March 17, 2005 Part 3

Continued From Page 2

IRISH LAST REQUEST– Mary Clancy goes up to Father O’Grady’s after his Sunday morning service, and she’s in tears.

He says, “So what’s bothering you, Mary my dear?”

She says, “Oh, Father, I’ve got terrible news. My husband passed away last night.”

The priest says, “Oh, Mary, that’s terrible. Tell me, did he have any last requests?”

She says, “That he did, Father…”

The priest says, “What did he ask, Mary?”

She says, “He said, ‘Please Mary, put down that damn gun!’

Here it is guys, Daytona 2005. Wild Bill Style http://www.charliebrechtel.com/daytona.htm

Dave Perewitz Showing $300,000 Worth of Custom Bikes At Donnie Smith Bike Show–March 12, 2005, Prior Lake, Minn. ? Legend custom bike builder, Dave Perewitz, has confirmed his participation in the 2005 18th Annual Donnie Smith Invitational Bike Show on March 19th and 20th at St Paul?s Rivercentre Exposition center.

Perewitz is showcasing several new bikes worth an excess of $300,000, exhibiting his entire apparel line, signing posters and autographing the Art of The Chopper book.

?This is a down-home show because it?s all about the bikes,? explained Dave Perewitz. ?Neil Ryan, the event promoter, is a regular bike guy and he provides a great stage for seeing these custom bikes. With Donnie being a local legend, it adds to the mystic of the show.?

The Donnie Smith Invitational Bike Show not only pulls famed builders like Perewitz, magazine representatives from Easyriders, Ironworks, Bikernet, and Hot Bike are all scheduled to appear and report on the show.

?We are seeing a lot of crazy bikes being built by new builders out there; it?s not practical but it really wows the crowd,? commented Perewitz. ?Guys like Donnie Smith and I are still building the stuff we do best? practical, custom and bullet-proof bikes that look good and can be ridden hard. We should see a little of everything here.?

The Invitational hosts hundreds of custom and classic bikes, a huge swap meet and several hundred vendors including Drag Specialties, Biker?s Choice, Custom Chrome, House of Kolor and many more.

Tickets for the 2005 18th Annual Donnie Smith Invitational Bike Show are available online at http://www.donniesmithbikeshow.com through eBay?s wholly owned subsidiary Paypal. Each online ticket purchased for comes with entrance into the event one hour before admission to the general public.

Custom Bike enthusiasts can find information on special features, show facts, photo gallery, local hotel information, history of the show, media coverage, biker links, general info and much more at the website.

Contacts:
For further information please contact the Donnie Smith Bike Show Press Office:
pr@donniesmithbikeshow.com

HUNTING–A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around with a fly swatter.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Hunting Flies” He responded.

“Oh. Killing any?” She asked.

“Yep, 3 males, 2 Females,” he replied.

Intrigued, she asked. “How can you tell them apart?”

He responded, “3 were on a beer can, 2 were on the phone.” : )

Kenny P.

STEALTH REPORT–There seems to be a battle raging among the local H-D dealers concerning the upcoming bike week at Myrtle Beach. Before going into the story I would like to say that there is no love lost between me and dealerships but that is not why I am writing this. I am not writing this to get even with anyone, matter of fact I find this amusing. This is a story of greed and corporate America.

It seems that the local dealer in Myrtle Beach wants to change the dates of the rally and extend it by a few days. The Carolina dealers Association is against this. The powers that be at Myrtle Beach are as confused as a termite in a yo-yo, they don’t know what the dates are for the rally????

Stay with me now because it is starting to get real good! The local Myrtle Beach dealer says that the rally is in his territory and no other dealer can set up there to sell product. You ask where does this come from? It comes from the corporate Gods at H-D. You see they have this rule that says another dealer can not set up in the local dealers territory at any event in his area unless being granted permission by the local dealer. So since the dealers association is not backing the local dealers play to extend the rally, he says no to all the dealers unless they are willing to pay him a $2000 dollar use fee! You do the math, say if only 10 dealers show up, well that is a pretty good chunk of change! So the battle goes on.

Now for the really, really good part. The dealers association say they own the rally! Boy that is funny! How do you own a rally, it is not like buying land or a car or a bike even? You can’t put your hands on it or a price tag on it. Wait a minute I think I just hit on something, you see they put a price tag on everything, even the Myrtle Beach Rally. The rally belongs to the people who attend, the people who have made it what it is. Not the local dealer or the dealers association.

The dealers could care less about the rally. You see they show up in their Corvettes, their Hummers, and their H-D Ford trucks and what ever else is cool to them at the time and looking like something left over from the old T.V. show Miami Vice. The only reason they show up is to hear the cash register go jing a ling ling!

