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ASSALT WEAPAN’S NEW SADDLEMAN SEAT–That is one lucky seat and tank pad. What a beautiful combo?that bike, Val, and going that fast?.makes me weak in the knees bro?.you sir, are doin it right?.I guess it?s a dirty job, huh?
Hope Berry, from Accurate is doing well also.
–Charles YoungFlat Rat WERA Racing
MOTORCYCLE CHECKPOINTS–More and more of this going on around the country and motorcyclist need to get involved to stop it.–Rogue They specifically targeted motorcycles! Utah Highway Patrol speaks out regarding motorcycle checkpoint.
On May 30, starting around 3 p.m., the Utah Highway Patrol conducted a motorcycle-only checkpoint on Interstate 80 near the Miller Motorsports Park. The date and time were such that the checkpoint stopped fan traffic leaving the facility following a U.S. round of the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship.
The timing of the checkpoint and discriminatory nature of the action — only motorcyclists were stopped — were troubling. Indeed, an already difficult traffic situation was made far worse by the checkpoint.
Although cooler heads prevailed, and the checkpoint was called off after approximately two hours, a number of motorcyclists contacted the AMA with questions, and the AMA contacted the Utah Highway Patrol to get answers.
Below is the statement provided by the Utah Highway Patrol on June 9 regarding the incident:
Thank you for your correspondence to the Utah Highway Patrol in reference to our checkpoint in Tooele County during Memorial Weekend. We have been receiving on a daily basis correspondence from our constituents and from people from all over the United States in regards to this checkpoint. Many were upset and others just wanted to know the reason behind our educational checkpoint.
We will provide you a copy of the correspondence we have been utilizing to respond to our constituents. Please feel free to forward our response to the motorcyclists who attended the event and are inquiring about it. In our response, we provide an explanation for our actions, our intentions and an apology for our honest intent.
Even though we conducted this checkpoint during Memorial Weekend to educate and save lives, we still had only one fatal accident in the entire State of Utah during the holiday and it was a motorcycle rider. Let me know if you need anything else but I think our response answers most of your questions.
The intent of the checkpoint was to redirect as many motorcycles as there were officers participating (7-10), to the side and have a brief (a few minutes) discussion about motorcycle safety issues such as proper displacement, helmets, equipment, and safety of the motorcycle. If 7-10 motorcycles were pulled over then all other motorcycles and passenger vehicles were allowed to travel through without interruption as well.
It appears that many motorcycles did not understand they could travel through and stopped. According to the operations plan this was not suppose to create a burden for motorists and was not to be time consuming for motorcycle operators.
The checkpoint started at 3 PM and went well for over an hour until the major event ended and a tremendous volume of traffic hit the checkpoint around 4:30 PM. We obviously underestimated the number of vehicles and created an unexpected large back up for motorists. When it became apparent the checkpoint was creating a large traffic backup it was opened immediately. At 5:12 PM the all signs were pulled out of the road and the checkpoint was in the beginning stages of being taken down. It was then determined that because of the amount of traffic, it would create a burden to the public, and the checkpoint was not re-established and canceled for the remainder of the night.
Please forgive us for our oversight. It was certainly not our intent to bring a negative aspect to the tremendous event being held in Tooele County, or to our state. Our intention was to educate riders on safety issues and try our best to reduce the rising rate of deaths on Utah roadways from motorcycle riders. The rate of deaths of Utah motorcycle riders is the only fatality rate which is increasing while every other category is decreasing. We would never do anything intentionally to put a negative spin on such an event as this. It was an honest attempt to try and focus on motorcycle operator’s safety. Please rest assured, this has been a learning experience for our agency and it will not happen again.
Sincerely,
Sgt. David Moreno Utah Highway Patrol
LONGTIME BIKER MAGAZINE EDITOR LOOKING FORWARD TO RETIREMENT–Glimpsin’ future retirement from my fishin’ camp porch.
–Clean Dean
BIKERNET MEDICAL CENTER FINDINGS–Heat Stroke Part 2: Prevention–Today we discuss how to help prevent HEAT STROKE.
