By NIKKI WENTLING | STARS AND STRIPES WASHINGTON — After weeks of uncertainty, the veterans group organizing the popular Memorial Day weekend motorcycle ride through the nation’s capital has secured a new starting point. Tens of thousands of motorcyclists will gather at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in northeast Washington on May 30 before and after the traditional ride around the National Mall. Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., granted the stadium permission to host the riders. AMVETS, a national veterans organization, is organizing the ride, which has typically started at the Pentagon parking lots. However, the Defense Department barred the motorcyclists from gathering at the Pentagon this year, citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the size of the expected crowd. Organizers are preparing for up to 100,000 motorcycles and nearly twice as many people. After the Pentagon’s rejection, organizers scrambled to find a new starting point. They announced May 10 that riders would stage on the streets around the National Mall, shutting down the area for about 15 hours. After the announcement, the group was told that Bowser authorized the use of RFK Stadium. AMVETS spokesman Miles Migliara said Monday that the group was “locked into” using the stadium as the starting point and wasn’t expecting any more changes. The stadium, in the city’s northeast quadrant, is much farther from the National Mall than the Pentagon. Hosting riders there will require the city to shut down a busy section of the Capitol Beltway, an interstate highway surrounding Washington, from noon to 5 p.m. Other roads will also be closed for long stretches of time, including Pennsylvania Avenue and the streets surrounding the National Mall. Full details of the route will be announced later this week, AMVETS said. The ride, called Rolling to Remember, aims to raise awareness for prisoners of war and troops still missing in action, as well as the issue of veteran suicide. It was planned as a replacement for the annual Rolling Thunder event, which was held every Memorial Day weekend for 32 consecutive years before ending in 2019. Last year’s event was canceled because of the pandemic. Organizers said that they’re working to make this year’s event safe, despite ongoing risks. Motorcyclists will be staged six feet apart, and riders will be asked to wear masks in situations where socially distancing isn’t possible, AMVETS said. The group is also training “COVID marshals” who will encourage social distancing and mask wearing. AMVETS has about 200,000 masks to give away the day of the event. –from Stars and Stripes I see the Pentagon declared Fear of the Flu as the reason for not allowing motorcycle people from parking or gathering near the Pentagon on Veterans Day. God help us if Pentagon Warriors are ever threatened by an actual enemy they can actually SEE. I notice flu concerns werent on the menu when 300 billion muslims filled the streets of New York city today to demand Israel stop counter-attacking the Islamic Jihad War Machine. The Pentagon didn’t bother to involve itself with an actual Enemy filling the streets and not wearing cloth petri dishes, I notice. –J.J. Solari

When 20,000 motorcyclists converged on Fort Smith in Arkansas for the annual Steel Horse Rally, Meridian Rapid Defense Group was there to ensure a safe and memorable event.

Large parts of the downtown needed to be closed off to cars and trucks but still left open for the bikers to enter and that’s where Meridian’s Archer 1200 barriers were the perfect fit.

https://www.thesteelhorserally.com/

The Steel Horse Rally is a motorcycle gathering held on Fort Smith’s Garrison Avenue to benefit local charities. This year again, more than $100,000 was raised and an estimated $4.2 million of revenue flowed into city business over the two day rally in May.

Meridian’s CEO Peter Whitford said, “In this situation with a huge number of motorcycles and crowds on the streets, safety was of the utmost importance. By correct placement of our barriers, we were able ensure that cars and trucks were kept out of the mix.”

Meridian’s fully certified deployment team moved in with Archer barriers and quickly secured the street. The barriers, which carry the full certification of The SAFETY Act and each are made of 700 lbs of U.S. steel, were set far enough apart that bikes could easily pass through while larger vehicles were blocked from entering the rally area. The Archer barrier can be moved by one person and can stop a vehicle hitting it head-on at speed.

Capt. Daniel Grubbs from the Fort Smith Police Department explained that security was a big factor, “We set out to ensure the safety of the motorcycle riders and the general public during this event.”

Before the event Meridian worked with the city and organizers to prepare a fully certified vehicle safety mitigation plan.

“The rally was all about people enjoying themselves safely,” said Mr. Whitford. “And, importantly, raising money for local charities. With our contribution of the Archer barriers, we at Meridian were proud that we were able to do our part for local charities in Fort Smith.”

“We are excited and grateful for the return of the Steel Horse Rally,” rally president Dennis Snow said. “This year’s sponsors were vital to keeping the rally alive. A couple of months ago, because of COVID, we weren’t even sure if we would be able to have the 2021 Steel Horse Rally.”

