After spitting a rod through the engine cases of my 5-Ball racing, 1000cc Ninja, Land Speed race bike, (at 187 mph, at the Mojave Mile, a race venue in the high California desert), I have found myself bikeless for some time.

A nasty state of affairs for someone who has owned over 70 bikes, and who loves to ride every day, everywhere; no matter the tossed salad excuse for weather, that mother nature seems to be serving up lately.

You die-hard Bikernet readers know what I am talking about- being bikeless SUCKS – in spades! You know it – I know it.

This is where the rough, tough, gruff, and oh-so buff, King -editor Bandit comes to the rescue!

“Hey, Frank White over at ATK is looking for a little exposure and feedback on their new ATK 650 street bike line-up. How would you like to handle a long-term test on one of their models?”

Does a walrus wear mini-skirts and dance the Fandango? … Does the sun come up green on the third consecutive Wednesday of every thousand-year cycle? Well, I’m not sure about those, but l know my right wrist has been positively aching for a big handful of W.F.O. throttle, and some hard earned leaned-over windblast.

So that would be a huge YES! Bandit to the rescue once again!

So while we at Bikernet/5-Ball racing pondered what model Frank would be sending over to us… I started firing up my phone, googling the ATK 650 model line-up. Three bikes; a muscle cruiser version, a standard do it all model, and a more “roady race looking sport version are available.

Based on my background of racing: flat track, motocross, ice racing, drag racing, road racing, and more recently land speed racing, (as well as the fact that the heart of the ATK 650 beast…is based on an engine that Suzuki has had good road racing success with) … Well, I just kind of figured that the roady race model might be the one coming my way.

So imagine if you will, my circumstances, like a kid in a candy store… no, more like… You remember when you were a little kid, at Christmas, and you knew you had something GREAT coming your way? You remember that? You knew it was great, but didn’t know the exact details until you got it unwrapped? Well yeah, kinda like that.

I used to road race super bikes, so the standard model would be good, throw some lower bars on it, slap some sticky rubber on, steel braided brake lines, racing brake pads, high performance suspension… good to go.

The roady race version – that’s great too, ride the crap out of it, dial it in, go fast, and have fun.

Now the muscle cruiser version; that’s a horse of a different color. Truth be told, first time I saw a picture of that sled I liked it. I immediately liked the looks, plus ATK got my respect at the same time, for not being a cookie-cutter mold, wanna-be, and look-alike, of somebody else’s product. The ATK 650 cruiser model has it’s own stand-alone styling, and I like what they did with this machine.

However, as I pondered over this version, I was reminded of some actresses, models, and dancers I have dated in the past, great in the looks department, but sometimes lacking in the all-important ride. Deep down, I’m sure you have always imagined that magic ride, (men and ladies)… with looks, and style, mixed with long and short-term rideability… Wait, wait! Fearless readers, where’d you all go? This is a motorcycle article, come back! Ok, thank you… so here we are back again, like kids at Christmas…

Will that be ATK 650 number one? ATK 650 number two? Or ATK 650 number three?

To me it’s all win, win, win. These are BIKES Ladies and gentlemen – l live, breathe – eat – drink, smoke, dream, cruise, race, tour, lounge around on, and ride the livin’ _ _ _ _ _ (you fill in the blank), out of bikes, all shapes, sizes, brands, colors, styles, you name it. It’s like some oral activities, it’s all good, some are just better than others.

Then I get a call from the master custom bike builder, (and close to 30 year veteran, as past editor of Easyriders magazine) now Master and Commander of Bikernet.com… “Can you swing by the shop after you’re done welding today?” (the “Shop” being Bikernet headquarters, an honorarium of bikes, in various states of restoration, and or customization…but most are ” from the ground up” creations, of the artist formerly, and presently, known as “Bandit”. (But that’s another story, or maybe a hundred or more stories.)

So the call came, and upon arrival, I am confronted by two ATKs; one Classic cruiser styled 250, and one Muscle cruiser styled 650.

The 250 is the one that seems to attract ones attention first, possibly because it seems at once familiar in it’s styling, nicely executed in both paint scheme, and stance, also looking much more like a 750, than any 250 you might ever have imagined.

After some examination of said machine, I then turned my attention to the 650, similar to the 250 in that it looks much larger in life, than it’s displacement would lead you to believe. Not a bad thing at all, nice visual impact.

Liked the front-end right away… clean, with stout fork tubes, and good size dual disc brakes. (Love me a good set of brakes!)

But what’s this? An upside down fork… high tech, for a bike in this price range.

Somehow the rake of the forks, running up to the wide, swept back bars, seem to flow into the gas tank and sturdy frame, carrying your eyes back over the jet-black tank toward a good looking seat and tail section, simplistic and narrow waisted, with nice flow lines over the fender to the well executed L.E.D. tail light. All in all a nice piece.

