Think about this for just a second. I was flying down a desolate highway in Wyoming at 80 mph on one of the sweetest motorcycles I’ve ever ridden. I had just spent a couple of hours in a town I have never ridden through. I knew one woman there, the owner of a hair/nail salon, who invited me to a book signing. I was completely blown away by the number of bikers who attended, and the response I received. I had a great time with wonderful folks from the small town of Worland, population 4,000. I was 25 of the 30 miles back to Thermopolis, where the crew was hanging for the ride to Sturgis the following day, when I spotted a deer some 100 yards up front, darting across the open highway.
The moon was full, but there was a serious bank of clouds in the sky threatening rain. The warm moon glow popped only occasionally around banks of clouds. I held the highbeam switch on the left handlebar most of the time as I cut along the road.
I only had a handful of miles remaining when I spotted the deer. I took it as a warning and turned the throttle back. It didn’t matter though. Another deer, perhaps a parent of the one ahead, jammed into my lane so fast I couldn’t avoid a collision. In a matter of seconds my life was scattered to the wind. I could have been killed or broken in half and my entire life changed. I broke several ribs, split my skull, crushed a lung and collected some serious road rash. I was knocked out on the pavement. If some guys in a truck hadn’t stopped to check out my injured Buell, they would have run over me. When the ambulance arrived, I was standing beside my bike.
The full story will be covered in my Sturgis 2001 saga in the near future. But there’s one aspect that needs to be addressed now. I may sound like a fool, but I don’t care. I’ll just spill my guts and you take it for what it’s worth.
I want to thank everyone who has written the site and attempted to help me through this. I want to let the people in my life know that I love them. There’s no way for me to explain the warmth of emotion I feel for everyone on the site, all the guys I’ve known for 30 years or more in this field. I suppose that there’s a risk each one of us takes each time we fire up our rides and split lanes. So few realize what an adventure riding motorcycles is and the passion of what riding is all about. I remember a boss saying to me once that we were in the motorcycle magazine business to make money, and I looked at him in disbelief. This incident brought that lesson home. There’s nothing about riding motorcycles that has anything to do with making money. We are in this because of each and every adventure, because of the love we have for the bikes, the solidarity on the road, the brotherhood, the creativity of what we can do with the machine we ride, and the passion that never ends.
Just remember that no matter what you do, it can disappear in seconds. We are so lucky to be able to breathe, shift gears and reach out to someone, even if it’s just to say a kind word. Why is it that more and more, making money becomes such a high priority? If you died tomorrow, what differences would all the money make? If you could pick up the phone to call a friend, spend precious moments making love, enjoy a ride to help a brother, how does that compare to a lifeless bank account?
Now, let’s get to the news.
ATHLETE?–A guy met a beautiful blonde and he decided he wanted to marry her rightaway.
She said, “But we don’t know anything about each other.”
He said,”That’s all right, we’ll learn about each other as we go along.” So sheconsented, and they were married, and went on ahoneymoon to a very nice resort. One morning they were laying by the pool,when he got up off of his towel, climbed up to the 10 meter board and did atwo anda half tuck gainer, this was followed by a three rotations injackknife position, where he straightened out and cut the water likeaknife. After a few more demonstrations, he came back and lay down on thetowel.
She said,” That was incredible!”
He said, “I used to be an Olympicdiving champion. You see, I told you we’d learn more about ourselves as wewent along.”
So she got up, jumped in the pool, and started doing laps.After about thirty laps she climbed back out and lay down on hertowelhardly out of breath.
He said, “That was incredible! Were you an Olympic enduranceswimmer?”
“No,” she said, “I was a hooker in Davenport, Iowa and I workedboth sides of the river!!”
–Chris and Joerline
HARLEY-DAVIDSON CELEBRATION DATES–It’s official. H-D has announced the dates in 2003 for their celebration and party.August 28 – 31, 2003 in MilwaukeeWe will leave Seattle on Monday, August 25 for the 45 hour trip, putting us in Milwaukee Wednesday evening for a great start on Thursday morning. We are returning on Tuesday, Sept. 2 if the two day loading of bikes is required.
If you are still interested and have not paid your $100 deposit, it is now required to assure your place on the train. The first 200 deposits in get their choice of trains [if two trains are required on consecutive days].
CLEAR THINKERS– Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? Answer: “I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever.”
—Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest
STURGIS REPORT– Whenever Carolina HD’s Click Baldwin is involved, you know it’s gonna getwild. Click called me today from Sturgis and told me of his latestadventures. Click flew out to Calif. last week. He pulled out of ArlenNess’s place with about 20 Hamsters. By the time they reached Sturgis, thenumber had grown to 75. He’s been out there tearing it up with Donnie,Perowitz, Ness, Yaffe, just to mention a few. He played golf for the firsttime ever in the Arlen Ness Invitational Golf Tournament. Click, Paul Yaffe,and several others, were brought into the Hamsters organization this week.Dave Perowitz, along with the Governor of South Dakota, Woman Rider editor;Genevieve Schmitt, and others were inducted into the National MotorcycleHall of Fame. One night Click rode down to Deadwood and hung with Danny Greyat his bar, The Roadhouse. Another night, he partied with Dave Bell, an HDdealer from Michigan. Bob Guidry, a dealer out of Louisiana threw partyCajun style on Wed. night. Downtown was not so crowded, he said. You canactually get around.