Meridian Archer 1200 Barriers are “SAFETY Act Certified” by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) providing the ultimate standard in keeping people, communities and places safer. For more information about Meridian Rapid Defense Group and the Archer 1200 vehicle barrier visit www.meridian-barrier.com

by Michael Taylor from https://www.forbes.com

Harley-Davidson Stock Soars As EU Decides Against 56% Tariff Surge

The Harley-Davidson stock price surged this morning after the European Union deferred a tariff plan that would have seen the classic American motorcycle maker face a 56% entry ticket into the European market.

Harley-Davidson Inc would have been one of the biggest losers if the tariff increase from the current 31% had gone through, though whiskey distillers and boat makers would also have taken a hit.

“We are encouraged by today’s announcement that tariffs affecting our products will not escalate from 31% to 56%,” Harley-Davidson Chief Executive Jochen Zeitz said.

“Harley-Davidson employees, dealers, stakeholders and motorcycles have no place in this trade war. These tariffs provide other motorcycle manufacturers with an unfair competitive advantage in the EU.

“European motorcycles only pay up to 2.4% to be imported into the US. We want free and fair trade,” he said.

The tariff hike was set to come into effect on June 1, but it has been shelved as both the US and the EU set about negotiations on steel and aluminum tariffs.

It is estimated that the tariff would have impacted US$4 billion in exports from the US.

The tariffs were initially imposed in 2018 in retaliation to a Trump administration tariff on steel (25%) and aluminum (10%), with further tariff retaliation slated to begin in June.

“We did not want to be in this position,” European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in June 2018. “However, the unilateral and unjustified decision of the U.S. to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU means that we are left with no other choice.”

The company may have dodged the tariff bullet, but it is still fighting on another front in Europe after having its Binding Origin Information (BOI) revoked, hurling its import tariff up from 6% to beyond 30%.

Its BOI credentials allowed Harley to operate at the lower tariff rate with bikes from its international plants, but their removal created a crisis.

“The company will continue to pursue its legal challenge to the Binding Origin Information (BOI) revocation, and its application for extended reliance.”

The guy in the unintentional Monty Python imitation video is Alok Sharma – the chairman of something or other called the UN COP23.

He is not actually giving you any actual information. He is just making assertions. He might as well be saying “Inanimate Lives Matter.” I will demonstrate.

– J J Solari

Read the latest from J J Solari at Bikernet.

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/cop26-chief-world-must-act-113017481.html

“(1) Human activity is damaging our Earth. (2) It’s imperiling this brilliant jewel. (3) The greenhouse gases that we’ve been pumping into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution are altering nature’s precious balance, disrupting the finely tuned and fantastically complex system that is the world’s climate, and the effects are now closing in. (4) Global temperatures are rising.

Last year was the hottest on record. (5)The last decade was the hottest ever recorded. (6) And in the past 30 years, the world has lost up to half its coral reefs, half. (7)We’ve seen wildfires in the Pennines and floods in West Lothian, all as pollution chokes occurring. (8)And if we do not act now, the science tells us these effects will become more frequent and more brutal, that we will witness a scale of global catastrophe the likes of which the world has not seen. (9)And quite rightly, future generations will hold us responsible.”

The above link and the above text are……well, the same thing. The text is the written-out shit that the guy in the link is reciting.

The guy in the unintentional Monty Python imitation video is Alok Sharma. Alok Sharma is the chairman of something or other called the COP23. You will read a hell of a lot of articles from all the genius journalists working at all the wondrous news entities before you will find a-one of them willing to tell you what the COP23 is. You’re supposed to just know. Because you are supposed to be so addicted to the imbeciles bringing you the “news of the world” that COP23 should just be part of your everyday vocabulary. Just like “Man, I’d like to tap THAT” is.

The COP23 is the (maybe) 23rd meeting of the Conference of Parties. It’s a UN, or as the Israelis call it the “United Nothings,” swah-ray that they convene to warn you what the global array of world leadership is going to blame you for so you will know why they are preparing to punish you. Hey, the worldwide mask-wearing and solitary isolation and quarantining the healthy and letting grandma die alone worked out without anyone going whatdafuck. Time to ramp things up!

As you watch him flick his dry and lying tongue in and out and posture with his hands and pronounce “occurring” as “oh-surring” in the phrase “all as pollution chokes oh-surring” as though he has memorized something incorrectly or else is reading something incorrectly……as you watch and listen with no attention paid to his facial and body language but hear just the pontifical pronouncements…….if you take the performance sentence by sentence….he is not actually giving you any actual information. He is just making assertions. He might as well be saying “Inanimate Lives Matter.” I will demonstrate.

