The beer was hot since the cooler broke at the Lake Town Tavern. So Igor and Chick sat at the bar drinking gin and tonics. That’s a drink Chick first met at the British Club in Rabul, New Guinea when a navy destroyer he served on as a boiler tender made a port call to show the flag during the long war they called, “Cold.” Both men lifted their heads to the sound of bikes pulling off the road and into the parking lot.“Hey, bartemptress,” Chick called to Jill, who was tending bar. “Who’s that?”Jill was already looking through the window to see who was coming. Tending bar at a biker hangout, it pays to know who’s about to slam through the front door or the back one.

“A couple of your brothers, I think, but I don’t know ‘em,” Jill said.

She poured two more gin and tonics and put them on the bar in front of Chick and Igor.

“On the house,” she said to Chick. “No one ever called me Bartemptress before. I think I like that.”

Bear, a bulky man with a hairy face, came through the door first and Beaner Bob, a smallish Hispanic looking dude followed him. Beaner stepped lightly and took in the whole scene with one long glance. Bear didn’t seem to see anything. His head was bowed and his shoulders slumped.

“What’s up, Bear?” Chick asked. “You look kind of sheepish.”

“El Jefe’s mad at him,” Bob answered for him. “Caught him in the clubhouse with a nineteen year old chick.”

“So?” Chick responded.

“So, she’s the sheriff’s daughter,” Beaner answered with a chuckle.

Igor grunted. It was a quirk he had: involuntary grunts. When something was funny or caught his attention, Igor would grunt. Sometimes if you told him a joke or a funny story, he’d grab you by the shoulders with both hands, look you in the face, and grunted. He was a big guy and if he got carried away, he could knock you around some during a grunting fit.

This time he just grunted and said, “Watch out for that chick. She’s willing, but Mongo don’t want any of us around her. That includes brothers from other chapters; especially you nomads.”

“Dig ‘em, Chick,” Bear said, “When Mongo gets here he’s gonna be pissed at you ‘cause you’re a nomad too.”

Chick looked at Beaner Bob. Bob looked back and said, “Not me, hermano. El Jefe, me gusta.”

“He went out the back window when Mongo came in the front door,” Bear explained. “Mongo didn’t know he was there. His bike was out back, of course. He rolled down the hill and didn’t pop the clutch till he was out of earshot.”

Beaner Bob was as dependable a brother as any biker could hope for. It’s just that if there is a problem he can’t help with, he doesn’t stick around to get caught up in it. As Beaner explains it, he’s from Columbia and if he gets in too much trouble in the U.S. the feds will send him back to Columbia. He says he’s got good reasons for not wanting to go back there for a while.

Bear sat down at the bar next to Igor and Bob sat down next to Bear.

“Give us a couple of beers,” Bear said to Jill.

“Cooler’s broke, bro,” Igor said. “Beer’s hot, but Jill got a couple of bags of ice from the gas station so we’re having cocktails.”

“Then give me what they’re having,” Bear said to Jill. “Igor’ll pay.”

Igor grunted so Bear said, “It’s your town, your bar, I’m a guest so you buy. Besides, you know if the cooler worked, I’d have a beer and be happy with it.”

Igor nodded to Jill and Jill looked to Beaner Bob who said he’d have a beer. “I don’t care if it’s hot.”

Jill was busy with the bar’s other regulars for a while so the bikers nursed their drinks and told each other heroic lies.

After a while, everyone heard the noise of a pack of Harleys. Most of them had straight pipes. Chick stood up and walked to where he could see the road.

“Here come the bros. Looks like most of ‘em are packing old ladies. I wondered where they were. The meeting ended an hour ‘an a half ago,” Chick said as he sat down at the bar again.

Mongo was the first one through the door and as he headed for a table in the middle of the room, he pointed at Chick and said, “I’m pissed at you, Chick.”

Igor grunted once and Chick looked at his drink. When Mongo sat down, Beaner Bob walked over and set an iced coke on the table. Jill looked over from a table in the corner. Her expression was full of anger, but the anger drained quickly. She couldn’t let these guys get away with serving themselves or the night would end up a wipe-out for the bar. As she took her place behind the bar again, Jill stopped in front of Beaner Bob and said, “Stay on your side of the bar or you’re 86’ed out of here for the weekend.”

Bob looked across the bar earnestly and said, “Lo siento, La Bonita.”

Jill looked hard at Beaner to see if he was putting her on, and she decided he wasn’t. She moved down the bar to Igor and asked what Bob had said.

“I don’t speak Columbian,” Igor said as he slid his glass across the counter.

With her eyes she pointed at Chick’s glass and Igor grunted so she filled both glasses and took the ten dollar bill Igor put on the bar. But before she took the bill, Chick said, “I’m sorry, beautiful one.”

