At 6:00 AM on Sunday, May 28th I woke up to a crisp radiant morning in the eye of a swirling cold snap. Just 100 miles south of bustling Indianapolis, it took just a few moments to make a seismic shift to a mental, full-on party mode. Under dire deadline pressure, I prepped for the run on my Sporty, to see the Greatest spectacle in Racing, the Indy 500.

As I readied to swing a leg over the narrow Le Pera seat, I realized the icy brisk morning might freeze my bejeezus off. I jammed back into the disheveled pad to grab my dusty Bandit’s 5-Ball Racing Leather Bedroll. It’s saved my ass more than once.

Bandit designed it with a Western bedroll motif in mind but made it far more functional. Might be blistering in the stadium once the sun blasted it’s shimmering ways into mid-day, so I tossed in a set of sandals, light threads and chow, open-finger gloves, a first aid kit and a tool kit. It comes with an exterior tool flap and a pocket for duct tape and bailing wire.


I slipped on my merino wool hoodie, 5-Ball Racing, thick leather Flat-Out vest and deer-skin Grifter gauntlet gloves. I loaded up the Bedroll, end-pockets with a brake rotor lock, aspirin, sun screen, the best cannabis products and a AAA card in case I got stoned and lost.

I used Velcro straps to secure the Leather Bedroll to the Ape hangers, but it also works well strapped over a rear fender, like behind a saddle in the old west. I could now ride comfortably on the run home with all my warm, outer gear stuffed into the Bedroll.

I love Bandit’s Leather Bedroll because it acts as a fairing. It cuts the wind by…. 50% say, and it makes a difference at 70-80mph. Plus the 7-inch diameter roll provides plenty of space and it looks good on the sled.



The bag features include:

• Tool flap and parts pocket
• Two zippered end pockets
• Shoulder Strap
• Hand carry strap

South of the city and blasting North on Interstate 65 into Indianapolis, time ran out. The 38th Street turn-off, backed up for miles prevented my entrance. I shifted gears, peeled to the next exit and found it deserted.

I snaked through the back streets and arrived at the rendezvous point in Speedway, Indiana, just in the nick of time, maybe.

I flash of orange distracted my dark shaded eyes and a harried, confused Robin flew into my single CNC machined aluminum headlight. The nacelle, razor sharp cleaved the bird in two, like slicing a mallard for dinner. Half of the bird splintered into the forks and the other half bounced off the pillow-soft Bedroll and popped out the other side of the bike.

I skidded to an abrupt stop at the next light. Thinking to myself, if this is any inclination of race day 2023, I’d better double-up on alcoholic drinks.

At this race, you’re allowed your own adult beverages, amazing. Once inside the track, I broke out the Fireball. We yelled a few chants, perhaps at the racers or at the sweet whiskey and took another shot. We survived the ride in, the crowds and the wild life. It was time to break up and head to our respective seats.



I popped a Delta 8 gummy. They’ve replaced alcohol for me and eliminated next morning hangovers. They are more mood enhancing than party time.

Out on the track, Josef Newgarden took the historic win. The last bit was wild. The annual race interrupted by three red flags in the closing 20 laps.

I got an adrenaline kick with only 7 laps to go. Racer Pato O’Ward made a daring move right in front of my grandstands, against last year’s race winner Marcus Ericsson. O’ Ward’s number 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet lost grip in the corner because Ericsson doesn’t give any room in the turns.



With a crash and deep-in-your-chest thud, O’Ward spun out, slamming into the turn 3 wall. But it didn’t stop there. Rookie, Agustin Canapino ran into the back of O’Ward’s car, sending the No. 78 over the top of O’Ward’s left rear tire.

Everyone walked away but O’Ward was in position to take the win for McLaren. What a shame.



After the race, I packed my shit and headed to the Sporty. Somewhere in town a girl waited. Fortunately, I packed for the amorous occasion with more gummies and well-wrapped bottle of Lost Soul Cabernet Sauvignon…

Hang on!

CORNHUSKERS REMOVE LID LAW
“Nebraska becomes 33rd state to repeal mandatory helmet law!” blasts a headline across the top of the ABATE of Nebraska website (www.abatene.com), heralding the passage of Legislative Bill 91; which was amended to transportation measure LB138, overwhelmingly approved 30-5 and then signed into law by Governor Jim Pillen (R) on June 1, 2023.

“Glad to have played a role in allowing the riders of Nebraska to ride free,” Facebooked State Senator Ben Hansen (R-Blair) who carried LB 91 through the unicameral legislature, touting that people should be free to decide if they want to take the risk of riding without a helmet.