The time I spent at dealerships, I could write a book about it all. It never ends with these guys. Enough is never Enough! What this whole thing boils down to is that they are all afraid of each other. They are afraid that one will sell one or two more t-shirts than they do. In other words it is about what it has always been about GREED! You would think that H-D would step in and take control over this but really this is where the root of the problem lies.

So as the battle rages on, I find it very amusing to watch. What is ironic is that they are all such great friends until the almighty dollar is involved. Just a suggestion, maybe each dealer should hold a rally in his hometown each year and charge the others to set up, that way they could all break even, but I guess that breaking even isn’t an option with these guys!

And the beat goes on!

Until next time!
STEALTHMAN

People on the move:Mike Roland–Mike Roland has made history by positioning K?ryakyn as a world leader in performance. He was tactically scooped up by Tom Rudd?s personal lieutenant Tom Ellsworth a few years ago. Mike?s skills, hard work, and drive have been paying off. The company appears to be taking the lead in the respectable field of high performance v-twin after market parts.

The new line of K?ryakyn cams, pistons, throttle bodies, and heads has been re-engineered to increase horsepower, engine life and resolve pinging. Better yet, you can still use your stock starter. The cams are the heart of Mike?s passion. A simple addition of Mike?s bolt in cams in conjunction with a high performance air cleaner and tuned pipe can create up to 90 horsepower in a stock 88 inch Harley Davidson motor. The right recipe of parts and tuning can produce up to 120 horsepower in a 95 inch Harley Davidson motor.

Mike Roland has been riding motorcycles for 35 years. He is a former Top Fuel Harley drag racer, designing, building and tuning his own bikes. Mike has set many World, National and Track records and was the first man to run 190 MPH in the quarter mile on a Harley. Mike?s heads were on the National Championship winning bikes in the Screaming Eagle Top Fuel Championship 5 years in a row spanning 1999 to 2003. Many of the race cams he designed over the years are still in use.

Contact
See you your local K?ryakyn dealer for details.
Website: http://www.kuryakyn.com
Phone: 715 247-5008

BIKERNET CARIBBEAN REPORT–Back from Daytona, as always the chaos, the not enough time to do shit, even worst by the amount of people driving around. Even though this year seemed to be a lot less people than usual, but still a total pain to try get someplace. Now a lot of the vendors have moved to the Speedway area, that means traffic in all parts of town… I remember once upon a time you could cruise Main street, then Beach street, then check the Swap Meet at Volusia fairgrounds and come back to enjoy some of the Main street antics once more. Sure, like I have said before, all the Chopper world gone TV has a lot to do with it. I guess we had a conversation about that in a parking lot after-hours with Greg, Ernie and Nick, as the last time, a conversation we did not get to finish. Sure you always get to see friends and such, ride a bit (if it’s not freezing) but more so, Daytona is a place to do business, get some shirts sold, some bikes shot and mainly a world wide networking havoc. Every single magazine from every place is there, and hungry for bikes, articles and photo shoots. Many of these guys have become good friends with time and it’s always great to spend some time hanging out, bikes or not.

Nigh time in Daytona is another completely different scene. In some places you can see groups of friends hanging out, friends that most of you see as famous bike builders, just being silly, having a couple drinks and unwinding from the day to day hustle. Nighttime amongst these guys is another story in itself, one that shall stay semi secret in order to protect the innocent, then again boys will be boys and be sure of one thing, at the end of the night, Lollipops is custom central. The running joke is that if a bomb drops there, 90% of the custom builder scene will vanish, but I guess you guys will have to wait ’till the full story unfolds here in Bikernet, but In a total separate section.

Speaking of the above, while there I received this e-mail, I know that lately I have been kind of relaxed, the venom saved for special occasions, but these short lines deserved a public answer (besides the one I already gave) and I know this might be similar to a response any one of us would give such a clueless guy. Sure there will be some here that will side with the guy and some with me, but since I have the ability to use this for whatever purpose I choose for….Here we go. (by the way I have not corrected his spelling)

Hi,
Just took a look at your website. So besides kissing famous peoples asses, copying other people’s work and writing crap that donesn’t really makes sense. What do you guys do again?

Regards,
JR

Ok, so let’s dissect it a bit.

Like Bandit told me once, good or bad, when people send e-mails its because they read what you wrote….and that’s what?s important….

Kissing famous people asses…I guess fame depends on the one that perceives people as famous. Most if not all of these guys you consider famous are, were and will be my friends. Not because they are famous, considering today?s standards, but because we were friends before the motorcycle mania show aired and started all this celebrity bike building. So let’s say your buddy Bubba from the boonies just became the last Nashville star, so now you are kissing his ass because he is famous? To me as someone that does not know shit about country western it might seem like so, although I will not be so quick to pass judgment. So you, JR, might as well not be friends with Bubba in order for us not to think that you are kissing ass. All this blabber has as much logic as your words.