The engine bay looks a bit more industrial, as it should, a water-cooled V-twin with lots of chromey bits to dress things up.

I swing a leg over, settle into the low seat, checking the seat to bar positioning, feeling clutch and brake action, all seems pretty comfy.

Then roll ‘er forward, squeeze brake lever, compressing forks to get a feel for brake and fork action. Initial springing and damping seems good, with a bounce on the seat a bit to get a feel for the shocks, seems a little softly sprung, but this is a muscle cruiser, not a race bike.

Bandit suggests firing ‘er up- which I do- V-twin pulses coming up through bars and seat – but closer firing than some of your bigger V-twins, and quick to rev after she warms up a bit.

Nice chuffley sounding puff, puff noises coming from the large chrome muffler, but a little Clark Kent in the sound department (thank the California noise regs for that), but will there be more Superman like sounds coming further up the rev range?

I want to spin the revs up hard just to see, but looking at the low-low demo miles on this thing, I decide to save that for some time down the road.

I shut ‘er down.

“So when do we get to ride? “

Bandit replies, “We have the bikes, but we haven’t received the paperwork.”

Oh, hey, why not just kick that happy enthusiastic little Christmas kid right square in the huevos rancheros!

I hide my disappointment with a high degree of professionalism by immediately throwing myself to the floor, flailing about, complete with kicking and screaming for several minutes.

Kidding, actually I mumble something like- “Well let me know,” and the conversation turns to building Bonneville streamliners, land speed records, things of that nature.

I avoid Bikernet headquarters for a while, to avoid feeling like a starving man, standing and looking through a window at steaming plates of food being served.

So three years go by…I mean a few weeks… and THE CALL comes…

Back at headquarters in a flash, Bandit has paperwork in hand, complete with insurance. We decide to carry one set on person, with a back up set on the bike (just in case of roadside interviews of the type we all like to avoid… you know the ones.)

As stylish as this ATK is, low and behold, we find no available storage space?

After some searching, and waterproofing of the paperwork, we find a space accessible by a single screw.

I suit up with new boots, gloves, and a new helmet I purchased to go with the bike. Also wearing the River Road buffalo hide chaps (see product review elsewhere in Bikernet). Feelin’ slick and stylish, I saddle up.

Bandit’s reply goes something like this- “No, just take it out and ride it around, take it easy, but ride it around and get a feel for it. Just come back when you’re ready. “

All pretty smooth and casual up to this point.
I back the ATK out, sort of point it at a reasonable angle toward the exit gate of Bikernet Headquarters- blipping the throttle, waiting for the big automated gate to roll open on it’s steel track.
Bandit standing, camera in hand, snapping documentary shots…

Then it hit me like a bolt out of the blue…
FEAR.
Big Fear, fear with a capital F**** Fear.
Frozen Fear.
Like the time you were standing in front of the grade school Principle, and he had that two foot long leather strap behind his back ready to use it on your hands for the THIRD time- in ONE day.
Fear
Frozen fear.

Like that time your father screamed at your brother to go to the basement-screamed at you to bring the bullwhip, further screamed at you to stay upstairs, when you with your little body tried to go downstairs to somehow intervene…

Then from the top of the stairs you heard your older brother say loudly but calmly, ” I’ll give you one shot with that thing. But you try for one more, I’m coming after you”- and you thought for sure one of two persons you loved was gonna die that night– that kind of frozen fear.

But Dr.Feng where? What? How? why? What is this source of fear that hit you like a bolt from the blue?

STAGE FRIGHT!

Laugh if you will, or perhaps you’ve experienced something similar.

But there it was, a cruel cold mysterious mind gripping phenomena, a savage trick, not necessarily based in reality or even present time, but seemingly real, as real, like that time you woke up in a cold sweat from a dream, just a dream…

So, there it was, threatening to halt all progress, all forward movement.

Puzzled? So was I.

Let me just back up for a minute, and appraise you dear readers of my circumstances leading up to that moment.

Seemingly out of nowhere, I’d been entrusted with this brand new 650 ATK cruiser by two bigger than life characters.

A Mr. Frank White, ex big wheel with Harley Davidson, and now possibly bigger wheel with ATK motorcycles out of Utah.

Also doubly entrusted by the “Bandit” (30 years with Easyriders) to not only test ride this small bore, big frame cruiser (and bring it back hopefully in one piece)… but to actually WRITE about it! (More on the capital WRITE! In a minute.) Stay tuned on that.

I was suddenly sitting on said CRUISER blipping the throttle, (under the watchful eye and camera of the MAN) acting like I’m supposed to know what I’m doing, but suddenly I’m scared sheetless.