Under Sen. Hansen’s bill, any motorcyclist or passenger over age 21 who has completed a basic certification course by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation would be able to ride without a helmet, effective on January 1, 2024.

Riders from out of state could also ride without a helmet if they have taken an equivalent course and carry proof of completion. The bill would also require riders and passengers to wear protective glasses or have a windshield on their bikes.

CALIFORNIA SENATE APPROVES EXEMPTION FOR SIKH RIDERS FROM HELMET LAW
Sikhs and others whose faith requires them to wear a turban or patka could soon be allowed to ride motorcycles in California without a helmet as mandated by state law, as the State Senate voted 21-8 on June 1st to grant a religious exemption for the headwear.

“Freedom of religion is a core foundation of this country,” said State Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), who sponsored Senate Bill 847. “We, as Americans, have the right to freely express our religion and I believe that right should equally extend to everyone.”

Sikh turbans and patkas are considered articles of faith for believers.

“Although other countries and our own military make accommodations for Sikhs’ deep beliefs, out of the U.S. states that require helmets, none has exemptions for Sikhs or any other group based on religious practice,” according to Sen. Dahle. SB 847 now moves to the Assembly.

WASHINGTON STATE TO PROTECT VULNERABLE ROAD USERS
House Bill 1112, signed into law on May 16, 2023 by Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) creates a new gross misdemeanor penalty for negligent drivers who kill “vulnerable user victims,” which can include pedestrians, cyclists, and people riding tractors, horses or motorcycles on the roadway.

The traffic infraction of negligent driving in the second degree with a vulnerable user victim is renamed negligent driving with a vulnerable user victim in the second degree, and effective January 1, 2025, following a public awareness campaign, the scope of the infraction will be modified: A person commits the infraction if the person “operates a vehicle in a manner that is both negligent and endangers or is likely to endanger any person or property, and proximately causes great bodily harm or substantial bodily harm of a vulnerable user of a public way.”

Negligent driving with a vulnerable user victim is punishable by up to 365 days in jail, a $5,000 fine which may not be reduced below $1,000, or both. A person convicted of this crime will also lose their driving privileges for 90 days.

The bill was a bipartisan effort by State Rep. Paul Harris (R-Vancouver) and will allow judges, at their discretion, to hold negligent drivers to greater accountability and impose criminal penalties to protect vulnerable victims of accidents.

ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE PARITY ACT
U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) announced that they would introduce the Electric Motorcycle Parity Act in the Senate which, if enacted, would expand available tax credits to riders who purchase qualifying electric motorcycles in the U.S. with the same qualifications required for four-wheeled electric vehicles that previously passed into law as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

In the United States, electric motorcycle purchases that met certain conditions were previously eligible for tax credits before the 2022 calendar year, but unfortunately for riders those tax credits expired at the end of 2021. Although some individual states have opted to offer tax incentives for electric motorcycles purchased in 2022 and 2023, nothing has existed at the federal level for the past year and a half.

According to Sens. Casey and Baldwin, the Electric Motorcycle Parity Act of 2023 would make vehicles with fewer than four wheels (potentially two- and even three-wheeled vehicles) eligible for the clean vehicle tax credit that is part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which awards up to $7,500 to customers if both the vehicle and the taxpayer meet certain requirements.

BIPARTISAN CALL TO RE-ESTABLISH MAC AS REQUIRED BY LAW
Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives are urging Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to re-establish the Motorcyclist Advisory Committee (MAC). The MAC was supposed to be re-established within 90 days of the Motorcyclist Advisory Council Reauthorization Act of 2021 becoming law, expanding membership seats to include manufacturers, motorcyclists rights organizations and safety professionals, yet over a year has passed since its enactment with no action thus far by the DOT.

In the joint letter to the Transportation Secretary, the group of Congressmembers write in part; “Unfortunately, despite the requirement that the MAC be established within 90 days of enactment it appears no such action has been taken. While we understand the many priorities you manage at the Department of Transportation, this critical Council must be instated to ensure the safety of motorcyclists.”

“DANGEROUS” AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
A former federal transportation safety advisor warns, “It’s very dangerous for motorcycles to be around Teslas” in a Washington Post article acknowledging the vehicle’s Autopilot driver-assistance program “has been involved in far more crashes than previously reported.”

The June 10 article notes that “The number of deaths and serious injuries associated with Autopilot also has grown significantly… The most recent data includes at least 17 fatal incidents,” with four of those involving a motorcycle.

Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened two consecutive special investigations into fatal crashes involving Tesla vehicles and motorcyclists.

