Hey,
Tomorrow is Christmas a wonderful celebration. But I’m excited about next year. We need roll back onto the salt. I need to find a trailer. I need to haul ass back to Paughco and pick up the Salt Torpedo.
I need to rework the shop to make room for the 5-Ball streamlined trike.
I’m also going to wrap up a motorcycle screenplay and send it to the movie gods. I’m also going to reprint my first two books and we are working with a new manufacturer to make our 5-Ball leather line. Then we need to reorder. Out inventory is running low.
There’s more but I need to get the fuck out of here and run to the desert for Xmas.
At ‘POT CHURCHES,’ marijuana is the sacrament
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Services at the Coachella Valley Church begin and end with the Lord’s Prayer.
In between, there is the sacrament.
“Breathe deep and blow harder,” intoned Pastor Grant Atwell after distributing marijuana joints to 20 worshipers on a recent Sunday. “Nail the insight down, whether you get it from marijuana or prayer. Consider what in your own life you are thankful for.”
A man wearing a “Jesus Loves You” baseball cap and toting a shofar, piped up. “Thank you, God, for the weed,” he called out. “I’m thankful for the spirit of cannabis,” a woman echoed from the back. “I am grateful to be alive,” said another young woman, adding that she had recently overdosed — on what, she did not say — for the third time.
Despite its mainstream Christian trappings, the Coachella Valley Church describes itself as a Rastafarian church, which is tough to define. Originating in Jamaica and combining elements of Christianity, pan-Africanism and mysticism, Rastafari is a political and religious movement with no central authority. Adherents use marijuana in their rituals.
The church’s leaders claim that religious freedom laws give them the right to offer marijuana to visitors without a doctor’s recommendation or abiding by regulations. Some authorities beg to differ.
As more states ease access to marijuana, churches that offer pot as a sacrament are proliferating, competing with medical marijuana dispensaries and pot shops in the few states that have legalized recreational weed. While some claim Rastafari affiliation, others link themselves to Native American religious traditions.
More: Coachella wins first fight in war against unlicensed pot dispensaries claiming to be churches
More: You can’t sell pot in Coachella. But two ‘churches’ say cannabis is their holy sacrament
The churches are vexing local officials, who say they’re simply dispensaries in disguise, skirting the rules that govern other marijuana providers, such as requirements to pay taxes.
In California, which legalized medical marijuana in 1996 and is preparing for sales of recreational marijuana to begin Jan. 1, churches tied to marijuana use have recently popped up in Oakland, Roseville, Modesto and San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties. A few have been shut down by law enforcement.
“I’m not going to say they’re not churches, but to the extent that they’re distributing marijuana, they’re an illegal dispensary, in my view,” said San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle.
Doyle has requested a permanent legal injunction to stop the Coachella Valley Church from providing marijuana, and a court hearing is set for Jan. 22. He recently got a court order to shut down operations of a similar church, the Oklevueha Native American Church of South Bay, he said.
DENVER, CO – APRIL 20: Colorado Cannabis Company and Pure Marijuana Dispensary co-owners Frank Quattrone (left) and Ethan Borg, both of Denver, Colorado, look out over the cathedral area during the opening of the International Church of Cannabis on April 20, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. The opening coincides with 420 Day celebrations advocating for the legalization of cannabis nationwide. (Photo: Marc Piscotty, Getty Images)
Nationally, such churches have opened in Indiana, where marijuana remains illegal, and Michigan, where medical marijuana is allowed. Even in Colorado, which legalized pot in 2012, the “International Church of Cannabis” is testing the limits of state and city rules on consuming marijuana in public.
Marijuana churches typically require people to purchase a membership, then give or sell them marijuana and related products. They may ask for ID such as a driver’s license but don’t require a doctor’s recommendation or medical marijuana identification card.
The churches rely on court rulings that made it possible for some groups, including Native Americans, to use federally banned drugs like peyote in religious ceremonies. Despite these rulings, courts have thus far rejected religious groups’ right to use marijuana, still illegal at the federal level, said Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia Law School professor specializing in religious liberty issues. Yet, he said, as more states legalize marijuana, courts may regard marijuana churches’ rights more favorably.
“Legalization changes everything,” Laycock said. “Religious use may not violate state law in some of these states. And if it does, legalizing recreational use but not religious use clearly discriminates against religion.”
