New Victory models were just announced and 2005 looks hot. We’ll bring you the line-up as soon as it’s released. Harley-Davidson releases their 2005 models next week to the media. And Helen Wolfe, Bikernet correspondent and the Mailman are rolling to Las Vegas for Harley’s presentation, specifically for women riders. Again there’s embargo dates on the info, but we’ll launch it when we’ve cleared those dates. 2005 Looks to be a screamin’ year.
I need to finish the Run For Breath trophy this weekend and ship the sucker. I’m requesting a couple of calm days and cold beer–fat chance. In the meantime, washers are running, electricians comin’, carpet guys measuring, railing people drawing up plans and I’m hammering on the news. Let’s rock:
JUDGE, SENATE CANDIDATE BACKS MEASURE TO AMEND ‘THREE STRIKES’– (ORANGE COUNTY, CA.) – Saying judges frequently “have their hands tied” by the state’s tough and arbitrary criminal sentencing laws, U.S. Senate candidate and state superior court judge James P. “Jim” Gray (L-CA) became the first statewide politician to endorse the recently-qualified ballot measure to amend the “Three Strikes” law.
“From what I see as a trial court judge, the Three Strikes sentencing law is often inefficient and unduly rigid,” say Gray, who was appointed by Gov. Deukmejian to the municipal court in 1983 and the superior court in 1989. “We could save hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year by simply requiring a third strike be a violent offense.”
This week, the California Secretary of State’s office told organizers of the “Citizens Against Violent Crime” that they had gathered enough signatures to place the measure on the November ballot, along with at least 13 other propositions, after years of effort to qualify the initiative.
If passed by voters, a criminal convicted of a third strike would still receive a mandatory 25-to-life sentence if they committed a violent crime, such as assault with a deadly weapon, rape, robbery or murder.
The ballot measure, which has not been assigned a proposition number, will also toughen prison sentencing for those convicted of sexually abusing children.
There are 42,322 people in state prison on second and third strikes, according to the Department of Corrections. Only one-third of these are incarcerated for violent crimes. Most of the other two-thirds committed non-violent property or drug offenses. There are three times more marijuana offenders incarcerated on a third strike than for the offenses of robbery, rape and murder combined.
–from Rogue
ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIKER BASH–Lyons, Colo: This year the sun was shining down on the people at the fourth annual Redhill Motorcycle Werx Pig Roast in Lyons, Colorado. It is a chance for all of their long time customers and new customers to come up have some free hog and talk shop with the owners Scot and Mercedes Ross. This year and estimated 800 people rode up and partied with the pig! “This gives us chance to say thank you to all of our loyal customers and show off some of our newest custom builds” said Mercedes Ross. “It’s fun to have, what feels like family, come up and just have a good time”.
A good time was had by all. There was a free bikini bike wash with some girls from The Bus Stop, door prizes and a give-away. All this while you could feed your face with some of the finest roast pig around and listen to some great live music. They showcased several of their custom builds including Mercedes “Bitchcraft” an all aluminum women?s specific bike that you will see adorning billboards in Sturgis this year, and Scot’s personal ride “Silver Tongue,” a classic chop with a 124″ S&S that has brought home a few trophies.
Tours of the shop were available were you could see the full paint shop they have set up in back, housing Black Canyon Custom Paint and get a to see the Dyno room. They will have plenty more parties as the summer goes on and come on over and say “Hi” to Scot and Mercedes at Thunder Road in Sturgis this year.
–J. Ken Conte
SUMMER RIDING ALERT–COLORADO SPRINGS– Just thought you might like to let ALL your riders know that IF they are visiting Colorado or just passing through they should avoid Colorado Springs UNLESS they have the ‘STOCK EXHAUST’ still on their Harley. If you own a custom and your pipes DON’T say either DOT or Harley Davidson on them, you too will receive a ticket. Minimum cost is $50. And it’s a PRIMARY OFFENSE, so they can pull you over and write you up JUST for the exhaust issue. The police who pull you over determine whether your exhaust is legal or not.
On your way to Sturgis from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada or SoCal and planning on going up I-25 through Colorado Springs to Denver and then on to Sturgis? Plan to add $50 Colorado Springs Noise Tax ticket to your trip. OR avoid Colorado Springs all together. Your choice. I personally am starting a boycott of ALL Colorado Springs business’, as it’s the ONLY WAY to send a message. If tax revenues dip and business STOP seeing motorcyclists coming to their place of business, then MAYBE we can get these people to come to their senses.