Former NHTSA senior safety adviser Missy Cummings, now a professor at George Mason University’s College of Engineering and Computing, called the surge in Tesla crashes “troubling” and said the number of fatalities compared to overall crashes was also a concern.

An uptick in crashes coincides with Tesla’s aggressive rollout of Full Self-Driving, which has expanded from around 12,000 users to nearly 400,000 in a little more than a year. In February, Tesla issued a recall of more than 360,000 vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving over concerns that the software prompted its vehicles to disobey traffic lights, stop signs and speed limits.

EUROPEAN MOTORCYCLE MARKET EXPERIENCING DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH
Sales figures for the first quarter of 2023 are in for the European PTW (Powered Two-Wheeler) market, and things seem to be looking up for the international motorcycle industry. In total, there was a 15.5% increase across the top five European markets as compared to the first quarter of 2022.

It goes without saying that the European motorcycle market is considerably more diverse than what we see in the U.S. With a wider selection of motorcycles due to stricter licensing parameters, manufacturers need to expand their model ranges with bikes in the 125cc, 300cc to 500cc, and 650cc+ categories. On top of that, more and more people are hitting the road on electric motorcycles.

Italy leads the pack with an impressive 31.1% growth versus the first quarter of 2022, with runner-up Germany experiencing 13.2% more moto- sales than the same period of last year. In third place, France marked a 7.1% increase over Q1 2022, while fourth and fifth places went to Spain and the U.K., respectively.

RIDER SETS DISTANCE RECORD
Spanish Enduro Champion Iván Cervantes has set a new Guinness World Record for the longest distance ridden by one person on a motorcycle, by riding 4,012km (2,493 miles) in 24 hours on April 30, 2023 aboard his Triumph Tiger 1200 GT Explorer.

The previous record, set at 3,406km (2,116 miles), was achieved by American rider Carl Reese on February 26, 2017, recording an average speed over 24 hours of 141.9kph (88.2mph). Cervantes’ record therefore extends the record by 606km (377 miles), and with an average speed of 167.8kph (104.3mph).

There was a total of 18 pitstops, around every 1.5hours, with 520-litres of fuel used.

When asked if he slept during the event, the five-time Enduro World Champion and Triumph Global Ambassador admitted: “Believe me I tried, but after 10 minutes I couldn’t sleep because of all the adrenaline inside my body.”

NEW RECORD SET FOR MOST COUNTRIES VISITED IN A DAY BY MOTORCYCLE
A prominent motorcycle journalist has broken a world record for visiting the most amount of countries while riding a motorcycle in one 24-hour period.

Moto-writer Thierry Sarasyn started his ride in southern Poland, strategically chosen because of its close proximity to a significant number of other countries before ending his trip in the Netherlands.

At the end of his record-setting journey, Thierry racked up an impressive 1,367 miles, visiting 15 countries, and completed the feat in just 22 hours, yet breaking no speed limits and no local road traffic laws. That meant he had to basically ride 1,300 miles, through different countries all with varying traffic laws, in less than 24 hours.

DUCATI HONORED BY ITALIAN POSTAGE STAMP
Does your favorite motorcycle manufacturer have an official postage stamp from its country of origin? If you’re a Ducatista it does, as the Italian national postal service, Poste Italiane, officially released its special Ducati stamp collection on June 9, 2023 crafted in honor of the 2022 Ducati MotoGP World Championship won by the Ducati team led by Factory rider Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia.

The stamp depicts a stylized drawing of the Ducati GP22 MotoGP machine, roaring around a chicane painted in the tricolor of the Italian flag, along with a laurel wreath and text that reads “2022 Campioni Del Mondo Ducati” in the upper right corner.

FIRST-EVER WOMEN’S RACING CHAMPIONSHIPS COMING
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) has officially announced the beginning of an entirely new racing series for 2024, and this time the circuit will be all about women racers, and will be called the FIM Women’s Motorcycling World Championship.

Women from all over the world will be invited to race in this new Championship, and tentative plans for the opening season will include at least six rounds, with two races held per round, and will “primarily run alongside the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship” starting in March or April of next year.

QUOTABLE QUOTE:

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt, “Citizen in a Republic”, April 23, 1910

 

 

 

 

 

“DUNLOP APE HANGER CHALLENGE”…how long can u hang???

“Fauno”

Builder: PDF Motociclette – ITALY

1927 HD JD extremely powerful racing engine rebuilt to 8 valves
(original only 4 valves)

Frame & Chassis: Original HD JD modified by PDF Motociclette – 100% Hardtail

Paint Job/Art: PDF Motociclette

Technical Highlights – Completely handcrafted motorcycle with unique engine technology; built as a tribe to the historic specials that raced in hill climbing.

