It’s Thursday goddamnit, time for the news. Not just any Thursday. Half the biker world is rolling out of garages and shops, cutting a dusty trail towards the Badlands. I’m not going, so I’ll piss and moan all week long.
On the otherhand, most bros are leaving their women behind, and I’ll bring you day to day reports on rides and Sturgis action. Bikernet reporters embedded in the Badlands front include Frank Kaisler for the bikes of Sturgis and the babes, CrazyHorse for the insider connection and of course Jose from Caribbean Customs for the Old School, Hardcore take on the event. His bob-job will be featured at the Journey Museum display in Rapid City. Hang on.
QUOTE FOR THE DAY– “Instead of getting married again, I’m going to find a woman I don’tlike and just give her a house.”
–Rod Stewart
I say don’t give her the house unless she bought it in the first place. Then again, if she bought it, she can afford to buy another one.–Bandit
SPEEDFREAKS BLOW OUT THE GOODS WITH THE KING OF OFF ROAD– Hollywood, CA (August 2, 2004) – The Kings of Motorsports Media are again a plethora of motorsports madness as their doors swing open tonight on Speed Channel with dirt demigod, Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart, and open wheel ‘wizo’, Ryan Hunter-Reay. The Freaks continue to lay down some mad love with The World According to A.J. (Foyt) and IHRA Pro Mod Champion, Mitch Stott. Then to top off the large time, the quartet throws in bits with Indy five-oh-oh Champ Buddy Rice, 3-Time IHRA Top Dog Clay Millican and Sport Compact champion Nelson Hoyos.
“Ironman? has been a staple in the SpeedFreaks Pits for the last four years,” vents Freaks’ Kenny Sargent. “And the stories you hear tonight from The First Man of Dirt will stain your mind with laughter. Seeing naked Mexicans while running Baja is a classic! Then we top it off with Ryan dishing out the salt-n-pepper on his initiation from team sponsor, Herdez. A delicacy to some. Others? A freakin’ road to sure nausea.”
“As Speed Channel rolls tape of the Freak Radio Network from Sunday nights to playback Monday night, the viewing audience sees why the two entities are at the pinnacle of their respective fields,” states SpeedFreaks’ Statt Mann Caruthers. “SpeedFreaks throwin’ heat with Ivan and Ryan while Speed Channel is there to catch it all. Any questions?”
SpeedFreaks and this big-ass motorsports guest line-up can be seen tonight on Speed Channel at 8:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. PT) and repeated at 12:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m. PT).
http://www.speedfreaks.tv/>www.SpeedFreaks.TV to hear it all.
INDIAN NAME CHANGES HANDS AGAIN–IT HAS recently been announced that the intellectual property and rights to the Indian motorcycle name have finally been sold. The buyer is the British investment company Stellican, headquartered in London but with one of its business partners based in Florida.
The rights to the Indian name were offered by CMA Business Credit Services, based in Burbank, California.This company was acting as liquidators of the Indian Motorcycle Company of Gilroy, California, which had built a range of motorcycles from 1998 until bankruptcy in 2003.
The contents of the Gilroy factory had already been sold, but the intellectual property remained for separate negotiation.
Stellican has an enviable record of turning round companies that also traded as well-respected names but failed for a variety of reasons.Its highest-profile success is the Chris-Craft company.
After a long history of providing stylish pleasure boats for both American and European markets the company closed just before the Millennium. Stellican has re-vitalised Chris-Craft and the company is actively trading and has regained the respect of the market.
Among other companies included in the Stellican portfolio are the Italian luxury boat manufacturer Riva and Vicenza Calcio SpA, a premier Italian soccer team.
STELLICAN OF THE AMERICAS
Sarasota, Florida, USA
Tel: 941 351 4900
Fax: 941 358 3722
E-mail: dwright@stellican.com
www.stellican.com
SCREAMIN’ EAGLE DRAG TEAM SOLID IN SONOMA–Andrew Hines Sets Track Speed Record and Boosts His Lead in Pro Stock Bike Points.
SONOMA, Calif. (Aug. 1, 2004) ? The Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines drag racing team put riders GT Tonglet and Andrew Hines in the Pro Stock Bike elimination rounds and saw Hines advance to the semi-finals and pad his season-points lead at the 17th Annual Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway. Hines also rode his Screamin? Eagle V-Rod to a new Pro Stock Bike track-record top speed of 196.13 mph during qualifying.
