Facts: This mother-daughter team were the first female motorcycle riders to successfully complete a transcontinental ride across the United States.

 

In 1915 Effie & Avis Hotchkiss became the first women to ride across the US when they headed west from Brooklyn, New York to San Francisco.… and back again for a total of approximately 9,000 miles. The Hotchkiss women chose a 1915 three-speed 11-F Harley-Davidson with a custom made sidecar built to accommodate the mother Avis, who would be a passenger for the entire journey. The story is that Effie, a professional woman who longed for something more than what the 9-to-5 professional life, decided to quit her job and find herself…so to speak. That is where this adventure begins. After purchasing her first motorcycle then teaching herself to ride and handle repairs she got the urge to explore the area surrounding New York. In order to share the experience with her mom, Avis she added a sidecar so that she could participate. Of course it was great fun for both of them and before long the pair had decided on a whim to take a ride to check out the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition…in San Francisco.

 

 

Although they didn’t intend to make history, the pair set off from Brooklyn on May 2, 1915 and followed a route that took them through the southernmost United States. For those of you who are familiar with the desert southwest you can imagine how much fun those 120-degreee summer days were as they travelled through states like New Mexico and Arizona. But they were tough cookies and according to the story in Harley-Davidson Dealer’s magazine they even had to shoot their way through marauding rattlesnakes and coyotes along the way. Once they arrived in San Francisco and rode their 11-F right to the shore of the Pacific Ocean they had officially become the first women to cross the United States on any type of motorcycle. Their return trip took them further north through Utah, Illinois and Milwaukee on their way back east. By the time they arrived in Brooklyn in October with 9,000 miles of riding and a surprising amount of fanfare, they had managed to secure a place in the motorcycle history books.

 

 

In 1916 these two affluent sisters from New York set out to prove that women should be used as dispatch riders in the war effort and in order to prove their potential, decided to ride across the United States. Adeline and Augusta came from an active family so it wasn’t a real shock when they showed up on a pair of new Indian Power Plus motorcycles, hell bent on proving women can ride as well as men. Unlike the Hotchkiss women, they were intent on making a point. In order to show they had the moxie and skill to handle the grueling demands of riding bikes long distances, they set out on their own 5,500 mile ride to San Francisco on July 4, 1916. The route took them through Chicago, into Colorado and Utah with many stops both voluntary and involuntary along the way.

 

They faced harsh terrain of the unimproved roads that connected the two coasts in addition to harassment from law enforcement and folks discriminating against them for just being female. According to their Hall of Fame bio they were even arrested for wearing men’s riding clothes on a couple occasions. In Colorado, they made their official mark in the history books by becoming the first women to summit the 14,000 tall Pikes Peak hill climb (just for fun, not in any type of competition). In fact they were the first females to accomplish the task in any type of modern conveyance for that matter. Their three month long transcontinental mission was accomplished on September 2. The fanfare in the media surrounding their effort made the ride seem more like a vacation than a political statement or historical achievement it was intended for. Afterwards, it was no surprise, Adeline’s application to join the military was still rejected, but the point had been made. Women are awesome. While Adeline went on to become a lawyer in NYC, Augusta became a pilot and joined the female flying club called the 99s, which was started by Amelia Earhart. The 99s were considered the inspiration for the Motor Maids MC Club. Adeline & Augusta van Buren AMA Hall of Fame Bio

 

 

Known as the “First Lady of Motorcycling,” this Australian born AMA Hall of Fame member is the daughter of Jim Goulding, the owner and manufacturer of the famous Goulding Sidecar. The story of her life as a motorcycle rider began before birth when her father hurried her mother, Olive to the hospital in a Goulding sidecar attached to a 1911 Harley-Davidson. In 1923 they relocated the sidecar business to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and later to Saginaw, Michigan where the family owned a Harley-Davidson dealership and continued to build sidecars until just after the Great Depression. It was about that time that young Dorothy, aka Dot, really came into her own. Her father had actually ridden a sidecar from NY to San Francisco when they arrived in the US in an effort to prove the durability of his machines and establish dealership contacts across the US along the way. Looking back on it, there is little doubt to what Dot would be destined to do the same. As a teen she worked in the family dealership and eventually gave into the charms of a young man named Earl Robinson who would later become her husband. The couple acquired Dot’s father’s dealership with the help of Arthur Davidson (one of the founders of Harley-Davidson) in 1932 and eventually moved it to Detroit where they would go on to etch their names in the history of motorcycling.

 

 

Together they would compete in numerous races as both solo riders and a sidecar duo, with Dot taking countless victories in her signature red livery. She would later become known for wearing pink gear as she distanced herself from the black leather bikers usually wore. In 1935 they even set the transcontinental sidecar record from New York to Los Angeles with a time of 89 hours and 58-minutes. Dot put her personal stamp on things by winning the 500-mile long Jack Pine Enduro Sidecar A-class in 1940 and 1946 against the male riders. The victory in 1940 established her as the first woman to win an AMA National competition. In addition to racing sidecar motorcycles, running a business and raising a family, Mrs. Robinson also co-founded the legendary Motor Maids of America, the original all-female motorcycle club with her friend and fellow motorcycle hall of fame member, Linda Dugeau. The Motor Maids are credited with bringing more female riders into the sport than any other organization at the time and they are still in operation to this day. She continued to race and win through the 1960s before selling of their business in 1972 and doing what most hall of fame motorcycle riders do: They retired, moved to Florida and continued riding, just for the fun of it. Dot Robinson AMA Hall of Fame Bio.

 

For a glimpse into the life of Dot Robinson and what it was like to race sidecars, there is a great original silent home movie footage converted to video that features Dot and her family competing in the 1947 Jack Pine Enduro: Film Courtesy of Goulding Family.

 

 

 

NEW DELHI, India — The Royal Enfield Bullet, often described as the oldest continuously produced motorcycle in the world, is a cult product for enthusiasts who love it for its vintage feel as much as for the thrum of its engine.

 

Muscular and pliant, the Bullet — an Indian-made avatar of an old British brand — has found renewed popularity over the last few years, as leisure motorcycling in India has blossomed. Its manufacturer, Royal Enfield Motors, sold almost 175,000 motorcycles —Bullets as well as three other brands — in 2013.

 

The company is now looking to push harder into British and American markets, hoping to follow in the wake of other Indian motor vehicle manufacturers that have competed hard with overseas brands even as their peers in other industries have struggled.

 

 

Royal Enfield’s newest model, a midsize “cafe racer” called the Continental GT, was introduced at an elaborate event in London in September. “It’s the first bike that we’ve developed keeping the world market in mind,” said Siddhartha Lal, who is credited with turning Royal Enfield around.