Let me let you in a little secret, I have really famous friends, Oscar winners none the less, am I walking around dropping names? I just see them as friends, no more, no less.When you go out to a party, or a work convention, you hang out with friends and peers, right? So do we, I don’t see Billy, nor Jesse as the mega famous bike builders you see, sure I KNOW what they are and what they have accomplished, but then again, we can still sit down and talk about family and even how’s the surf. Simple and still I have known them both way before they were mega TV personalities, so why should I not now?

So kissing ass is trying to smooch to gain something? Sure I gain a lot, I gain time spent with good friends, people I admire and enjoy being with, people that I congratulate on their success, and try to help in what I can, as any good friend would do. Have you seen me on Monster garage or a Biker Build Off? Nope not yet. Do you think I can ask them, I guess I could, have I done so, the answer is in the beginning of this sentence. You might be the hottest rocket scientist in the Western hemisphere, and you might hang out with the other hot rocket scientist, why, because you are friends and peers, first, because you are in the same trade, second.Sure, not all builders hang out with other builders, there’s separate “cliques” if you want to call them that, but still there’s is a strong bond amongst a large group of younger builders, and yes we hang out together, all the time. So next time you pose for a photo with your buddy at your local bar, just think for a second, that any photo of any guys you might see may be there for the same reason, just a photo with a friend.

I’ll even let you into another secret, since many of our good friends have passed recently, our bond has become stronger, and we take even more photos and talk even more, since you never know what can happen. There is no need to smooch when you have friends, we all give each other a hand, without being asked for, we all push each other to new stuff, we all share a love for building bikes and creating, the party is a plus. If I ever become famous, I will pull my friends up with me, no need ask, it’s just a matter that some will never understand, it’s called loyalty, it’s called respect, it’s called word. Let me say something else, if any of these guys fall from grace, or the custom building becomes the next passe, we will still do what we do, cameras or no cameras, fans or no fans….

Copying others people’s work.
I have a very simple assignment, show me something that is completely original and someone will find it’s roots.. Of course you would have to specify which of my work is a copy (Hank Young has a very good comment on this months Street Chopper Busted Knuckles section) if JR knew what the fuck he was talking about, he would have said that my bikes are copies, but should have mentioned that copies of early choppers, done by no name builders with whatever tools and parts they had or made, then again they are not copies, they?re based on that past that many of us refuse to let go. 15 years ago I was doing what I am doing today, so I guess I am copying myself. Sure you can see influence of many of the people I kiss ass in some of my bikes, but not in such a major way that you can confuse one bike with another. That is the idea of all this, you take stuff that works and do it, but there’s a limited supply of things you can work with. For example, does anyone that uses a Daytec frame, wide rear tire, sportster gas tank and paint their bike black is imitating Russell Mitchell ? Think not…. How many frames does Daytech sells, how many sportster tanks, how many bikes painted black ? Still Exile has achieved their own style, and claimed it since they had the exposure from TV, those guys happen to be my friends (once more being doing biz with them for ages) and they will be the first ones to tell you the bikes came from the Spartan look of European bikes.

So if I slap together a wide tire rigid chopper, is it copying one of Billy Lane?s? It so happens that we get our frames made by the same people, and yes, I like using Billy’s bars, or spinner, but that’s when it all ends. To me a Billy Lanes? bike is the Devil in a red dress, or knuckle sandwich, even the blue shovel chopper. When I see a bike built by Billy, that’s what i see….. If every Diamond framed 250 rigid was a copy of his, there will be a lot of people aping.

Copying is getting something that you like and trying to do a replica. Copying is taking the bike that won the last show and doing the same thing, improved, with different colors. That is copying. If you are part of this world, and you don’t get influenced by friends who are doing rolling works of art there’s something wrong with you, then again, if I use a Paughco rigid frame, would I be copying Indian Larry ? Let?s add a mustang tank, or his twisted stuff….I guess then I would. It’s such a fine, one part line.

Let me use as an example; my Purple Bobber (early chopper) that I did for the Journey museum, I did it by the seat of my pants. Just tried to follow what people did back at the end of the 60’s, with my own stuff into it, and improvising each and every step. Who did I copy? I can tell you that the following bikes are based on that one, so yes I am guilty, of copying myself, of following a bike that was well liked by many people, and something I believed was the essence of simple, yet fun. Maybe some time from now I will see similar bikes, which there’s a lot around, instead of calling the guy a copycat, I should be glad that my influence was strong enough for the guy to actually “borrow” my initial idea. Is my bike the first rigid, short, panhead on the planet? NOPE, but that is singling out stuff, the bike as a whole is the one that makes it my bike.