NOBLES TAKES WIN AT WEST VIRGINIA PRO THUNDER RACE–Buell Racers Make it a Seven Race Podium Streak and Win Three Out of Last Four. Buell Racer Tripp Nobles scored his first Pro Thunder win of the season by picking up a victory at the AMA/WERA National race at Summit Point, West Virginia.
“It sure feels good to stand on top of the box,” said Nobles. “I’ve been way overdue.”Nobles and teammate Dave Estok took their Don Tilley-tuned Buell X-1s to the front at the start of the race and were swapping the lead every other lap until Estok’s bike developed an electrical problem on lap 10, which did not allow him to continue. Nobles was challenged for the lead late in the race but regained the top spot on the last lap and hung on for the win.
Ducati’s Tom Montano finished second while Jeff Nash, also aboard a Ducati, finished third. Buell of Frederick rider Bryan Bemisderfer, in his first Pro Thunder appearance, rode to a respectable fourth place finish on his S-1 Lightning.
Nobles’ win continues the streak of at least one Buell on the podium at every Pro Thunder race this year. It also means Buell racers have won three of the last four Pro Thunder finals.
The next AMA Pro Thunder event will be held at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, CO, on August 24 – 26. ?????? To learn more about Buell motorcycles, visit your local Buell dealer today and experience the pure streetfighter attitude, style and performance only found on board a Buell. Call 1-800-490-9635 for the Buell dealer nearest you. Or pull into www.buell.com.World biker arrives in VancouverA round the world motorcyclist arrives in Vancouver on Tuesday 7thAugust.Simon Milward, a 36 year old Briton, arrives by ferry from PrinceRupertbecause his engine is about to blow up. BC Ferries sponsored the ridetosave him a few thousand km. He recently crossed to Anchorage AlaskafromMagadan in Russia’s extreme NorthEast.
Milward left England on 1st January 2000 and theCanada is the 29th country on his global adventure.He has ridden 76,000km through Europe, the MiddleEast, South Asia, Indonesia, Australia, SE Asia,Japan and Russia.
Some memorable experiences en route include amarriage proposal at Cairo’s pyramids, meeting theDalai Lama in India, escaping marauding militants inTimor, serious accidents in Saudi Arabia, Nepal andthe Australian Outback, riding through the front linesof a civil war in Laos and most recently nearlydrowning on Russia’s flooded Road of Bones.
There is a serious side to Milward’s trip of a lifetime.He aims to raise US$100,000 for two medical aiod charities.One is Doctors Without borders, which recently wonthe Nobel Peace Prize. The other is Health for All, specializing inhealthcare delivery to out of reachAsian regions by economical motorcycle. His primary aim in NorthAmericais to find sponsorship for twelvemotorcycles for use in a new project in Indonesian Flores. Thisintroducesa proven African idea to Asia.Yamaha has kindly offered a 30% discount at $1000 per motorcycle. Thevalue of medical aid sponsorship he has raised so far is nearly$26,000.
Donations can be made via www.millennium-ride.com, or if you see astrangelooking bike on the continent’s highways, flag him down, thrust somedollars in his face and demand a badge.
POPEYE’S GRANDSON SLIPS AWAY
–On top of my deer hunting episode on the open Wyoming highway, the woman who has been holding Bikernet together on the coast was also caring for her dying dad at home, who at 76 was rapidly slipping away. Monday – Aug. 6th he fell asleep peacefully, never to wake.
This is difficult to explain and yet paints a dramatic picture of this man’s existence and history. He lived in San Pedro most of his life and since he was a kid he spent one stretch of time after another working on one aspect of the harbor after another, from stitching nets in Alaska, to commercial fishing to being a longshoreman to being the crewman of one commercial ship after another. As you can imagine his seven kids never spent long stretched of time with him and often only saw the old man when mom took them down to the docks to collect child support. From time to time he told a story of his grandfather and the artist who created the Popeye character, and for years the kids thought he was full of shit. As it turn’s out Popeye was created after their great grand father who ran a fishing fleet in Santa Monica. When he smoked his corncob pipe, he kept his teeth in a bag around his neck because once he lost them spitting into the ocean. He always wore the hat that Popeye was known for. The white pants, the hardlined style and tough as nails personality was based on ——- Olaf Olsen.
Layla’s daughter Karley read the following Sailormen’s Prayer at Harold Olsen’s Service last night:
The Lord is my pilot; I shall not drift
He lights me across the dark waters. He steers me through the deep channels.
He keeps my log. He guides me by the star of Holiness for his name’s sake.
As I sail though the storms and tempests of life I will dread no danger; for your are near me; your love and care shelter me.
You prepare a haven before me in the homeland of eternity;
You quieten the waves with oil; my ship rides calmly.
Surely sunlight and starlight shall be with me wherever I sail, and at the end of my voyage I shall rest in the port of my god.
Good-bye dad, I’ll love you forever and miss you like crazy.
Layla
THAT’S IT BROS–I need to rest, but my heart is with you over each mile you sail or ride. –Bandit