 

Mr. Lal, age 40, is the chief executive of Eicher Motors, a manufacturer of buses, trucks and tractors that owns Royal Enfield. Uncommonly for an Indian executive, he sports sideburns and wears jeans and a bomber jacket to meetings. He was riding a Bullet when he was in university, well before Eicher, under his father’s management, bought Royal Enfield in 1993.

 

The sale price was “just pennies,” Mr. Lal said. Eicher reported revenue of more than $1 billion in 2012.

 

The Bullet was first produced by a British firm named Royal Enfield, but after that company shut down in 1971, its Indian manufacturing unit – in the city of Madras (now Chennai) – bought the rights to the name and continued to produce the Bullet. 

But through the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Lal said, Royal Enfield’s management made a series of bad decisions and buried the company in debt. “The motorcycle was still resilient, though. It was probably selling 1,500 or 2,000 pieces a month,” he said.

 

“Eicher bought Royal Enfield because at its core was the Bullet. That was the appeal.” 

 

 

Mr. Lal set himself to turn Royal Enfield around in 2000, when he was 27, and the company first sputtered and then roared back to life. Dan Holmes, who fell so in love with a Bullet he saw at a trade show that he opened a Royal Enfield dealership in Goshen, Ind., recalled how the quality of the motorcycles improved from the late 1990s through the 2000s.

 

“Eicher started investing real money into their bikes,” Mr. Holmes said. The electric start grew more reliable while fuel injections and transmissions were revamped.

 

The Royal Enfield motorcycle, whose basic profile changed very little over the years, appealed to buyers, he said, because one could tinker endlessly with it. Jay Leno owns one, as does Billy Joel. Mr. Holmes himself owns what he calls “the two most modified Royal Enfields in the world,” which he used to set speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2008.

 

As one of perhaps seven or eight exclusive Royal Enfield dealers in the United States back in the early 2000s, Mr. Holmes sold his motorcycles for $3,500 to $4,000 each, taking custody of them in dribs and drabs from a national distributor. In 2003, his best year, he sold 35 Royal Enfields.

 

Exports remain limited, although they are growing, and Mr. Lal is ambitious about scaling up. Last year, Royal Enfield exported 3,500 motorcycles. Six hundred of those went to America, its biggest overseas market.

 

 

Back in India, however, Royal Enfield has caught the beginning of a wave in leisure motorcycling. Kumar Kandaswami, a senior director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, said a split had emerged in the market, between riders who wanted light motorcycles just to commute and those who wanted the thrill of the machine itself.

 

“Even at a rough estimate, there are easily half a million buyers out there who want to use motorcycles for leisure,” Mr. Kandaswami said. “There are active motorcycle communities now. Our highways have improved. People have more money to spend.”

 

The vastness of this market attracted manufacturers like the British Triumph, which opened in India in 2013, and Harley-Davidson, which arrived in 2009.

 “Before we came, if there was any passion among motorcyclists at all, it was among Royal Enfield owners,” Anoop Prakash, the managing director of Harley-Davidson India, said. “People underestimated the market, thinking that, at our level, sales would be fewer than 800 bikes a year across the country.” Since July 2010, more than 4,000 Harley-Davidsons have been sold in India.

 

Royal Enfield, whose motorcycles cost $1,500 to $2,500 in India, positioned its vehicles precisely halfway between cheaper, lighter commuter bikes and the heavier, more expensive class represented by Harley-Davidson. The midsize is becoming a point of convergence. Commuter motorcycles are getting larger and more complex; from the other direction, Harley-Davidson recently unveiled its lighter Street 500 and Street 750 models.

“It’s the first new platform that Harley-Davidson has developed from the ground up in 14 years,” Mr. Prakash said. “It’s a result of how urban our market is becoming. These are the bikes that will fit an urban lifestyle.”

 

 

Royal Enfield has been the biggest beneficiary of this boom in India, selling 50,000 bikes in 2010 and growing by more than 50 percent year-over-year since then. 

At that hectic pace of the last decade, quality issues often wore down the reputation of Royal Enfield. Rishad Saam Mehta, a travel writer and Bullet enthusiast who calls it “a meditative motorcycle —on a Bullet on the highway, you feel alone and happy,” also said that his Bullet would negotiate the Himalayas perfectly well, but then would break down in a trip to the grocery store.

 

As the company expanded its ambitions and faced Western manufacturers, it realized the need to make its motorcycles less temperamental.

 

Some of the quality troubles stemmed from its nearly 60-year-old plant. That factory, once capable of producing only 2,000 motorcycles a month, was upgraded and ridden hard. It turned out 12,000 bikes last March. “There wasn’t a square inch of land available,” Mr. Lal said. “It was chock-a-block with bikes or parts or something or the other.”

 

The first phase of a much-needed new plant near Chennai, spread over 50 acres and built with an investment of $24 million, opened in April. Together, the plants will aim to produce 250,000 bikes in 2014 and eventually 500,000 a year. 

 

 

Mr. Lal talked with passion about the new plant’s robotic painting arms, ergonomic electrical tools, Italian presses and the ability to build motorcycle frames perfectly, down to the micron. “We’ve automated a lot of jobs, sure,” he said. “But our ‘Handcrafted in Chennai’ tagline is absolutely true. Where there was merit and value in handcrafting, we’ve kept that.”

 

The London introduction of the Continental GT announced, in an emphatic way, Royal Enfield’s return to British shores, a satisfying completion of the circle. “We used to play a hands-off role in our distribution overseas,” Mr. Lal said. “All we’d do is call and say: ‘When can we send you the next shipment?’ Boom! One container load goes out.”

 

“Now we want to work much more closely with our distributors,” he said. “Our intentions have moved from India to the world.”

 

Article from the New York Times – Click to See 

Sent in by: Michael Wm. DiSalvo, Sr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Royal Enfield Continental GT. This is the lightest, fastest, most powerful Royal Enfield in production.

 

It’s a machine with a story, a nod to motorcycling’s finest hour; a painstaking collaboration. It is also the best expression yet of a cultural phenomenon that has simply refused to fade away – the café racer.

 

Explore the motorcycle in its magnificence.