More: Quality of life: 25 healthiest communities for retirement
More: ‘Cornbread Mafia’ leader pleads guilty in pot probe
Most times when you go to grab an avocado, you don’t usually find over 1,000 pounds of marijuana as well. Buzz60
Whether the Coachella Valley Church can continue preaching the power of pot remains hazy. It operates in a 1925 San Jose mansion that formerly housed the Amsterdam’s Garden medical marijuana dispensary, shut down last year by San Jose city officials in a citywide crackdown on dispensaries.
City officials have determined that some of the people who ran Amsterdam’s Garden now operate the Coachella Valley Church, Doyle said.
Church leaders at first agreed to be interviewed but then did not respond to subsequent emails. A man videotaping the recent service said the church opened in May. He gave his name as Dryden Brite, but also goes by Xak Puckett and has been described in media reports as a former director of Amsterdam’s Garden.
He described the back room where marijuana products were sold as the church’s “gift shop,” then declined to answer further questions. About half of the churchgoers left the worship room immediately after receiving their sacrament. Some headed straight to the gift shop.
Others remained to finish their joints and chitchat.
Marco, 29, a veterinary technician from San Jose who declined to give his last name, attended with his husband. He has a medical marijuana card and said marijuana helps him with bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. He grew up Catholic and felt that the Roman Catholic Church disapproved of his sexual orientation and marijuana use.
“Honestly, this has been the most life-affirming church I’ve ever been to,” Marco said. “Here there are true believers in cannabis — if not the faith.”
–by Barbara Feder Ostrov, California Healthline
California Healthline is a service of the California Health Care Foundation produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
–from Geno
Mastermind
Ol’ Skool Rods
Deluxe
BIKERNET STAFF MEMBER COMMENT– Merry Christmas to you and the REDHEAD! I read with great interest the news. Very disturbing about the industry as a whole? Everything as far as bikes go around here is very slow.
I visit the dealers at times and there is very little service work going on and the 18 Harleys are moving at a snails pace? On the other hand it is good news about the Smoke-Out. Hopefully we will see you there this year, I always look forward to it.
Speaking of which, is THE HORSE still part of it? I gave up on my subscription, it is not about the money. I see where Cycle Source is a new supporter, that magazine shows up in the mail box like clock work!
Later!
–Mike(THE STEALTH)
Harley Dealership Swap meet Created After Motorcycle Expo Bans Mongols–
Mile High Harley-Davidson of Parker, Colorado has announced that it will be hosting a motorcycle swap meet in support of the Colorado Confederation of Clubs (Colorado COC) and to benefit the Colorado Vets 4 Vets program on January 27th and 28th, 2018.
Mile High HD of Parker is in full support of the Colorado COC’s decision to not attend the Motorcycle Expo due to the banning of the Mongols Motorcycle Club, a Colorado COC member club. The swap meet is a perfect example of a responsible response to acts of discrimination against the motorcycle club community.
Although the Colorado Motorcycle Expo was cancelled in 2017, the event has returned for 2018. And now the expo has made the decision to exclude the Mongols MC from attending the swap meet based on events occurring in 2016.
As reported on January 30, 2016, during the annual Colorado Motorcycle Expo, commonly called the Denver Swapmeet, Iron Order MC member Derrick “King” Duran shot two members of the Mongols MC, killing a Mongol named Victor Mendoza. Victor was attempting to disarm Duran because he had already shot one of his club brothers and was pointing and waving a gun at dozens of innocent people. The MPP obtained a photo (that subsequently went viral) showing Duran with a gun in his hand moments before he killed Mendoza.
The IOMC, known to have active law enforcement among their membership, has been involved in a laundry list of confrontations around the country with other motorcycle clubs that have resulted in violence or death. Iron Order members have not been held accountable for any of the violence or killings that they have been involved in. The same holds true for the incident in Colorado. Outrageously, the district attorney declined to charge Duran, at the time a Corrections Officer, with a crime.
In response to this decision, the Colorado COC, with the support of the National Council of a Clubs (NCOC), an organization representing the interests of motorcycle clubs nationwide, has decided to withdraw support for the Colorado Motorcycle Expo. In support of the Colorado COC, Mile High HD of Parker is hosting an alternative to the Colorado Motorcycle Expo at their location in nearby Parker, Colorado on January 27th and 28th, 2018. The event will benefit Veterans in the state of Colorado.
NCOC Responds: Press Release December 19, 2017:
Conclusions
The Denver Swap meet had been going on for decades without any incidents of violence. The Mongols MC had attended for many years, as have most of the bigger clubs around the country.
