Continued From Page 3
SEMINOLE HARD ROCK ROADHOUSE TOUR FOR 2006–The candidates are ready to reveal from Carrie Rep, the boss bombshell behind the RoadHouse tour sponsored by Bikernet.com. The tent series will be featured at all major events and give four builders a terrific party location to display their wares and show off their custom creation created specifically for the Roadhouse tour. Each bike will be featured on Bikernet and in national magazines.
“Yes, we’re ready to announce!,” Carrie said. Keino & Paul Cox, Aaron Greene, Gard Hollinger, EricGorges are the builders for 2006. Watch for news on these bikes and the tour throughout the year, but for sure they will be featured in Sturgis, Daytona, Biketoberfest and more including Bikernet.com.
If you go to any of these events you’ll have the opportunity to sign up for the chance to win a one-off world class custom of your choosing. Watch for more info soon.
JOES GARAGE COMES TO BIKERNET–Joe’s garage is owned by Joe, a gentleman, who made a fortune in southern California through real estate and car dealerships. Throughout his life he collected race cars and motorcycles and now shares them with the public through a banquet facility he built. We recently roamed the halls and took a couple of bike features of classic motorcycles including this historic flat tracking Indian Scout.
Watch for the features to pop up on Bikernet and in a national motorcycle magazine.
OPRAH WINFREY COMES TO BIKERNET–Oprah Winfrey roundly endorsed James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces,” which topped best-seller lists since the TV star picked the “nonfiction” memoir for her book club. Winfrey called Frey’s book “so real.”
It turns out that the blockbuster is filled with fabrications, falsehoods, and other fakery, as an investigation by The Smoking Gun has shown:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html
–from Art Friedman
MOONING DEEMED DISQUISTING BUT LEGAL IN MARYLAND– WASHINGTON – Acquitting a Germantown man who exposed his buttocks during an argument with a neighbor, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge ruled yesterday that mooning, while distasteful, is not illegal in Maryland.
“If exposure of half of the buttock constituted indecent exposure, any woman wearing a thong at the beach at Ocean City would be guilty,” Judge John W. Debelius III said after the bench trial, reversing the ruling of a District Court judge.
Debelius made clear his disdain for the defendant, calling the alleged act “disgusting” and “demeaning.” The outcome could have been different, he suggested, if the man had been on trial for “being a jerk.”
The case arose from a June 7 argument between the defendant, Raymond Hugh McNealy, 44, and a neighbor, Nanette Vonfeldt. Vonfeldt pressed charges against McNealy after he allegedly yelled and, according to Vonfeldt, threatened to “blow up my building” as she and her 8-year-old daughter walked out of their apartment, in the 20200 block of Shipley Terrace in Germantown.
“Then, for whatever reason, in full view of my daughter, he mooned us,” Vonfeldt wrote in a court document. The two had a long-standing feud over issues before their homeowners association, which held a heated meeting the night before, McNealy’s attorneys said. McNealy wanted Vonfeldt off the association’s board, his attorneys said.
–from Rogue
MISSISSIPPI MOTORCYCLE TAX ADMENDMENT– HOUSE BILL NO. 55 AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 27-51-101, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TOINCLUDE MOTORCYCLES IN THE DEFINITION OF ” PRIVATE CARRIER OFPASSENGERS ” FOR THE PURPOSE OF BEING ELIGIBLE FOR A TAX CREDITAGAINST MOTOR VEHICLE AD VALOREM TAXES; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
Now here’s what ABATE wants from the motorcyclists in the State ofMississippi, If you agree with the above statements please copy andpaste this e-mail to a new one sign it with your name and addressand forward it on. We would like to have this petition returned tome in 7 to 10 days. Please help us fight for your freedoms andrights in Mississippi.
This from ABATE State DirectorPlease copy, paste “sign” and return to PaulHis email address is Ripvanrut@aol.com
–Paul Rutledge, State Director
ABATE of Mississippi
SURVIVOR SHOW COMES TO NORTH DAKOTA–Due to the popularity of the Survivor’s shows, North Dakota is planning to do its own, titled “Survivor – Dakota Style.” The contestants will start in Fargo, travel south to Wahpeton, then west to Edgely, Linton, and on to Mott. Then they will head north to Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston.
From there they will proceed east on to Stanley and Minot. Then they will go southeast to Carrington, back up to Devils Lake and on to Grand Forks before heading back to Fargo.
Each will be driving a pink Volvo with California license plates and a large bumper sticker that reads: “I’m gay. I’m a Vegetarian. Beer is harmful to Your health. Republicans suck. Hillary in 2008. Deer hunting is murder, and I’m here to confiscate your guns.”
The first one that makes it back to Fargo alive wins. Good luck to all contestants.
