Bikernet–The 15 Year History

Incredible. It’s been 15 years since we kicked off Bikernet.com. I had the audacity to believe someone might be interested in this history of an eternal search for freedom, the illustrious custom motorcycle holy grail, and the perfect woman. And since we had so many variations of our George Fleming-induced, 15th anniversary logo effort, I thought, what the hell. Let’s put down the searing saga of web site survival, virtually since the beginning of the internet, and the yellow brick road to the world wide web.

Here’s how it started. A crazy man web master approached the offices of Easyriders Magazine almost immediately after the internet exploded onto the scene. He was a long-haired scrawny biker and internet mastermind by the name of Steve Smidlen. Of course, he wanted a small fortune to change the face of Easyriders forever through the internet new age. In 1995, Joe Teresi (the owner of Paisano Publications) tried desperately to sell the company and retire. He didn’t want to invest more cash into the monster, and the internet wasn’t a proven commodity, so he turned the internet mastermind down.

I knew Steve, and of course he pled his case to me. I was a vice president and the editorial director of Paisano’s 14 magazine titles. I was also responsible for the quarterly video and involved in the events, predominately the bike shows and the coverage of the bike rodeos. I did what I could for the internet wizard, so he approached me about starting a web site as an example of his immense talent base and the capabilities of the internet. Since he wasn’t going to charge me an arm and a leg and we were all curious of the web reach, we moved ahead.

We kicked off Bikernet in 1996 with the help of Jon Towle’s black and white illustrations, due to slow-ass modems. We set the site up to sell products, including my paperback books and Bandit’s Bedrolls. We called it Bandit’s Bikernet, and we focused on the one editorial area my boss didn’t care for, fiction, the dreamy side of bikerdom. I didn’t want Bikernet to compete with Easyriders or any of our magazine titles at the time. I stayed true to my word and agreement with the boss to restrict Bikernet to mail order sales, fiction, and Jon Towle’s cartoons. For some unknown reason, the boss didn’t care for the sardonic self-attacking stubby little man with a wry sense of humor.

We banged along for a couple of years and sales were not startling, but brothers seemed to enjoy the site and asked for more. But Smidlen (not sure I have his name correct) didn’t think the vast Bandit empire grew fast enough or paid him enough, and we parted ways, and our crew began the frustrating hunt for a web master who understood business and the internet. I think I started to plug in chapters from my next book, Sam “Chopper” Orwell. At the time, Bikernet fell under the auspices of 5-Ball Incorporated, shared equally by my fifth wife, Rebecca Segal. I was busy as hell with the Paisano empire, Easyriders, and Joe’s efforts to sell the company. Life banged along and Bikernet grew slowly, sort of like notes in a dusty shop manual.

The web master issue was daunting. Web tech heads felt they controlled the keys to the world wide web castle and should be paid handsomely. Many of them were slow to finish projects, which I quickly learned was against the code of the internet west and the capabilities of this media. We could publish content as quickly as it was created, and the readership expected us to perform, but the prima donna tech heads wouldn’t respond. They understood the tech aspect, but not the actual medium outcome. We found another master, David Dewey, who worked for a San Diego-based technology giant, and we started to work with him.
 
 
About this time an old friend approached me, Bob Bitchin, who owned Biker Magazine and started Tattoo. He sold his titles to Joe for a song, ’cause he was in a jam. He needed a job, and had fallen in love with sailing. I helped him start Lattitudes and Attitudes cruising sailing magazine and for ten years I owned 10 percent, and had some fantastic sailing adventures. It became the largest sailing magazine in the world, and he built a fantastic empire with his lovely wife Jody, and they sailed around the world a couple of times.