“Snow Drag”

Builder: H-D Banska Bystrica – SLOVAKIA

1202 cm3 – HD Evolution Sportster

Frame & Chassis: Sportster Roadster XL1200 CX MY2016

Paint Job/Art: Wrap

Technical Highlights: The first officially built HD in the snow. The motorcycle was built without interfering with the motorcycle frame. Getting back on the wheels takes about 4 hours. For the conversion, it was necessary to make a belt attachment and transfer the drive from the right side to the left side.

R-N Racing

120th Anniversary Street Glide

“History”

Bike Builder: VK Custom Works – Slovenia

Engine: HD Flathead 750cc air intake and exhaust system custom made by VK

Frame & Chassis: Custom made by VK Custom Works

Paint Job/Art: VK Custom Works

Technical Highlights: 335 cm long bike! 80% of this bike handmade in VK Custom Works workshop.

“Aluracer”

Bike Builder: Gigamachine Choppers – Hungary

Build Completed: 2014

Duration of Build: 6 months

Best Results: -AMD World Championship, 6th Place
Best results con’t
-Hungarian Motor Builder Championship (EMAT) 1st Place
-Customs of Slovakia – 1st Place

Saturday, June 24th H-D Street Parade –Thousands of motorcycles cruised along the Danube River, and through the streets of Budapest:

…and the winner was >>>Gerdas from the United Kingdom – who rode home on the 2023 Anniversary Edition Heritage Softail!!!

#HARLEY and PUSKAS Stadium – Budapest

WOLFMOTHER rocked out the house after Gerdas won the Heritage Softail! The band started jamming in 2004 in Sydney Australia, and includes Andrew Stockdale, Bobby Poulton, and Hamish Rosser.

Andrew Stockdale – Lead Singer /Guitar– Wolfmother

‘70s Customs

Grand Finale

Somewhere along the road, the heritage trip to
Hungary is now being checked off of the ‘ol bucket list!

Snake sat in the deepest corner of Deadwood, SD notorious Number 10 Saloon, wet to the bone. The middle of June and riders were determined to cruise the Black Hills before the factory anniversary, but torrents of rain got the best of them.

The girls knew the brothers were coming, tall, short, rich and poor riders directed their steel steeds across long unforgiving Wyoming roads like the Muddy Gap and over the Continental Divide. Brothers blasted through the California deserts, along Interstate 15 passing Las Vegas like escaping a burning inferno. They came from the East, from Colorado directly south and some hid in the hills between the hot spells dodging the sun under majestic tree limbs along winding two-lane roads.

Deadwood, a town of just 1200 allowed a couple of thousand folks to scramble and gamble every weekend. Nothing stopped them, snow, hail, rain or whatever to hang out on cobblestone streets, meander through 110-year-old buildings and dream of a simpler rugged past.

Snake wasn’t much different, just another rider with a slippery history working his way across the country. He lost his last job behind a redhead, the boss’s wife. Her magnificent green eyes were emerald pools of desire and treachery. She wasn’t about to let her connection to vast riches and security be exchanged for a button-tuck upholstered p-pad and an empty chained leather wallet. He slid out of Seattle and blasted east on his chopped Panhead.

Snake wasn’t all that and a bag of chips, a skinny white-boy with a dash of Hispanic and the long silken black hair to match. He held onto the traditional biker past wearing all-black from his old school engineer boots, his black Levis, black leather belt and old black vest, with one metal badge, a chromed mudflap girl pinned over a single pocket. He wore black leather gauntlets, a black scarf and an ebony-handle knife in a hand-sewn black leather sheath.

Girls took to him like they would to a rock star, his narrow hips moved like a man constantly fucking. He didn’t talk much. His dark eyes captured his voluptuous prey. He moved in close, listened intently, smoked Canadian cigarettes and waited. “Do you want to fuck?” He asked and the girls quit talking and undressed.

The most recent Redhead, a woman so delicious and ready for sex, she quickly got bored with hanging at the bar and roamed away from her crew of bikers to find the leather Snake coiled and waiting for her. He smelled of cigarette smoke and Jack Daniels and they soon hooked up. Busted, groping one another in the loosely lit parking lot beside the Slippery Steed Bar and Grill in Spearfish, SD, there was going to be trouble. A nosey woman from the biker clan returned inside to snitch them off. Snake moved fast. Dark clouds forced him to ride hard into the hills. He got a head start, but they came after him on hopped up M-8 baggers and Dynas.