The best way to prevent heat stroke is to adhere to the following when in hot weather:
* Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.
* Wear appropriate clothes – light-colored, lightweight, non-restrictive clothing that allows your body to breathe are good choices.
* Know when to limit activity. If you are feeling hot or winded, slow down or rest.
* When exercising, start slowly and gradually build up your duration and intensity.
* Avoid alcohol in general and while exercising in particular – it promotes dehydration.
For more info check DrWeil.com
PRE-SUMMER BIKERNET DOOR PRIZES–We have a batch of prizes from six Crawford books from Penguin, Shop Craft and Soulcraft, Bikernet Calendars, stickers, you name it. It’s easy to enter. It’s free. What more do you want from us–just let us know.
BIKERNET FREE CONTEST BOOK WINNERS–
WILLIAM GOODWIN FROM FOSTER CITY, CALIFORNIA
Suggestion: DONT FIX IT IF IT AINT BROKE!!
Wanted: SIN WU, A BAG OF MONEY AND A BEACH AT SUNSET ON MY BIKE!!
I can?t give him a sunset, Sinwu or a bag of money, but I can send him some books, along with the rest of the guys below.
JASON SHARP
RICHARD E TYLER JR
RICH COLLINS
MARTY SMITH
SCOTT WIESE
MARK ZIMMERMAN
–Snake
Bikernet Door Prize Assistant, and worthless bastard
AT LAST, SOUTH CAROLINA SUPREME COURT THROWS MYRTLE BEACH HELMET LAW IN THE WEEDS– ‘We find that the City Helmet Ordinance fails under implied field preemption due to the need for statewide uniformity and therefore issue a declaratory judgment invalidating the ordinance. Moreover, we hold that certain Motorcycle Ordinances were impliedly repealed by the ordinance repealing the administrative hearing system.”
http://www.judicial .state.sc. us/opinions/ displayOpinion. cfm?caseNo= 26825
–Mark Temple
BOLT of California
http://www.boltofca.com/
(916) 402-7981
Born Free – Vintage Chopper & Classic Motorcycle Show– Saturday, June 12, 2010.It’s gotta be good, hell just look at the sponsors! With any luck we’ll be seeing you there.
Born Free Vintage Chopper & Motorcycle Show in Long Beach, Ca.
BIKERNET MARKETING CLASS–Lesson of the week. Automotive repair advertisement in 1928… sent on a penny postcard
–from the Harvinator
BIKER CHICKS LIKE AEROMACH–Biker Chicks, riders, enthusiasts, Chopper Jockeys and Petrol Heads all want quality products that work as advertised. Every product from Aeromach is built from high-quality billet aluminum. Aluminum is light weight and strong. Aeromach’s products are designed to last a lifetime.
Aeromach has a number of “HOT BUYS” where you can buy products that are not quite up to our high standards. All products here are brand new and perfectly functional but are either discontinued or have slight irregularities. Check them out.
PROFESSOR UNCLE MONKEY ON ACCOMPLISHMENTS–It?s done. Finished. Fini. There is nothing better then the sense of pride once you?re finish. For many of us our lives revolve around spinning wrenches on our bikes. There is always another performance part, another trick part, another thing that needs to be done. It is part of the legacy of owning a Harley originating from the days when motorcycles were less then reliable. As technology improved and our bikes got better what was once a necessity; rebuilding, and repairing, has become refine, redesign. There is a better mousetrap waiting to be built and we are going to be the ones to build it. Technology changes and changes. Knuckleheads to Pans to Shovels to Evo to Twin Cams.
So what do we do? We build the world fastest Panhead or a Knucklehead chopper using the best technology from the last 105 years of bike building. But then we get there. We tighten the last bolt. We polish out that last flaw. We tool around town and everything works, everyone looks, and the women swoon, we pick up our timing slip. Our chests are a little bigger. The sense of accomplishment. I built this. This is my signature. This is my fingerprint on the industry.