Then in 1999, Joe finally took Paisano Publications public, to become Easyriders Inc., with a partial sale to some heavy hitters who retired with millions from Taco Bell. I received a small bonus for my efforts and decided it was time to retire (escape), seek additional freedom, adventures, write some books and see the world. Sure, the notion was scary, but my timing was right on. Easyriders struggled with a new command structure and ultimately went bankrupt. I blew up my marriage with a psycho redheaded broad who lasted less than a year, and I bought a little house overlooking the Los Angeles harbor in San Pedro and embarked on a new freshly paved metallic road in life.

A couple of Bikernet fans pointed out the need to focus on Bikernet, including an Easyriders staffer, Mike Osborn. Bikernet expanded and I put my panhead desk in my dining room overlooking the main LA harbor channel, and we went to work building this motorcycle web kingdom. We started building bikes and covering every move on Bikernet. Each year, I rode to Sturgis on whatever bike we built. As I wrapped up the 1935 house remodel, I moved into this strange, blue collar union town on the edge of the port, I entered a new phase in life. The girl who said she wouldn’t move to San Pedro moved in, but then grabbed a job at Bartels’ H-D and moved to the more upscale Marina Del Rey.

The year was just turning toward treacherous 2000, and I rode with Agent Zebra to his digs around Point Fermin, then over to Long Beach to see my dear old ma and Dr. Nuttboy, who with his wife, helped me rebuild my home. Other than a couple of folks, I didn’t know a soul in San Pedro, but I loved every minute of my life on the coast. I would get up in the morning and ride to Ramona’s bakery for a muffin and a cup of coffee. I met a wild woman at Cannetti’s fish and chips who would have stormed my abode with her two kids if I didn’t watch my back. Life was good, and I started to build the Blue Flame to ride to Sturgis.

I don’t know if you can imagine this, but I was living in a motorcycle nirvana. I turned one bedroom into a gym and converted my garage into a bike shop. I carefully rolled motorcycles across new refinished hardwood floors in almost every room in the house. Each day consisted of tinkering with motorcycles or writing about them on the web. We started the Thursday news and for a couple of years, there were no images, just text. My psycho ex-girlfriend sent me scurrilous e-mails from time to time, suggesting tech upgrades to the site. I moved slowly, working through the bugs on a tight budget. I published my third book, Sam “Chopper” Orwell, wrote for several mags, including the HORSE, and I consulted for American Rider.

I rode the Blue Flame to Sturgis, but failed to rubber-mount the tank and Randy Aron from Cycle Visions helped me keep it alive to Spearfish. Then Paul Yaffe helped me upgrade the Flame to a better tank, properly rubber-mounted for the long road a couple of months later. We installed a new shapely stretched independent gas tank. What a terrific motorcycle and a great ride. Rumor has it, it’s still on the road in Texas.

Around this time, I met a girl in Harold’s Biker Bar, Nyla, and we started to date. She was a Pedro girl who was married to a mad biker for 15 years, until the abuse put her on the streets and back in Pedro with the support of her massive family of eight brothers and sisters. She lived with her fading, elderly longshoreman father and her three kids in a massive old crumbling clapboard home overlooking the main channel.

As the site began to grow, she worked at Epson Computers, in customer service, and took on part-time bookkeeping duties for Bikernet.

Around 2001, my mom stopped by the little house on Crescent Avenue and told me about her notion to take a ship around the world. At the time, we started on a Buell project to ride to Sturgis. Each time I spoke to my mom, she mentioned the only cruise line to circumnavigate the world. Unfortunately, it went out of business and she began looking into freighter world tours.

After one such visit, I called my 79-year-old mom.
“What’s the deal ma?” I asked in my most respectful tone. “You always mention this trip. Would you like me to go with you?”

“Yes,” she said confidently, as if she had this scenario planned for months. My mother has traveled the world all her adult life. My dad stayed home, drank beer, and went fishing while she roamed through Europe, Russia, and China. We started to make plans for a world tour.