Snake, cut a dusty trail, the back way along the winding, Jack Pine strewn, Spearfish Canyon, while the crew suited up for the chase. He pushed his Panhead hard on a narrow, steep, sometimes gravel surface along the highway leading to Cheyenne Crossing. His 80-inch, stroked Panhead rumbled against the steep incline into the hills. It was all old school, with Flanders Highbars, Paughco Pipes and a Paughco Sportster tank sans the classic tunnel for a tad more capacity. It held maybe enough petrol to afford his notorious escape into the cobblestone streets of Deadwood, if he was lucky.

He had no notion of his next plan. Usually, a girl held a safe haven from his shady exploits, but he couldn’t stay long. In this case Mother Nature might be his babe, as he left the steep winding asphalt for base, reddish, fine clay construction, and it started to rain. He pushed on when the hail came and he wrapped a scarf around his head and suddenly became a scared Taliban, escaping into the hills, but he wasn’t in search of a mountain cave. He sought the solace of a bar, a tumbler of whisker and the soft curves of a redhead.

He still wore shades as his narrow 21-inch Avon tire searched in the mud for a solid path and his stock springer front end sent surface messages to his rattling bars. The rear wheel was the standard 16-inch star-hub and a tough as nails Firestone tire. It lasted long but gave into to every road surface. He slid in the muddy curves of the construction zone, and the rain intensified, buckets being the optimum description.

He didn’t know whether the following riders would find Highway 85 into the hills more comfortable and a shorter route, or the group would experience abject fear of the impending storm and turn back. He kept going in the dark unable to enjoy the raging adjacent stream, the sheer stone cliffs, the tornado torn pine trees or the winding views. It was a black moonless night. The rain pounded the pavement. He could see only the Bate’s headlight reflection against water droplets the size of pool balls, a slice of broken yellow line and a spot of asphalt little larger than a single bed he wished he was in, but not alone.

Finally, rolling against the icy torrent he reached the highway junction and stopped, pulled his water-pepper shades aside, wiped his mud-splashed face with his black mudflap girl Bandana and peered into the darkness. He wanted a cigarette, but knew he needed to keep moving, before his old Joe Hunt magneto filled with rain water.

He slowed as he reached the outskirts of Lead, where the historic gold mine made scientific progress and life was slow and artsy. Then came Deadwood, a town of gambling, whores, cobblestone streets and violence.

He pulled up to the partially wooden sidewalk alone, no other bikes shared the historic roadway and he wondered as he dismounted. The rotund bouncer opened the thick oak door and Snake sloshed inside and stood under Wild Bill’s chair nailed above the door. Bill was shot in that chair with his back to the door. Snake learned and moved deep into the dark recesses of the saloon and sat so he could observe anyone coming in the front or the back.

Snake lit a cigarette, ordered a drink and stole a steak tip from an adjacent table.

He finished his first drink, borrowed more steak tips and lit another cigarette, when he heard a loud motorcycle pull up out front. Snake yanked his 10-inch Damascus steel blade from his damp sheath and laid it in front of him on the previously carved old wooden table. It took another minute, but finally the rider entered, soaked to the bone. The loan rider stood about his height, and slowly scanned the dark bar, while removing thick gloves and then started to unlatch an all-black full faced helmet. She shook her long amber waves loose and scanned the dark bar for a slithering Snake.

As she found him, a smile broke the smoke-filled din with the nut-shell strewn deck. Even wet to the core, her bright blue eyes sparkled and her ivories glistened. She unzipped her contoured leather jacket and milky cleavage sprang forth.

Snake stood, shoved the long blade into its leather home. He made eye contact and suddenly felt warm all over.

“They punked out in the hail,” she said, “I knew there was a party waiting, but not here. Let’s find a room.”

 

Let’s take a look at the numbers.

Of the 51,230 peer-reviewed papers on climate change published in 2020, Perga and colleagues found that only about 9% of them saw any media coverage, defined as a single mention in the paper’s Altimetric score. About 2%, or ~1,000 papers, saw more than 20 mentions in the media. These “mediatized” papers are the focus of Perga’s paper.

The 2% of papers most covered by the media are disproportionately focused:

• at the global and continental scales;

• on the end of the 21st century;

• on the natural sciences and health;

• and come primarily from just 6 journals (3 from Science journals, 2 from Nature and PNAS).

 

The biases are large. The paper reports that:

Overall, 56% of the top-100 mediatized papers on natural science report rate or magnitude of climate-driven changes at continental or global scales (40% being projections by the end-of-the-century), while those represent only 4% of the random paperset.

Reporting disproportionately deemphasized studies in the social and political sciences, economics, technology, engineering, energy and agriculture — these are all topics related to what might be done on climate change.