But after the miles roll on, after the biker bars, and the American badlands, the bike rolls back into the shed. We check it over. Yep everything is solid, everything is tight. The endless nights spent refining, tweaking are finally over. We throw our leg over the next day and ride. Days turn to weeks, weeks to months. We find ourselves pacing the shop. Staring at the bike. Maybe… no it doesn?t need it. It is finished. There is nothing left to do but ride it. You spend time with the wife and kids. You catch up on the political landscape. Wonder where the world went wrong. The miles go by effortlessly. You scan the horizon in hopes of seeing a bike on the side of the road. Someone in distress, someone who could use your help.
A finished bike can be anticlimactic. We achieved our goal, only to find the goal was not the finished product but the process to get there; to be working with our hands, to be creating something. Soon we are scanning the sale ads, eyeing darkened garages, back yards as we ride by – was that a spoke wheel, a girder front end? Soon we are thinking about sleeker lines. We are thinking about those times when our friends said we should do this, when we could have done that. We clean our garage, we clean the house, our wives tell us to get out of their hair, before WE are the ones with the headache.
Then it happens, with a couple of bucks in the bank account, and sudden inspiration. It is rough around the edges and no one in their right mind would ride it let alone buy it, but the price is right. You ride it to the bar not knowing if it will start again. You spend two hours on the side of the road trying to limp it home from the poker run, spend most of the Boogie fixing so you can get home vowing that you’ll never ride it again — you’ll only ride your finished bike. But as you sit in the garage feverishly trying to unseize the screw from the float bowl someone stops in. They liked your bike, they appreciate all the work you put into it. The money is less than what you spent on building it, but still more than a fair market value. With that money you could buy a new Mikuni carb to get this other piece of $#!# running.
And so it begins.
-bad Uncle Monkey
AMCA Invites Riders to Get Some Custom Culture in California– Looking to expand your definition of classic motorcycles? Join the Antique Motorcycle Club of America June 18-19 in Dixon, California, for the debut of the Club?s newest exhibition category of bike judging?the Hot Bike Custom Culture Class.
This exhibition class, sponsored by Hot Bike magazine, will be an addition to the AMCA?s regular antique-motorcycle judging during the Fort Sutter Chapter National Meet at the Dixon Fairgrounds, located about 25 miles west of Sacramento.
The Custom Culture Class is designed to showcase the kinds of bikes that grew out of the custom-bike movement that swept the motorcycle world four decades ago. It is open to any machine with an engine that was offered in a production motorcycle from 1960 through 1975. Although the movement at that time culminated in the development of the American chopper and the European cafe racer, the Custom Culture Class is open to machines that take the custom concept in any direction.
Entry in the Custom Culture Class is free, and entrants do not need to be members of the AMCA. Best of all, the winning bike at the event, as judged by magazine editors, will be the subject of a feature story in Hot Bike.
?We know that today?s custom-bike world has its roots in the choppers and cafe racers riders were building years ago,? said Hot Bike Editor Eric Ellis. ?And we?re happy to honor that era by sponsoring this class.?
?The mission of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America is to preserve the heritage of our sport,? said Matt Olsen, youth director for the AMCA. ?And our judging attracts plenty of perfectly restored and carefully preserved examples of bikes from the past. But we also know that motorcycling has always attracted people who weren?t satisfied until they had made a machine uniquely their own. That?s the idea behind the Custom Culture Class.?
In addition to judging for classic motorcycles ranging from the dawn of the 20th century to the mid-?70s, The Fort Sutter Chapter National Meet also includes vendors, a swap meet, technical seminars, field-meet games and a Friday night banquet. For more information on the meet and entries in the Custom Culture Class, see the Chapter website at http://www.amcafortsutter.org.
–Bill Wood
(614) 589-8500
REDHEAD ATTACKS LATEST ISSUE OF OL’ SKOOL RODS–The latest issue of Ol? Skool Rodz, issue #41, features full event coverage of the huge Viva Las Vegas show, Primer Nationals in Ventura, CA, as well as the Brighton (UK) Tattoo Convention, New Zealand?s Jalopy Dust-Up, and Pittsburgh?s Steeltown Shakedown.