Hines landed in the number-three qualifying slot, with a best run of 7.100 seconds at 196.13 mph. Tonglet qualified ninth with a best run of 7.139/194.86. Angelle Savoie ran 7.084/188.10 to take the top qualifying position.
In the first round of eliminations, Tonglet (7.160/191.46) used a 0.040-second reaction time to beat Steve Johnson?s quicker but losing run (7.124/182.62), due to a slower reaction time of 0.089. Hines (7.098/189.31) beat Redell Harris (7.288/182.90), and both Screamin? Eagle riders advanced to round two.
In the second round, Tonglet (7.137/183.72) fell to the red-hot Savoie (7.085/188.49). Hines (7.097/187.96) used his quickest run of the weekend to dispatch Karen Stoffer (7.121/188.31) and move on to the semi-finals.
A red-light start foiled Hines in the next round, a result made doubly disappointing when Brown stalled his bike just off the starting line. The jumped start by Hines handed the win to Brown, and Hines missed a chance to make his fourth final-round appearance of the season. Savoie won the final when Brown jumped the start by just 0.001 second to hand the win to his US Army teammate.
?Red lights are part of the game for everybody, especially after the second round on Sunday,? said Harley-Davidson Racing Manager Anne Paluso. ?It was a good result and we?ve got both riders in the top-ten in points with Andrew leading the class. Byron Hines and the team are still figuring out the extra 40 pounds mandated by NHRA just three races ago, but if we can keep the team consistent, we?ll be in good shape for the championship.?
Hines? performance at Infineon helped boost his lead in NHRA Pro Stock Bike season points. After nine of 15 rounds, Hines leads with 809 points, 169 points clear of Shawn Gann, who is second with 640 points. Savoie?s win helped her jump from sixth place to third, with 595 points. Brown is fourth with 573 points, followed by Craig Treble with 566 points and Tonglet with 532 points.
The next Pro Stock Bike event on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series is the 23rd Annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, Aug. 12-15, at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minn.
The Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines Pro Stock Bike team is sponsored by Dunlop, Ford Quality Checked Certified Pre-Owned, Matco Tools and S100.
CARLISLE SUMMER BIKE FEST NEWS–The crew from Around PA visited the Carlisle Summer Bike Fest July 23-25 totape an episode for their Web TV show.All the great activities and attractions, from the Orange County Choppers tothe StarBoyz to the famous bike customizers at the event, were caught ontape by Around PA.
The show’s trailer is already available to view at www.aroundpa.net. Itgives a great feel for what was a spectacular show! Sign up on the site tobe notified when the episode is completed.
Check www.carsatcarlisle.com for updates on this year’s York Open House(Sept. 23-25) and next year’s Carlisle Summer Bike Fest (July 22-24). Alsobe sure to sign up for our e-mail newsletter to get the latest newsdelivered right to your inbox.
CHARITY HARD-CORE T-SHIRTS–What better way to raise some much needed funds for Charity then sellinghardcore nasty t-shirts? Profits from the sale of these truly offensiveshirts will go to the Tahiti Harley Riders Club to aid in their good workwith handicapped children in French Polynesia. We at Bikernet have personallyvisited the club and the kids there. We’ve seen first hand the differencethat a few riders in a far flung part of the world can make to kids in need.
TBear started TBearWear, specializing in shirts and other items thatmake a statement. If you’re tired of being confused with “TV Bikers” andwant the world to know that you don’t give a damn about what O.C.C. built onlast nights episode, then these shirts are for you.
We’ll have a web site real soon and will be taking credit cards. The shirtswill be limited editions. The first shirt was specially designed for me byArtist Jon Towle will soon be a collector item. I’ll be adding a new shirtevery few weeks. If you can’t wait for the company to get up and running, orif you just want one of the limited run first edition shirts, here’s all youhave to do.
The first run of the shirts will be black printing on a good quality grayshirt. Design on front. Sizes for the moment are Large, XLarge and 2XLarge.$20 for the L & XL. $22 for the 2XL. + $3.95 shipping, for 1 or 2 shirts.Have to use either paypal or money order till my vendor account comes thruso I can take credit cards.
Please specifiy quantity and size.MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR MAILING ADDRESS in the paypal message box whenpaying, so I know who to send the shirts to!!!!! my paypal email is :TBEAR@MHCABLE.COM
The snail mail addy for money orders is:
TEDDY BEAR INC.
PO BOX 94
ELIZAVILLE, NY 12523
PERSONAL CHECKS will be held till they clear before shipping the shirts.