1: “Human activity is damaging our earth.”

This is something a chained and screaming demon-possessed psychopathic old woman on fentanyl and who just set herself on fire would shout at passing busses in downtown Los Angeles. The earth has NEVER been damaged. It’s 5 billion years old. And it is undamaged. What HAS been damaged is Alok’s ability to articulate anything other than decrees.

The earth PRODUCED humans. And in fact, the earth damages THEM on a regular basis. For him to say that humanity is damaging the earth is broadcasting that he is a lunatic if not a sociopath. He is putting the existence of terrain as being more important than the existence of humans. PLUS, he’s saying all this damage is all our fault. Which is what sociopaths do. They fuck you over….and then say it’s your fault.

We are harming atoms. So Alok is going to punish us, or at least prompt those with the available firepower to punish us to do so. All the while he is proclaiming his sanctimonious concern for our welfare by telling us we need to die. We are violating HIS religion. Which, in case you were wondering, is paganism: declaring inanimate terrain to be an item of worship or at least having more rights than humans. He is declaring “the planet” as “more entitled” than us. He is declaring that rocks have rights, basically. In short, everything has rights….except you. You have duties: to keep people safe from the flu. And to keep rocks safe from miners.

2: “It’s imperiling this precious jewel.”

This is not only an arbitrary conclusion based on no actual evidence that anyone in any field of actual knowledge can actually point to…. it’s inferior, really bad, very amateurish, creative writing. It’s childish fairyland nonsense. He’s calling the earth a precious jewel. This is 6-year-old girl talk. The earth is not a precious jewel. It’s a fucking planet orbiting a fucking star. One of nine, or ten, or whatever they have declared this week as planets.

In addition to being an arbitrary conclusion based on nothing as well as inferior amateur poetry, it’s also a declaration that the planet Earth has more rights than you do. Which is downright mean-spirited if not insane.

EYE think he’s just mean-spirited. Just like all the people now blaming children for being basically immune to the flu and all its variants-without-number. They – children – are being punished for not being old and decrepit. This is called in my personal dictionary “criminal child abuse.”

To continue, the earth is not only not a jewel, what actual jewels the earth has within it are really hard to find, hence their value. Therefore no one pays a high price for limestone. It’s not a precious jewel. And neither is the earth. It’s just the fucking earth. It’s not a precious jewel. Unless you are in love and writing in your diary. Then it’s a precious jewel.

3: “The greenhouse gases that we’ve been pumping into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution are altering nature’s precious balance, disrupting the finely tuned and fantastically complex system that is the world’s climate, and the effects are now closing in.”

A: Greenhouse gas is the political language for carbon dioxide. There are no varieties of CO2 so “gasses” is purposely used to make his idiot followers assume there is more than one “greenhouse gas.” There is no evidence to prove that CO2 turns the atmosphere into a greenhouse, much less a runaway one. Whatever the fuck that would even be. CO2 is not a greenhouse gas any more than hydrogen is a refrigerator gas.

PLUS…..you can enter a greenhouse and stay there all day and not suffocate. A “runaway” state never even occurs in an actual greenhouse. Why would it occur in the fucking atmosphere? If there was any actual danger in anything he’s saying he would be evidencing a much higher sense of urgency than he is evidencing in his droning memorized series of propaganda sentences that he is reciting at the “wind farm.” Even though wind farms do not actually produce wind. Or electricity most of the time.

He himself is producing more wind out his yap and probably out his ass than all those inefficient expensive toys behind him are actually producing. The war against the Industrial Revolution has been in effect by bureaucrats ever since they all realized that unregulated free enterprise would provide to humanity all the “benefits” that government claims to have as IT’S job to provide. The Industrial Revolution (and there isn’t a public-sector parasite on earth who doesn’t realize this is an “existential threat” alright, but the threat is to the existence of government in all its forms) threatens government.

HENCE…..industry must be destroyed. What was the first thing to disappear when government declared the annual cold and flu season a suddenly horrific “great and mighty plague,” as that easily-duped Donald Trump declared it to be?…employment in the private sector was what got hit by decree by ten million health officials who never got elected.

I notice no bureaucrats or teachers or nurses or professors or bus drivers or cops or judges lost their jobs. Why does government regulate industry and not itself? Because government is perfect! And caring! And moral! And democratic! Unlike “greedy seekers of honest profit from voluntary customers.” When does business make you pay them in exchange for nothing in return? Never. When does government do it: always. 100% of the time. Throughout human history.