But the first time the Iron Order attend the event a deadly confrontation occurs and a Mongol is murdered. The IOMC, with known connections to law enforcement, is not charged in the crime.
The event owners and promoters then respond by banning the Iron Order and the victims of the 2016 shooting. The Colorado COC, with national movement backing, withdraws support for the event and a local Harley dealership hosts an alternative swapmeet that benefits Veterans.
Instead of doing nothing, the Colorado COC responded to the act of discrimination prompting a local Harley-Davidson dealership to host an alternative event that also benefits Veterans, not the promoters. The Colorado COC serves as a textbook example of how to unify the community in response to acts of discrimination.
HOLIDAY SAFETY WARNING– Please, take care of yourself out on the roads this holiday season.
A recent joint study conducted by the Department of Health and the
Department of Motor Vehicles indicates that 23% of traffic accidents are alcohol related.
This means that the remaining 77% are caused by assholes who drink bottled water, Starbucks, soda, juice, energy drinks, and shit like that.
Therefore, beware of those who do not drink alcohol. They cause three times as many accidents.
This message is sent to you by someone who worries about your safety.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. Be Safe.
–Rik Savenko
LET’S CELEBRATE 115 years of Harley-Davidson!
In 2018 Harley-Davidson will celebrate its 115th anniversary and we want you to be part of that big celebration. This is why we created a fantastic tour through six different eastern european countries that will lead us to the big anniversary event in Prague. It doesn’t matter which motorcycle you like to ride, or if you have been riding your bike for long time or not. Everybody who loves the freedom of motorcycling is welcome to join our tour and the event.
In this newsletter you will learn more about the Edelweiss anniversary tour and the Harley-Davidson anniversary event in Prague.
The anniversary event in Prague (July 5 – 8, 2018)
Anniversary Event
The Harley-Davidson 115th anniversary event will be a four day long party full of bikes, music, fun and all kinds of things to do. Plus, you will meet great people from all over the world which all share your passion: the love for riding and travelling on a motorcycle.
Besides the party the capitol of the Czech Republic is another reason to join this event. Prague is absolutely worth visiting for a number of reasons: The city on the river Vltava is among the most beautiful and magnificent cities worldwide.
Despite our love for motorcycles the best way to explore the city is by foot. The cobblestone roads in the inner city are like a maze leading you through thousand years of history. You will see all kinds of influences in the architecture from the steep gothic buildings, to skillfull decorated baroque castles and elegantant art noveau influences. Prague is a jewel you should definitely see and spend some time in.
And if all this wasn’t enough there is the excellent beer! Besides the famous Pilsner Urquell, which belongs to the best of its kind, there are many breweries with delicious local beers.
You will find more information on the event here.
The Edelweiss Anniversary Tour
In terms of culture, history and sightseeing, this motorcycle tour must be our number one.
The Edelweiss anniversary tour
This tour across East-Central Europe features six amazing countries, five spectacular cities, five different languages, four different currencies, dozens of castles, several mountain ranges, a handful of national parks and a bucketful of history around every corner.
In addition, you will have the once in a lifetime opportunity of visiting Harley-Davidson’s 115th anniversary event, which is hosted in Prague and which is on the schedule on day 4.
The Blue Danube escorts us out of Vienna. Budweis, the city of beer, and Cesky Krumlov, an impossibly picturesque medieval town, welcome us to the Czech Republic. And then Prague: words can’t describe it; you have to see it to believe it. Dresden, destroyed during World War II, rose again from the ashes, while Cracow, the secret capital of Poland, escaped undamaged and evolved into the most beautiful city east of Paris.
After spending our fourth and last rest day in amazing Budapest we head back to Vienna, but not without visiting the very place where the Iron Curtain began to crumble, back in 1989. As we said, bucketfuls of history.
Edelweiss Anniversary Tour
START/FINISH: Vienna
COUNTRIES: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia
DURATION: 15 travel days, 13 riding days
DATE:
+ 04.07. – 18.07.2018
PRICE: starting from US $7,610
More information on this tour.
QUICK, OPEN THE BIKERNET BAD JOKE LIBRARY EVEN ON XMAS EVE–Mick says to Paddy: “Close your curtains the next time you’re shagging your wife. The whole street was watching and laughing at you yesterday.
–from Rogue and Sidehack Jerry
VETERANS NEWS FOR THE HOLIDAYS–
Letters to elected officials, David Shulkin the new head of the VA and media sources are producing help for veterans. Please continue to contact them.