–Rick S.
NEW S&S NEON CLOCK SALE– The S&S Cycle neon clock was made famous by countless appearances on motorcycle television programs throughout 2005. It seemed that every time a builder looked up to see what time it was in his project, the S&S clock was getting camera time. For 2006, the clock and its packaging have been updated to dress up the walls of your office, garage, shop or basement, so you can know what time it is, even if you are not on television. Normally the clock sells for $89.95 plush shipping and handling, but until January 31st, you can get a 10% discount on the purchase of the S&S Neon Clock by using Coupon Code SSC1316.
With the S&S Cycle Proven Performance logo in the center and a band of neon around the perimeter, the new clock is sure to help bike builders stay on track with every project they take on. It is the perfect addition to any garage or office, letting everyone that checks the time know you believe in Proven Performance.
FLORIDA MUSEUM TAKES AN ARTFUL MOTORCYCLE ANGLE– A exhibition of 70 motorcycles spanning 120 years makes the connection between transportion, art, design and popular culture.BY GARY McKECHNIE AND NANCY HOWELL Special to The Miami Herald What’s the subject of Florida’s hottest art exhibition? Manets? Monets? Mummies?Try motorcycles. A fleet of more than 70 streamlined, sensuous, and seductive motorcycles rolling into the Orlando Museum of Art Jan. 22 through July 23 in an exhibit that explores the motorcycle as both cultural icon and design achievement.
If the exhibition sounds familiar, think back to 1998 when Art of the Motorcycle was one of most popular presentations ever displayed at New York’s Guggenheim Museum. The exhibit later set attendance records in Las Vegas and Memphis.
Now, in its exclusive Florida showing, the most expertly designed motorcycles, scooters, and mopeds will challenge conventional assumptions about art and popular culture.And it’ll look darned cool while doing it.BUT IS IT ART?
Motorcycling is the rare pastime that combines transportation with a passion for life. Riding a motorcycle links serenity with discovery; it defines freedom, self-expression, and adventure. It satisfies a range of desires from adrenaline to Zen. And it accomplishes all of this by design. Artistic and functional design.
Even when propped on its center stand, a motorcycle looks fleet and fast. The pipes sweeping back from the compact engine, the curved fuel tank placed smartly between the rider and the handlebars, the saddlebags tapering off the tail end of the bike, the front wheel piercing the road ahead. Everything — with the possible exception of leather tassels dangling from the handgrips — is there for a reason. These elements combined, a motorcycle is, by design, a work of art.
With the Art of the Motorcycle, the Orlando Museum of Art has opened the throttle on what may become the most impressive exhibition in its 77-year history.
–from Rogue
BIKERNET BONNEVILLE EFFORT RESEARCH BEGINS– Seeing as how you plan to go 200 MPH, and seeing as how I am probably the only guy at Bikernet who rides fast bikes on a regualr basis, I thought I’d better chime in with some ideas for you mate.
Describe or send me a pic of what your speed demon is going to look like when you race it.Is it going to have one of those fully enclosed canopies, ala the Worlds Fastest Indian and the original Easyriders type salt flats bike or is it going to be just a normalish looking two wheeled machine?I am guessing the latter.
I am also guessing your going to have some kind of windshield or fairing at the front and sides of the bike?Ideas are changing in the sports bike world about weather an angular, sharp shield is more effective than a smooth curved shield.
I think sharp and angular is ok if there is no strong side wind. Flat panels get wind blasted.
Now you can save weight by not having any brakes…I kid you not.You can also save weight by having very small ones and a smaller disc than most on- road bikes use, like a lighter disc from a trailbike.Aluminium handlebars. Aluminium as much as you can actually!
I am going to take a look at some stuff I have from the UK 200 MPH club, I recall they had some useful info, just can’t remember it all.
Assuming you are riding a bike and not lying down inside a rocket canopy…what’s your thought on the gear your going to wear?Some of the new full face helmets, like Nitro, have wind deflection scallops on the back, great idea.When you’re doing real fast speed on a bike you need to cellotape (sticky tape) the visor shut. Have someone do it just before you take off. People say with modern visors you don’t have to… At 200 MPH I would not be taking any chances it might flip open myself.Make sure the helmet is a real tight fit also.
If it’s very sunny and the glare is a problem, apart from a tinted visor; grab a roll of black electrical tape, the half inch wide vinyl stuff. Lay one strip across the top edge of the visor. Then one below just overlapping the first piece a little. Keeps the sun out of your eyes.
Race skins, leathers; tight form fitting ones with as much body armour as you can stand. Or…get a body armour zip up jacket outfit, connected by mesh, and put your riding jacket over the top. Some street racers now put the armour mesh over the top of their jackets to save the leather, the armour mesh outfit takes the brunt of any impact.Most mesh armour now comes with a good back protector also.
