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V-ROD ACTION IN TEXAS–Here’s a clip from this weekend… Click here to see the Clip
This was from the burnout contest at V-Rods and Hot Bods, at Republic H-D. While only members of Vindicta were up for the challenge, we had 4 guys who literally smoked the tires off the back of their bikes, the winner to get a new tire. Craig and his team couldn’t make a decision on the winner, so Craig awarded all 4 new tires.
Unbelievable time.
I will get you more in a few days including a rundown of the event, pics from the swimsuit show, and some great bikes. What an awesome time.
–Johnny HumbleBikernet V-Rod Supreme Editor in Chief
D&D DEALER DIRECT PROGRAM CONTINUING TO EXPAND–I’m so sorry that I haven’t been able to provide you with our new dealer base, we have been extremely busy ( I know excuses excuses) but here we go:
3-5-10 new dealers
1) Gancos Enterprises 1008 Lake Palms Dr Largo, FL 33771 813-765-8849
2) Cycle Gear # 86 2229 Lehigh St Allentown, PA 18103 610-791-9880
3) Calumet H-D 10350 Calumet Ave Munster, IN 46321 219-934-6366
4) Performance Cycle & Auto Inc 4006 Progress Ave # 4 Naples, FL 34104 239-434-8699
5) Trev Deeley Motorcycles 1875 Boundary Rd Vancouver, BC Canada V5M3Y7 604-291-2453
6) B-Rad’s Cycle Shop 5306 Forest Hills Ct Loves Park, IL 61111 815-282-2723
7) The Harley Parts Store 1542 Reynolds Rd Maumee, OH 43537 888-316-2453
8) J & K Auto & Muffler Service 14000 66th ST N Largo, FL 33771 727-532-9215
9) KC Kustom Cycles 5405 E Lancaster Ft Worth, Tx 76112 817-507-0150
10) Evil Genius Cycle Works 30861 W Ten Mile Rd Farmington Hills, MI 48336 248-473-2039
11) Bonneville County Chopppers 475 Northgate Mile # G Idaho Falls, ID 83401 208-569-9924
12) Rayz Motor Cycle Towing 24 Repair Service 815 E Princeton Fresno, CA 93704 559-916-7071
13) Harley-Davidson of Medicine Hat 1923-2nd Ave Dunmore, AB Canada T1B0K3
14) MSP Cycles 2500 Lawrenceville Hwy Decatur, GA 30033 404-325-4121
15) Harley-Davidson of Sacramento 1000 Arden Way Sacramento, CA 95815 916-929-4680
16) Moto Route 66 1083 Boulevard Vachron St Marie QC G6E1M8 418-387-8066
17) Freedom Rider Cycles 141 US Hwy 321 NW Hickory, NC 28601 828-322-9901
18) Brentwood V Twin 3265 W 18th St Antioch, CA 94509 925-755-2453
3-12-10
1) Marquee Customs 72 Siemon St Bridgeport, CT 06605 203-332-1700
2) Reno Cycles 2315 Market ST Reno, NV 89502 775-329-2913
3) Buddy Stubbs/ Arizona H-D 13850 N. Cave Creek Rd Phoenix, AZ 85022 602-971-3400
4) Avalance Performance 110-1456 Fairview Rd Penticton, BC V2A6A2 250-492-9100
5) Ill-Fated Kustoms 2, 3650 19st NE Calgary, Alberta Canada T3A0E5 403-560-9281
6) Action Suzuki Kawasaki 3010 Interstate 30 Mesquite, TX 75150 972-686-8000
7) Thunder Customs LLC 582 Hwy Route 20 Sharon Springs, NY 13459 518-284-2454
3-19-10
1) Dream Customs 290 West Market St York, PA 17401 717-718-0448
2) Becancour H-D 4350 Arseneault Becancour, Quebec, Canada G9H1V8 819-233-3303
3) Family Powersports 1811 Fort Worth Hwy Weatherford, TX 76086 817-596-3244
4) Harley-Davidson Sales Co Inc 14550 Lorain Ave Cleveland, OH 44111 216-252-3111
5) Clinton Cycles 6709 Old Branch Ave Camp Springs, MD 20748 703-449-5900
3-26-10
1) Alchemy Bikes Limited Unit 4 Knuway House, Cranborne Rd Potters Bar, Hertfordshire ENG3JN 011441707665164
2) Krank’s Used Motorcycles & Service 201 E Vermilion # C Catlin, IL 61817 217-427-5520
3) Sauk Prairie H-D 836 Phillips Blvd Hwy 12 Sauk City, WI 53583 608-643-3735
4) TBM Performance 1006 Gallatin Ave Nashville, TN 37206 615-650-5299
5) Area 51 Cycles 1529 Lurting Ave Bronx, NY 10461 917-306-9970
6) Full House Cycles 100 Full House Dr Winchester, VA 22603 540-667-0088
7) Yamatoya Motorsports Inc 1432 Front Ave Lutherville, MD 21093 410-616-9962
8) Pat Rogers Speedway H-D 10049 Weddington Rd Concord, NC 28027 704-979-7433
9) Dyno Daves 2199 N Batavia Orange, CA 92865 714-282-9000
10) Yamaha of Louisville 400 North English St Rd Louisville, KY 40223 502-254-1188
11) Colorworks 133 Sport Parkway # D Keller, TX 76248 817-562-1522
— Jennifer Millican
D & D Performance Ent
And as always RIDE SAFE & LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES
817-834-8961
Fx: 817-831-4260
TATTOO OF THE WEEK FROM HARDBALL–This is a real f**#ckn tattoo ! Ouch !