B: Nature is not a precious jewel and it does not operate via a precious balance, traditionally referred to as “the delicate balance of Nature.” Nature is not delicately balanced. It is mightily and thunderously balanced. You fuck it up it fixes itself. And then will fuck YOU up. Every living cell is fighting for its life 24 hours a day. Life is a machine that violates entropy. It’s something that reason and sense tells you it could never have come from the senseless, lifeless periodic table. But here it is. Life is fighting “the planet.” Life is using the planet to stay in existence.

The war, if there is one, is rocks against cells. Alok wants the rocks to win. For anyone to say that humans’ Industrial Age “output of destruction” exceeds the power and destruction of one hurricane, one flood, one volcano, one drought, one forest fire, one earthquake or one tidal wave that might show up on any average day in any average global location…..is either a liar or a moron. And Probably BOTH.

C: The effects are closing in? Um, where, asshole. Point those effects of your insight into the atmospheric machine out to me. Melting Ice? Like more fresh water is a problem? So, what is it, we are running out of water on a planet 80% water god only knows how many miles deep, but melting ice is producing too much water? What effects are closing in. Nice List of Nothing that you have provided there, Sparkle. You know what’s closing in? Your cranium. It’s closing in on your brain so much that only vocabulary projectile vomit is coming out of your mouth.

4: “Global temperatures are rising. Last year was the hottest on record.”

How long has it been possible to “measure” global temperature. Whatever that even is. More than 200 years? I’m guessing less than 50. What does it MATTER if “global temperatures are rising”? Who cares? Why is it so certain that idiot humans are “causing” it? There is not one way to determine this. Other, of course, than forcing everyone to live like the Hopi and wait 50 years to see if “global temperatures” have dropped.

Death Valley is STILL the only place in America where if you go there you have to really pay attention with a deep vigilance to how fucking hot it is. Everywhere else in America, today, May 15th?….it’s pretty nice out. Calm the fuck down, Alok, you’ll have a fuckin’ stroke. Which would be fine with me.

5: “The last decade was the hottest ever recorded.”

Yeah, and no one fucking noticed. Other than people with NASA-level instruments and MIT level heads for mathematics. No one else noticed. So, let’s undo the Industrial Revolution!!!!!! That’s Alok’s solution to a non-existent problem. Who pays this Alok fucker? And what exactly is his fucking job?

6: “And in the past 30 years, the world has lost up to half its coral reefs, half.”

Well. Let me sit down and put my head in my hands over this one. I’ll never sleep again. Coral is more important than humanity having air conditioning and diet soda and ice rinks and hamburgers? And where is the cause-and-effect chart explaining how humans on the fucking land are affecting idiot coral in the fucking ocean? Maybe the CORAL are doing something to overheat themselves. Coral? Really? You’re worried about coral? Your concern about the coral is supposed to take precedence about my concern about making a living and having some creature comforts? Fuck you, you pompous self-righteous guru of holiness.

You ever notice it’s always the people who are ordering you around – who you never even met – that are always insisting that if you don’t obey them, you are committing sins? It ain’t just preachers. It’s also presidents and senators and governors and city councilmen and county supervisors and now the UN, which is a smelly horde of prehistoric third world savages….declaring you unholy because you are endangering humanity by not obeying some dumbass fuckhead who for SOME reason is in authority.

7: “We’ve seen wildfires in the Pennines and floods in West Lothian, all as pollution chokes occurring.”

This is what is known as a non sequitur. It is a statement uttered more or less out of the blue that references nothing said preciously or will be said subsequently. Being a non sequitur is the NICE part. SOME of it is pure genuine gibberish.

Air temperature does not ignite wildfires. Not even in the really important Pennines. Lightning, magma, and arsonists ignite wildfires. I don’t know what the fucking West Lothian is but I’m willing to bet it’s a fucking bog. If I know England. And ya know, if something is on fire, put the fucking fire out. Don’t go telling everyone to stop using coal and gasoline and methane and kerosene and propane and U238 so that an arson fire you can’t be bothered extinguishing won’t happen. Regarding the bewildering remark “all as pollution chokes oh-sur-ing”………..I actually don’t know what to do about those osurring things. So, I’ll give Alok that one. “All as pollution chokes oh-sur-ing” could in fact perhaps be caused by me trying to live in the 21st Century AD rather than in 21st Century BC. I don’t know. I mean, regarding o-surrings?….Alok could be right, I could be at fault. Like I say, Alok, I’m gonna give ya this one.

8: “And if we do not act now, the science tells us these effects will become more frequent and more brutal, that we will witness a scale of global catastrophe the likes of which the world has not seen.”