USA TODAY EXCLUSIVE
VA hired workers with revoked medical licenses
Practice went on 15 years in violation of federal law
–Donovan Slack
USA TODAY
The Department of Veterans Affairs allowed its hospitals across the country to hire health care providers with revoked medical licenses for at least 15 years in violation of federal law, a USA TODAY investigation found.
The VA issued national guidelines in 2002 giving hospitals discretion to hire clinicians after “prior consideration of all relevant facts surrounding” any revocations and as long as they still had a license in one state.
A federal law passed in 1999 bars the VA from employing any health care worker whose license has been yanked by any state.
Hospital officials at the VA in Iowa City relied on the illegal guidance this year to hire neurosurgeon John Henry Schneider, who revealed in his application that he had numerous malpractice claims and settlements and Wyoming had revoked his license after a patient died. He still had a license in Montana.
The VA moved to fire Schneider Nov. 29 after inquiries about his case from USA TODAY. He resigned instead. The VA said at the time that Iowa City hospital officials received “incorrect guidance” green-lighting his hiring in April. The agency conceded this week that it was national policy.
VA Secretary David Shulkin said in an interview that he ordered the rewriting of the guidelines and launched a nationwide review to identify and remove any other health care workers with revoked licenses.
“It’s very clear to me that our job is to have the best quality doctors that we can provide to take care of veterans, and that’s going to be our policy,” he said.
Shulkin said health care providers with prior sanctions against their medical licenses short of revocation — suspensions or reprimands, for example — will be reviewed to ensure they provide quality care to veterans at the VA.
The USA TODAY investigation published this month found that in addition to hiring Schneider, VA hospitals knowingly hired other health care providers with license penalties. In some cases, they went on to harm veterans.
A VA hospital in Oklahoma hired a psychiatrist sanctioned for sexual misconduct who slept with a VA patient. The VA in Tomah, Wis., hired a psychiatrist disciplined for medication violations who overprescribed narcotics to veterans. A Louisiana VA clinic hired a psychologist with felony convictions. The VA fired him after determining he was a “direct threat to others” and the VA’s mission.
USA TODAY reported that the malpractice claims against Schneider included cases alleging he made surgical mistakes that left patients maimed, paralyzed or dead and that his veteran patients in Iowa suffered complications. One of those patients, Richard Joseph Hopkins, 65, died from an infection in August after four brain surgeries by Schneider in a span of four weeks.
Schneider denied in an interview that he provided substandard care and blamed poor patient outcomes on other providers or unfortunate complications that can occur in neurosurgery.
Hopkins’ daughter Amy McIntire told USA TODAY this week that she is furious Schneider was hired and floored by the national policy that allowed it.
“I’m appalled by the ineptitude at the VA,” said McIntire, a registered nurse who noted that an agency so large has numerous staff to write policies and ensure they comply with federal law “For it just to be ignored, it’s crazy”
Nearly 50 members of Congress have called on the VA for answers since USA TODAY’s story ran.
A group of 14 senators from both parties wrote to Shulkin this month asking about the hiring and oversight of health care workers with known histories of malpractice and license discipline. That followed letters from Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Iowa Republican Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, who said it was “unacceptable that it was only as a result of USA TODAY’s report that the VA determined that hiring this neurosurgeon was illegal.”
Monday, 31 members of the House of Representatives fired off letters to the VA secretary expressing “extreme concern.”
“The hiring of doctors who have had their medical licenses revoked in any state is already prohibited,” 30 of the lawmakers wrote, including members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., demanded in his own letter that Shulkin launch a nationwide review to identify other VA health care workers with malpractice complaints and settlements or sanctions for poor care.
–from Rogue
BIKERNET UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ENTHUSIASM–
abubble [uh-buhb-uh l]
2. bubbling, as while cooking or boiling.
Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement.
ORIGIN
There are English adjectives that, like abubble, can be used only in the predicate and not as attributives, such as aglow and asleep: one can say “The baby is asleep,” but not “the asleep baby.” These predicative adjectives are in origin noun phrases consisting of the preposition on governing a following noun, which also explains why predicate adjectives show no degree of comparison (e.g., asleeper, asleepest) and cannot be modified by adverbs (e.g., “The baby is extremely asleep”). Abubble entered English in the 18th century.