HARBOR TOWN SEDUCTION ARRIVES–Just received the book Harbor Town Seduction about three days after I put in the order.Very quick and efficient service, thank you very much.
I must say it differs a little from the site and is an excellent read.The cover art is throwback cool, seemingly from the ’50s movie titles, the binding itself is thick and sturdy and the words on the pages are large enough so old coots won’t have to put on their reading glasses.
The price is certainly affordable and the story is excellent.
So please get off your ass and publish the next one because I finished The Harbortown Seduction in two days. Hey it was raining in West Virginia where I rest my hat damnit!
Good stuff Bandit, appreciate the effort.
–Original Gangster
BIKERNET WINTER WEATHER FORCAST–A family of moles had been hibernating all winter. One beautiful spring morning, they woke up. The father mole stuck his head out of the hole and looked around.
“Mother Mole!” He called back down the hole. “Come up here! I smell honey, fresh made honey!”
The mother mole ran up and squeezed in next to him. “That’s not honey, that’s maple syrup! I smell maple syrup!”
The baby mole, still down in the hole, was sulking. “I can’t smell anything down here but molasses….”
–Johnny G.
CUSTOM CHROME EUROPEDEALER SHOW 201040 Years CCI & 12 Years CCE–2010 AMD European Championship of Custombike-Building.March 27th and 28th 2010, Ph?nix-Hall, Mainz, Germany.
Where will this show go? We don?t know! But we know where it was inMarch 2010, when Custombike-Builders not just from all over Europe, andwe are talking about Moscow in Russia and Queijas-Oeiras in Portugal,but also from the USA and Japan competed in what was one of the biggestMotorcycle Bikeshows Mainz in Germany has ever seen: Not less than 153motorcycles signed in the event, keeping the bikeshow stagingorganisation busy to place them.
As several bikes weren?t finished intime, still 119 competitors presented their bikes at the CCE Dealer Showand made it the most international bikeshow of Europe and the definitehighlight in the European bikeshow calendar. And all that withoutknowing what would be dropped onto them in form of sponsored prices!
It is a repetition every year, but the CCE Dealer Show and EuropeanChampionship of Custombike-Building once again topped last year?s recordresults in terms of attending dealers, visitors andbikeshow-participants. 12 years of CCE created a name for excellence ?and 40 years of CCI had to be celebrated in style.
When the confetti came raining down on the top-ten ?Freestyle? classwinners, there were many happy faces around, not just on stage. Thisyear?s European Championship, integral part of the CCE Dealer Show eversince its founding, stood out in the way of pure determination of thebuilders to go for the title of ?European Champion? what ever the costwould be. As a matter of fact, of all TEN builders present on stage,only TWO have now to score again for their Sturgis ticket. Almost ALLbuilders that have won Sturgis Trips as ?Best of Show? bikes at previousevents competed again, explaining the incredible standard of this year?sbikes.
