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BIKERNET HAPPY HOUR LEARNIN’–This little guy is sitting at the bar just staring at his drink. He’s beensitting there for half an hour when this big trouble-making truck driversteps next to him, grabs his drink and gulps it down in one swig.
The poor little guy starts crying.
“Come on man, I was just giving you a hard time,” says the truckdriver. “I’ll buy you another drink. I just can’t stand to see a man crying.”
“This is the worst day of my life,” says th! e little guy between sobs. “Ican’t do anything right. I overslept and was late to an importantmeeting,so my boss fired me. When I went to the parking lot, I found my car wasstolen and I have no insurance. I grabbed a cab home but, after the cableft, I discovered my wallet was left in the cab. At home I found my wifein bed with the gardener.
So I came to this bar and was thinking aboutputting an end to my life, and then you show up and drink the damnpoison!
–from CarlR
TONIGHT SHOW APPEARANCE SPAWNS ANOTHER ORANGE COUNTY CHOPPER THEME BIKE– Los Angeles, Calif. (August 11, 2003) ? Following a recent guest appearance on the Tonight Show, the bike building team of Paul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr. announced plans to build a custom bike for Tonight Show host Jay Leno. While specific details are uncertain, it is agreed that the Teutuls will build Jay a bike like none other in his collection.
The building of the bike will be chronicled in an upcoming episode of the Discovery Channel series American Chopper, which airs Monday nights at 10 PM ET/PT on Discovery Channel.
FOUNDER OF EXCELSIOR-HENDERSON MOTORCYCLES PUBLISHES BOOK ON RISE AND FALL OF DREAM COMPANY– RIDING THE AMERICAN DREAM written for entrepreneurs, students and motorcycle enthusiasts. One person?s dream may not come true, but his pursuit of that dream is filled with truths other dreamers can go to school on. That?s why Dan Hanlon?s book, tracing the rise and fall of Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles will be a valuable guide for aspiring entrepreneurs attempting to turn a dream into a business.
RIDING THE AMERICAM DREAM, The Official Story of Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles, published in August 2003, is the founder?s first person analysis of what worked ? and what didn?t ? in an eight-year attempt to build the only independent American motorcycle manufacturing company in over 75 years.
Hanlon writes like he talks ? direct, to the point and with an attitude. ?The book is a chronicle of the good, the bad and the ugly,? says Hanlon. ?As an independent start-up proprietary original equipment motorcycle manufacturing company, we had progressed farther than anyone else in over a half-century. But obviously, it wasn?t far enough.?
Between 1993 and 2000, Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles acquired the rights to the legendary Excelsior and Henderson motorcycle names, completed an IPO while raising nearly $100 million in capital from investors in every state in the United States and 16 different countries, generated revenue of over $30 million by putting $18,000 heavyweight cruiser motorcycles on the road, built a national dealer network ? and filed chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Excelsior-Henderson?s business plan concentrated primarily on competing with just one other brand ? the only other independent OEM American-made motorcycle, the legendary Harley-Davidson. The two brands had competed in the early 1900s, and Hanlon believed they could do it again.
?We were using some of the same effective marketing and branding tools they were,? Hanlon states in a chapter entitled Road Warriors: How Guerillas Meet Gorillas. Harley-Davidson was the ?gorilla, with more ammunition and guns, and we had to be guerillas.? Ultimately, Harley-Davidson encouraged its independent dealers not to carry Excelsior-Henderson, a move that Hanlon maintains made it unusually difficult for them to attract and retain its dealers.
Hanlon says he hopes what he learned about teamwork, creating a company culture, public and private financing, family involvement, moving from prototype to production, working with the media and focusing on a one-day-at-a time approach to achieving milestones will help readers live their own American dream. ?A strong sense of hope, mixed with a focus on reaching specific milestones that would keep us alive to fight another day were what made us go as far as we did,? says Hanlon. ?No matter what happened, we can still dream, and the dream is not over. Dreams never die.?
The 401-page RIDING THE AMERICAN DREAM has been selected as a business textbook in the Graduate School of Business at the University of St. Thomas, in Minneapolis. It is available for purchase on the Internet at www.ridingtheamericandream.com or by calling Union Hill Press at 800-584-0886. Purchase price is $32.95, plus $4.95 for shipping and handling.
SONS OF LIBERTY RIDERS E-NEWS–While we’re so busy doing charity we have failed to realize, it begins athome. There is a group that does runs to raise money for Motorcycle AccidentVictims who are hurt by no fault of their own. Check them outhttp://motorcycleaccidentvictims.org/ This is a great idea these folksstarted but is still confined to a small area. It needs to spread out, getin touch with these folks and see how you can help. Also give them a linkwhere able………they need all the publicity they can get.
SAFETY BELONGS, NO MATTER THE AMOUNT OF “TEA” IN THE CUP….. When you talkto your Congressman about the LaTourette-DeFazio Safety Letter, be aware:there is a complication facing the reauthorization of TEA-21, and thatcomplication is the cost of the TEA. For all of us, the preferred option isthe full reauthorization – the 6-year plan – complete with the MRF-SMROjoint safety agenda called for by Congressmen LaTourette and DeFazio. Wecan call that “a full cup of TEA.” There are, however, other optionscirculating. One option is a two-year reauthorization that puts off for afew years some of the contentious money issues. Call that a half-cup ofTEA. There’s another idea, too – a “multi-month” reauthorization thatextends the current TEA-21 (which expires in September) a few months, intoJanuary of 2004. Call that a “spot” of TEA.
BRUSH UP ON THE EPA ISSUE…..In our efforts to enhance the MRF website andhelp make it more user friendly, we have added a new section simply called,”EPA.” The new EPA section of the website (www.mrf.org/epa.php) provides acomprehensive list of links to every document on the site related to theMRF’s fight against the EPA’s proposed emissions regulations – from Leaders’Reports to position papers. This new section will make it easier foreveryone – particularly newcomers – to get a complete overview of this issuein one easy-to-use location. Teri Stobbs, MRF Director of Communications,wants to send a huge “THANK YOU!” to JD DePaolantonio of ABATE of Arizonafor his timely and valuable assistance with this new section. Look forother updates and improvements to the MRF website in the near future.
TATTOO OF THE WEEK–Just read your piece on your tattoos. I just finished a new one, my modifiedfamily crest on my right calf. I made it a little brighter since my whiteboy skin is good for something. I can’t get a tan, but I hold inkwell. Blurry photo taken by Deb are attached. She just can’t hold that camerastill.
This took four trips to do, 5 hours a pop is about all I can stand,matey. So there’s about 20 hours in this one. It’s about 3 weeks since thelast visit, so I’m going to wait another month for it to all settle down andthen get a few things touched up. I can’t stay away from the needles too
–John Covington
Surgical Steeds
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