Next Generation Police Tools from the NMA–
Dragon Cameras
Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Dayton, Ohio police departments recently announced they are using “Dragon Cameras,” a handheld device that uses both a laser measuring tool and a camera to capture an image of a moving violation.
Similar to a stationary speed camera, the dragon camera can record an alleged speeding incident and automatically provide the information needed to send out a ticket, no traffic stop required. The car owner gets a ticket in the mail a few weeks later. The difference—a law enforcement officer must trigger the device and witness the violation in person. Since the dragon cam is a fully functional laser speed gun officers can still stop drivers for excessive speeding or other traffic violations and hand out tickets in person if necessary.
In October, Dayton police began using dragon cams on Interstate 75 and U.S. 35. Detective Jason Ward says the six devices now owned by the department are a big benefit because it can be difficult and dangerous for police to try and catch speeding vehicles on high-volume highways especially at rush hour. In the first month of operation, police mailed out more than 1,200 warnings. In November, 950 citations were sent to registered owners of cars or trucks recorded on camera as speeding suspects.
Police in Cedar Rapids plan to focus the use of their four dragon cams on school and work zones. In the first week of the traffic enforcement campaign outside of a local high school, 60 drivers were cited without one traffic stop. Department spokesperson Greg Buelow said that the DragonCam program is set up to generate civil fines that don’t have court costs and don’t include points against licenses.
Dragon cam devices don’t have flash technology that would allow them to be used at night.
The next two Next Generation Police Tools are the newest ways law enforcement officials are using big data to find crime hotspots or predict which individuals might be suspect whether or not they have ever been in contact with police.
Big Data for Local Police
Rutland, Vermont has started using a software modeling system called Data-Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety or DDACTS. The software tracks locations of calls to help reduce crime and traffic accidents. In the first few months of use, the software helped police identify three zones that were generating most of the calls and most of the traffic accidents. Police Chief Brian Kilcullen said that the DDACTS allows officers to go where the “chaos” is happening and the department has been able to zero in on even smaller “hot spots” with the highest activity of crime.
The city is also tracking “threepeats,” which is a designation that officers use when they are called at least three times over a two-week period for any reason to a particular location. Once the police identify a threepeat hotspot, additional patrols can be dispatched on a regular basis.
Predictive Policing
–Instead of a law-enforcement agency, the LAPD is becoming an intelligence agency. Their focus seems to be shifting from interdicting or solving a crime to surveilling people who had not yet committed a crime.
–Due to the predictive algorithm used by the Predpol, officers spend most of their time patrolling minority and poor neighborhoods rather than solving actual crimes.
–Police officers candidly admitted that the Predpol allowed them to put an objective face on the department’s ongoing illegal racial profiling practices, with a particular interest on gang members.
–Individuals now no longer engage in incriminating acts but instead lead incriminating lives—daily activities, now codified as data, can be used as evidence ex posto facto. Police can start a file on individuals who are not suspected of a crime but are identified as data points by Predpol’s predictive algorithm. It is Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report in practice.
Police have a tough job maintaining law and order but if this trend toward more intrusive police tools and tactics continues, it will be even more difficult to preserve individual constitutional protections.
WHY ARE MOTORCYCLE SALES IN FREEFALL?
Harley sales are in free-fall — down 9.3 percent in the U.S. for the first fiscal quarter that ended this summer — amounting to losses of $258.9 million. The company has announced it will lay off about 200 workers this fall.
The rest of the industry’s not doing so well, either.
You can still find plenty of leftover 2016 model year bikes at most dealerships — and we’re eight weeks away from 2018. To say sales of new motorcycles have been slow is an understatement right up there with advising the captain of the Titanic that there’s a “little leak” down in the hold.
But why?
Could it be . . . Uncle?
Yes. Of course. Always, these days. There is almost nothing bad happening that, to one degree or another, hasn’t got his grubby fingerprints all over it.
It is because of Uncle that motorcycling isn’t what it was once — freeing, in particular. It has become expensive, which is a drag if you’re young, especially. Millennials — the next-up generation that ought to be swelling the new rider ranks — aren’t. Probably because they can’t afford it.
Debt sucks. And Millennials are saddled with plenty of that already.
Here are some telling stats:
The median age of a rider today is 47 — up from 32 in 1990. That is a several standard deviation’s difference and so no small thing.
Even more alarming — if you make or sell new bikes for a living — is that the number of first-time/new riders in the 18-24 cohort — the people who will form the backbone of your buyer base for the next 20-30 years — is down from 16 percent of the total pool back in 1990 to a depressing 6 percent today.