83 Freestyle, 7 Custom Chrome Motorcycles, 29 Modified Harley-Davidson ?most of which premiered at the show ? and numerous new bikes presentedby CCE partners at their booths. Europe?s market leader incustomparts-distribution again has teamed up their show with the AMDEuropean Championship of Custombike-Building to create the bestCustombike-Shows Europe has to offer. 119 awesome custombikes from allover Europe, USA and Japan competing for three tickets to the WorldChampionship at Sturgis/South Dakota in August 2010 – this year markingthe 70th Anniversary of the event ? and prices worth something in excessof 30.000,00 ?!
All three top bikes wereinternational entries, with Verona Bike Expo winner Marco Cinquini andhis team underlining their previous victories at many shows during his
?European Tour 2010? with an prestigious EUROPEAN CHAMPION 2010 title.More than 6 month of worktime went into Garage 65?s award-winning “KosmoDrive” ? a hub-steered radical ride which is completely handcrafted,rolling on racing rubbers from Moto-GP racing. He is still refining thebike step-by-step and is now aiming for the next step: These guys meanbusiness!
2nd in Freestyle was Luciano Andreoli ? not unknown in the Championshipseries ? after winning the ?Low Ride? Bikeshow at Bike Expo Verona andthere just beaten by Garage 65. His one-off handcrafted Knuckleheadracer featuring unique rolling chassis and is almost entirelyhandcrafted with 2-spoke (!) wheels.
Completing the Top-3 in Freestyleis Kenji Nagai from Japan with his extraordinary “One Eyed King” thathas won him the German “Custombike” and numerous other events. Two outof three top-3 (and Swiss Performance Best of Show Energicer) winnersalready had a Sturgis ticket, which means that the 5.000 Euro transportvoucher is passed on to position 5 and 6, which made Austrian metalworkspecialists, Blech and Drueber and Hungarian Muece Choppers quitehappy: Both the Norton Walton Chopper and the Simson scratchbuildfrom a rare east-german antique motorcycle brand and BMW-offspring areunique and extremly handcrafted motorcycles.
The Jammer Award winners were selected by CCE?s Special Guests ColeFoster and Kirk Taylor, both well into Old School motorcycles.
TheRevTech award ? a Newcomer pick at this year?s show ? and awarded withan RevTech engine ? went to Spain?s Sergio Bayarri of Sbay Motorcyclesand his radical RevTech-powered Streetfighter which has been ridden to260 km/h at the track of Moto-GP Circuit Jerez/Spain His bike came inwith Best of Show honours by Llunatica Bikeshow, who also sent twoadditional bikes to compete at Mainz.
Last but certainly not least, Harley-Davidson Europe?s Jeremy Pickliterally shooked-up the Modified Harley-Davidson class with histop-price for the winner: A brandnew Harley-Davidson CVO Big BoreTwin-Cam Engine, worth more than 10 grand! This was kept secret beforethe show, as the modified HD class already was flooded with entries,underlining the popularity of this class. Jeremy Pick himself deliveredthe message on stage to a stunned crowd of builders.
?The sponsoringis a win-win situation for both sides?, says CCE Sales and MarketingDirector, General Manager Andreas Scholz, ?every Harley-Davidson soldmakes a potential customer of Custom Chrome and we wish Harley-Davidsonall the best to increase their sales in Europe and their home market.?
Afact that hasn?t changed in 40 years of CCI history: This washighlighted by selected collectibles, advertisements and images in aSpecial Exhibition, which also presented the two 40th Anniversary Bikesby Cole Foster and Kirk Taylor, plus CCI President and CEO Holger Mohr?sWotan ? the first-ever European custombike to grace the cover of aninternational aftermarket distributor catalogue.
This year?s Special Guests included legendary bikebuilder Cory Ness,Cole Foster, Kirk Taylor, Ted Sands, Fred Kodlin, Marcus Walz and ? onhis first ever trip outside the US ? Jim Thiessen of JIMS Performance.World renowned custombike photographer Michael Lichter reported for theUS-magazines.
A brandnew bobber motorcycle was unveiled on stage by J?rgD?nnebacke of Chopper?s World and handed over to German TV/movie actorRalf Richter (?Das Boot? and others). Richter spent hours signingautographs and posing with the crowd.