Gloves…personal choice as to what you want of course, but make sure they come well over cuffs of jacket to stop any wind going down sleeves of jacket, it’s all wind resistance you don’t need. Collar needs to be round and a good fit, to stop wind blasting down the neck area. Can be padded out by a folded bandana.
Leather pants tucked into smooth leather race boots, wrap some of that silver plastic tape, the two inch wide stuff, around top of boot…stops wind deflecting around top of boot. Like a seal. If pants are a bit loose around the knee area, wrap more silver tape above and below knee after you get on bike.The end of all the tape needs to facing away from the direction you are travelling in. So the wind actually presses the tape tighter!
If you’re wearing a two piece jacket and pants outfit, more tape wrapped around waist to join suit together and not let any wind get up under jacket. It all slows you down.Some guys even polish their jackets before they do speed runs!
I am sure there is tons of stuff I have not thought of.Here is something new from the UK MC news desk…they say that studies have proven that synthectic oil DOES NOT cause any clutch slippage whatsoever, that it is a myth.They say if your clutch starts to slip after you use syn oil, clutch was probably on the way out and the better oil simply showed the problem up because the oil is so much “slipperier” I am still thinking on that suggestion.
— Jaq.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON ECONOMIC LESSON TIME–When Harley-Davidson Inc.’s stock price fell 22 percent over three days in April, Mark Sellers became an aggressive buyer.”I like to buy shares when there’s a panic,” said Sellers, a former Morningstar editor who launched his Chicago-based Sellers Capital Management in 2003. “When people hate a company, that’s when I buy.”
At the time, many Harley investors were selling, spooked by the company’s announcement that flat sales for the first quarter would force a cut in the year’s earnings forecast.Like other value investors eyeing Harley-Davidson, Sellers saw a company that has produced earnings growth averaging 26 percent during the past 10 years, has a return on equity of more than 28.8 percent and has one of the most recognizable brands in the country, if not the world.Additionally, the Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer has relatively little debt and held $437 million in cash at the end of September. In recent years, the company has used its cash to repurchase stock and increase its dividend, and it is expected to generate a cash-flow return on investment of about 20 percent on roughly $5.3 billion in revenue. That’s more typical of a high-powered consumer products company.
After shares dropped to the mid-$40s from near $60 in April, Sellers saw a classically undervalued, oversold stock.In contrast, when Harley’s stock made its way into the mid-$50s per share toward the end of last year, Sellers began to sell much of his position as concerns arose about Harley’s aging customer base, rising interest rates and high gasoline prices. Most alarming, Sellers saw increasing dealer inventories, a sign of overproduction.
Even with its dominant position in the U.S. heavyweight motorcycle market, with a 48 percent share, followed by Honda at 19 percent and Suzuki at 10 percent, Harley-Davidson investors are, to use a roadster pun, at a crossroads.
Can the company meet its ambitious production goal of a 5 percent to 9 percent increase in 2006 by appealing to younger riders and largely untapped markets in Europe and Asia? Or is Harley-Davidson headed for the same flat production levels that helped cause its stock to drop so rapidly in April?
Anthony Gikas, a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis, was one who looked at increased dealer inventories and lowered his 2006 production forecast for Harley to unchanged from a 6 percent increase. Gikas, who rates the stock a “market perform,” predicted that Harley shares will remain range-bound for the near to mid-term.
But Linda Bannister, a consumer analyst at Edward Jones & Co. in St. Louis, said Harley-Davidson’s new sporty bikes make it well-positioned to meet its production goals while growing earnings at a high-single-digit rate, even without share repurchases.
Bannister does not see the inventory build-up as a problem. She points out that Harley long has intended to increase revenue by giving dealers more bikes to sell. Large inventories, she added, make it unlikely that prospective buyers, who had to join a waiting list in the past, will instead buy a Honda.
“Harley’s whole goal has been to get inventory at the dealers,” Bannister said. “That makes sense for the company to grow.”
Harley’s push during the past five years to increase production is in marked contrast to previous years, when the company regularly kept a lid on output to keep prices high. That was never so true as during its 1960s heydays, when the big bike emerged as a cult phenomenon. Back then, Sellers said, Harley could afford to foster its artificial scarcity.But in the 1970s and much of the ’80s, Harley lost its footing when competition from Yamaha and Kawasaki imports, coupled with questions about product quality, nearly leveled the company.
Starting in the early ’80s, Harley undertook a 20-year resurgence in which a new management team successfully leveraged its iconic brand while improving its big machines. James Ziemer, who took over as chief executive last year, was an original member of that management group.