 

•Styled after iconic Cafe Racers

 

• Engine: Single Cylinder, 4-Stroke, Spark Ignition, Air Cooled, OHV
• Cubic Capacity: 535 cc
• Bore x Stroke: 87mm x 90mm
• Compression Ratio:8.5:1
• Maximum Power:29.1 bhp (21.4 kW) @ 5100 rpm
• Maximum Torque:44 Nm @ 4000 rpm
• Ignition System: Digital Electronic Ignition
• Clutch:              Wet, Multi-Plate
• Brakes- Front:    Brembo 300mm Floating disc, 2-Piston floating caliper
• Brakes- Rear:     240mm Disc, Single piston floating caliper
• Tires – Front:     100/90-18, 56 H Pirelli Sport Demon
• Tires – Rear:      130/70-18, 63 H Pirelli Sport Demon
• Dimension – L x W x H:81in x 30in x 31in
• Wheel Base:      54 inches
• Ground Clearance:5.5 inches
• Weight (Wet):    412 lbs

 

 

 

 

MILWAUKEE, Dec. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Soon, women everywhere will be thinking about New Year’s resolutions they could make to live a more fulfilled life in 2014 and beyond. Once they make those resolutions, they may turn to self-help books, fad diets and online advice to try and make them a reality. But who knew that the key to happiness might be where women least expect – out on the open road, and on two wheels.

 

A new study shows that women who ride their own motorcycles are noticeably happier – in life, in relationships, and even in the bedroom – than women who don’t ride.

The study, conducted by Kelton and commissioned by Harley-Davidson, interviewed 1,013 adult female riders and 1,016 adult female non-riders, and the findings make it clear that riding a motorcycle greatly improves a woman’s feelings of overall self-worth.

 

Key insights surrounding women who ride motorcycles in comparison to those who don’t include the following:

• More than twice as many always feel happy (37 percent of riders vs. 16 percent of non-riders)
• Nearly four times as many always feel sexy (27 percent of riders vs. 7 percent of non-riders) 
• Nearly twice as many always feel confident (35 percent of riders vs. 18 percent of non-riders)

According to the study, more than half (53 percent) of women who ride cite their motorcycle as a key source of happiness and nearly three in four (74 percent) believe their lives have improved since they started riding.

 

 

 

“Riding a motorcycle is the ultimate form of freedom and self-expression, so it makes sense that women riders are happier in life and, in general, feel more fulfilled,” said Claudia Garber, Director of Women’s Outreach for Harley-Davidson. “That’s why learning to ride a motorcycle is the perfect gift you can give yourself and the best resolution to make for a truly life-changing new year.”

 

 

 

Beyond positively impacting a woman’s sense of self, the study also shows riding can improve relationships. When it comes to romance, women who ride leave non-riders in their dust, being more content with:

• Communication with their significant other (60 percent of riders vs. 38 percent of non-riders)
• Physical intimacy (51 percent of riders vs. 35 percent of non-riders).

Stress can cause tension between significant others, but since more than a third (34 percent) of women riders report that they now feel less stressed after starting to ride, it’s not surprising that 50 percent of them are extremely satisfied with the state of their current relationships.

 

 

Women can jumpstart their journey to live a more fulfilled life in 2014 and beyond by learning to ride a motorcycle. Women are encouraged to visit the Women Riders section of the Harley-Davidson website at www.h-d.com/women. The site equips women with a number of tools to start their journey toward riding, including testimonials, overviews of motorcycles and gear, and news about special Harley-Davidson Garage Party™ events designed to give women hands-on demos and tips in a comfortable environment.

 

Women can search for a Garage Party™ in their area at www.h-d.com/garageparty.

 

The site also features information about Harley-Davidson’s Rider’s Edge® New Rider Course, which is offered at select dealerships around the country. The course features 25 hours of expert guidance in the classroom, as well as the practice range, where you’ll learn everything you need to know to ride with confidence. To sign up for a Rider’s Edge® course at your local dealership, visit www.h-d.com/mytime.

 

Harley-Davidson Motor Company produces custom, cruiser and touring motorcycles and offers a complete line of Harley-Davidson® motorcycle parts, accessories, riding gear and apparel, and general merchandise. For more information, visit Harley-Davidson’s website at www.h-d.com.

 

 

The Harley-Davidson Female Riders Survey was conducted by Kelton, a leading global insights firm, May 20 to May 28, 2013 among 1,013 adult American women who ride motorcycles sometimes or regularly and 1,016 adult American women who never ride motorcycles, using an email invitation and an online survey.

 

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. For each sample, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample. The margin of error for any subgroups will be slightly higher. 

 

 

 

The first step is to go shopping and gather up all your needed supplies. If this is your first project, you may require more supplies the first time. You need to have something to catch the oil (oil pan), oil filter wrench to remove and reinstall the oil filter, wrench to remove oil drain plug, funnel, rags, the proper oil for your machine, oil filter, and possibly o-rings. You can find such items at your local motorcycle dealer, motorcycle repair shop, or local parts chain stores, such as Napa, AutoZone, etc. If you go to your local motorcycle dealer or repair shop, chances are pretty high that the person at the parts counter will be able to gather up the correct oil filter, oil, and o-rings. They usually have the knowledge readily available to access that information for you.

 

If you are shopping without guidance, you may want to purchase a service manual specific to your motorcycle (for many reasons-we will discuss again in a few steps!) The parts people can make mistakes because they get in a hurry, are really busy, etc., so it’s important to educate yourself and know if you have the correct parts. If you get home and something doesn’t feel right, it’s ok to ask someone. A part could have been removed at one time from the original packaging, and the wrong part returned. Again, trust your gut and ask if necessary.

 

First, put the oil pan under your motorcycle, and remove the oil drain plug. If you do not know where this is located, refer to your service manual. Make sure you are removing the oil plug and not the transmission plug. If the pan is large enough to also cover the bottom of the oil filter, go ahead and remove the oil filter. Let as much fluid drain as possible. If the motorcycle has been running, the oil will drain quicker and more efficiently. However, be careful removing the drain plug and oil filter as they could be extremely hot and will burn you. So let it cool down, but don’t rush the process if you have a few minutes. 

 

Once the oil is removed, replace the drain plug. Make sure it’s snug so the vibration of the motorcycle running doesn’t drop the plug. But don’t over tighten it either! You can cause damage or even strip the plug and have bigger problems than you bargained for! Again, if you are unsure what snug means, have someone else help you with your first couple of oil changes! 

 

Then replace the filter (it may or may not need an o-ring. Check your service manual to see if your machine needs one). And once again, make sure it is snug. I had a crew chief that was “having a bad day” and over tightened my oil filter on my Harley-Davidson Destroyer (factory drag race motorcycle) and what a nightmare it was getting that thing off.  So note to self, ask for help the first few times to get guidance!  You will know if it’s not quite tight enough, if there is oil residue on the filter or drain plug-or they rattle off and are missing, and then in that case, they were WAY too loose!

 

Next, get a funnel and add the oil. If you are not sure where the dipstick is to check the oil, refer to manual. Again, check your service manual to see how much oil to put back in. Most models take a different amount of oil, even if they use the same oil filter. So check to be sure! 