Jill just stared at him so Chick added, “Beaner Bob said, ‘I’m sorry, beautiful one.’”

Jill looked at Beaner Bob who wasn’t paying any attention to Jill or Chick, and said, “He’s from Columbia, right? So why do you call him, Beaner. I thought Beaners were Mexicans.”

Chick shrugged and said, “Most of the brothers probably think Columbia’s in Mexico. He talks like a Mexican so we call him Beaner Bob. What do you call a Columbian biker anyway? His real name is Roberto.”

Jill looked at Igor and said, “Bartemptress, La Bonita, why don’t you bring these Nomads around more often? They seem to have a lot of class.”

Just then, Mongo stepped up to the bar between Igor and Bear and said to Jill, “They got class all right. They can party too and fight. These three guys can clear out a cowboy bar in Rawlings, Wyoming, but then they’re gone down the road leaving the shit for someone else to deal with. And see that shot glass Jill? What these three guys spend here tonight won’t fill that glass.

“I was on the road with Bear one time. I know he had a hundred bucks in his pocket. We stopped at a little casino in Nevada where you get an all you can eat breakfast for three bucks. I ordered up. Bear wanted water. I went through the line and came back to the table to eat. The waitress looked hard at Bear, but he didn’t even smell my food. The waitress went back to work. When the family at the table next to us left, Bear reached over, took sausages off one plate, hash browns off another, dumped ‘em on a pancake from a third plate, covered the whole mess with a half eaten waffle and ate the weird sandwich before the waitress came by again.

“Yeah, Nomads are fun, but there are some catches, Jill.

And speaking of glitches, what’s up with the jukebox? There’s no power to it, or something.”

Jill said, “It’s broke too, Mongo. Cooler’s broke, the jukebox is broken, and you tell me these good looking’ guys are tightwads who cause trouble wherever they go. Seems like everything sucks right now, but the jukebox does work, sort of. Come on, I’ll show ya.”

Jill put Igor’s money in the cash register and filled glasses for a couple of regulars who were shooting pool. Then she took Mongo over to the jukebox and showed him that he cold queue up ten songs at a time, but she warned him that if anyone put coins in the machine, it would jam up.

“The repair man will be here tomorrow, but I’ll put you in charge of the juke box tonight so you guys can have some tunes,” Jill said before she went back to the bar where she was pretty busy until Kate came in at 9:00. After that, things ran pretty well for a while. The bikers mixed with the locals because this was a shared saloon. Sometimes one of the local guys tried to get chesty with a non-biker, but one of the bros told him to be cool. Everyone was drinking except Mongo, who had quit two years ago, but no one was drinking very fast because mixed drinks were $4.50 each. There was one real straight looking guy sitting at the end of the bar near the door. He was drinking slowly, working on some papers, and ignoring everyone, so they ignored him.

At about 10:30, Clean Steve came in with a bug buff looking guy. They walked over to Mongo’s table and Mongo said, “What’s up, Clean?”

Clean Steve said. “This is Larry, Mongo. He’s state arm wrestling champion. He’s gonna be in a tournament on TV next weekend.”

Larry looked at Mongo, who is a real bug guy, and said, “Wanna arm wrestle?” Mongo could see that Steve and Larry had been drinking somewhere else.

Mongo laughed. “No, man. I don’t want to arm wrestle, but make yourself at home. Don’t mess with the jukebox, though. If you want to hear something, tell me and I’ll put it on for ya.”

With that, Larry walked over to the jukebox, looked over the selection, pulled some coins out of his pocket and started to put them into the coin slot. Igor saw what was going on, elbowed Chick, and grunted. Mongo swung around to see what Igor was looking at. When he saw that Larry was about to screw the jukebox up, he knocked his chair over getting out of it. In a couple of big steps Mongo had his hand on Larry’s shoulder.

“What are you doing? I just told you not to put any change in the jukebox.” Mongo said in a cool voice that carried the message that he wasn’t used to being ignored.

Even though Mongo didn’t raise his voice, most of the people in the bar had turned an eye on Mongo and Larry. The noise of the chair being knocked over caught the attention of some, but that wasn’t much of an interruption in a noisy bar. It was the sensitivity of the bikers that alerted them to the problem. These guys can be drunk enough to fall off a bar stool and still be sensitive to almost any sign of trouble. Not everyone noticed the potential trouble though. Jill was talking to the guy at the end of the bar that was working on his papers and neither of them noticed anything.

Larry turned to face Mongo. He didn’t look impressed. Larry was a big guy. Not as big as Mongo, but Mongo carried some of his weight as fat while Larry looked to be mostly muscle.