Issue #41 is the annual T&A Issue so all the hot rods featured are Model A or Model T based.
Tech articles run the gamut from Holley carb tips to how to true bias-ply tires. There?s the latest pulp-fiction style ?Rodz Noir? episode, a visit to Sacramento?s Blue Collar Customs, and lots more.
Ol? Skool Rodz #41 is now on sale at newsstands everywhere.
FLAT RAT RACING UPDATE– Things happen in the past that always come back to haunt you at some point, some good and some bad. Roebling Road Raceway in Savannah, Georgia is one of those. My first time at the track in 1990 was on a brand new Yamaha FZR400 with a freshly earned expert license.
Eager to get the bike dialed in for the season and also learn a new track, I got into it a little hard in the second practice session and highsided at a high rate of speed resulting in a broken ankle and a destroyed motorcycle.
Seven years later I returned on an ex Freddie Spencer VF750 and did the opposite, didn’t crash and won the race. Thirteen years had passed since my last race there, but both my adventures there ran through my mind over and over on the solo four-hour drive there from Atlanta on the Friday night after a long hard day at the Fuller Workshop. SEE THE REMAINDER OF THIS WERA RACING REPORT TOMORROW ON BIKERNET.
–Dean Middleton
WERA/ AHRMA 418
Atlanta, GA
MOST UNFRIENDLY, ANTI-MOTORCYCLE LEGISLATION OF THE YEAR, IN CALIFA, NATCH–On June 21st, 2010, the California Assembly Transportation Committee will hear the most unfriendly and anti-motorcycle piece of legislation proposed since the passage and imposition of the mandatory helmet law. ABATE of California has learned that SB-435, originally known as the Motorcycle Smog Check bill, is about to be amended by its author, State Senator Fran Pavley (D), Agoura Hills from a Smog Check bill into a Noise bill.
Nearing the end of its status as a two-year bill, Senator Pavley has been frustrated in her attempts to burden the motorcycle owners of California with unwarranted and needless regulatory legislation for smog checks. Now she is pursuing a different direction still with the intention of singling out and punishing the motorcycle riders of California with a discriminatory, poorly crafted, and extremely unfair amended bill that targets a very small portion of the state?s motoring public.
According to Jim Lombardo, Legislative Director and Lobbyist for ABATE of California, ?The fact that Pavley has chosen to drop any smog testing requirements, no roadside sound checks, and is simply using an existing 27 year-old EPA noise requirement with an increased fine, is a testament to the hard work that everyone did in defeating an unfair and ineffective smog check law.?
If SB-435 is allowed to pass through the Assembly Transportation Committee and move forward to passage in the legislature in its proposed amended form, it will wreak unimaginable harm to the state?s motorcycle owners and to the motorcycle industry at large in the State of California. The aftermarket muffler industry has been supplying replacements for California?s motorcyclists due to normal wear or damage for decades. However, if SB-435 with the proposed amendments is allowed to pass, California motorcycle owner/operators will be facing increased fines and penalties simply because of Senator Pavley?s insistence to enact discriminatory nuisance legislation whose design will create an unmanageable statute and one that will nevertheless create havoc for ALL of the riders in this state.
ABATE of California adamantly opposes the passage of SB-435 for the underlying fact that EPA muffler label stamps on mufflers are the equivalent of the tags on bed mattresses ? they are manufacturers? warranties. In this case, the labels mean that the muffler complies with the federal noise standard for new motorcycles for one year or 3,730 miles, whichever comes first. After that, due to wear and tear or damage, compliance with the noise standard no longer applies.
Under current law, if the mufflers are replaced with noise compliant ones, labels or not, and verified by peace officers, the citations are written off with a $25 court fee. This way, a proper correction to a violation is accomplished. The aftermarket muffler industry has supplied replacements due to wear and tear or damage for decades. For the tens of thousands of aftermarket catalytic mufflers that wear out, where does one get a replacement, if stock parts aren?t available, since CARB reportedly has approved only one aftermarket replacement, so far?