 

Clean up your mess. Wipe down your motorcycle. You are ready to fire up your machine. Recheck the dipstick to make sure the proper amount of oil is in the motorcycle. It never hurts to do this from time to time. Even before you go on any ride, just to be sure! Then properly dispose of the used oil. Many shops, even automotive shops, will take your used oil for you. Some have oil burning heaters, recycle used oil, and some have it properly removed. Most of the time, shops get paid to have their used oil removed, so don’t feel like you’re inconveniencing them. Don’t just put it in garbage, or your back yard. There can be major consequences from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

 

Many people think its ok to just wing it. It’s just an oil change after all, who cares right?  Simple, easy to accomplish without supervision, right?  But I’m here to tell you that if you put the wrong parts on your motorcycle, it could be detrimental to the life of your machine. I’ve seen it in the automotive field many times. People make mistakes. One story sticks with me all the time. A guy at a quick lube was not properly trained on oil changes on a car and “assumed” he was draining the oil, when in fact he was draining the transmission, and refilling the oil. In turn, there was too much oil and no transmission fluid. BIG problems happened to that innocent driver. He had high dollar repairs facing him. Did the owner of the lube shop turn it into his insurance? In this case, yes! But the owner was still without a vehicle for a few weeks while all repairs were completed. What happens if you do this to yourself and your motorcycle? Well, you can see where this is headed. Be smart and ask if you need to!

 

WARNING: When any repairs or maintenance need to be done to your machine, make sure you trust the shop performing your services. Shops (motorcycle or automotive) are trained to “upsell”. This means to get you in the shop for a $49.95 oil change and then look your motorcycle over for additional repairs-tire replacement, belt replacement, leaks, etc. Is this always a bad thing?

 

NO! And YES! 

This is the entire point of why I am writing these articles for you. Educate yourself and know when a legitimate repair is in order and when they are screwing you over! Not all mechanics are good guys, and not all good guys are good all the time. Some will talk you into unnecessary repairs to put a paycheck in their pocket. Again, know your machine and trust whoever is working on it!

 

 

 

Until next time, Go HERE to VOTE  and find my entry – Andie Gaskins Fast Andie Racing (FAR) and please vote for my entry. Vote everyday!  And let everyone you know do the same! Voting started Jan. 6th, 2014 and you can vote everyday until Feb. 2nd, 2014! Thank you for your support, it is greatly appreciated!  

 

 

 

As we wander the planet with no real destination except that place in our motoring mind pushed by adrenalin, the sensual beauty of a sweeping curve, and the pure, exultant thrill of discovery. As the miles and years roll by it gets harder to find that fresh road and soul-stretching horizon. But there is one particular place, little known to man and biker alike.

 

 

Wupatki National Monument, just north of Flagstaff, AZ, haunts its visitors with ancient Indian ruins, dormant but not dead volcanoes, rivers of cold lava and booming vistas of the Painted Desert. In one 35-mile loop, riders can see centuries of human and geologic history. Entering from the north end of the park, the landscape shifts from desert scrub to towers of petrified dunes and shades of red sandstone to fir and pinon pine forests and rolling fields of volcanic cinder. The high desert is dotted by the stone remains of pueblo settlements whose people mysteriously vanished after centuries of habitation.

 

 

At the south end of the park, scores of cinder cones gather like children to the towering mother volcano, Sunset Crater.  The big, black conical pile of volcanic rubble stands at a foreboding 8,049 feet. Snow topped its crater only a day after I rode by on an early fall afternoon.

 

 

It’s been estimated up to 600 volcanoes remain dormant in the Flagstaff area, the last eruption only a mere 750 years ago, less than a blink in geologic time. The visible ruins are clustered at the north end of the park but many more are believed to be buried under the ash, Arizona’s own forgotten Pompeii.

 

 

Miles north of the major eruptions, the area’s largest ruin is multi-story, 100-plus-room Wupatki Pueblo (a Hopi Indian word for “tall house”), where the national monument gets its name. The well-preserved ruin once was home to some 100 people, a teeming metropolis by pueblo standards when most villages were typically no more than a clan of 10 to 20. This was a crossroads, a center where tribal goods from as far away as Mexico and California were traded, evidenced by the seashell materials used in jewelry and decoration, as well as a broad variety of pottery styles.

 

 

Evidence of human occupation goes back 11,000 years, but Wupatki Pueblo and surrounding ruins were populated in large numbers for nearly 300 years from about 1,000 to 1300 A.D. Then everyone vanished, seemingly all at once and in a hurry. Theories abound, everything from the quackery of New Age alien abduction to a decades-long drought to absorption by other tribes, but anthropologists are still baffled by the sudden exodus.

 

 

The Sinagua (Spanish for “without water”), Anasazi (Navajo for “ancient people” or “ancient enemy”). Cohonina (Hopi for a collection of ancient tribes) peoples inhabited large areas of northern Arizona beginning around 500 A.D. in ruins still seen today, although human occupation is evident dating back to the Ice Age. No pueblos were as large as Wupatki except for Tuzigoot, located in what is now Clarkdale, AZ, about 100 miles to the south as the crow flies and uncannily similar in size and basic architecture.

The Tuzigoot settlement also disappeared at about the same time, approximately 1250 to 1300 A.D. No evidence of mass disease or violence has been found at either historic site. Extended local drought in a fragile arid environment appears to be the likeliest cause, but it doesn’t explain native cultures vanishing not just in the Southwest, but also sweeping through the Midwest.

 

 

Following the black ribbon that wraps around the desert, Wupatki Pueblo is introduced by smaller structures, like little villages surrounding a large city. Archeologists have catalogued some 2,700 sites in the national monument, but only four others are open to the public: Lomaki Wukoki, Citadel, and Nalakihu Pueblos, all reached by short walks. The Wupatki Pueblo, however, is the centerpiece of the national monument.

 

 

The pueblo, as with neighboring structures, was built with nearby sandstone, nearly blood red with iron oxides. Walking among its ruins, visiting its two kiva-like structures (one thought to be used as a ball court, the other as an amphitheater for tribal meetings) and the “blowhole,” a fascinating geologic feature, considered by the inhabitants to be where the Earth takes its breath, will send your imagination into another epoch. The site’s Visitor Center doubles as a museum. Admission is $5.

 

 

These Wupatki suburbs were almost invariably built on a mesa, hilltop or even a large boulder, presumably for their defensive position and likely doubling as a signal tower, relaying alerts or messages from one high point to the next. Harvesting as much rainfall as possible from intermittent springs, seasonal washes, and using small dams and terraced slopes, corn, beans and squash were grown to supplement hunting and gathering.