When Mongo let go of his shoulder, Larry turned around to put his change into the jukebox. Mongo grabbed Larry by the shoulder again, swung him around, and hit him so hard that Larry’s feet came off the floor and back he went over the table behind him. As he came down, he caught the back edge of the table so that the table went with him as he crashed to the floor. That made enough noise to grab everyones’ attention. Jill looked up and the straight looking guy she was talking turned around on his stool.

Mongo looked down at Larry and said, “I told ya not to mess with the jukebox.”

Igor put his hand on Chick’s shoulder and grunted three times.

Clean Steve, who was just racking up the balls for a game of pool with Beaner Bob, walked over to the end of the bar and hit the guy who was sitting there square in the face.

Bear looked down the bar and said, “What’d ya do that for, Clean?”

Clean Steve answered, “He looked like a friend of Mongo’s.”

Igor grunted three more times, grabbed Chick by the shoulders, looked him straight in the face, and said, “He looked like Mongo’s friend.”

After that, Igor grunted and laughed until he lost his balance and pulled Chick with him as he fell to the floor. Lying on the floor, still holding Chick by the shoulders, and looking straight in his face, Igor said again, “He looked like Mongo’s friend.”

With that, Chick broke into fits of laughter himself.

With the commotion, some of the others in the bar saw the chance to settle scores. Ronnie elbowed one of the citizen bikers who was standing behind him, and broke his nose. As the guy put his hand over a broken nose, Ronnie turned and said, “Watch out! You bug me, man, you always bug me.”

One of the old ladies went to a checkout girl from the Thriftway, slapped her in the face, and said, “Stay away from my old man.”

Steamer saw the whole thing, but when his old lady turned around, he made sure he was looking somewhere else.

Knuckles sucker punched Flats, but he swung high and hit him in the cheek instead of the jaw. Flats turned and hit Knuckles hard in the chest, so hard that Knuckles sat down hugging himself and said, “Well, shame on me this time, Bro.”

“Yeah, shame on you,” Flats said.

Those guys have had a beef with each other so long that they forget what it’s about. They can’t really settle it because the club imposes a $250 fine for fighting with a brother. Besides that, neither of them wants to take it so far that they won’t get over it.

With the bar scene threatening to turn into a riot, no one but Bear noticed that the guy Clean hit was getting up off the floor; or that he had a gun. Bear reached across the bar and took an empty pitcher by the handle. He’d noticed before that they were glass pitchers and not plastic. It’s by noticing things like that, that nomads manage to keep on keeping on in bars and at parties all over the country.

With barely a move, Bear sent the pitcher sailing down the bar and into the side of the head of the guy with the gun. At almost the same instant, Beaner Bob swung a pool cue around and up so that he caught the same guy just behind the wrist. There was a loud snap, but it wasn’t the pool cue breaking. It was the guy’s forearm.

The gun slid down the bar, and as it slid past Jill, she deflected it into a sink full of soapy water.

Just then, the sheriff and a deputy came through the front door and another deputy came through the side door. Everyone stopped moving. There was nowhere to go. The sheriff knew all the club men except the nomads.

Igor sat up and stopped laughing. The sheriff looked to Mongo and said, “You guys know the drill. Hands on your heads and up against that wall.” He pointed to the wall away from the bar, the doors, and the windows.

“Go get some zip ties, Jim,” he told one of the deputies. “You all right?” he asked the guy who was sitting on the floor holding his broken arm.

“They broke my arm. I guess I’ll be alright, though.”

As the deputies finished cuffing everyone, they began ferrying them to the jail, three at a time in the back of the squad cars.

“There’s gonna be some trouble for this, Mongo,” the sheriff said as he watched the last of the bikers go.

The sheriff nodded toward the guy with the broken arm. Two paramedics were attending to him. “That guy is Treasury Department. He came down to talk to us about some counterfeit twenties being passed around. I told him we’d pick him up here when we got done with some things. I didn’t even think you guys might be in here tonight. That was my fault, the rest is yours.”

Mongo said, “That’s great news, sheriff, really great news.”

Mongo started out the door and as he passed Jill, she whispered, “The nomads didn’t start this one.”

Mongo looked at her and said, “Yeah, I guess not. Did they spend any money?”

Jill nodded toward a shot glass next to the cash register. There were two quarters and four ones stuffed in it.

As the last of the bikers were put in the back of the squad cars, Beaner Bob watched from out on the lake. He’d ducked out behind the deputy who came in the side door just as the deputy came though the doorway. At the end of the dock behind the bar, he’d found a rowboat with oars in it. He felt bad about ducking out, but what good would it do to stay and get arrested?

A little while after the squad car left, the wreckers arrived to haul the bikes off. Beaner was glad he’d taken the time to push his scooter behind the dumpster.