The authors conclude that as a result of these biases, news coverage is biased and the public is misinformed:

Thereby, a few articles get a lot of news mentions, limiting the diversity of information to which readers are exposed (Ortega, 2021). The selective sourcing of news media for high-profile journals and strong degree of co-mention in news outlets thereby come with a loss of disciplinary diversity of the research brought to public’s attention, with over-emphasis on natural science and health, while research findings produced on the social, economic, technological and energy-related aspects of climate change are curtailed back through the mediatization process. The selectivity is even found within the dominant natural science. Mediatized scientific publications are selectively concentrated on the worldwide magnitude of the current consequences of climate change, and projected risks by the end of the century for natural Earth components.

 

Indeed, the authors of the paper view themselves, alongside journalists, as collaborators in using communication to motivate “action”. Here is how they describe their work:

[C]limate communication research builds on social sciences to explore how and to what extent climate change is relayed and framed whilst developing optimized strategies and guidelines for transforming public engagement into actions.

 

Although they may look and behave like modern media organizations, they are advocacy groups, and have an explicit agenda; they’re looking for impact. That agenda may coincide with the news, and they may use traditional journalistic techniques to advance it, but in most cases the larger goal of this work is in service of some kind of policy change or other action, and not information or the public record per se.

Climate journalism wasn’t always dominated by an advocacy agenda. More than a decade ago, I along with colleagues Ursula Rick and Max Boykoff evaluated 20 years of media coverage of sea level rise. We found overall media reporting on sea level rise to be highly consistent with the scientific literature and the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, summarized in the figures below.

July 4th in Texas is practically synonymous with Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic. The event has been a part of the culture of the Lone Star State- on and off – for over 40 years. But beyond being a great party with some of country music’s greatest icons, the picnic helped give birth to the outlaw country movement that changed the state and country music forever.

Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic Tuesday July 4, 2023 2:00 pm CT See Details Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic returns to Q2 Stadium on July 4! The event will feature Willie Nelson & Family, Tyler Childers, Dwight Yoakam, Shakey Graves, Shane Smith & the Saints, Sierra Ferrell, Asleep at the Wheel, and Particle Kid.

Take a look back at Texas’ biggest party and how it all came together.

The Family Reunion

In 1972, Willie Nelson was fresh from Nashville. He had been spending time in his home state after his Tennessee home was destroyed in a fire. He had grown tired of Nashville suits overproducing his records and was eager to start over far from Music City. Then he heard about a gig in Dripping Springs.

The site was Hurlbut Ranch, an unassuming plot of land along Hwy. 290 just west of Dripping Springs. Dallas promoters had their heart set on creating a “Hillbilly Woodstock,” investing $250,000 into the event. It was called the Dripping Springs Reunion.

While the reunion is now remembered for its gathering of hippies and rednecks converged in the Texas Hill Country to see Waylon, Willie and the rest of the redneck rock brigade, the actual lineup was far more conservative. The reunion assembled country legends like Earl Scruggs, Tom T. Hall, Tex Ritter and Roy Acuff.

Missing from the list of names on the much touted lineup? Willie Nelson. Even though he was one of the most sought after songwriters in Nashville, Nelson hadn’t earned top billing just yet (at least in the eyes of the promoters). The long-haired Red Headed Stranger we now know and love was still sporting short hair and a golf cap.

‘Hillbilly Woodstock’

Both the promoters and national media expected the Dripping Springs Reunion to have a massive turnout. (Rolling Stone even sent Annie Leibovitz to snap photos of the event.) But in terms of attendance, the reunion was kind of a bust. Organizers expected 60,000 people a day. Between 7,000 and 10,000 showed up at the reunion, which ran from March 17 through the 19th.

But the Dripping Springs Reunion is remembered because of what it inspired. It further proved that country music wasn’t as straight-laced as Music Row assumed. It showed that there was a hunger for country songs that Nashville wasn’t offering.

One of those songs was by a young songwriter named Billy Joe Shaver. When Waylon Jennings heard Shaver sing “Willie the Wandering Gyspy and Me” backstage at the reunion, he knew on the spot that he’d record the song.

And when clean cut Willie was hanging out backstage with his friends, watching guitars being passed around and listening to songs sung, he realized he didn’t need to be in Nashville to make the music he wanted to make. In fact, he needed Texas.

The Inaugural Picnic

In the months following the reunion, Willie Nelson’s star continued to grow in Texas and beyond. Gigs at progressive country hubs like the Armadillo World Headquarters had made him the face of Austin’s growing music scene. He was free to do whatever he wanted. And what Willie wanted was to throw a massive 4th of July celebration in the Texas Hill Country with all of his closest friends.