The ?CCE Dealer Show? was attended by more brand names than ever before:Dead Center Cycles, Performance Machine, Legend Air, FreedomPerformance, Cycle Visions, Thunderbike, Cyron, West Eagle and JokerMachine some 60 world-class brands exhibiting their new items to some300 + Custom Chrome Europe dealers on Saturday and the general public onSunday. Listed in the CCE 2010 catalogue ? a massive 1.440 pages hardcover book ? featuring more than 2.000 new products starting fromcomplete kit bikes down to the smallest part to restore, modify or topimp-up stock Harley-Davidson models.
Text: HRF, Fotos: Frank Sander, Thunder-Media-Servive.de; GuidoLukoschek, Horst R?sler Motographer.de
BIKERNET SPECIAL REPORTS EDITORIAL– What is wrong with Harley Davidson? The heavy weight champ of cruisers is on the ropes. It is nothing new for any large corporation in this economic climate. This isn’t the first time this champ has been stumbling around the ring punch drunk. Harley-Davidson has face hardship before.
Sometimes it has miss stepped. As Bandit stated it is hard for any company to not make mistakes along the way. The secret of success is to learn from those mistakes and from the mistakes of others to position the company to where it can survive fluctuations in the market. Harley-Davidson previous misstep occurred when facing hardship the company joined together with AMF in a move that was to strengthen both companies. The result was a decade of declining sales and probably one of the darkest times for the company. The mighty Harley-Davidson was plagued with poor products and poor quality control. The company was driven by profit margins and quantity instead of quality. The management of Harley-Davidson were quick to lay the blame at the feet of AMF officials who were more concerned with padding the bottom line then turning out a quality American motorcycle. It nearly bankrupted the company and left many motorcyclists sneering the derogator comment “AMF years.”
In the early eighties Willie G Davidson led a group of executives to buy back the once mighty company. For all accounts it was win/win for all parties involved. AMF lost the albatross that was hanging from its neck and Harley-Davidson was finally once again under its own control. The turn around was impressive and has become the benchmark that all business students study. Harley-Davidson was able to approach the Federal Government to lift tariffs that were in place against the Japanese manufactures. Harley- Davidson continued to flourish. They were able to capitalize on their rebel image and relying heavily on their heritage and tradition the company was able to reinvigorate itself with the launch of the Softail motorcycle.
As the new millennium came to fruition Harley- Davidson started to see a decline in sales as many would be purchasers began to wait for 2003, the 100th Anniversary of the Harley-Davidson Company to purchase a new motorcycle. The consumers believed that these bikes would be deemed instant collector motorcycles. However, as 2003 models began appearing in showrooms Harley-Davidson made the decision to make every single motorcycle produced that year a 100th anniversary model. With their consumers and investors in possession of a new motorcycle and with no intention of ever selling them the Harley- Davidson Company was faced with a very serious hangover.
The company began slashing prices in 2004 and offered deep discounts to convince riders to purchase another new motorcycle in subsequent years. As Harley- Davidson further deceased their prices for the first time Harley-Davidson?s were cheaper then comparable Japanese built motorcycles.
During this time Harley-Davidson was facing a second very serious dilemma. Harley-Davidson had been able to maintain its market share by relying on the aftermarket and the consumers desire to customize their motorcycles. By the early 21st century Harley-Davidson had price their parts and themselves out of contention for consumers who were customizing and altering their motorcycles. The result was the aftermarket responded by being able to offer consumers the ability to build their own motorcycles. The aftermarket spawned a pseudo market known as the American V twin market. Soon companies sprang up producing motorcycles heavily influenced by Harley-Davidson. Companies began producing clone motorcycles under the names Big Dog, American Ironhorse, and Indian motorcycles. Identical to Harley-Davidson in many ways these bikes were built entirely from readily available aftermarket parts. The allies became the enemy.
Harley-Davidson’s response was three fold. First was to focus their sales and marketing to the 50+ year old population democratic, the population with the largest disposable income and those that had grown up with the heritage and tradition of the Harley-Davidson brand. The idea was that these consumers would be more inclined to return to the dealership for repairs and to purchase accessories through the dealer then the aftermarket.
Second they took a page from the Japanese market and began engineering interchange ability out of their motorcycles so that the back yard customizer could no longer pick and choose parts from all lines of motorcycles to build the motorcycle that they wanted. During this time Harley-Davidson began its third step by privately lobbying the Federal Government to increase regulation of the motorcycle industry. The intent was with strict Federal regulations the aftermarket would be unable to keep up with increasing regulation. Motorcycles would no longer be modified as they had traditionally been in the past.