Beaner tried to figure a way to get comfortable in the small boat. He moved a couple of fishing poles and a tackle box. Then he noticed a small cooler. In it he found an apple, a sandwich, and two cans. It was too dark to tell if they were cans of pop or beer. He opened one. It was orange soda, but the second can was beer. The sandwich was tuna fish; the apple was spongy so he threw it in the lake. The beer was good and cold, the first cold beer of the long night.

A half hour after the last taillights left the bar’s parking lot, Beaner rowed back to the dock, tied the boat up where he’d found it, walked up the steps at the end of the dock and found Jill sitting on an empty keg in the shadows.

“Hi, Roberto,” she said. “Where you headin’?”

“Memphis, I guess. I know some people there I haven’t seen in a while,” Beaner answered.

“Think I could go with? They’ll want me to testify if there are any trials after tonight and I don’t want to do that. Besides a good bartender can get work anywhere.”

Beaner gave Jill a long look and said, “I bet she can. Especially if she’s a real go ahead bartemptress like you. Got any stuff to bring?”

Jill tugged at the bag hanging on her should. “Just this. I know how to travel light. I’ve got money too.”

Beaner rolled his bike out, started it, and said, “Hop on, La Bonita.”

As soon as Jill settled on the seat, Beaner said, “Vaminos!” and let out the clutch. Three lights later, all green, they were on the highway headed out of Lake Town.

Jill leaned forward and said into Beaner’s ear, “We’re goin’ west. Memphis is south.”

Beaner cocked his head around a little and said, “How ‘bout Salt Lake City? I didn’t know why you were askin’ where I’m goin’ so I said, Memphis. Salt Lake’s cool, though. That all right with you? Be there in a couple of days if we jam, a little longer if we take our time.”

Jill wrapped her arms around Beaner, squeezed, and said, “Let’s take our time, then.”

A pre-300 shot showing the new Steed Muscle Bike with a 280 Metzeler.

We're just about ready to debut our new Steed Musclebike, “Sintaur”model motorcycle with the new Avon 300 Tyre. Steeds started this project last April with our brand new proprietary Monoglide chassis. We've been running proprietary frames on our bikes for over six years with fitment for the AVON 180/200 tires and a monoshock design under the seat. It's time to jump into the big tire race, and we found ourselves a little behind. Re-tooling frame jigs is no easy task, and the tires kept getting bigger and bigger, literally, by the month. So last year I decided to do a little research before we spent the dough to fixture-up a fat-tire Monoglide platform. With a little help from Bandit at http://www.bikernet.com, we got the inside track last year that Avon was in the process of tooling up for a massive 300mm tire.

I contacted Larry Hoppe, who heads up the Sales and Marketing for Avon in the U.S. He assisted us with advanced tire specifications, so we could fixture-up to produce an updated Monoglide chassis that would accept this giant performance gripper long before we actually had our hands on one. Finally, Steeds was privileged to get one of only a handful of prototype 300 tires in Mid December. Now we're ready to roll out our first Steed Machine next week in Anaheim, California at the NAMM show. Then it's off to Ohio for the V-Twin expo with the first of our bar-raising, 300 bikes.

There seems to be a bunch of confusion about tires; who, what, when and where's don't get asked very often regarding tires. Bandit and I felt that this would be a good opportunity to ask Larry about the meat of the matter, and here's what he had to say:

JC: First off Larry, how did you get involved with AVON Tyre company, and what is your personal history in the motorcycle market?

LH: I have been heading up the sales and marketing efforts for Avon in North America since 1985. Prior to that, Avon tires were one of my favorite product lines I represented through distributors to Dealers in the North Western States. How much further do you want to go back? I am age sensitive. Prior to forming my Marketing firm in 1977, I was a very lucky student, working his way through college buying and selling motorcycles. Of all the bikes I have owned, I miss my Indian '41-Four the most. It was old enough to be my father by the way.

JC: Why the goofy spelling of “Tyre” in the company name?

LH: Nearly every English speaking country spells tire with a 'Y'. Well, except one. So who's goofy? In the world of 'Global Corporate Identity' consistency on how to spell your name is kind of an issue, especially to the Vice President of Communications. We are an American owned company, but the Avon brand has its deepest roots in England.

Personally, I don't care how you spell it, as long as you pronounce it properly.

JC: What makes a motorcycle tire different than automotive tires?

LH: You gotta be kidding? OK, I'll answer.One has a rounded tread arc; the other has a flat tread surface. Guess which one is which!

JC: Why are motorcycle tires more expensive than automotive tires?

LH:This is a good question. As a consumer, I appreciate good value. I also believe that cheap is seldom better. But the laws of economics and manufacturing efficiency are the main reasons motorcycle tires are generally priced higher. It is probably true in most cases that bike tires require a more intensive research and development regimen than passenger car tires. Simplistically, they need to operate in a straight up position (like a car), as well as at high lean angles (not like cars). Now I could go into plies, angles, Kevlar belts, Variable Belt Density, compounding etc, and how these all play a part in the bikes handling and performance.