Nelson decided the same Dripping Springs ranch should be the site for the inaugural 4th of July Picnic. Inspiration struck Willie in early summer of 1973, which only left weeks to organize the massive event. Incredibly, Willie’s crew pulled it off and 40,000 people attended the one-day event.

The lineup included Waylon Jennings, John Prine, Tom T. Hall, Doug Sahm and Kris Kristofferson.

A Brief History of the Traveling Picnic
Despite being a Lone Star State tradition, Willie’s picnic hasn’t really stayed in one spot for long.

Read the whole history at Wide Open Country.

This article was originally published in 2017. It was updated on June 26, 2020.

–Wide Open country
Wideopencountry.com

 

Hey, Erika Ball is my daughter in law and I’m proud of her on several levels. Plus, I know that pride will continue into the future with her efforts with my son, Frank to help addicts recover and find strength and their futures.

Check out this article from Canvas Rebel Magazine in Austin Texas.

We recently connected with Erika Ball and have shared our conversation below.

Erika, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s go back in time to when you were an intern or apprentice – what’s an interesting story you can share from that stage of your career?

EB–For my undergrad internship at UNT – Dallas I worked at a women’s shelter for refugees of foreign countries and their children. These were women who were survivors of human rights abuses, including human trafficking and domestic violence. Since I am fluent in Spanish, and both my parents are immigrants from Paraguay, I was able to help Spanish-speaking women with translation, courtroom appearances and legal consultations.

I provided crisis hotline support, conducted intake interviews, distributed food, clothing, and bus passes and ensured residents’ living quarters were kept clean and orderly. The time I spent with these women was invaluable; I picked up so much wisdom and inspiration just by listening to their stories of perseverance and hardship.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

EB–My name is Erika Ball, I am the Cofounder of We Are Those People a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to individuals and families affected by Addiction also known as Substance use disorder. My husband Frank Ball is the Cofounder. We are both people in long term recovery. We create awareness and advocate for mental healthcare reform by sharing people’s personal stories of long-term recovery through films, photos, and community outreach and sharing those stories to help others.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

EB–I had to make some serious pivots and adjustments recently. Like the rest of the world, during the pandemic lockdowns, I was furloughed from my job as a Mental Healthcare professional and the powers that be restricted us from any in-person meetings in the recovery community.

I found myself with a lot of time on my hands and the internet was my only tool to connect with the rest of the world and the recovery community. That’s when I started to focus all of my energy on our nonprofit and began working on it full-time.

We received an overwhelming response from the community worldwide. People needed support and this gave me a purpose and allowed me to continue creatively working in the recovery community. We received support from people in Canada, Australia, Argentina, Germany, and throughout the US.

People share their lives and success stories of hope in recovery. There was a need, and we had the opportunity to fill it. People were isolated in their homes, feeling hopeless and disconnected. Even though I was also disappointed and feeling a bit uncertain of my future, WATP gave me a purpose to help support those who were struggling.

These unavoidable setbacks provided me with the perfect opportunity to turn a side project into a full-time profession.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

EB–The lesson I had to unlearn was that no matter what my past was like, no matter what my age, and no matter what my present circumstances are there’s never an excuse to give up on my dreams.

I lived a lot of my life making compromises because I gave into negative thinking and limiting beliefs.

The back story was at age 40, after achieving some sobriety, I once again burned my life to the ground. I was forced to restart my life from the ground up due to a relapse.

I faced a crossroads I was either going to continue giving in to a destructive life or I was going to choose LIFE and believe that recovery was possible and that even at my age I could achieve my dream.

Unfortunately, I had to learn this lesson the hard way, like many others. This lesson was one of the greatest lessons of all my life. Step by step I walked away from my negative thinking, and I have built a life beyond my wildest dreams.

Putting sobriety first and believing in myself I have achieved what seemed to be impossible for most of my life. I took responsibility for my thoughts and emotions blaming no one else, not my childhood, not past traumas, not blaming the government, not blaming the church, not blaming my age but just believing.

Since making this choice and choosing recovery, I have been able to build a beautiful, healthy relationship with a man who is now my husband. We recently bought our first home in Austin, Texas. I was finally able to receive my bachelor’s degree, and I became a mental health professional helping those with addiction issues. We created a nonprofit, created a documentary about addiction recovery, and I did a Ted talk on this very subject. I mended my family relationships, and most recently at age 48 was accepted into graduate school where I am currently working on a Master’s of Science for Nonprofit administration.