 

 

Around the time some plucky English barons forced King John to put quill to parchment and sign the Magna Carta and Genghis Khan was the scourge of Central Asia and China, the people of 12th century Wupatki had built what anthropologists believe was the richest and most influential pueblo in the region, a far reaching trade center and home to one the largest Southwestern populations of the period.

 

 

Their success was in no small way built on the ashes of Sunset Crater volcano, which had erupted only about 100 years before settlements grew to significant size. It must have been spectacular. Volcanists estimate it destroyed all plant life within a five-mile radius. A fountain of fire shot 850-feet into the sky and an ash cloud rose 2.5 miles, leaving falling ash to blanket some 64,000 acres. In nearby present-day Flagstaff, where fall temperatures can drop 40 to 50 degrees by sunset, I sometimes hope the volcanoes will wake up just long enough to spit some nice, warm lava on me.

 

 

The cinders turned out to be a blessing. Not only do they enrich the soil, but more importantly, the cinders retain moisture, making agriculture practical in a parched environment. As Wupatki and neighboring pueblos flourished, trade networks expanded, bringing everything from turquoise to copper bells and even exotic birds to the seemingly barren area. Some 2,000 people were estimated to settle the area after the eruption, according to archeologists.

 

 

Today, the nearby Hopi tribe believes the Sinagua and Anasazi people who lived here remain as spiritual guardians. The Wupatki pueblos live on in Hopi oral tradition and passed among neighboring Zuni and Navajo. The Hopi Bear, Sand, Lizard, Rattlesnake, Water, Snow, and Katsina Clans return to the area periodically to come face to face with their clan history. In this way Wupatki is not abandoned, but a standing remembrance of their history.

 

 

No matter your heritage, riding a bike through this place of cultures past feels like a gallop back to basics, where human relationships alone determined survival. Pueblo people had virtually no technology beyond stone tools, rudimentary masonry, pottery making, basket weaving and the bow and arrow. The wheel was never invented nor was any written language; there was no metallurgy nor simple, hand-driven machinery, nor even the apparent use of levers, pulleys or fulcrums. They did not domesticate animals; build pyramids or colossal, iconic statues, nor swords or plowshares; and yet they thrived in an infertile land.

 

 

Horses, once common in a variety of species, had gone extinct in North America and wouldn’t be seen on the continent until Spanish conquistadors reintroduced them almost two hundred years after the pueblo people vanished. Transportation and the technology Europeans brought to the New World changed everything, allowing large populations to flourish, but not without a price.

 

 

The ride through these ruins, senses and instincts heightened, takes us into deeper mystery. For all our great civilization and wondrous technology, all the gadgets supposedly designed to keep us linked, communicating and together, our humanity can be left behind, leaving us disconnected. At Wupatki, we’re reminded how attached we are to each other and the world around us at a fundamental level that traverses time, whether we like it or not. Maybe motorcycling helps us understand life at a more common denominator, in a world where ultimately we cannot survive alone and apart—a ride worth taking anytime.

 

For more information about Wupatki National Monument, Click Here

Call the Wupatki Visitor Center at 928-679-2365, or Flagstaff Area National Monuments Headquarters at 928-526-1157.

 

Scenic drive, trails, and most pueblos are open all year, from sunrise to sunset.

The Visitor Center is open all year, except December 25. 

Hours: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM MST

 

Wupatki Pueblo is closed to public use when the Visitor Center is closed. This means visitors are prohibited from walking around the visitor center to access the Pueblo when the Visitor Center is closed and staff are not present. Exceptions include ranger-led activities, official functions or by special use permit.

 

 

Fee is per person, good for 7 days at both Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monuments. Free entrance for children under 16. Major credit cards are accepted.

 

Flagstaff Area National Monuments Annual Pass

 

Admits passport holder and 3 adults (16 years and older) to Wupatki, Sunset Crater Volcano and Walnut Canyon National Monuments for 1 year, beginning from the month of sale. Major credit cards are accepted.

 

Other Passes

We honor and issue the America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass, Senior Pass and Access Pass.

 

The sites at Wupatki were first described by Lorenzo Sitgreaves during his expedition in 1851. Camping near Wupatki Pueblo, he recorded that the sites must have been the remains of a large town covering 8 or 9 miles, and that the pottery was thickly strewn over the ground. 

 

 

 

The West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority and Palm Beach Gardens-based Vintage Iron Club, along with the world-famous Ace Cafe London, are bringing one of the largest growing cultural movements to Palm Beach County – the Inaugural Iron and Clematis Vintage Motorcycle Festival — an event that promises to be one of the largest vintage motorcycle festivals held in Florida. 

 

The family festival kicks off on Saturday, Feb 8th, from 2pm-9pm, on the closed down 500 block of Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach, and is for motorcycles and scooters 25 years or older.  Festival organizers expect over 250 vintage bikes.  There will be trophies awarded for best-in-show bikes, a vintage fashion show at sunset, stage lectures on the history of motorcycles and Cafe Racers, more than 25 national and local vendors displaying their goods, and live music from the Buckleheads, Morgan Bernard Band, Slip and the Spinouts, and The Riot Act.  After parties at O’Sheas and Longboards will feature more live music.  Admission is free for a full day of family fun, and parking is available nearby.

 

On Sunday, Feb 9th, Palm Beach International Raceway will host “Vintage Track Day Sunday”, with a full day of exciting moto activities.  Bikes are encouraged to meet at O’Shea’s and Longboards in downtown West Palm Beach from 8-10 a.m. to head to the track where high speed pros will be on the course throughout the day, and vintage motorcycles will be allowed on the track for street speed-style parade laps and or Fast Track simulated racing. Over 25 local and national vendors will be on site, and the Ace Cafe Pavilion will be open all day with spectacular views of the track, food and beverages on sale, and the iconic Ace Cafe merchandise.  Admission to Ace Cafe is free.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One balmy south Florida night Bart Springer and Daniel Newcomb were out riding their café racers, a style of bike you didn’t see much of in the West Palm Beach area. Daniel was riding a 1976 Honda CJ360 done up café style while Bart was on his ’78 CB400 café. After rumbling up to a local bike-friendly watering hole, Bob Gilbert was just walking out, saw their bikes and said, hey, check out my bike which also turned out to be a ’71 750cc Norton Commando done up cafe. Such was the catalyst of intersecting café bikes that lead to the formation of the Vintage Iron Club.

 

In “real life” both Daniel and Bart are professional  hi-end architectural photographers while Bob, now retired, used to run two NASDAQ listed public trading companies and before that was a flight and dive instructor but grew up in his father’s south Texas motorcycle shop that sold British bikes including Vincents.