Buell shot here

I was also modifying a Buell into a bitchin’ Joker Machine accessorized hot rod for the 2001 Sturgis run with Dr. Hamster and his girlfriend. It was a terrific ride and we hooked up with the Hamsters in Thermopolis, Wyoming for a party. I had a Wyoming babe in the next town over who always looked after me. She set up a book signing for “Chopper” Orwell, and I slipped out of town. I thought it was just five miles away, but it turned into 35. No problem for the fast Buell to slip through the countryside at over 80 mph.

We had a terrific time, and all the local riders showed up for books and wine in her beauty salon. Since I was involved with the lovely Nyla, I didn’t spend the night with voluptuous Wyoming Deb, stayed sober, and rolled out of Worland at midnight, heading back to the Hamster headquarters at the Holiday Inn in Thermopolis. I scooted along dark roads, comfortable aboard that Buell Lightning, when I spotted a road sign announcing just 8 miles to town. I quickly estimated a five-minute time window at 80 miles an hour. That’s when I spotted the first deer.

It was 50 yards ahead but its stationary eyes still glistened, reflecting the Buell headlight. I immediately backed off the quick Joker Machine throttle when another deer blocked my vision directly in front of me. Unable to even consider applying my brakes, I slammed into its hindquarter. It stopped me dead, totaled the Buell, and I was knocked out by the pavement. I broke several ribs and ended up in a Wyoming hospital for four days. Dr. Nuttboy flew out. Deborah and Dr. Hamster looked after me, and Nuttboy hauled me home.

Within a couple of months, I was back on my feet, flying to Houston with mom, and boarding the nastiest, rustiest tramp freighter in the Houston Ship Channel and prepared for a four and a half-month voyage around the world, with stops at 22 ports.

I felt I could trust Nyla to watch over my home and possessions. As soon as I slipped out of Galveston Bay and into the Gulf of Mexico on a tramp freighter, she and her daughter moved into my home. Sneaky, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. She kept the joint afloat and Bikernet alive for those months.
 
 

Mom and I spent Christmas in Hamburg, Germany, and New Year’s in Belgium. It was an amazing adventure thanks to the college professor Polish captain and his Polish officers, and a terrific group of Philippino crew members. Of course, we noticed that due to price of domestic labor, there weren’t many American sailors left, and the ship didn’t haul any American products overseas. The tramp freighter left stateside virtually empty.

So began 2002. The captain allowed me to set up a fixed antenna above the bridge, and I continued to write articles for Bikernet, the HORSE, and American Rider, handled the Thursday Bikernet news from afar, wrote World Tour chapters (somewhere here on Bikernet), finished my first Change Hogan novel, Harbor Town Seduction, and wrote chapters for my second Chance Hogan book, about Chance losing his girl to Chinese crime lords.

We passed on Sturgis for 2002 but built the Amazing Shrunken FXR. Nyla became a full-time staffer and we found, for the first time, a web master who understood the business, and was a biker, Jason Douglass. He built web sites for Atlas Frames and Joker Machine, and he set up Bikernet so we could launch our own articles. We were beginning to cook. We could publish the news weekly, publish full techs, bike features and event coverage.

A Note from our Texas affiliate:
 

Back in 2002 or early 2003, I was reading The Horse magazine at work and discovered an ad for Bikernet.com. I can still see the ad with the brunette riding the blue chopper with gray flames…tantalizing. My initial exposure to the web site was all it took, I was hooked. The bike reviews, Life and Times of Bandit, the girls, but most of all was the road tales. I read every one, some of them over and over. My favorite was a story called Neighborhood Watch, and another that’s name slips my mind, but the author was named Dowling; it was a Code of the West piece. I ate that shit up and it helped occupy my time working the night shift at the plant. Many a 12-hour shift was spent looking at Bikernet.com on one screen while I also watched the computer controls for the plant on the other. I had gotten so good at my job, the other operators would sleep because everyone knew I was up, either reading a magazine or looking at Bikernet.com.