This is the raving of a fucking lunatic. Assuming he actually believes this. Who’s “we”? Well, I’ll tell you who we is: we is you. Not him. What “brutality” has a 1 degree increase in whatever the global temperature is in the past hundred years…..what is the brutality that has actually been inflicted on anyone. Where’s the fucking brutality. Is it Bruising? Bleeding? Broken Bones? Disfigurement? What’s the fucking brutality. What are “these effects”?

What’s next, global warming caused C-19? In fact, what do you want to bet that the news hacks and ‘crats are eventually going to claim global warming created the fake pandemic of the annual cold and flu season currently being called C-19. Wait till they tie the flu to global warming.

Fauci is ALREADY claiming the flu is white privilege because it is hitting the still-enslaved, forever-enslaved, never-allowed-to-be-free negroes the hardest. That’s what he says. Your guilt is being broadcast on all fronts regarding all your amazing “advantages” and “privileges.” They’re basically saying that because you’re apparently superior, everyone is in danger.

And another thing: why can they declare you superior, but you can’t declare yourself superior. It’s like living in a maze created by extra-dimensional monsters, isn’t it? It’s like supernatural crazed beings from Hell are now directing traffic on all fronts, roads, highways and intersections. The only reason you haven’t heard yet that the global warming you created also created C-19….. is because the hacks and ‘crats have not read this article yet. But they will. So, keep an eye out for it. Because you heard it here first.

What will be the exact nature and time of this global catastrophe that “we” will see down the road but which Alok has apparently already witnessed in his seance-room of light-absorbent curtains and from Madame Blavatsky’s messages from the Beyond? Maybe he could tell us what to expect so we can make preparations rather than having to revert to a veldt-level or plains-Indian level lifestyle of living in houses made of animal skins and dried sticks.

Maybe he could be a little more responsible and give us some details of the nature and extent of the danger rather than telling us we are just going to have to believe his idiot crazed Chicken Little imbecilic prophesies based on no previous examples to cite and no previous experiments conducted other than watching PBS and NPR and the EPA for mystical updates from Planet Earth Gaia leprechauns. Because that’s all “environmentalism” is – Reverse Astrology.

Instead of all the planets but earth determining human events…..humans determine planet-earth events. But not events on other planets. Environmentalism is taking something already batshit crazy – astrology – and turning it inside out so that it’s not just crazy…it’s suicidal. But ya know what?….there’s a reason we’re all in clown face-coverings that we believe have magical powers. And it ain’t because we’re all just so strong and so mighty and so intelligent and so brave. So Alok might not be just barking at the moon. He might instead be simply teaching ALL of us how to bark at the moon. Like HE does.

9: “And quite rightly, future human generations will hold us responsible.”

And finally, he unloads the Luciferian accusatory guilt trip that all these creeps keep in their pink handbags, which is “we actually ARE our brothers keepers.” But Alok takes it one dimension further than the fake pandemic plague of Fairyland guilt trippers throw at us, which, their story is, “we are causing harm to those around us” by not obeying these fucks.

But Alok takes it One Step Beyond. He takes it far into the future where people who don’t actually even exist yet will be upset at us if we don’t obey Alok. Oh dear: imaginary people will think badly of us. People who aren’t even sperms and eggs yet…..will be upset at us. Because we didn’t obey Alok The Mighty – the guy who can’t even say “occurring” without falling all over himself.

He spends his entire speech insisting that humanity is doomed to extinction…..which will upset future generations to the point where they will call us names. Even though we rendered them extinct by our Industrial Revolution and alternate current and turbine engines and atomic energy. People who we rendered extinct…..will call us names. After they de-extinct. And who are not even here yet: whether they’re extinct or not. Because they’re in the future. Everything is in the future with this guy. He’s like a fucking fortune teller or snake charmer. But then he WAS born in India. I rest my fucking case.

There’s a REASON he works at the UN. And it’s not because he’s intelligent.

Thank you.

–J.J. Solari
Supreme Commander
Science Overload Class
Bikernet University

by Jenny Leonard from https://financialpost.com

U.S. and EU Set to Reach Temporary Tariff Truce Over Metals

Iconic American products affected by EU countertariffs include Harley-Davidson Inc. motorcycles, Levi Strauss & Co. jeans and bourbon whiskey. Business associations and lawmakers have asked that the U.S. lift the duties, saying they do more harm than good.

The Biden administration is set to announce it’s reached a truce in a dispute with the European Union over metal tariffs, sparing iconic products such as U.S. bourbon whiskey from a doubling of EU duties next month, people familiar with the matter said.