But easiest for all to understand is this: Cooper Tire builds more passenger tires in a day than we sell motorcycle tires in a year. In automotive tire production, it is a highly automated process whereby they set up the production line with all the chosen tooling for a particular size. They then flip the switch, and let 'em run forty thousand or so tires as they fill rail cars of a mile long train. When they turn off the switch, they usually have to shut down the line for a few days to make all the tooling changes for a new size or type run.

Motorcycle tires, on the other hand are often produced in batches of around a 1000 tires, sometimes 3000. But typically, bike tire manufacturing is far less automated, and more hand-built because the quantities do not allow us to shut down the production line for days to change a size or model. We can change motorcycle tire model production in hours and run 1000 of this, then a 1000 of that. We are highly efficient at producing small runs, then quickly changing out molds and tooling for another run. But the 'Quick Change' scenario means less automation, more hand labor, lower quantities, and higher unit cost.

JC: What makes AVON Tyres different/better than other motorcycle tire brands?

LH: How much time do you have? I have been practicing my sales pitch for over 20 years and could probably ramble on for hours. But seriously, I believe a big part of Avon's popularity over the years is due, in large part, to the lack of Original Equipment influence.

Tire manufacturers are willing to sell to OEM motorcycle manufacturers at cost, and sometimes even below their cost. Harley certainly puts tremendous pricing pressure on their suppliers, so the supplier needs to keep the cost of the product down with less features and benefits. And why would a tire manufacturer sell below cost??? Because they believe the bike purchaser will replace his tires with the same original brand, and the Bike manufacturer agrees to recommend only the Original Equip tire as a trade off for cheap prices (there is that word again!).

JC: I believe in the motto 'Cheap is never good, and good is never cheap'. That's how we've survived in this business since '89. Something has to give, if you start cutting price, and that's normally the product's quality. I don't know many people who want to put cheap rubber under their motorcycle, when it's their ass that is on the line at 85 MPH.

LH: Avon does not play this game. Consumers buy our tires as a matter of choice because they want improved handling, better wet-grip, stability on rain grooves, or that sure footed feeling in high-speed sweepers. Perhaps they purchase Avon for the Fat Tire Fashion. But in the end they choose AVON because they want a better product. Whether we use Kevlar belts instead of steel or fiberglass, or we use special silica compounds for better grip. AVON can afford to put more into our tires because we are not under the Original Equipment pricing pressures.

JC: OK, now for the questions that a lot of people are afraid to ask. Why do they use inches for the wheel diameter and then millimeters for the width and sidewall height? Who's the jack-ass that sets these standards for describing tire sizes?

LH: Millimeters for width, and inches for diameter still baffles me to this day. It is absolutely ridiculous. It sure as hell wasn't Einstein that developed this system. Perhaps it was a compromise between the German, French and English, as the Brits were big tyre producers and not metric back then. The Brits got to keep diameter standards in inches, and the French and Germans were elated to keep width in mm. Besides can you imagine having 20 differing diameter standards varying by 10 mm instead of 5 or 6 diameter standards varying by one fraction of an inch?

JC: Well at least we English speaking people got a few consolations in the tire size department. We're doing our best to resist the metric bolts on our American bikes, but we just can't get too far away from the millimeters on the tires and batteries.

But I digress. Let be get back to the questions.What is a 'speed rating', and who came up with the whole lettering system? Please fill us in.

LH: Tire speed creates heat. Load under use creates heat. Strap your Snap-On toolbox (and your wife, too, if you want) on the buddy seat and I guarantee the tire will run warmer. I can also guarantee you that it will run a lot warmer at 70MPH than 35MPH. Consequently, it is customary for a tire load ratings to drop as the speed rating increases. It is possible for us to build an H-speed rated tire at say 961 pound

Steed model comparing a stock 130 tire to the new Venom 300 Avon.

JC: When did this whole big motorcycle tire phenomenon start?

LH: How old are you?

JC: Here's a clue; I made it out of high school at the height of disco, but I never owned a leisure suit! How about you?

LH: I remember back in the early '70s selling wide rims with spoke kits so you could lace a 15-inch rim to your hub and mount a wide car tire. OK, wide by then and their standards. I think they may have been VW tires, as in super beetle. I remember back in the late '80s when Donnie Smith (Minneapolis, MN), wrote an article about how to fit a 150/80-16 Avon on a stock bike. It just barely cleared the fender, swingarm and belts with his adaptors.

In 1995 we adapted a 180/55-16, and by 1997 this was expanding to 200/55-18s. Since a new wheel was necessary to accommodate the fatties, the diameter increase was preferable to show off the new wheel designs. Guys like you and Arlen Ness finally had something new to build around; an AVON Tire!