In December 2004, I graduated from college and started writing more as a hobby now that my time was a bit more open. The kids were getting a little older, so sleeping was easier and I could devote some time to my passion, Harleys. Early in 2005, Bandit sent me an e-mail asking if I’d be interested in writing a few bike features for Hot Bike magazine. Now mind you, while I had been writing for Bikernet for several months, most of my stories were laced with a little bit of bullshit. As a good friend of my dad’s used to say, “Hey, Texans don’t lie. Texans just bullshit.” So, after having a limited amount of experience at writing, mostly bullshit, now I’m getting the opportunity to write for a magazine. Thankfully, there was plenty of great editing, because that relationship stands today and I occasionally still pen articles for Hot Bike today.

Later in 2005, I was able to make my first trip to Sturgis, riding alongside El Bandito himself. I learned a few things on that trip, but the one thing I will always treasure was watching that giant bastard riding through a rainstorm in Durango, Colorado freezing his nuts off! We had a memorable trip, and I have been back three times since. He started a tradition that I plan to partake in as many years as I can afford to.

Throughout the years, we’ve had several adventures, from him teaching me the ropes on judging at the Texas National Bike Show in Galveston to building my first custom motorcycle to give to my Iraqi veteran brother in 2007. We’ve been through lean times where I know every plug I can do for Bikernet is helping him keep the lights on, to the bountiful harvests where, on occasion, I’ll get a check for 20 bucks or so. Either way, I wouldn’t have traded any of it for the world. From the first custom part I ever wrote about, I always had Bandit leaning over my shoulder if I ever got stuck. Because of my relationship with Bikernet and Bandit, I realized I am really just another RUB with a bike, I just happen to have the talent and time to be able to write a few words about it…and that makes me just valuable enough to keep around.

So here I am now, a pathetic RUB who not only writes on occasion for Bikernet.com and Hot Bike magazine; but I am also a professional writer at my day job. I have been promoted to production specialist, where I spend my days writing SOPs, LOTO lists, standards, safety, training, etc. Basically, I have become a “paper biyatch,” so thanks again, Bandit!

I can’t wait to see what we do next at Bikernet, and while I am sure another 15 years seems like forever away, it’ll be here before we know it.

–Johnny Humble

We kicked off the Bandit’s Cantina department, and Nyla came up with the Sunday Post for Cantina members only, so I could never have a free weekend again. Good God! In our little shop, a small two-door garage riddled with termites, we blocked off the large doors to the street and used the small side door for bikes. When we went to work in the shop, we had to move four or five bikes into the back yard. I wanted to enlarge the shop and build an apartment above it, but city codes fucked with my ability to expand.

Dr. Nuttboy, who lectured in art history at Harbor College, rolled by after class and ground on the Amazing Shrunken FXR. We were going to build him a tight FXR and the madman was going to ride through the streets of Long Beach. What a cool ride we built, but the more I watched how he handled tools, the more another plan emerged. We would sell the FXR and buy him a ratty used Sportster and see if he survived bouncing off trash cans in the alleys.
 
Also, in 2003 I started to work with Mike Pullin and his Run For Breath, American Lung Association charity ride and show in Charlotte, North Carolina. I hand metal sculptured the best of show trophy and flew out to be the Grand Marshall. For several years we worked with Mike on this event. It was an annual tribute for his son, Justin.

About this time, we started to modify a 2003 Road King as a celebration of Harley’s 100th anniversary, and to build me a touring bike for long rides. That bike was blacked out and it made several trips to Sturgis, including one with another Road King, the new 96-inch model ridden by Dale Gorman, a Hamster out of Boston. We rode to Sturgis, did our thing, then rode back to Salt Lake, where we hooked up with the lovely Nyla and her youngest son, Kyle. Kyle rode the 96-incher back, but didn’t follow returning instructions and collided with a car, destroying the King.

Nyla: Bandit’s full of crapola here. He and Dale did Sturgis in 2006 on two Road Kings, the blacked out ’03 and a new 96-inch ’06.