Not addressed by SB-435, but what happens to visitors from other states who are unlucky enough to be cited while operating a motorcycle in California but are compliant in their home state? The list of flaws could go on and on but the potential catastrophic nature of SB-435 to cause financial devastation to California?s motorcyclists, its aftermarket industry and the tourism industry are on a level with the damage caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti. If you ride a motorcycle in California, you need to be concerned with SB-435! In fact, you need to be more than concerned, you need to be vocal and active to preserve your rights to ride and be free, as an American and a resident of California that rides a motorcycle. Time is of the essence, so I am urging you all to call, write, email or fax your home district legislators, and call the Assembly Transportation Committee to voice your opposition to SB-435. If you live out of state, you can still help by calling or writing and letting the Assembly Transportation Committee members know you will not visit a state that has such an unfair and restrictive statute on the books.
Thank you all for your attention to this urgent request for help in killing SB-435. Please see the attachment for talking points and contact numbers.
–Anthony Jaime
Executive Director
ABATE of California
SS TRIKE HEADS to AMD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP–SS TRIKE is outfitting their fuel injected X-Wedge powered trike to the AMD World Championship in Sturgis. They will be showcasing their across country travel model, which includes windshield, luggage and trailer.
Olmax Fabrication LLC, the builder of SS Trike, delivers a three speed automatic transmission standard for 2010. Fluid driven (with torque converter!) Three forward speeds as well as Park, Neutral and Reverse. Easy push button shifting system. Frame, a low center of gravity. A comfortable ergonomic design.
Get more details at SS Trike website.
Rick and Joe T talk about chumps, life, bike trips and Joe T?s wife. Vinnie from V-Force Customs rings in.
FIRST CHANCE HOGAN BOOK NOW AVAILABLE–K. Randall Ball, one of the most trusted and influential writers in motorcycle literature, has kick started a new series of books centered on the fictional character Chance Hogan. In the first of the series Harbor Town Seduction we are introduced to Chance, a hard living, hard loving biker who doesn’t punch a time clock and women can’t get enough of him.
Like a stretched out chopper Keith Ball’s writing is straight forward with no excess to distract. He has managed to grab a full throttle of violence and lust and hurtles the reader through a twisting canyon road of plot full of interesting characters.
Highly entertaining, well written, and well supported by the author who has lived the life and is willing to share it with readers Harbor Town Seduction is worthy addition to your saddlebag.
Published by 5-Ball Inc., Harbor Town Seduction retails for $19.95 and can be ordered from just about any reputable book store on the planet or from Bikernet.com
BRASS BALLS IS HEADING TO THE AMD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN STURGIS–Brass Balls BossMan, Dar Holdsworth, is riding into Sturgis with 2 custom-production motorcycles for the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building. Bossman talks about his latest two-wheel jewel… The Brawler. Hear Dar Holdsworth on Bikernet Studio
NEVER A DULL MOMENT AT THE BIKERNET INTERGALATIC NERVE CENTER–Hang on for this weekend. Friday I’m hauling ass to Pasadena to pick up the Peashooter engine, then off to Orange County for magneto parts. There’s a Saturday show on Signal Hill at Pacific Motorcycles. Valerie is coming over on Saturday for a Bonneville Bike fitting. Saturday we’re headed to Knox Berry Farm for the Bad Ride Party, and Sunday the Bad Ride in Irvine.
I will attempt to launch the remaining FlatRat Racing report tomorrow, and start on the Mike Tomas Rocket bike feature. Then, I have a growing event installation report from Baker that needs some works, and Paul Garson, mystery motorcycle journalist, sent in a stellar story on a Simi Valley vintage meet.
The following weekend I’m heading north to Dixon, California, with the Sierra Madre Motorcycle crew, to scour through an antique motorcycle swapmeet in search of a Schebler GX carburator for my C-500 H-D single from 1930.
Between now and then the action on the Bonneville bikes will be hot and heavy. In the meantime I’ll look around for that redhead on the cover of Ol’ Skool Rods.
Ride Forever,
–Bandit