The city ordinance used is section 10.22.204, which is used to ticket BOTH motorcycles and ‘euro race cars’ according to the Colorado Springs City Council.
Sincerely,
Jim Waldrep
Denver, Co<
whiterivr@msn.com
A DIXIE MEMORY–Remember ‘Dixie’ from Rescue 911? This a pic from her singing days.
–from Ron W.
WHITEHOUSE REPORT–President gets off the helicopter in front of the White House, carrying ababy pig under each arm. The Marine guard snaps to attention, salutes, andsays: “Nice pigs, sir.”
The President replies: “These are not pigs, these are authentic TexanRazorback Hogs. I got one for VP Cheney, and I got one for Defense SecretaryRumsfeld.”
The Marine again snaps to attention, salutes, and replies, “Nice trade,sir.”
–from S & C
STEALTH REPORT FROM NC–Life is precious! We have all heard this before and when we hear it we usually stop for a second or two and think about it. When tragedy strikes it makes us realize that things can change with the blink of an eye. It makes us reevaluate what is important in life and how fragile our time is. When my son Justin passed away at the age of sixteen it made me see things in a new light.
At that time in my life I would find myself thinking and seeing myself five years down the road, 10 years down the road. I stopped looking down the road and started to pay attention to where I was in the road at the present time. My point is to pay attention to what is at hand. You only live once, when it is over there is no second chance. Live life like you are dying! You can’t wait for one day forever! Life is not a dress rehearsal!
I know it is hard to do everything you dream of and probably impossible to do everything you would like to do, but we all need to have dreams. We all need to do something we really want to do and not put it off until tomorrow or in five years. You see the funny thing about life is that we never know how much road we have been given, how many rides we have left. I know sometimes I am still guilty of thinking too far ahead and when I find myself doing this, I snap out of it real fast.
When you have a chance to do something you really want to do, do it! When our time is over it is over and you don’t want to be sitting around when you are older saying to yourself “I wish I would have done this or that, I could have, if only I would have taken the chance.”
Speaking of promises The 6th Annual Run For Breath “In Memory of Justin Pullin” promises to be a must attend event this summer. The run is Sunday July 25th here in Charlotte. We have even gotten the LAW involved. I guess that is a good thing? They have agreed to provide a police escort from “STEALTH” headquarters to Ben”s V-Twins in downtown Charlotte.
Well that is it for this week, until next week RIDE and do something special for yourself!
Later!
–Mike (STEALTHMAN)
BUELL DEALER TEAMS FASTER AT ROAD AMERICA FORMULA XTREME–Strong Runs by Hal?s and Kosco Riders Rev Up Hometown Crowd. Hal?s rider Mike Ciccotto qualified eighth and ran as high as fifth, in a five-rider dog fight battling for the final podium spot before dropping back to seventh halfway through the race when the experimental front brake on his bike lost performance. Kosco?s Michael Barnes qualified ninth but suffered similar trouble on the first lap with the experimental front brake on his bike and battled through the race to come home in 11th position. ?We?re really proud of these dealers teams and what they?ve accomplished in such a competitive class. This is exactly the kind of grueling testing and learning that goes on in racing that you just can?t duplicate in the real world,? said Erik Buell, chairman and chief technical officer at Buell Motorcycle Company. ?We were doing great in the first half of the race,? said Ciccotto. ?I?m feeling really confident on the Hal?s Firebolt, and at one point I was able to make an awesome pass of [HMC Ducati Milwaukee rider] Doug Chandler. I was right there in the fight for third.? ?It?s frustrating,? said Barnes. ?But even with our problems, we were just outside the top ten. This Kosco bike has a lot of potential.? AMA Formula Xtreme is a class open to highly-modified motorcycles with 600cc four-cylinder engines or larger-displacement V-Twin engines. The next stop on the AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship schedule is June 25-27 at the Brainerd International Raceway near Brainerd, Minn. BIKERNET POLICE RELATIONS SESSION– A guy blows through a stop sign and gets caught by a policeman. Cop says, “License and registration please.” Guy says, “What for?” Cop says, “You didn’t come to a complete stop at the stop sign.” Guy says, “I slowed down, and no one was coming.” Cop says, “You still didn’t come to a complete stop, license and registration, please.” Guy says, “What’s the difference?” Cop says, “The difference is, you have to come to a complete Stop. “License and registration, PLEASE!” Guy says, “If you can show me the difference between slow down and stop I’ll give you my license and registration.” Cop says, “Exit your vehicle sir.” The cop takes out his Night Stick and starts beating the guy and says, “Do you want me to slow down or stop?” –from Chris T.
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