Shortly thereafter, we starting customizing a new 2004 rubber-mounted Sportster with the blessing of Harley-Davidson. A series of articles followed on Bikernet and in American Iron. Each modification was installed using primarily H-D components. We built a very slick customized Sporty. Ultimately, the lovely Nyla was intimidated by the power band and the tall sitting position , which of course we enhanced , preferring a Buell Blast instead. She wasn’t riding motorcycles. She was a passenger.

The Sporty collected dust in the shop until a long-time motojournalist from Easyriders was let go and his freelance revenue stream dried up. He was forced to sell his only running motorcycle, so I turned the Sportster over to a brother so he would have a reliable ride.

About this time, or maybe in 2003, we started to build a bike to support the Beach Ride, through George Hayward, the benefactor. It was a Custom Chrome kit bike, and a very sharp build. Dr Nuttboy helped with the operation. Jeremiah Soto dry-walled the shop, and I believe Jon Towle helped. I had been on the Beach Ride Board for years and always supported it and the Love Ride. I discovered something vast and wonderful about the Interplanetary Bikernet nerve center based in a large brass base anchored to the deck, and topped with a hazy glass globe. It told me that the Bikernet Empire could be used for the good of all bikers, so a code was born out of the globe’s radiant light.

We would do whatever we could to keep motorcycling alive, free, and the industry successful. On a daily basis, we helped spread the word, worked with and supported motorcycle rights groups, and fought for less legislation. Why not? What could be more beneficial to the world than more freedom? We started publishing the National Coalition of Motorcyclist’s Coast to Coast Legislative News, authored by Bill Bish, on a monthly basis. Right around this time, the one major drawback to internet access was replaced. The slow-ass modem was upgraded through cable modem supplied by the local SBC cable TV provider. Suddenly we could publish at warp speed. We thought that it would allow us to launch articles quicker and give us more time to chase broads and ride. Not so; it meant we could launch two and three articles a day on Bikernet and steam started to pour from our window. We were cookin’.

About that time, in late 2004 or 2005 a strange opportunity unfolded. I owned a small, one-bedroom condo that was suddenly worth a lot of money, so we sold it, and it started a process. See, when I originally moved to Pedro I was going to live in an industrial building, every guy’s dream, but when I discovered my little seaside bungalow I jumped on it. But we were out-growing the house, and the shop was dinky and growing smaller as Bikernet grew.
 

While shooting the Road King for American Rider on a back streets in Wilmington, the next town over and directly behind the port of Los Angeles, with famous photog Markus Cuff, I discovered an old rundown hotel for sale on the corner. An old man gave me a tour of this 1923 clapboard, lathe and plaster hotel. It had been gutted in 1981 and portions were refurbished to become an industrial building and a fish processing plant. The entire building was stuccoed and vast concrete rooms created. As I walked through this wild cavernous hideout, my imagination went wild.

Of course, I had to convince the lovely Nyla that this would be a step in the right direction. She was born in a small home in Wilmington, and never looked back. Most Wilmington residents drink margaritas and dream of how they can escape this third world country between Long Beach and San Pedro. It’s as industrial as a town can get. It’s bordered by the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach, oil refineries, power plants, train depots, and more 18-wheelers roll through the streets daily than cars. Since this is not a white bread, upscale community, over 85 percent of the population is Hispanic. Hell, longshoremen haul ass to the dreaded Wilmington union halls daily to pick up their jobs, then scream out of down.

Since I was somewhat involved in some community efforts in Pedro, I made a couple of phone calls and was introduced to the Wilmington Waterfront Development Committee. I discovered that this building was at the corner of every future corridor to the water project being discussed. I made an offer. Nyla foolishly agreed, then panicked. We moved in and a new adventure began, plus we started to develop the Bikernet Independent Motorcycle Noise Study, since bikers were being harassed with roadblocks in Pedro and across the country. Suddenly we had a joint that allowed us a large shop. I was awarded the Silver Spoke award by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, then inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Sturgis for God only knows what. I have always supported the Sturgis Museum.