A resolution could be announced as soon as Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

At issue is a high-profile dispute that started in 2018 under former President Donald Trump, in which the U.S. imposed duties on steel and aluminum from Europe, Asia and elsewhere over risks to American national security. The EU has since retaliated and on June 1 was set to double tariffs on a list of American products to 50%.

Under the agreement with the Biden administration, the EU will refrain from increasing those tariffs and both sides will engage in a dialog on steel overcapacity, according to the people.

The European Union had previously proposed to suspend all duties on each other’s products for six months while negotiations on a long-term solution continue.

“We can only reiterate that the EU remains committed to finding a solution with the U.S. to the unduly justified tariffs on steel and aluminium and to working with the U.S. in tackling the root cause of the problem, which is the global steel overcapacity,” a spokesperson for the European Commission said on Saturday.

Negotiators on both sides of the Atlantic are working to eventually remove the tariffs but are not yet ready to do so, the people said.

Spokespeople for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and Commerce Department didn’t respond to requests for comment.

President Joe Biden will participate in a U.S.-EU summit in Brussels next month during his first foreign trip as the nation’s leader. Biden and his European counterparts are set to discuss trade cooperation, the White House said.

Trump imposed the 25% steel tariff, along with a 10% duty on aluminum imports, in March 2018, using an arcane national-security provision in a 1962 trade law to justify the move. Some countries, including Brazil and South Korea, negotiated deals to avoid the tariff, and Trump dropped the duty for imports from Canada and Mexico. But the tariffs still apply for much of world.

The tariffs in place “have already exacted a heavy toll from U.S. businesses and the workers they employ,” John Murphy, the senior vice president for international policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement Friday. He noted an almost 40% drop in U.S. spirits exports to the EU since the duties came into place.

In a Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai defended Trump’s metals tariffs. They “have really roiled our economy, but were necessary to address a global overcapacity problem driven largely but not solely by China,” she said.

The U.S. has achieved its goal of blocking subsidized Chinese steel from the American market through other tools such as anti-dumping and countervailing duties, Murphy said. Separate tariffs imposed via section 301 of the Trade Act, under which Beijing’s practices were deemed unfair, have also deterred shipments, he said.

Chinese steel imports now account for less than 1% of U.S. steel consumption, Murphy said.

from https://www.bonhams.com

The Summer Sale
The International Classic MotorCycle Show (Three-Day Auction)
2 – 4 Jul 2021
Stafford, Staffordshire County Showground

1940S RACING MOTORCYCLE LEADS SUMMER STAFFORD SALE

An ultra-rare example of arguably the ‘Holy Grail’ of classic racing motorcycles – a 1940s AJS 497cc E90 ‘Porcupine’ Grand Prix racing motorcycle, previously owned by post-war AJS works rider Ted Frend, is being offered for the first time at auction in the Bonhams Summer Stafford Sale on 2 July. It has an estimate of £250,000 – 300,000.

The E90’s reputation was made as the first motorcycle to win the 500cc World Championship in the series’ debut year of 1949, carrying Frend’s fellow works rider Les Graham to his (and AJS’s) first and only world title. Dubbed the Porcupine by the era’s motorcycle press due to its distinctive spiked ‘head’ finning, the E90 remains the sole twin-cylinder machine to have won world motorcycling’s flagship series.

Just a handful of E90s were built by the British firm, purely for its works team. Ted Frend who had tasted earlier success earning a gold star at Brooklands having lapped its outer circuit at over 100mph on his Vincent-HRD Rapide, was signed up by AJS in 1947, thanks to a 4th place finish in that year’s Isle of Man TT. He was the first rider to win on the Porcupine at the 1947 Hutchinson 100 race.

Development on the E90 continued over the next couple of years, while the motorcycle picked up 18 world speed records and a number of podium finishes before reaching its 1949 zenith. Graham won two of the six championship races, the Swiss and Ulster Grand Prix, securing the rider’s trophy, while teammate Bill Doran rode to victory in Belgium to ensure AJS’ manufacturer’s title.

Despite its successes, the E90 was plagued by various problems concerning carburetion and its magneto – a magneto shaft failure caused Graham to retire from the 1949 Isle of Man Senior TT, which he was leading, two minutes from the finish. In 1952, its successor, the E95, was introduced, with a revised engine and new frame. Although the spikes disappeared the Porcupine name stuck. The E95 had a dream debut, with a one-two finish in the season-opening Swiss Grand Prix.