I will graduate on my 50th birthday. All of this to say that, if someone who perceived themselves as broken as I did can make this change, I truly believe anyone can. I’m excited about the future and I embrace all of the possibilities.

I’ve seen the term “suicide shifter” used in describing a plain old ordinary tank shift. I’ve also heard people referring to a stock rocker clutch as a suicide clutch. Simple ignorance allows that term to be used incorrectly. There is no such thing as a “suicide shifter.” Nobody has ever died because of using “hand shift.” There is however such a thing as a “Suicide Clutch.”

The term suicide clutch came into being when choppers were born. I’ll tell ya why. Back in the good old days, a long time before foot shift was standard equipment, tank shift with foot operated -clutch was original equipment on Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Let’s use the Harley-Davidson motorcycle of the 1950s as an example. The foot clutch was of the rocker type, meaning it could be “rocked” to the disengaged position, and it would stay in that position until the rider nudged it with his or her foot in the opposite direction.

Harley-Davidson motorcycles were “heel down” disengaged, Indian motocycles (no R is the way Indian Motocycle Company spelled it) operated with toe down disengaged motion. The rider could and would control the RATE of engagement with his or her foot.

In other words, the clutch was not totally spring loaded like the clutch in a car. Clutch pedal engagement is/was determined by foot position. If the rider slid his foot off the clutch pedal while it was in the disengaged position it would stay disengaged.

The stock/standard rocker clutch did have a spring that would pull the pedal towards the engaged position only after the clutch was “rocked” out of the disengaged position. Safety first for this style clutch. Early Chopper builders modified the rocker clutch so it would not, and could not stay “rocked out” in the disengaged position. This allowed for much faster clutch action. It also meant that the rider had to maintain constant foot pressure on the clutch to keep it disengaged unless he was in neutral.

NO big deal! BUT!….. Many early chopper builders/riders/outlaw bikers also decided to remove the front brake. This was done not only for cosmetic reasons, but also because removing the front brake also lightened the motorcycle quite a bit.

If you look at most old chopper photos from the 1950s and 1960s, even through the 1970s, many times you’ll see custom bikes or choppers with a clean, lean looking front-fork that has no front brake. This is when the suicide name caught on. That shift lever looks like it is connected to a ratchet-top doesn’t it? It is not. It is being used as a clutch pedal, a slippery one.

A motorcycle rider while riding steep hills such as found in the city of San Francisco was subject to traffic lights like all the other traffic. If that rider was riding a chopper equipped with no front brake, hand shift (jockey shift or tank-shift) and a clutch that was modified to act as a spring loaded clutch, that rider could not easily stop and start at traffic lights located at streets located at the top of a hill.

If the rider stopped at light on a steep hill using the right foot on the brake, the transmission would need to be neutral (remember the clutch could NOT be rocked into a disengaged position and stay there). The right foot would be holding the brake engaged the left foot would be on the ground with the left leg holding the bike upright.

It took speed and coordination to quickly put the right foot down to hold the bike up, then the left foot to push the clutch pedal down, the left hand would slam the tranny into first gear, and the rider could then let the clutch out and go. This sequence of events was virtually impossible to do on a steep hill, so riders took to running the yellow or early red traffic lights rather than attempting a stop on the hill. More than a few were killed running the light. And that, my friends is how the suicide clutch got his name. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

Enough riders were killed for other riders (and the cops) to consider it suicide to ride a motorcycle equipped as described. But then again, all the macho guys went straight to the suicide set-up, for macho reasons alone. Back in the good old days real bikers shunned the wearing of leather. Back then, only sissies wore leather. Also, if a jockey-top is mounted rather than a ratchet-top (four speed transmission only) when hand shifting, blazingly fast power shifts can be made, and wheelies will happen. It’s more fun than a high speed chase!

I rode a rigid frame Panhead for years with a foot-operated clutch, jockey shift (jockey top transmission), and no front brake. I purchased the motorcycle so equipped and once I got familiar with it, I saw no reason to change. I also always wore a heavy leather jacket; I like my skin too much, I guess.

When myself and friends rode up to San Francisco to cruise the Haight Ashbury and North Beach districts, the guys that had motorcycles equipped with front brakes rode behind the guys without front brakes, and held them in place on the steep hills at traffic lights by putting their front wheel against mine and others’ rear wheels.

–Buck Lovell
Chief of the Lost Dog Riders MC
Lovell Photography & Design
B.L.A.B.B. (Buck Lovell’s American Biker Blog)
bucklovell@gmail.com / bucklovellsblog@gmail.com
Sturgis, SD 57785
(605) 490 2991