Now you may be saying to yourself: “But why Dr. Feng? … Piece of cake right? … You’ve ridden all those countless hundreds of thousands of miles, raced all those different bikes, on all those different tracks, in different countries; ice racing, dirt tracks, international road race tracks, dragstrips, flat tracks etc.

I mean you’re kidding man; you used to ride 500 miles a day, every day, testing radial tires for motorcycles, before they were released to the public. Hell man, you’ve run over 200 miles an hour on the salt at Bonneville. (No record due to technical difficulties, but damn fast, and a little scary no matter how you look at it)

Okay, okay, so you’re probably not saying any of those things, ’cause I’m just now sharing it with you.

But you might be saying, “Relax man, it’s just a cruiser, put ‘er in gear… ride away… why the fear?

Me … ” It’s a cruiser. “

You … “Of course it’s a cruiser man, we just said that! Ride away!”

Me … ” I’ve never ridden one before”

You,”What? You’ve owned over 70 bikes fool, what are you rambling on about?”

” I’ve never ridden one before.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Nope! (“Well, you rode a chopper once in the mountains, but that was many moons to the past,
’bout the time Moses started shaving.”)

You … “you’re off track man, get on with it!”

Me … “but it’s the PEGS”.

“WHAT?

“The pegs, the forward controls- they’re waaaay out … there.”

” Of course they are man, it’s a cruiser, ride on.”

“Well everything I’ve rode… the pegs and foot controls were UNDER me, or BEHIND me, or waaaay back there, as on landspeed bikes.”

” You’re startin’ to sound like a pussy. Man-get on with it.”

“There’s one more thing.”

” What now for effs sake?”

“That man over there, behind the camera-
He’s a WRITER. Has made his living at it, writes magazines, writes for magazines, owns magazines. Writes books… hell, people from other countries come up to him asking for his autograph. I’ve witnessed it. One guy saying how Bandit inspired his whole riding and racing career, practically his life!

You, “and?”

Me, “Well he wants me to WRITE! “

“And?”

“Never done it before. “

“What? “

“Never done it before.”

“You’re kidding! “

“Nope, handful of poems since grade school, and three short reviews for Bikernet. That’s it.”

But for some reason, that man over there behind the camera, thinks I can do it… gave me this assignment… of which I’m thinking right now at least a hundred times a second – I’m not worthy!
Ray Wheeler is worthy, Richard Kranzler from up North is worthy, and hell that bag lady up the street might be more worthy than I – for this assignment.”

You… “You’re sniveling now man, the Bandit put his trust in you – you said you would do it… so do it!
‘Code of the West’ as Bandit would say. “

” Ok, Ok, Ok, Fearless readers…

I go forth now…with you in mind… brothers and sisters of the two wheeled rollers (sometimes three)…
For your sake, and mine, to honor the trust put in me by the Bandit, to follow the Code of the West….
Just let me put on my flying squirrel suit here, and throw myself off this high mountain cliff, into the abyss of the unknown. Oh, and thanks for the PUSH.

(Remind me to thank you in person, if I crash and burn, figuratively.)

So I manage a feeble wave for the camera- and forced a silly, unseen grimace of a smile under my helmet. Snick the ATK into gear, rolling slowly toward that huge obstacle in my path… the giant steel rail of the automated Bikernet headquarters security gate.

Now in truth, it is a very small steel rail, followed by a gentle slope past the sidewalk, down to the graduated rain gutter run-off of the road, then another gentle slope up to the crown of the road on the other side.

At that moment however, in my state of mind, it seemed like a mountain peak, (threatening to rip the front wheel off the bike, and cast my body down a shear precipice), followed by a headlong rush to the valley below, then a crazy dash up the foothills, and leaping, leaned over left onto the flatter plateau on the other side… all while feeding throttle with one hand, feeding clutch with the other. in a leaned over left hand turn, while searching for those forward controls, in the night, all under the watchful eye of the man that could make it all go away at any second-if I’m klutzy enough to blow this simple maneuver in front of him (no pressure here right?).

As I’m arching to the left and shooting for the pegs (in what I’m hoping is a smooth and graceful move). I find the correct peg. Yes, and there’s the rear brake, hello… but my boot stab to the left peg misses, damn! Recovering quickly, (and I hope unnoticed) due to the lean angle, and the dark Wilmington night?

I find the left peg on the second try… stretching my left foot forward, down, in, and back up again to hook under the shift lever somewhere waaaay up there. I’m preparing for the fast upcoming shift, while accelerating and bending the bike more upright.

Bam, got it, first shift, yes, all’s well.

I’m feeding hard throttle now, over-compensating for my seen, or unseen, left foot bobble at the beginning, (but not hard enough to seem like a crazed lunatic). I start banging off speed shifts, sweet. This gearbox is slicker than I expected, snick, snick, snick, engine spinning up fast and making good power.