Between 1949 and 1954, the Porcupine, in E90 and E95 guise, finished 24 races, securing five wins, seven 2nd places and one World Championship. Ted commented that ‘for its day, the Porcupine had lots of potential, but its development did not keep pace with the opposition.’ In total, only four complete E90 and four E95 motorcycles were produced, along with an unknown number of spare engines.

Ted Frend, who left the AJS team in 1950, also finished his racing career in 1954 to concentrate on his sheet metal business. He maintained that the Porcupine’s glory year was 1949, not just for its World Championship win, but also for holding its own against the more powerful rival Gileras and early MV motorcycles. He said: “At Spa, I managed third place, splitting the Gileras. Masetti, Pagani [Gilera riders] and I were the first to average over 100mph for a full Grand Prix.”

The motorcycle offered was found as a collection of parts in the estate of Ted Frend when he died in 2006. It was his friend and neighbour Ken Senior who acquired the Porcupine and other motorcycle-related possessions from the executors, including Ted’s TT trophies, also offered in the Summer Stafford Sale. Senior oversaw the Porcupine’s rebuild, with missing parts custom made.

Ben Walker, International Department Director, Bonhams Collectors’ Motorcycles, said: “We have only seen two other examples offered for sale publicly, both of which Bonhams sold for world record prices at the time. With the few known examples being in the world-famous Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum or in the possession of private collectors, this is an extremely exciting, once in a generation opportunity to buy a much coveted and sought-after machine.”

The Porcupine leads the Ken Senior Collection of 90 plus motorcycles to be offered on Friday 2 July, at the three-day Summer Stafford Sale. This just a quarter of the near 400-strong collection of ‘everyman’ classics that Ken Senior amassed in his lifetime.

The Bonhams Summer Stafford Sale makes a welcome return to the International Classic MotorCycle Show, and will offer in excess of 650 lots, comprising important collectors’ motorcycles, important early bicycles, spares and memorabilia over three days from 2 to 4 July.

Sale Days
Friday 2 July The Ken Senior Collection and other important one owner collections
Saturday 3 July Bicycles, Spares and Memorabilia
Sunday 4 July Collectors’ Motorcycles

Viewing Times
09:00 – 1700 Friday through Sunday

Other highlights include:

1940 Brough Superior 1,096cc 11-50HP, estimate £60,000 – 75,000
The very last Brough Superior 11-50HP to have left the Nottingham factory, offered from long term ownership (having been repatriated with its original owner from new), the 1940 Brough Superior 1,096cc 11-50HP is to be sold Without Reserve.

The Ron Cody Collection
Well-known in MV Agusta club circles, the late Ron Cody, a former sports car racer and engineer, turned to his passion for building up and restoring his collection of Italian machines as a retirement hobby. This collection offers 48 motorcycles, including many examples of MV Agustas, as well as other Italian marques.

A Significant Norton Collection
More than 10 pre-War marvels are offered from the stable of a lifelong Norton dedicated collector. The collection also includes more than 150 lots of mostly Norton pre-war spares: from engines and gearboxes to pie-crust tanks.

The sale will be a traditional live auction, welcoming bidders back into the saleroom in addition to enhanced online bidding features rolled out throughout 2020, a record year for attracting £7.6 million in motorcycle sales alone.

The sale will also be streamed and available on the Bonhams App, which provides registered bidders the opportunity to bid in real time online via Bonhams.com while watching the auctioneer and videos of motorcycles on offer. Absentee and telephone bids are also encouraged.

Visit www.bonhams.com/summersale to preview the lots on offer. The full lot listing will be published in early June.

To register to bid, contact: bids@bonhams.com and to discuss selling or buying collectors’ motorcycles at auction, contact: ukmotorcycles@bonhams.com.

3 Hollywood-famous bikes that you can add to your motorcycle collection

What do Henry Winkler, Paul Newman, and Peter Fonda have in common—besides the fact that they’re all entertainment icons? Here’s a not-so-obvious answer: motorcycles.

Although the three weren’t all motorcycle enthusiasts—Winkler couldn’t even ride when he scored the part of Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli in Happy Days—they each portrayed a motorcycle-riding character in the movies or on TV. And three of those Hollywood bikes are up for grabs through Heritage Auctions’ Automobilia, Transport History, and Mechanical Models online auction, which ends May 25.

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Both Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders crashed out of promising positions in the early laps at Le Mans after showing podium potential in tricky conditions.

After heavy rain through the morning, the 2.6-mile Le Mans Bugatti Circuit was soaking wet for Sunday’s warm-up sessions, but dried sufficiently to give riders a clear tyre choice ahead of the 25-lap Moto2 race.