It has been rumoured that there is a fourth ploy by Harley-Davidson. As consumers traded in their motorcycles, often at a lost to the Harley- Davidson Company that financed the initial sales, the used motorcycles are not reintroduced back into the market. By eliminating these used bikes from the market place Harley-Davidson hoped to stem the aftermarket growth and eliminate the past 100 years of motorcycles that would not be subject to the new regulations they hoped to have Congress pass.
The 50+ demographic appears to be a shortsighted answer to the problems Harley- Davidson faced. They failed to see that these consumers had a very short riding life expectancy. Within 5-10 years these new riders that the company had attracted and leveraged the company?s success on will not be riding. These consumers also view their motorcycles as simply another piece of consumer goods to show success and social standing. The result is very few of these motorcycles are being ridden with many of the motorcycles being ridden less then 1000 miles per year. This low usage has resulted in a sharp decline in visits to dealerships for servicing and for repairs, what was a staple of the Harley-Davidson Company to offset the low profit margins that new motorcycle sales generated.
In its drive to separate itself from the aftermarket the company has done everything to eliminate older Harley-Davidson Motorcycles from the marketplace. The company’s dealerships now absolutely refuse to work on, service or supply parts for their older motorcycles. In fact it has been this author?s experience that the dealerships refuse to have any association with any Harley-Davidson motorcycle that is more then five years old, insisting than the consumer purchase an new motorcycle instead and they quietly and discreetly dispose of the older machine. A dramatic snubbing of the history and tradition that the company had always tout as its strong suit. This turning of their backs on the history and heritage of the company?s past has not gone unnoticed by the riders who stood beside the company through the dark years. Harley-Davison relied on these riders through the lean years because they would always purchase new parts to keep their old and antiquities motorcycles running. Harley-Davidson is driving their core consumers to the aftermarket to purchase.
Will this mean the end of the iconic motorcycle company? It is hard to believe that it would. Demand for the motorcycle from consumers continues to climb with many dealerships having 12-18 month waiting lists for a new Harley- Davidson. The company has also scaled back production to help drive prices back up in a supply and demand situation. They have also started marketing motorcycles directly targeted at young riders entering the market. Will Harley Davidson survive to see another 100 years? Much like Coca-Cola?s ?New? Coke we will have to wait and see if the hardcore riders will embrace this new Harley-Davidson.
-Wayne Wuschke
WHATTA NEWS–I don’t know about Wayne’s assertions. Most History books give AMF credit for the Evo motor design and funding the development leading to the factories future success. In otherwords AMF held the factory together during the tough times.
Walk into any bar and discuss the factory with each brother, and every patron will have a different strident take on history, the future, and his model. That’s actually a good thing. It’s an indication of the level of passion surrounding our product. Ask me about my toaster. I could give a shit less, but ask about Harley-Davidson and you’ll receive a heated response. Shows we care, goddamnit.
Since we’re talking biz, check this quote of the week from The WEEK Magazine: If we look beyond the short-term hardship, there are many reasons to believe that America will remain ascendant well into the middle decades of this century. And one important reason is people. From 200 to 2050, the U.S. will add another 100 million to its population, putting the country on a growth track far faster tan most other major nations in the world. And with that growth will come a host of relative economic and social benefits. Within the next four decades, most of the developed countries in both Europe and East Asia (including China) will become veritable old -age homes. The U.S. will maintain a youthful, dynamic demographic (and is) diverging from its prime competitors.–Joel Kotkin in AOLnews.com
Okay, so now the economic situation is rosey, it’s going to be harder to find a place to hide out from the masses. Good god. But you’ll always have Bikernet or Bandit’s Cantina for a digital escape. Tomorrow, I’m going to Fullerton H-D for a quick Metal Sports tour pack rack install. Next week, I will work on a Torian Leather Girl of Bikernet featuring our 5-Ball Factory Racer. And next week, we will feature the most unique late model Road King built by Todd of Todd’s Cycle. Our hidden Canyon writer is working on a feature with Roland Sand’s new Sportster, associated products and Performance Machine wheels and brakes. Oh, and I need to wrap up our Chopped Sportster Product Guide.
That should keep the week hopping like jack rabbits escaping a rattlesnake. Then we need to hit the Bonneville bike again. Never a dull moment.
Ride Forever,
–Bandit