It was a break-through by early 1998; we spaced an existing mold to make the biggest m/c tire in the world, a 230/60-15. It was actually a modified 170 X 15 mold that was cut in half, widened, and voila… the 'Fat Freddie' was born.

JC: That wasn't the most pleasing looking tire, but it was big.

LH: I agree! That tire, on its own, was not all that attractive. We got the factory to build this tire because it was far less expensive than a new mold. Before embarking on a new tire size, the factory always wants to know what the application is.

In that case, the tire fit NOTHING! But the bikes that were being designed around this fat rear tire were incredible.

Hot Bike gave Avon New Product of the Year Award, and a huge new industry was born. I call the new industry 'Adapt a Fat'.

In 2002, the 250/40-18 VENOM was announced, again the biggest bike tire ever. Along with it came a 120/70-21 front, wider than the previous 90/90-21s. AND, in 2004, and soon to be available, is another record breaker the 300/35-18 VENOM. So, there you have it.

The widest m/c tire used in 1972 was about 130mm wide, used on both Harleys and Sochiro Hondas CB 750-K2 had a 120. Up until a couple years ago, that was still the norm for a Harley, but everything has been expanding.

JC: Are there any performance advantages to wider street motorcycle tires?

LH: Yes there are advantages. Race bikes have gone from 130s 30 years ago to 220s today. The biggest advantage of course is a larger contact patch. But let's be realistic. Most of the bikes being artistically created around our fat tires are sculpted most for beauty and style. But if they ever start an AVON 300 V-Twin racing class, we will definitely see evolution first hand.

JC: Do you foresee a tire size that will be the maximum girth for a street motorcycle?

LH: Personally, I would think the 300mm width is a nice stopping point. But the consumer, designer, builder will determine that, and Avon shall continue our 120 year history of responding to the market demands.

JC: How much time does it take to develop a new size tire?

LH: Once the market research has taken place and the decision to order mold and manufacturing equipment has been made, it's usually developed within nine months or a year. Market research, in this case, is quite easy as there is no market. They fit nothing. It is also much quicker to add a size to an existing product range and tread pattern, rather than having to design an all new pattern.

New Steed Muscle bike with 300 Avon and paint. You'll see the entire new model come together on Bikernet.

JC: Do you think it's a fad or is it here to stay?

LH: Yes, it is a fad. Yes it is about style. Yes, it is here to stay. You can say the same thing about 'Choppers'. I haven't met anyone who says they would like to buy a skinny tire kit. And I can't imagine anyone who doesn't agree that the fat tire bikes look way better.

Sure, the 300 may be overboard for some, but they can still go with 200 or 250. Thanks to a few gutsy moves by Avon, and all the loyal customers, friends, and associates like Steeds who have helped promote these trends, bikers now have choices!

JC:Larry thanks for all the breaking news, and the prototype 300 for our new Steed bike. We'll have these new Sintaur Monoglides up in production for March delivery to dealers. Judging by the reaction I've got from people who have seen this monster at our shop, you've got a hit-record on your hands. I hope you can keep up with the demand.

John at Steed Musclebike
http://www.musclebikes.com

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Bob T. blasting down to Pep Boys to grab some heat wrap.

Editor’s Note: Sounds official, like I might tell you this guy is fulla shit before we get started. That’s not the case. We’ve wanted to bring you the skinny on using insulated exhaust wrap for a year or two. Larry Curik is a close friend and a classic custom bike builder. He offered and I decided to wait him out, since he’s been in the biz as long as I have. He’s starting his own shop, Lone Star Choppers, Inc. Gotta give a brother a break. Here is the long-awaited tech. Let’s get to it.

Note: It takes more material than you think so I wrap the pipe loosely andadd about ten feet to cover one pipe. You never want to come up short

It’s a simple operation so Larry started by laying out everything that you will need(except the rubbergloves), water spray bottle, high heat paint (for the area left un-wrapped),stainless steel safety wire and Thermo-Tec insulating wrap.

Looks like you can buy this at any hot rod shop or Pep Boys.

Take 1 full wrap and secure it with safety wire (position so as not toshow with next wrap, (insert through the wrap and twist wire tight). Use glovesbecause wrap is impregnated with graphite and contains fiberglass. It can makea big uncomfortable mess.

Continue to wrap, overlapping ½ of the last wrap with each turn. Spray the material lightly with water tohelp it conform to the shape of the pipe.

The wet wrap slipping over a mounting stud.

If you wet it down really good, it is very easy to pushmounting studs through the wrap.

Tie the finished wrap with a double wrap of safety wire, or you canuse hose clamps. Larry starts wrapping from the end of the pipe, so the leading edge is not exposed and is clean as possible.