Copying is easy; the very difficult part is reminding yourself where have you seen that idea before, in order not to repeat it. To do the purple bobber was a feat, and I shall not bore you with the parameters, (one was that it should scream Caribbean) but the toughest challenge is yet to come. Do a loosely based tribute to Indian Larry, while still being MY bike….

Writing crap that does not make sense…..
Let me tell you, with this I’m with you. I really don’t understand why people read week after week all this nonsense that I write. It makes no sense to me why so many people log into Bikernet to read my weekly rant, and it really boggles me why I always write what I think, and what I see as my truth. Maybe because it’s a refreshing change from all the bullshit you read (including dumb ass e-mails) all the time. Do you think Shakespeare makes sense to me? No fucking way, still I do not consider it crap (not that I am comparing myself to the uber famous brit) When you write some people will like it, some people will not, we all see ourselves inside words, sentences and paragraphs. Sure I sometimes hit a nerve, but what the fuck, we are supposed to be tough motorcycles guys, right? A little ranting wont kill us. The difference between me and many is that my name, last name, address, phone number and e-mail are available, for all to express their opinions, maybe I will get rid of all that shit and just go by JR ? How about that…….

This is not a personal crusade, this is just my point of view. I really want to thank JR for giving me a reason to rant this week. Having fans like him is what makes it all worth it. While I receive dumb ass e-mail like his, I receive cool e-mails ten times more.

Enough for now, I have to get my pucker back in someone?s ass, watch some TV and read some magazines to see who I can copy…. and about the nonsense writing, I guess I already did that.

Have a great week, Easter is near…… and I want to have the Chop Off bike ready for then……

Jose ? Caribbean Reporter

HARLEY GOLF BUGGY– Picture is of my 1977 Harley Davidson Golf Buggy which I have had restoredat a cost of approximately $11,000

It has gained a lot of attention here in Australia because not only does itappear another one does not exist down here but the fact that most do notrealize that Harley even made them.

Regards,
Ray Russell

FOR MY NEPHEW–Hello My Friends and Family,My son, Matt Olsen passed away on March 14th, 7:44 in the evening. He was 20 years old. Matt was blessed in many ways, and everyone who knew him, knew how special he really was.

He is survived by myself, Jan Olsen, his brother and sister, Larry and Shalana, Silvester Temblador his step dad, Dirk Pratt his father and his sister-in-law, Lisa Dennis. Matt has 5 nieces and two nephews, and many cousins, aunts and uncles and grand parents that will miss him greatly. He had a wonderful girlfriend, Heather, that helped to make his life so happy and complete for the last year and a half.

Matt?s friends were a very important part of his life, and they were special in understanding him and his needs, being patient and helpful in every way they possibly could. They loved Matt, and he loved them. I thank them all for being part of my son?s life.

With a heavy heart I pay tribute to my nephew. He struggled his whole life and now we try to take comfort in knowing he?s with Grampa & Goliath, and no longer suffering. I wish you God Speed, Matt. You will be greatly missed and never forgotten.

Nyla

THAT?S IT–Helluva news. These Bikernet Babes do a nasty job with the help of Jose, Stealthman, Rogue and many others. Now let?s see where the hell was I? This weekend I hope to install the 42mm Mikuni carb, the driveline enough to know that it will work, finish welds, install the Fantasy in Iron air cleaner, if it shipped in and there?s something else, goddamnit. Oh yeah, Brembo brakes have arrived and I need to mount my Empire Internal throttle and prep for my Dewey custom grips. Then the hardware can be shipped to the powder coater. Rock and roll. Can’t wait to ride this sucker.

I?ll mention one aspect of Daytona besides the beautiful babes. I had the pleasure of riding a 128-inch Viper that was supplied to me by Terry Nesbitt. Incredible motorcycle, although I was never in traffic that allowed me to twist the throttle past 50. What a fuckin? shame. Every light someone rolled up and asked about the bike. In crowds of bikes or jammed in a parking lot full of motorcycles, people inquired about its sleek, distinctive looks. Check ?em out.

That was amazing. The bike was stylized enough to stand out in a crowd of half a million bikes. There was one other brand that stuck out at me more than once. First on Beach Street then on Ridgewoo, I was caught completely off guard by the number of Boss Hoss bikes. Then we rode out to the track and there was a growing line around the Boss Hoss road test truck. They?re bulky, 1-speed monsters, built around Corvette engines, but they?ve found a home in the American line-up. Wild. I always thought that if I made interstate, cross-country runs, on a regular basis that would be the monster to ride.

Ride Forever,

–Bandit

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