Although some investors may flinch at the company’s decelerating earnings growth, Bannister argues that its high free cash flow offers ample compensation. Earnings per share grew 20 percent in 2004, and she expects 13 percent growth in 2005 and 10 percent this year. But the company also generates $800 million a year in cash.
“It’s the law of large numbers; all companies slow down in terms of growth,” she said. “We think the stock price is overly discounting earnings deceleration. What’s important is what the company is worth.”
By Bannister’s calculations, Harley’s shares trade at roughly 14 times the company’s 2006 earnings. During the past four years, Harley has sported a price-to-earnings multiple just below 25. If history is any guide, Harley’s shares are cheap.
As for Sellers, whose fund manages $50 million, he’s waiting for the next panic.”I love the company, but not as much as I used to because of the fact that they have to grow,” he said. “Right now, there’s no panic priced into the shares, so I’m waiting.”
–from Rogue
BIKERNET BONNEVILLE TEAM SECRET FILES–Bonneville is the Holy Grail for many racers. It’s a far reaching, flat, moon scape of 65 square miles of salt. It’s a place for speed, real speed, top, all-out speed. We have three teams going so far, Chop and Grind from 13 Palms, California, Custom Performance from Phoenix and the Headquarters crew, or the 5-Ball Racing Team with Custom Chrome, Accurate Engineering, Baker Transmission and Departure Bike Works. We will share info, tips, connections, parts, you name it. Below is a performance exhaust lesson from Kenny Samson, the founder and head cleaning lady, at Samson Exhaust. Check it out:
The best thing to do is to start at the port diameter for flange fitment ofthe particular head. It is usually 1 3/4″ on most Harleys but the 45 may be1 5/8″. The rule of thumb as starters is to make each step about 8 inches long.The steps should be no more than 1/4″ increases but for fine tuning 1/8″increases would be better. The overall length is also important as well asthe step lengths.
I think you know Wink Eller, he ran our pipes on his RedOctober bike that were straight 1 3/4″ cut to the best performing length. Itdoes get involved and one set of pipes will not get you what you want. It’sexperimentations on section lengths, diameters, and overall length thatmatters.
Keep in mind that torque and horsepower are two different thingsand to get the best HP you need free flowing pipes but to get best torqueyou have to figure velocity into the equation.
My best advice is to buildyour engine the best performer you can with compression and cam lift,duration, timing, head flow, combustion squish and swirl, and blue printedto make sure the old cases are as square as possible.
Most Panheads tend towarp on the barrels base areas of the cases toward the cam side as well asthe lifter block surfaces. Don’t forget to square the barrel bases to thebore as well. You don’t want the piston going up and down cocked in thebarrel. This is a very common occurrence I think most people don’t have aclue about it, unless they have done some of this stuff before. I have squaredmy engines in the past and kicked ass on other people with the same cam,bore, stroke, compression, etc and it was just fun to know what I did andnot tell.
By the way, engine case distortion is almost a definite issue.It’s easily fixed by a skilled machinist who knows not to fuck it up.
Enoughranting…… geez I haven’t had to think this much in a long time and yougot my gray matter in a mush.
PS reversion cones only inhibit high flow and are mostly for low to mid range power by increasing velocity.
DONE DEAL—-Terrific news. Good info, jokes and I appreciate the timely contributions from all over the world. I get caught up with mixed feelings from time to time. It?s that artistic side, the Pisces in me. We struggled a long time to make Bikernet survive. Guys I promoted for years never stepped up to help. Guys like Dana Coates of Bros Club has consistently supported us. He was our insurance agent at Easyriders and took over the Bros Club.
Dana stuck with us as our numbers grew. Up against the HOG group and AAA Dana has built a helluva road service program for all riders. It?s a safety net for riders out on the road.
Okay, I jumped away from the computer for a half hour and adjusted the valves on the Sturgis Shovel. We just replaced the old stock, rebuilt heads with new S&S redesigned performance Shovelheads. It runs better already.
The plan was to eliminate my grandson?s mini-chop and the Shovelhead from the lifts and get rolling on the Bonneville/Sturgis efforts for 2006. We were successful. As of this weekend we will ship the 45 flathead engine and trans and start to work on the rolling chassis. Plus the CCI V Santee Frame will feel the cold steel on another lift as we begin to put the kit together and make our Bonneville based mods. Hang on for reports.
Ride Forever,
–Bandit
New Bikernet T-Shirts
That’s right the new Bikernet T’s are here. This bold new design is printed on Hane’s beefy T’s.
This makes for comfort and durability rendering this the only shirt you’ll reach in your closet.Especial if are lovely Amanda was still in it.
So fuck it all, and fucking no regrets. Ride forever no matter who’s on your tail.
Check it out.