 

After their fortuitous meeting, the three joined forces and became known as The Original Rust. Says Daniel, “We started hanging out and within a month decided to form a club of like-minded riders. As far as membership, bikes have to be 25 years or older, plus everybody has to participate in at least one event or ride a month, other than that we don’t have too much formal structure and like it that way.”

 

Says Bob, “Since there are very few shops near us that specialize in vintage bikes, another thing we do is on the technical support side. We get together when we have problems with our bikes and provide advice, tools and a helping hand.” 

 

“It’s all helped form a close-knit family where we hang out personally, having dinners, going to each other’s birthday parties, that kind of thing,” says Daniel. “The last Saturday of every month we do an “Iron Meets Iron” event that gathers at a great place called The Pirate’s Well, then we do a first Tuesday meet at Cheeseburgers and More plus put together various rides. Our upcoming February event is just the next step to bring more attention to Florida as far as vintage bikes and café racers and to expose the public to the sport.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

While West Palm Beach sponsors a famous annual weeklong event called Summerfest as well as several other festivals including a major boat show and a marathon, when asked how they got the city authorities to invite a bunch of bikers into the middle of town, Daniel laughs and says, “Very carefully.” Bart takes over, saying, “Basically we had an in with someone I had worked with who had an in with some of the movers and shakers in the city. We presented our proposal and had a positive response especially from one gentleman who was into vintage bicycles who had previously tried to develop some Harley oriented events that hadn’t worked out because of the proximity of Daytona. But he thought vintage bikes might be just the right thing considering the growth in their popularity. Plus he felt there was a connection to vintage bikes and a lot of the historic buildings in the downtown area.”

 

The end result was the teaming up of the VIC with West Palm’s Downtown Development Authority and as result the Iron and Clematis Vintage Motorcycle Festival became a reality. Says Bob, “They’re locking down the block, bagging the parking meters and paying the insurance and handling security. We just needed to set up the rest including the attracting the bikes, setting up the stage, recruiting the bands, creating the t-shirts, securing the sponsors and everything else for what’s going to be annual event. As far as sponsors we have Ace Café, Pabst, Lowbrow custom, Biltwell, Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, Dime City Cycle, Iron & Air Magazine, Aces High tattoo, Vintage CB750, Motorcycle Sport Touring Association, Partsnmore, White Diamond Metal Polish, VaVaVoom Pinup Photography.”

 

West Palm Beach has got to be a top flight venue for such an event. Just a bridge away from its famous posh neighbor Palm Beach, WPB was founded in 1894 even before Miami it’s the state’s old municipality. Nestled on the scenic Intracoastal waterway, the city has grown into a center for the arts and culture and now that would now include the motorcycle culture. The city’s main street of Clematis, already a popular hot spot filled with restaurants, shops and clubs, will be the staging grounds for the Iron & Clematis Vintage Bike Festival, the date set for Saturday February 8th, 2014 and that just around the corner. All bikes 25 years or older are welcome to register with some 250 vintage machines expected to take part in the show with competition categories focused around several vintage themes.

 

 

In addition, the family oriented festivities will include lectures on The History of the Motorcycle and the The Cafe Racer Movement. A vintage women’s and men’s fashion show will be hosted by Atomic Living and VaVa Voom Photos which means plenty of Pin-Up models. Providing the event’s hoppin’ and boppin’ sound track will be live vintage Rockabilly music performed by local entertainment acts including Slip and the Spinouts and the Buckleheads. And extra added attraction is an after-show party plus an event-following Sunday morning breakfast and ride benefiting the Canine Companions for Independence, a non-profit organization founded in 1975 and based in San Jose, CA that provides highly trained service dogs free of charge to disabled civilians and wounded veterans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Info:

561-523-5666

 

Ok, ok, ok….so you want me to check out a new oil pump by Fueling, Super Scavenger Oil Pump for Twin Power. Well, right off the bat I have to wonder if this pump is no good and they are just trying to “buy” my seal of approval.

 

 

With that in mind, I get to work to find out just what is wrong with this new design. Upon opening the box I find this beautifully machined piece. I pull out a jeweler’s loupe and look real close and I have to tell you that this oil pump looks SWEET!!! The machine work is second to none and the red anodized finish really caught my eye and, yet, did not hide a thing. This thing is a work of art. When I set it side by side with the stock pump I can see big differences between the two. The new design Fueling Oil Pump for Twin Cam is very well made. It is bigger, better and nicer. If you check out the pictures you can get a feel for the quality that goes into these oil pumps. Still, the real question is: Will it work?

 

I have loved a few things over the years that have left me on the side of the road wondering what hit me. There just has to be something wrong with this oil pump…it looks TOO good to work, right? As I look back and forth between the two oil pumps I get a sinking feeling that this fine pump is similar to the old girlfriend I traded in for what I thought (at the time) was better than the old one. You can’t always depend on good looks to get you out of town in a hurry. Whether it is for vacation or it is interstate flight to avoid prosecution, you need a hard-working, long-lasting, dependable part that you can TRUST! Call me a sucker but I would be the first to choose the Fueling Super Scavenger pump on looks alone, but we know that doesn’t always end well.

 

If there is anything I have learned in my forty-plus years of working on bikes it is that there are three simple rules to live by when it comes to bike building.

 

Make it fit

Make it work

Then…make it look good!

 

Time to install this thing and see if it works!

 

Installing this oil pump was way too easy. There was no sanding, filing, drilling, rat tailing, painting or hammer needed. Did you catch that? NO HAMMER! Too good to be true, right? This thing can’t possibly work, right? Let’s put it this way: It was so easy to install that I forgot to call the old lady out to take pictures of the installation in progress.

 

 

Now, for the moment of truth. Time to take its pulse, so to speak. 

 

I fired up the bike and right away the cold start tick that has been an albatross around my neck is gone! Could it be the new pump? I caught myself looking on the floor for some foreign object that may have fallen out when we pulled the old pump. Surely this new pump didn’t cure the tick, right? I shut the bike off and left it to cool while I ate. When I returned and started it again…NO TICK!!!! It was gone! The guy that owns this bike has harped about this tick for years. He even refused to run it at the street drags last July because of this tick. No bullshit.

 

I tested this bike when I rode it in to replace the pump. I hit first and second from a dead stop. I wanted to get a feel for this bike before the replacement. After the swap, I did the same tests and let me tell you, it was an eye opener.

