising and displays. And Tolleson’s other daughter, Tara Romeo, 33, handles customer service.
“We have developed Windblown, a facial-care and cosmetics road kit, body care and makeup good for wind and sun, that can’t melt or shake apart — and things that aren’t bulky,” Tolleson said. “And they both are helping with our online shopper’s showroom.”
But guys shouldn’t be intimidated. Roar does custom paint, metal polishing and seat work for them, as well. In addition, Roar carries a full line of aftermarket parts, and “if anybody wants his-and-hers, we will work with them on that,” she said.
By AUDREY PARENTE Staff writer, Daytona News Journal
–from Rogue
BIKERNET UNIVERSITY PHILOSOPHY CLASS LESSONS– Eagles may soar, but weasels dont get sucked into jet engines.
What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?
Why do psychics have to ask you your name?
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering, What the hell happened?
Just remember — if the world didn’t suck, we would all fall off.
Light travels faster than sound. That’s why some peopleappear bright until you hear them speak.
Life isn’t like a box of chocolates. It’s more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your butt tomorrow.
–from Donna ONeal
FAMOUS BIKER PHOTOGRAPHY BUILDING HIS BAND–I usually do not get into MySpace or Facebook or Twitter, but in light of me looking for new band members for my band, The Pete Alva Project, I have decided to redo the MySpace page myself and relaunch it with my music on the site. I will announce a new cd later with my original music that is also going into my documentary film on bikers and the biker event lifestyle.
These first two songs featured are going to be on the movie soundtrack of my film and will be available for sale soon and will be performed with the new band later.
If you want to join the myspace page feel free to. I wiped the slate clean for all new members to join and put all new photos on the website. I have another Myspace page for Pete Alva but I prefer that you use this one for it has more of my band and other projects featured.
www.myspace.com/thepetealvaproject
See my friend Ashlee Ricci Miss MySpace USA 2009 on the site!
–Director-Fourdot Films
(310) 921-8116
Independent Media Photographer
PeteAlvaPhotography.com
Editor-BikerEventsMagazine.com
BikerEventsMagazine.com
www.myspace.com/thepetealvaproject
BIKERNET FAMILY COUNSELING SESSION NOTES–When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace expensive.
So, I took her to a gas station.And that’s when the fight started……….
–from Bill Stratton
BIKERNET BIKETOBERFEST ECONOMIC REPORT, Bikers less free-wheeling with spending this time around– ORMOND BEACH — Walking out of a T-shirt vendor’s tent, Kim Brundage digs into the plastic bag in her hand and pulls out an infant-sized jumper emblazoned with a motorcycle logo.
“Isn’t it perfect for Flanna?” the 44-year-old said, showing off the souvenir to her husband, Roger. “She will be able to wear it for a while, she is so tiny.” The Syracuse, N.Y., couple spent the first official day of Biketoberfest 2008 on Thursday doing what a lot of those wandering through Destination Daytona were doing — shopping and browsing among the dozens of businesses at the motorcycle enthusiast’s shopping center.
This year’s souring economy hadn’t changed their spending habits, which Roger, a retired police officer, and his crime analyst wife described as “frugal.”
“We spend most of our money on T-shirts for the grandchildren,” Roger Brundage, 63, said. “That, food and incidentals that catch our eyes.” However, with a budget of only $100 per day — they own and live in a time-shared condominium — the couple aren’t giving the local economy much of a boost. And neither are their Biketoberfest counterparts, at least in the early going this year.
“This is a very slow start,” Paula Palladino, owner of Hawg Tyd Superstore, said of the annual fall motorcycle extravaganza, which many merchants count on for a fiscal jump-start. “I have been doing this 10 years, and this is the slowest I have ever seen.” The Brundages have been coming to Biketoberfest for the past eight years, drawn primarily by the weather and the smaller crowds than Bike Week. Throughout that time, their spending has remained pretty much the same, whether the economy was up or down. “We save for four to six months putting away our nickels and dimes,” Roger said. Their fellow travelers, Mike and Mary Kay Manns, also of Syracuse, keep a tight grip on their wallets as well. But their budget is somewhat more extensive. “We both bring $1,000 in cash,” said Mike Manns, 41, who is also a police officer. “And we usually don’t spend all that.” Manns admits the tanking economy does influence his perception of the world, particularly when it affects the family medical records business. But, at least this year, it hasn’t influenced the couple’s day-to-day Biketoberfest expenditures. He even spent a little time in Daytona Harley-Davidson, sitting on a new bike, contemplating the motorcycle’s $45,000 price tag.
“If the business were not doing well, we would not have taken a vacation,” Manns said. Manns, who credits his wife with the success of their company, isn’t as confident about the future though. Calling the president’s bailout plan a “Band-Aid” that is only helping the major players and not small fry such as himself, Manns believes, “The economy is going to get worse before it gets better.”
“But it will get better,” said his wife, 44. “It always does.” Roger Brundage said while he doesn’t think his retirement income has been greatly affected by the downturn, he isn’t as confident about the stocks he owns.
By MARK I. JOHNSON Staff Writer, Daytona News Journal
–from Rogue
RARE SUNBEAM MOTORCYCLE DISCOVERED IN THE WILMINGTON GHETTO NEAR BIKERNET HEADQUARTERS–Bandit was spotted riding with the owner of this Sunbeam to Century Motors for an annual Vincent Convention. He is working on a story on the Vincent Club and their history for Back Street Heroes, out of England. Ultimately you’ll see it here on Bikernet.–Wrench
PODCAST: METZELER ROLLS INTO BIKERNET STUDIO–
Chris Wall, Metzeler Marketing Manager, talks about the benefits of Metzeler tires is the ability of the tire not to grow when they get hot.
This allows custom production manufactures like Darwin Motorcycles to bring the finder closer to the tire and deliver a more custom look. RELIABLE HANDLING – By using high-grip tread compound, while at the same time, providing high mileage due to increased tread depth.
MILEAGE – Advanced Silica Compound reduces rolling resistance, which increases mileage. Advanced Silica compounding allows softer compounds to be used, while retaining high mileage.
WET GRIP – Advanced Silica Compound – combined with tread pattern, significantly increases wet grip.
RIDE COMFORT – Softer ride due to high-quality construction materials.
Get more entertainment in Bikernet Studio.
NEW DUMP PIPES FOR RSD AND SFT MODELS–New additions to Paughco?s designer series exhaust systems include these awesome, hardcore chopper DUMP pipes. Designed by Jaun Z, the pipes provide enhanced performance, cool chopper looks and the sound any red blooded chopper freak lives for.
Available for both Right Side Drive and Softail machines, the pipes are 2 ? in diameter and dump just behind the transmission.. Heat shields are available for the RSD version and the SFT model is offered with or without oxygen sensor bungs for 1986 through 2008 machines .
All pipes are finished in Paughco?s durable, show quality chrome. For complete details contact Paughco at 775-246-5738, email to info@paughco or catch them on the Web at www.paughco.com
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