About this time, Jesse James called and asked me to be on the 50th Anniversary Monster Garage Team, building a wrecked Softail into a mighty fine custom chopper. The team was made up of Mark Rowe, the master welder and frame designer, John Reed the master Custom Chrome builder and parts designer, Don Hotop, one of the finest custom bike builders in the country, Carl Morrow, the master engine builder, who doubled the horsepower of this twin cam, and me, a so-so mechanic. I was the guy who recommended Jesse for his first Discovery Channel gig. We had a blast and built one very cool chopper.

A Word from the Bikernet Official Copy Editor :

Shit, when did I get involved with Bikernet? Must have been 2004 or 2005 near as I can figure. Like the Robert Hunter-Jerry Garcia song, The Wheel says, “You can’t slow down and you can’t stand still; if the thunder don’t get you, the lightning will.”

The last economic downturn about ten years ago found me divorced and unemployed for a year back in Allen, Texas, but I got the itch to ride again and bought a 2000 XL1200C Sportster anyhow. A couple of contract consulting jobs came my way that summer and put me in Columbus, Ohio. I swapped the Sporty for one of those rare (not), black, 2003, 100th anniversary edition FXST.

Jobs took me back south to Baton Rouge, Louisiana; north again to St. Louis, southeast to Raleigh, North Carolina, where I picked up a 2007 Road King. Currently, I’m still single and living and working in Colorado Springs.

Me and my big mouth; back in 2004 or 2005, I sorta broadsided Bandit one day about sloppy editing and missed deadlines. Next thing I know, I’m editing tech features, Cantina episodes, World Tour chapters, Building a Bonneville Salt Flats Racer, Harbortown Seduction, Bandit’s biography of the international president of one of California’s 1% clubs, and contributing articles of my own now and then.

Mostly, I do it for fun; it’s a welcome respite from the insufferable pricks and pompous asses that I have to deal with in my real job as a proposal manager for a defense contractor. But it has its perks, too, and it allows me the creativity that’s lacking when you make your living writing, editing and managing dry government documents.

And somewhere before and during all of it, I left an ex in Texas, lost a few girlfriends in Louisiana, Missouri and North Carolina, slid on my ass down a patch of black ice in Ohio, got splattered with bird guts on a Kansas highway, and got to ride and party with a lot of kick-ass brothers and sisters from around the country. On the flip side, I buried a father and a few friends, too, but I choose to celebrate their lives rather than mourn their deaths.

So, yeah, it’s been a helluva ride. I’ll be 60 next fall, and I’m looking forward to riding and celebrating the next 15 years with the Bikernet crew.

– Bruce Snyder, 2011, Colorado Springs, CO

In 2005, after spending a year as the editorial director of Hot Bike, Street Choppers, and another Primedia title, I started on the Sturgis Shovel, my first ground-up project in the new Bikernet Interplanetary Headquarters. We rode to Sturgis.

In 2006, I built the first Sportbike Panhead, with a partial Custom Chrome, John Reed-designed kit bike and an Outlaw 120 engine from Accurate Engineering, and we decided to ride to Bonneville. I met Valerie Thompson, a professional drag racer and a very pretty face in the motorcycle racing community. She wanted to race Bonneville, so I offered her my ride, the Salt Shaker. We didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but we did it. I believe our first pass grabbed us a speed of 152 mph and I was impressed. As it turned out that year, we took home a world land speed record at 141. That same year, we watched the World Land Speed Record for motorcycles broken for the first time in 16 years, from 321.5 mph set by the Easyriders team in 1990, and I was on that team. Interesting. I believe Dennis Manning took the record at about 345 mph. What a year! We were hooked!