 

 

 

I will be honest here. I am one of those guys that can “feel” new tires and I “felt” this oil pump. The “old seat of the pants” dyno tells me that, not only does this oil pump look good, but it fits well and works great!  You may ask yourself why this company put so much work into making an oil pump look so good when you can’t even see the damned thing. The closest thing to an answer that I can come up with came from an old biker that was teaching me how to build choppers when I was about 14 years old. One day, I noticed that he was having some internal parts chromed. I asked him why the fuck he would want to do that when no one would ever see them. He looked at me like I had a third eye growing out of my forehead or something but his answer was simple. He said, “I will know that chrome is there.” 40-plus years later, I get it! Who cares if anyone else ever sees it? You will know how cool it looks in there.

 

So, I honestly tried my best to find some fault with this damned oil pump and more importantly the new design and I couldn’t do it. The only thing I can come up with is a lame-sounding, “You can’t see how good this thing looks in there.” But, take heart, when it truly counts (70 mph on the interstate or puttin’ along the back road) you will know it is there!

 

Later,

Algie – Killing Machine Choppers

 

  

 

 

The NEW FEULING SUPER SCAVENGER oil pump has an increased scavenge to pressure volume ratio creating the ultimate oil pump for Twin Cam engines. The SUPER SCAVENGER is manufactured using the same 7075 billet material and specs as the FEULING RACE SERIES oil pumps but feature a thinner pressure housing resulting in an increased ratio for the scavenge side of the oil pump.

 

Test results show a decrease in cylinder head temperatures and an increased amount of oil removed from engine crankcase & camchest eliminating power robbing wet sumping and oil carry over.

 

High Flow 4140 heat treated Chrome Moly gerotor gears

 

Stock replacement for Twin Cam engines

 

When combined with the Feuling Camplate test results show 3 Horsepower gain and 4 ft/lbs of Torque gain to the rear wheel, while lowering engine & oil temperature. Feuling camplate NOT required.

 

Stock replacement for Twin Cam engines, recommended for both strip & performance street engines

 

Made in the U.S.A.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The time spent in Billings, Mt. was unusually strange, if not a little fantastic; but the story I’d like to tell didn’t begin until two weeks later in Kansas. 

 

Just after Sturgis, while on the road to Montana, the weld on my transmission’s shifting arm (I always weld those damn things) broke. The entire arm began to wobble and I knew it was just a matter of time before the thing failed leaving good old Betsy un-shift-able, and stuck in a single gear. This was not an easy fix. The parts are relatively small and inexpensive, but the job required removing the entire outer and inner primary, clutch and compensator. The transmission needed gutting before anything could be installed. 

 

 

Earlier that year an old friend conned me into coming to Lyons, Kansas with the promise of a re-roof job (I was a roofing contractor in another life).  It involved one of his mother’s rental houses. I agreed. This was very good news indeed.

 

Derek McCloud is an entrepreneur workaholic, who grew up in the little town of Lyons. Although he’s built and sold a variety of successful businesses, over the course of his lifetime, for many years now Derek bought and sold wholesale Big Dog custom chopper parts.  Having visited with him before, I knew his world would easily accommodate my needs and my little Evo transmission dilemma.

 

 

Set in a vast sea of wide open no-man’s land, Lyons makes one wonder what it is that people do in such small and isolated places. On the outskirts of town a little cloud of dust trailed the old FL as I gazed from the pilot’s seat to beyond the arrow straight dirt road and across miles of farmland peppered with sporadic trees. They were separated by only an occasional ranch house. It was beautiful country.

 

 

The gate leading to Derek’s own 85-acre parcel was left unlocked, and I turned into the driveway. To the right, his old house, the one I was familiar with, sat abandoned while farther on and to the left stood the new place constructed in the image of a huge barn. Three of its sides were surrounded by a large man-made pond stocked with fish while beyond stood a line of trees for added privacy. A three-bay garage was attached to the house with two SUVs parked out front and farther down the driveway sat a large metal building. It was an impressive sight.

 

 

Derek met me at the door and I was ushered into what was quite possibly the nicest “barn” in existence. Derek’s wife Donna greeted me with the Boston accent and warm welcome I’d come to expect from her. After dinner (Derek cooks, Donna doesn’t) we all retired to lawn chairs set before the rock fireplace built into the back patio. Both of my hosts are beer drinkers and the bullshit session dragged on long into the evening. 

 

 

Again I wondered why this guy has always liked me so much because, in general, he hates people. This is why most of his business is done over the internet. In colorful contrast to this oddity, he also has an uncommon sense of community. As a service to the little town, since he doesn’t really need the money, Derek works one day a week as an elected official to the County Commissioner’s seat. He’s in charge of the town’s money. And it’s because of his uncanny ability in this arena that the townspeople continue to favor him at every re-election. He has also made a few anonymous contributions to the little community. And still he generally hates people. What a trip.

 

I love than listening to the exploits of his strange world. I continually goaded him to tell more stories. For to him the world’s business is one big Monopoly board. It’s just a game. But again in contrast, Derek wears everyday clothes and his favorite tennis shoes are held together with duct tape. This guy totally entertains me.

 

 

I was offered a room in the house but, since I’d become unaccustomed to houses, I opted instead to make camp in the metal building.  Morning brought a moment’s disorientation as I came awake to the sight of a metal roof hovering high above, then noticed my bed was pushed against a wall, set on a concrete floor, surrounded by a sea of high-dollar choppers, and a rather large family of cats. Then I remembered, “Oh yea, Derek’s metal storage building.” Reaching for the container of cold coffee always on my bike I took a sip then, as usual, spent a good stretch of time on the ritual of waking up. Eventually the driveway led me to Derek’s front door and from there the day was spent mostly bombing around town in his SUV. We visited Derek’s warehouse in town and I searched through racks of parts in an attempt to locate those needed for the repair job. But it was more than the transmission that I intended to fix.

 

 

A couple years ago I learned the reason older bikes scream down the highwayl. They were geared lower than the five speeds of today; turning about 3,400 RPM at 70 MPH. Very irritating. The factory’s switch to higher gears was in the early ’90s by simply changing clutch and compensator ratios in the primary. One year ago a friend talked me into rectifying this inconvenience by simply installing a front belt-pulley, with two extra teeth. It accomplished the same thing. , and try an Andrews EV 27 bolt in cam to gain the needed power. In Derek’s sea of high power chopper parts however, there was not a mellow, bolt-in, cam to be found.

 

This inexpensive mod reduced my ratio to only 3,100 RPM at 70 MPH which provided a much improved highway ride. Problem was my Electra Glide now lacked the power to get its fat ass up steep high-speed grades like the grapevine. Not wanting to give up the new gearing, I’d decided to deviate from my motto of: “Stock lasts longest.”

 

 

Back at the house Derek led me to an older stashed Softail. He said if I made it run I could use it, while my bike was down. Then he’d sell it. It took less than an hour to breathe life into the neglected thing.