Lightly wet the entire pipe and “wring” (massage it), it to make the wrappingmold to the pipe. Set the pipe aside and let it air dry.

Four hands are better than two. Have a friend help for a tighter wrap.

Here’s the finished pipes. Let them air dry and install the bastards.

Note: this stuff must cure, when you start up the first time, it’s goingto smoke and smell real bad. Let your scooter run a few minutes and shut it down. I prefer to cure it (let it set and cool) and then get in the wind to finish the curingprocess. Due to higher exhaust velocity, it is advised to check the jetting after you run it. You can go leaner with the wrap.

Ah the shop babe, Abbey. Yeah, yeah, that’s a Larry built bike with wrapped pipes. He built this bike in 127 hours for a dealer show.

Larry Curik
Lone Star Choppers, Inc.
(618) 406-1554
Larry@lonestarchoppers.com
Lonestarchoppers.com
7858 Andy Road
Waterloo, Illinois 62298

This is Shirley Zanelli’s latest leather seat creation. It was etched for an Indian restoration by “Lucky’s Speed Shop” out of Chandler, Arizona. It was designed by the owner, Don Yates, as a tribute to the Board Track Racers of the early 1900s. Mike Tomas, of Kiwi Indian, who’s responsible for building the engine, transmission, and the Springer front end, referred Don of Lucky’s to Shirley. The bike is being entered in the Laughlin River Run Bike Show, on Saturday, April 28th, ‘07.

The lovely Shirley, of Bad Ass Seats, in the Nevada desert, will describe every step below:

After receiving the original artwork I transfer it onto transferring film. The more accurate the tracing, the better the finished piece will look. It’s easy to lose some of the detail through sloppy copying.

The design is transferred onto cased leather with a stylus. It is then cut in with a swivel knife.

I tool the design to give it a three dimensional look. This raises the image out of the leather, and gives depth to the background.

Our Indian rises up! The carnival lettering is now bolder.

The seat pan came from the customer, Don at Lucky’s. We always need to know it will fit the bike it’s destined for. We can foam and cover any pan, be it steel, plastic, fiber glass. I worked with Don to make sure it was the right shape and size.

The customer’s pan is covered and shaped using neoprene foam. This foam keeps its shape and is water resistant. I can custom fit local customers to their seat, to give a more comfortable ride, but I need their ass to test it on.

The holes are punched prior to dyeing. I like to keep the color uniform, and I don’t want to go back and touch up the inside of holes.

I like to use an air brush to capture an even coloring with the dye. This gives me my base to complete any dyeing to the artwork. After sealing the piece, I add the antique hue.

All shading and antiquing done. Now we’re ready to put this thing together.

I lace the top and bottom together using kangaroo lace. There are four or five different lace patterns to choose from. The one used is normally dictated by the style and theme of the seat. Sometimes I even let the customer pick.

And here it is, another one of a kind, Bad Ass Seat. We don’t duplicate custom patterns, so you won’t find anyone else with your seat.

This was a fun seat to do, because we were working with a set theme. The seat was the finishing touch, so to speak. It was awesome to work with such talented artists as Don and Mike, and I think Don totally nailed the look he was going for.

Shirley Zanelli
http://www.badassseats.com
702-325-3532

Don Yates, Lucky’s Speed Shop
http://www.luckysspeedshop.com

Mike Tomas, Kiwi Indian Company
http://www.kiwi-indian.com

No, this tech won't deliver her or this scooter, but motivation is always a good thing.

For those who know me, you all understand that I am an imperfect perfectionist. For those who do not know me, it means if there is something that is bothering me – then I have to fix that problem right away. Here is my latest conquest on the highway of life.

Lately I have been researching a solution to something that is dear to me – Why do the Harley touring bikes get so squirrelly at high speed (over 85 mph)?

When I first got the shop bike it had been neglected. It is a 1999 FLHTPI (or cop Electra Glide). After rescuing it from the attic of a local H-D dealer I began to test different ideas on the bike as far as performance. I soon found that it does not matter if you make the engine a hot rod monster, if the chassis cannot handle it. So my focus changed.

The test subject “Rough Justice”

A few years ago I met the creator of the True-Track at the Cincinnati V-Twin show, Wil Phillips R.I.P. He demonstrated the dynamics involved with and without his product. I bought one and began with that.

Before installing the bike would start a wobble in curves at 40 mph, and after installing the bike could handle the same curves at 60 mph without a problem.

Soon after that was cured I began running with the big trucks on the interstate. I then found another wobble issue. At 90 mph if there was a semi truck ahead, there would be drafting turbulence that caused the bike to wobble from the front end; also when riding 90 -95 mph in a lean I discovered another wobble.