I back off for the up-coming multiple railroad tracks, not so soon as to look cowardly, but with enough speed in hand, that I’m hoping it looks somewhat confident.

Blumpety bump, whump, and I’m over the tracks, and into the rough left-hander that follows.
Front end tracking nicely through the nasties, living up to its appearance, and maybe a bit more. Rear end tracking with a bit less precision, but respectable for a soft sprung cruiser aimed more at comfort than carving corners.

I’m out of sight now, up around the corner. My onstage performance is over- Elvis has left the building.

Was it a good performance? I don’t know- a little shaky at the beginning, but I’m hoping the recovery was good.

So now it’s just the ATK and me Heading north into the night of Wilmington. The V-twin engine pulsing, cool wind blowing, and yours truly, laughing and smiling to myself inside my helmet!

Why you might ask? Because I just overcame the biggest barrier to this new adventure, my own fear,
Stage fright?

Ghosts and goblins in the night? I tried to remember the Buddhist way. Fear does not exist. It’s not real.

Whatever the source, I moved through it, pushed beyond it, came out the other side smiling, and maybe that’s a little bit of what life’s about for all of us, persistence in the face of fear.

Thanks for your time and attention, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, rollers of the roll able, and stay tuned for more evaluation of the ATK 650 Cruiser as Dr. Feng rides again.

Oh yeah, the bullwhip?
Kind of left you hangin’ there, didn’t I?
The bullwhip only cracked once that night and never again, thereafter.

Ride well, ride safe; it’s always about the ride.
Oh, and just as an aside on the subject of “Fear.”
Bob Bitchin has a short but great editorial piece on the subject: it’s in the Spring 2014 issue # 6 of Cruising Outpost (page 8 under ATTITUDES) or check at cruisingoutpost.com. Well worth the read.

Lastly, but not leastly…

Bandit, thanks for kicking me out of the lofty editorial nest, to force the spreading of writing wings, I may not be soaring yet, but I feel at least I haven’t plummeted to my death on the rocks and waves below.

One thing has kept more people from setting out on a voyage than any other single thing. Wanna guess what it is? Money? The boat’s not done (are they Ever)? The (insert correct one) kids/parents need us?

Well, after 82 years of people living with fear, I am here to try and dispel the belief that fear actually exists. The fact is, in my alleged mind, fear does not exist and I can prove it (kinda). So let me get into my Sheldonian robes (yes, from Big Bang Theory) and try to ‘splain this to you.

Okay, fear does not exist because it is never in the present. If something does not exist in the present, then it cannot truly exist.

I rest my face.

–Bob Bitchin
www.cruisingoutpost.com

There I was at the V-Twin Expo in Cincinnati in February wandering the isles, when I came across the LePera booth. Bob LePera built his first custom motorcycle seat in 1961 and the company has grown ever since, but it’s now taken over by the kids, Christine and Bob.

I knew Bob for 30 years, and his kids Christine and Bob Jr. grew up in the business. They continue their family business and keep Bob’s dream alive. Bob passed into the big custom shop in the sky in 2008. Most of the LePera lines of seats are still ground, cut, and laid out by hand. All of their powder-coated seat pans are made from 16-guage steel, and everything is made in America.

Bob Jr. has been designing seats since the early ’90s, and this year developed a line of racing stripe seats. 

“I dig the stripes,” Bob said. “I remember the cars as a kid, the stripped jackets.”

“I was a fan of muscle cars and their spoilers,” Bob said. “I developed the Stubs Spoiler seats for Sportsters, and racing stripes were a natural. I remember the muscle cars of the ‘60s. I was a fan of the style that had spoilers and racing stripes.”

“I sketched out a seat with 1-inch stripes, and it worked,” Bob said. “We didn’t focus on Café seats but our Daytona seats fit, and we modified them slightly and had a pure Café seat. Racing stripes work perfectly and the response has been terrific.”

All of their seats are filled with Marathon foam. It’s tried and true, poured and formulated for maximum comfort, not too firm and not too soft—just right. They also offer gel inserts for the long road riders. “It cuts down on vibration and fatigue. It’s firmer than the Marathon foam,” said Bob.

You can have any seat made with various vinyl fabrics, leathers, embossed leathers, sport fabrics, exotic embossed leather and my favorite, metal flake. Or you can have your stripes made in any number of the materials above or these colors: Black cherry, Pink Ice, Lemon Peel, Navy Blue, Chocolate, Emerald Green, Purple Iris, Deep lilac, Charcoal, or medium titanium.

The Racing Stripe seat line includes seats for Sportsters, from the Daytona line, to their café styled Stubs Spoiler seats and the Stubbs Cafe. They make them in the Stubs Spoiler line for Dynas, and the Dyna Sport Smooth. Plus they have stripped models in the Daytona for Softails, and of course touring model seats in the Outcast GT line and Daytona.