Thanks for your interest,
–TBear
CRAZYHORSE PAINT JOB OF THE WEEK–This week’s paint job belongs to Denny Sullivan. He’s known as the’Wolfman,’ and wanted his Fatboy to reflect his love for wolves.
My husband Jim came home from work with the biggest smile on his face. Thenewest Crazy Horse chopper fired up Saturday. He took it for a ride andproclaimed it blew his former bike away. This baby has a healthy stretchthat harken back to his days working as the fabricator at Thunder Cycles. Healso took my gooseneck for spin, while my ass has been painting instead ofriding. My sweet ride coughed a little but finally smoothed out. Of courseI had to ask him which one he liked better.
“Your gooseneck rides like adirt bike. Like you could just ride over anything. You just sit on thatthing and it feels like you’re part of the bike,” Jim reported. “But my bike is cool. It hasthat total chopper feel with the long front end and big up stretch.”
Wellhell, I still like my bike better.I’m writing this on Monday. Tomorrow six bikes get loaded and we hitthe road. I think Jose will be two days ahead of us. I can’t wait. For meSturgis is all about the riding. Sure the clever business woman in me saysto put my bike in shows, network and advertise. But I don’t think I couldtake it, hanging around a bike show all day while there’s so many wonderfulroads to ride out there. So I will put my business second and my ridingfirst. It will cost me $$ but life is short. A whole lot shorter after youcross the 4-0 mark.
After Sturgis I am hopping on the gooseneck and riding up to Virginiafor the annual Gathering of the Amazons, a bike club I belong to. To anyone out there who thinks because I trailersometimes means I don’t ride, can kiss my round butt. I started riding in1981 on a ’66 Triumph Trophy. My boyfriend at the time rode a choppedBonneville. I like to joke I’ve pushed bikes more miles than most folks haveridden. And on those long nights back in the early ’80s when the marvelouselectrical system on those bikes would hiccup, it sure felt like it. I spentalot of time as a passenger back then as Derek liked to ride very, very fastand I don’t. No cell phones back then. It was push or leave the bike andwalk.
Once I got a bike that ran more than it didn’t, I spent very little timebehind the wheel of a car. I strapped nearly everything imaginable on thatNinja, bike parts, tires, boxes of paint, best friends, bags of groceries.While living in South Fla, getting to the Auto Paint Store before closing onFriday was always an adventure. Splitting lanes of bumper to bumper trafficon I-95, riding on the shoulder- on sidewalks, pulling up just as they wereputting the key in the door. After the little Jap started feeling all thosemiles, I put big saddlebags on my sporty and could not even count the mileson it, as it’s on its 2nd speedo and the speedo was the one thing thatdidn’t work most of the time. The little 1,200 has kept up with big dresserstearing up the Katamagus Highway or blasting down I-95. I’ve ridden throughmany a downpour, even over the seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys during atropical storm. I’ve ground the bottoms of it’s saddlebags tearing up thecurves, hammered the brakes so many times when blind drivers pull out orturn in front of me, it has become second nature to slide that thingsideways.
The craziest memory is after a day of playing on the switchbacksof the Smokey Mts the key broke apart in my hand. I was alone on a verylonely road. I cautiously slid the end in then inserted the rest. Somehow itstarted and made it home. I tried it again after I got home and no way itwould do it. I’ve been welding or painting on bikes since I was 16 yearsold. That’s 28 years of seeing bikes and bikers change.
So to anyone whoisn’t even 30 years old yet, don’t mistake the fact that I haven’t figuredout how to strap a painting display on my chopper for thinking I’m too bigof a wuss to ride.
For me, paradise is loading up my backback and hoppingon that gooseneck and never looking back. And if you think I’d rather bebehind the wheel of my truck that on the seat of my bike, meet me down atthe little park by the seven Mile Bridge next time a hurricane blows up. Lastone to Islamorada buys drinks. Actually I could care less who got therefirst. I would just love to be on my bike in the Keys.
–Crazy Horse
BIG NUMBERS AT BIKERNET ONCE MORE–Last month over 98,000 unique users came to bikernet, almost 226,000 visits, 550,000 page views and 4,654,000 hits for July.
“I see that Steed girl of the week, London (1517 visits) beat out bikernetnews (1403 visits),” Said John Covington or Steeds Motorcycles. ” Isn’t it the shits when tits beat out the hard newsevery time!”
PAUL COX FEATURE–Check the new feature by TBear. Paul had developed a special seat for rigid riders. Check it out.
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