With this new problem came a thorough front to rear check. Everything was within specifications. So then I sought out other riders and found Road Glides allegedly did not have this front-end issue. I even met a H-D factory rep at a State Rally and pressed them, if they experienced wobbling with their Electra Glides. The only answer they could give was that the fork-mounted fairing had limitations. BIG SURPRISE!

So if the issue is the fairing, then I looked towards other manufacturers of motorcycles also featuring fork mounted fairings and could not find the same issue. So what is different about the Electra Glide? As I poured over the bike time and time again, I kept noticing the front forks on FLs are set up different than anything else on the road. The fork tubes follow the steering stem, but all the others have the fork tubes in front of the steering stem even if is a just slight amount.

So the closest front-ends to what FLs use are very similar to the front forks on sport bikes. Then I started looking at the sport bikes for what they did to reduce or even eliminate high speed wobbles.

Here is an illustration of FL trees compared to traditional trees. The circles are the fork tubes.

So most sport bikes have the swing arm tied to the frame. The FL swing arm is hinged to the rubber-mounted drive-train, and H-D drive-trains are coupled at three points to the frame. The next comparison was the front end. Many track operated sport bikes use steering stabilizers. In fact some manufacturers install them at the factory on some models. There was the key; a steering stabilizer might actually work.

Then began all the emails, phone calls, and online research. A fellow rider suggested I contact Wheelers Performance located on the famous Dragon, US 129. A call to them confirmed they did install steering stabilizers on Road Kings to help reduce wobbling when running the curves at high speed. As soon as I could get the time I threw a leg over my shop bike and rode full tilt over to their shop for a quick explanation of their installation and to order the parts.

After a few weeks I received the kit and went about installing, but not in the way they suggested. There were two reasons: 1. the original had the stabilizer placed with the adjuster going to my right and I wanted to have it on my left so that I can adjust it on the fly and 2. I wanted to retain the air baffle that the older FLs have to prevent the air from coming up in behind the fairing.

This photo is from Wheelers Performance of the original setup they did.

So as I began to tap the hole, I found that the tap handle could not rotate enough to reset for another grab. As I studied the tap it occurred that the drive end fit near perfect into the 1/8-inch drive of a socket. So after placing the two together, I used an Allen socket to fit in the business end of the socket and attached the socket wrench to the tap.

Notice the square end? (Yes I threaded both holes to experiment)

I carefully started the tap until I got a bite. Then I hosed the tap from the top down with WD-40. Carefully I turned the tap until an occasional bit of metal residue would stop the progress. A little backing out of the tap and then some WD-40 to flush out the residue would allow progress to continue. Then I would continue until at last the threading was complete.

Notice the square hole?

Here is the wrench to Allen socket to upside down socket combo from the side. I found a 10 mm Allen/socket combo worked well after this photo.

I installed the mounting tree end of the stabilizer as suggested, but found that the stabilizer passed over the crash bar and prevented the forks from turning enough to lock. Also the tree end was binding slightly. So I removed the bolt and installed a nut to act as a spacer so that tree end could move through its full range.

The nut acting as a spacer is above the eye and washer. Sorry, there is little room to get the photo.

This is inside the tree, the bolt is threaded up. Even though the hole was tapped it is suggested to use a nylock nut to make sure the bolt does not back out from vibrations.

The crash bar mounting fixed itself at this point; the stabilizer could go under the crash bar and allow the air baffle to continue as intended. I checked several times about losing one inch from the fork travel. It did not seem to be problem in the shop so the real world would have to be the testing ground.

Do not panic! The about 1” loss of travel is not missed. However, lowered bikes might have a problem? My kits will feature a nicer crash bar clamp.

With the stabilizer installed, I began the real world test. I found that the curves that the bike went from handling at 60 could be taken at 70-75 mph without a problem. I also found that potholes and other surface irregularities were not a problem either. The front end stayed where I intended it to be. Even riding at 95 mph was no longer a hair-raising experience. Perhaps between prevent the driveline from moving side to side and adding the stabilizer the Electra Glide can be a true touring bike?

Here you can see the air baffle up between the fork tubes. You can also see that the bike has “Rough” in its name for a reason, but 55K can do that sometimes.

I sat down and drew out a sketch of what is involved both with and without the stabilizer as well as comparing the FL tree end to a more traditional tree so that other cans visualize the dynamics involved.

Here is an illustration of how the steering stabilizer interacts with the front end. Again the circles of the fork tubes.

So I will be testing this as time goes on. Be sure to check out the Latest News on my shop’s website www.R-RatedCustoms.com for the progress. Once this setup proves itself worthy I will put together a complete installation kit so fellow FL riders can fully enjoy their motorcycles as I am now able.

Here’s an original FL before the reversed trees.

Feel free to contact me with any questions,
Anthony C. Roberson
R-Rated Customs
(931) 607-7399
rratedcustoms@bellsouth.net