After Sturgis 2006, I jumped into Dr. Hamster’s ’53 modified Lincoln and we drove to the bottom of Mexico, then raced in the 2006 LA Carrera PanAmericana vintage road race to the top of Mexico. Then with our 2nd class award in hand, we drove home. All the other teams had rigs, trailers, and tool sheds. We were the only bastards to arrive in our car and everyday, we threw our luggage in the back and went racing. What a ride!

In 2007, we decided to build an aerodynamic bike to fit Valerie, and go after a 200-mph Worlds Fastest Panhead Record. At the same time, Jeremiah Soto rolled into the shop and started his Shovelhead bobber project, and we went at it like mad dogs, building his bike and the Panhead. We hit a top speed at Bonneville at over 160 mph and set another partially streamlined record at around 156 mph. We knew the bike was capable of much greater speeds, but the salt conditions prevented strong runs.

In 2008, I finally published my first Chance Hogan book. We were also contacted by Tim Remus of Wolfgang Publishing to publish a book about our 2007 run to Bonneville, based on the rough chapters about the build on Bikernet. Every year, we were fortunate enough to sit back and make a list of goals we wanted to accomplish. As we rolled into 2008, I was turning 60 years old. I rode to Monterey with Billy Lane and the boss of Sucker Punch Sally Bikes for a vintage meet. Billy traded me a 1926 OHV 350 cc Peashooter engine for my 1913 Pope engine, and we started to build a vintage single cylinder engine bike for Bonneville the following year.

But the stars weren’t aligned for the 5-Ball Racing Crew in 2009. Barry Wardlaw forgot to send us a set of rings for the Assalt Weapan and we couldn’t take it back. We rolled to Bonneville with just the Peashooter and Ray Wheeler’s turbocharged Dyna. He had handling problems and we blew a head gasket with 14:1 compression. We had a great time, but stumbled home early.

I also jumped a jet for the annual meeting of the minds meeting produced by the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based legislative group that’s the federal arm of motorcycle rights groups across the country. Bikernet presented several efforts, including our popular Independent Motorcycle Noise Study, a freedom movie effort, and our effort to start an aftermarket motorcycle rights group to support the industry. We are a sponsor of the MRF and run their news releases often in the Bikernet news. We publish legislative reports from any state or national organization. Actually, Rogue, a brother and freedom fighter I’ve known since 1972, has sent me reports daily since 1999 from all over the country. He is now in the Sturgis Hall of Fame and still rides like a madman at over 70 years of age.

During this period, every extra dime we could muster went into refurbishing one room at a time in our vast 10,000-square-foot building. I started to build a Crazy Horse Indian engine, 5-Ball Factory Racer with primarily Paughco parts. The frame was initially designed by Rick Krost of US Choppers and he was having a problem getting his board track frames built, so I introduced him to the legendary Paughco family, and immediately he had frames whenever he needed them.

Somewhere along here, Mike Jones called me and invited me to be apart of his movie effort, Born to Ride. I tried to memorize a handful of lines and play a motorcycle journalist, asking the hero questions in an interview. This summer, the biker film will be released in Phoenix. Branscombe Richmond plays one of the slap-stick bad guys. Mike is already working on another film.

A note from contributor Agent Zebra:
 

“Bandit was always the one who always got away, the one they could never catch or censor. May Old Glory wave over the Bikernet headquarters another 15 years.”

In 2010, we suffered through the economic downturn, but completely rebuilt Bikernet. I moved it to a new location in Columbus, Ohio within a family operation. They oversee over 300 web sites and said they could handle the vast Bikernet empire. We are still grappling with them to upload all of our features onto the new platform. Sure, it’s better, with more bells and whistles, but it means more work. We could work on this bastard 24/7. When one of the bosses, Joe, started to monkey with Bikernet, he called me.

“This site is amazing,” Joe said. “We have designed sites with millions of dollars and they don’t have a fraction of your content or your readership numbers.”