 

That night Derek ordered my cam from the net with his own credit card because I’ve never owned plastic money.  Again we sat through a long bullshit session before the evening fire.

 

 

Next day, the work began and I set to the task of gutting my transmission and cam compartment. Although necessity pushed me to become a fair H-D mechanic over the years (there’s not much I can’t fix), I don’t work on bikes everyday and I’m generally sorta slow. I allotted the better part of a week for this job.

 

 

That evening I bombed around town on my new Softail, while visiting or running into a few friends I’d made on previous visits.

When installing a new cam it’s always a good idea to have the gear pressed off the old one and then installed on the new one. Failure to do so can cause either serious gear clearance problems, or simply a lot of unneeded noise. Fortunately All Things Chopped was only 20 miles away in the town of Great Bend. A small, one-man H-D shop, the owner and sole proprietor swapped the cam-gear for a reasonable $20.

 

 

Within a week my FL tranny was right again.  After enriching the carburetor, as per the new cam instructions, the bike immediately contained a considerable power boost and ran better than it ever had. Stock cams are governed by EPA regulations, and the valves want a  more duration to accommodate the V-twin’s long stroke. In other words, this simple bolt-in cam was not hot rod stuff, it simply made the engine run like it was originally designed.

 

 

With that segment of the work behind, a short break seemed in order. I said goodbye to the Softail, loaded a jacket onto the old FL and lit out for the town of Hutchinson and the “Kansas Cosmo Sphere and Space Center” located some 40 miles away. Although far bigger than Lyons, Hutchinson is not a major city and it truly amazes me that such an incredible museum is located in a small and relatively isolated Kansas town.

 

A good friend of mine left San Diego many years ago and lives in Hutchinson, so I decided to pay him a visit. Hell, we’d known each other for 25 years. Clint rides a late model Softail. We talked late into the night at his small bachelor pad. Before I left for the ride back to Lyons at 2 am, we vowed to do some riding together on the weekend when he had time.

 

Next came the roof job and I spent the better part of a week on the project. When the smoke finally cleared I was $1,500 richer.

 

 

But now I was in debt; for besides the new cam charged to Derek’s card, I’d also purchased a new set of boots, new tent, and a few other odds and ends. And although Derek wasn’t really worried about my bill, I certainly was. But rather than paying cash, Derek always welcomed the option to simply work your debt off. So again the labor began.

 

 

Derek makes his living by buying large loads of brand new, and possibly slightly dinged or defective, chopper parts and the occasional complete or partially disassembled motorcycle at an obscenely reduced rate then selling them on eBay. What a racket. This business generates the great piles of slightly screwed up or partially disassembled transmissions, engines, and other parts littering the floor of his warehouse in town. To settle my debt, I set to assembling whole, functioning six speed transmissions for later sale to Derek’s customers. Later I was put to work on the choppers surrounding my camp inside the metal building beside Derek’s house.

 

 

On weekends Clint and I made a habit of getting together to carouse the area on our bikes while often ending up at a party, BBQ, or whatever. He was, after all, a local and generally knew where the happenings were.

 

While riding through small, isolated towns, I often wonder what people do. I learned during this extended stay. If there is any kind of small event going on, in the tiniest most backwoods town, then people will often ride up to 100 miles to be there. Because of this farmland ritual, we were able to travel throughout a lot of beautiful country, and I came to see the same faces again and again.

 

One weekend Clint called to invite me to a birthday BBQ. It was held in the backyard of his X wife’s house. He said that his two kids and all of her X husbands would be in attendance; and that the food was free.

 

 

 

She lived in a big old house and besides ourselves there was only one other rider in attendance. The air was friendly and, in a low budget sort of way, it was a good backyard party. Although she had aged a bit (as have we all) the X that I’ll call Kathy was pretty much as I’d remembered from some 20-odd years back and it was really good to see her again. In private Clint explained that Kathy’s present husband and the X number two are best friends. Both were in attendance and a closer look revealed that he was probably right.”; which struck me as being extremely funny. Nevertheless everyone was friendly and the vibe seemed uncommonly good. It’s a mystery how she pulled that one off. 

 

Then there was Clint (X number one), a couple of old boyfriends, even I had gone out with her way back in the day. It seemed like a “who banged Kathy party.”

Hell, if I tried something like this, the said women would probably crucify me. Nevertheless, I had a great time that day.

 

 

 

With the bike again mechanically sound, my pocket filled with change and, as it always does to the motorcycle drifter, the road called me again. Chilled air hinted to the coming Fall made the highways that meandered toward the warm southern climates seem the best choice. As the old Electra Glide beat its fateful rhythm against the southbound pavement of this American dream, my mind wondered back over the strange events. Once again, they replenished the simple needs of this nomadic life.

 

 

–Scooter Tramp Scotty

605-430-8801 cell

scottykerekes@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

The J&P Cycles’ Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show results are in for Minneapolis, MN.

 

Our SHO DOG winners: Huenly Choppers won a Garage Leathers solo bag and Hable Racing won a Rocking K Leathers chain wallet.

 

People’s Choice Award winner is Mean Machine Cycle Parts and received a custom Bell Helmet pinstriped by Skratch.

 

It was the invasion of the 70’s with diggers and choppers rolling into the J&P Cycles Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show’s Minneapolis MN edition on January 17-19, 2014. Many of the guys had ridden their sleds out to Born Free and some of them still had the road grime from this past summer. The sleds looked as good as the guys sporting the Duck Dynasty beards. 

 

You could tell Cabin Fever had hit the city because the lines were long getting into the venue and the show was shoulder to shoulder with enthusiasts. Or it could have been that once inside the warm confines no one wanted to brave the -13 degree weather.

 

 

 

David Polgreen of The Wretched Hive rolled in Miami Vice, a ‘70’s era digger style sled, into the FreeStyle class. It features an original chromoly Arlen Ness frame, 6” stretch, extended vintage Ness springer and super rare magnesium Kimtab wheels. Gas tank and fender molded to frame, oil tank hidden in fender, custom exhaust with handmade pentagram tips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pete Mason brought in his Full Tilt Boogie-built 1940 HD Knucklehead and took the win in MOD Harley by edging out Jason Schulberg’s 1954 HD Panhead by a point. The bikes look outstanding. Masons Earl is a stock frame, stock 61cu engine modified into a bobber with paint by Micheal Geltz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TJ Designs brought in a bike named Craig. It’s a 1978 Shovelhead that features a 23” front wheel, shaved fork legs, percolator oil sight glass and glass air cleaner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow – an AWD motorcycle on a KTM 350 platform. Reports indicated that this performance bike always gets a hole shot and is excellent in snow, mud and soft sand. Features AWD dual A-arm suspension, anti-dive and coordinated wheel braking.