All the field ran slick tyres on a track with numerous wet patches, providing a real challenge for the field. Both Augusto Fernandez and Sam Lowes unfortunately crashed out when fighting for the podium places.

Augusto Fernandez – DNF
Starting from fifth, his best qualifying result of the season so far, Augusto enjoyed a fantastic first lap, gaining two places to sit third.

But there was heartbreak for the rider from the Balearic Islands on the second lap, when he crashed out of a podium place at turn 11 when hitting a damp patch.

As a result of a second DNF of the year, Augusto drops three places in the championship to twelfth with 23 points to his name.

“We will work to arrive stronger in Mugello”

“It was a real shame again. I was so calm at the beginning, trying to not make a mistake like at Jerez. I had a great start and when (Joe) Roberts passed me, I passed him back. At the beginning there were some wet patches. I went just a little bit wide and touched one wet part with the front and lost it so soon. I couldn’t do anything. We have to take the positives. It’s been a fantastic weekend in all the practice sessions, be it in mixed conditions, wet conditions, or dry conditions. I had the pace to win and now I know we can be there every weekend at every track. The Aragon test was really positive and this weekend we’ve seen evidence of that. Now we have a test in Barcelona so we can continue working to arrive stronger in Mugello.”

Sam Lowes – DNF
The 30-year old enjoyed a solid start and held position in the opening laps from tenth place on the grid and then upped his pace, posting a personal best time on lap three.

But Lowes suffered a fall on the fourth lap of the race when attempting to overtake Xavi Vierge for 7th at turn 8. The Briton crashed when losing the front and was unable to restart.

The result means Lowes drops a place to fourth in the world championship with 66 points, 23 behind leader Remy Gardner.

“I’ll take the positives to come out stronger in Mugello”

“I’m really disappointed. I want to say sorry to the team and to Vierge for the accident. I was passing him, I felt OK and that the move was possible. Another rider was wide ahead of us so that meant there was no margin to go wide when overtaking. This might have made me squeeze the brake a little more so I lost the front and then my bike took him down. I’m sorry for that and to my team as we threw away a great opportunity with our speed. But I’ll take the positives to come out stronger in Mugello. It’s nice we go back there after missing it last season. It’s a track that we all enjoy and love to ride. I can’t wait to get there and put this race behind me.”

from https://www.financialexpress.com

TVS announces new top management at Norton Motorcycles: 2021 V4SS to launch soon.

With TVS infusing multi-million-pound investments, the Solihull facility will be the most advanced and modern plant that Norton has operated out of in its 122-year-old history.

TVS Motor Company (TVS), owner of The Norton Motorcycle Co Ltd (Norton), today announced that Dr Robert Hentschel has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Vittorio Urciuoli as its Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of the historic Solihull-based motorcycle brand. Hentschel and Urciuoli will take up their new positions as John Russell steps down from his role as Interim CEO. Dr Robert Hentschel joins Norton from Valmet Automotive Holding GmbH & Co KG, where he has served as Managing Director since 2017.

Before that, he headed Ricardo Deutschland and Hentschel System and was also Director of Lotus Engineering. Vittorio Urciuoli’s former key roles within the global automotive industry include Director of URVI LTD, Head of Powertrain at Lotus Cars and Project Leader at Ferrari and Aprilia Racing.

TVS has created a plan for Norton to transform into the future. Along with the entire TVS team, I look forward to working together with them for the revitalisation of one of the world’s most storied brands. Under John’s tenure, with investment and support from TVS, Norton has returned to a firm footing and made marked improvements to engineering and product quality, which will be seen in the updated V4SS that will be launched soon. In addition, we have established a new, state-of-the-art global design, engineering, manufacturing and sales and marketing HQ in Solihull, Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director of TVS Motors, said.

In January this year, Norton announced it would get back to work in full swing by March at its new facility at Solihull, Birmingham in the UK. The British manufacturer has moved its production base from its former headquarters at Donington Hall after its acquisition by TVS Motor Company in April last year.

With TVS infusing multi-million-pound investments, the Solihull facility will be the most advanced and modern plant that Norton has operated out of in its 122-year-old history. The production of the Commando Classic has also been resumed.

The V4SS will also be one of the first motorcycles to roll out as the company resumes operations. Limited to just 200 units, the V4SS boasts full carbon fibre bodywork contrasted by a bright finish on the frame and engine casing. It gets a single-sided swingarm and carbon fibre wheels. It is powered by a 1,200cc V4 engine that makes 200 bhp and 130 Nm of peak torque. Soon after the V4SS, the company is expected to unveil the updated V4RR as well.