Don’t get me wrong. We’ve stumbled some, but once all of our content is in place, Bikernet will be the Emerald City of custom motorcycle web sites with stories over a decade old. You’ll actually be able to follow our progress, and the history of chopperdom for decades to come. Each article that’s posted is archived forever. It’s fucking amazing and even blows me away from time to time.
 
 
 
 
Plus, in 2009 I flew to Malaysia with Bob, Jody and the Latts and Atts crew with the lovely Nyla. We toured Prince Irdis’ palaces, car and bike collections, then flew to Phuket, Thailand, and boarded a 40-foot sloop to sail through out the Bay of Thailand, even to James Bond Island. Another amazing adventure. Art from Quick Throttle, who has traveled to Thailand over a dozen times reminded me. “Bandit, when you’re in foreign lands you need to reach out to motorcycle folks.” We are currently working with Thailand on a motorcycle tour from Malaysia north into Thailand.  

Every year, we made a list of adventures and goals, and flew at them like rabid dogs. In 2010, I was approached by Motorbooks to write a book about a 1%er, the international president of a club for 24 years. I was still writing features for American Iron, the Horse, Cycle Source, and Heavy Duty in Australia. A handful of righteous brothers in the custom motorcycle business, including Kiwi Mike and Billy McCahill were still trying to assist the industry by forming an aftermarket motorcycle organization to support motorcycle rights and motorcycle freedoms. Nevada is trying to repeal their helmet law. Other states are trying to pass helmet laws. California is trying to smog test motorcycles, and the noise battles are being fought all over the country.

I try to spread the word as much as possible, and we even considered trying to make a film about freedom in this country wrapped around motorcycling. That’s another adventure we may embark on as we move forward. I may have slipped in the above timeline and scrambled the dates, but that’s basically the story. I don’t want to go into the goals for 2011, since you see them mentioned every week on Bikernet, but I would like to thank about a thousands folks for their support, leadership, talents, and contributions over the years. I know I’m going to forget someone, but this is the internet, not a page in a magazine. We can correct or add to any aspect of an article, anytime night or day. Just ping me and I’ll make it happen–I hope.

I was interviewed last week by a writer from Random Lengths, the local newspaper. He mentioned that I was blessed to have created a pure custom motorcycle paradise and live smack in the middle of it. If anything is green, Bikernet is. We don’t destroy trees; we don’t even commute to an office. It’s fuckin’ amazing. Thanks for stickin’ with us, and maybe we’ll hook up on the ride to Sturgis 2011.

Many Thanks to all of our supporters and contributors:

Bob T.
Chris T.

Rogue
Anson Alexander

Jason Douglas
Chris Kallas
Doc Robinson
Johnny Humble
Paul Garson
Kirk Willard
Jeff Hennie
Sin Wu
Jeremiah Soto
Jon Towle
Peter Linney
Markus Cuff

Rebecca Segal
Uncle Monkey
Nyla Olsen
Eric Herrmann
Ray C. Wheeler
Cigar Marc B.
Joe Tripp
Tedd T.
CarlR
Bruce Snyder
Ladd Terry
River Rat
Vickster
Patty Hamster
Myron Larrabee
Agent Zebra
Tramp Scotty
Uncle Monkey

Robert Stewart
Richard Kranzler and his lovely wife Chris

Barry Wardlaw
Holger Mohr
Richard Lester
Pepper Massey
Mike and Vicky Pullin
Jim Gufra
Rick Krost
Ron Paugh
Danny Gonzalez
Lorenzo Lamas
Branscombe Richmond
Edge
Robin Hartfiel
Bikernet Betsy
Genevieve Schmitt
Paul James
Charles P.
Jenn Gruber
Michelle McCarthy
Lisa Pedicini
Buster Cates

Tim Remus
John Gilbert

Wordman
Frank Kaisler
Dick Allen
Quick Throttle Art
Ian
Donna
Arlin Fatland
Marilyn Bragg
Charles Young
TBear
JoAnn Bortels
Buckshot

Jim Murillo
Dr. Hamster
Dale Gorman

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