Almost no 18 year-olds (a mere 2 percent) are throwing a leg over — down from 8 percent back then.
Again, money.
Motorcycling has become not-cheap for several reasons — all traceable to Uncle.
Bikes are now mandated to have the same expense-padding equipment — especially anti-pollution equipment — that cars have had to have for decades. Non-bikers often don’t know this, but until fairly recently — the mid-2000s — most new bikes did not have computers or catalytic converters and a majority of them still had carburetors rather than electronic fuel injection.
The reason being that even big bikes have small engines relative to cars and the number of bikes on the road is a fraction of the number of cars on the road. Only about 1 in 40 people even own a bike. Most people own at least one car and many own several. And unlike most cars — which are used regularly — most bikes are ridden intermittently. The majority are ridden for pleasure, not for utilitarian reasons.
Point being, bikes — even without all the emissions gear — don’t emit much in the aggregate. Imposing emissions regs on them is therefore essentially punitive because it’s not meaningful insofar as public health and the “environment.”
New bikes must now be very much like new cars — computer-controlled EFI, catalytic converters.
They are not only expensive as a result — especially to service, which most people can no longer do themselves, as with cars — they are anodyne. One EFI system is much like another. There’s very little in the way of tactile joy in plugging in a reprogrammed ECU — which is the way you “tune” a modern fuel-injected bike. Besides which it costs a fortune. A reprogrammed ECU is in the range of $400 — vs. maybe $15 for a set of jets for the Mikunis.
This is a problem, generally, for the not-old (or at least, the mot middle-aged) who prefer a hands-on experience as well as an inexpensive experience. So motorcycling is becoming the pastime of the old — and affluent.
The median household income of a motorcycle owner is now $62,200 according to stats compiled by the Motley Fool and 65 percent bring in more than $50,000. That largely rules out the 18-24 crowd — Millennials — as a class. It’s not that they “don’t like motorcycles,” as asserted by some analysts. It’s simply that they can’t afford them anymore. And that makes it hard to like them anymore.
And so, they aren’t buying them much anymore.
In contrast, bikes built before the mid-2000s were likable and affordable. They were simple — at least relative to cars. Most service could be done by the owner — as was the case with cars in the long-forgotten past. This was attractive to people in their teens and 20s, both economically and otherwise. It is liberating — financially and psychologically — to own a machine that you understand and can fix yourself. It makes it yours in a way that a throw-way electronic appliance never can be.
A bond forms between man — and machine.
Well, it used to.
Interestingly, the market for pre-Uncle-ized bikes without all the crap — the cost and the anodyne joylessness — is doing just fine. The value of older bikes, free of computers and without catalytic converters and easily adjustable and fixable in the owner’s garage is going up — in parallel with a similar trend that can be discerned with older, pre-Uncle-ized cars. There is a small but growing industry that concerns itself with rebuilding cars from the ’70s and before to be used as daily drivers.
The government can continue to force-escalate the asking price of new bikes — and cars — but it can’t force people to buy them.
So long as there’s an alternative — a way to end-run Uncle — people will take it and do it.
Which is why, in the end, Uncle will probably throw down the gauntlet and simply outlaw the pre-Uncle-ized stuff, both cars and bikes.
If you think it can’t happen, better think twice.
www.ericpetersautos.com
By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist
NOEL NOEL BIKERNET WEEKLY NEWS for December 21, 2017
Good Post, Covered a lot of good things.
Hope it works out and you make it to the Tropical Tattoo Show in Daytona, it will be good to see you.
Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year.
I can tell you that there are a lot of good things coming in 2018 and we will be part of it.
— Rogue
rogue@bikernet.com
Palm Bay, FL
Yes, I can feel the buzz in the air. We are definitely going back to Bonneville. I am going to reprint my first two books and finish a screenplay. I will help my grandson get two of his bikes back on the road.
I just read a report about Motorcycles and TV. Hugh King is going to start another program and I might be involved. We are going to make some changes to Bikernet. And I’ve had some real progress with the VA in the last couple of weeks. There’s hope.–Bandit
ORANGE COUNTY CHOPPERS IS BACK— According to Brett Smith in Café Magazine OCC will be back in April. Both Senior and Jr. are hurting financially due to the down market and no TV fame.
“So, basically, this is a television program about showcasing/saving an ostentatious them park (senior) and injecting life into a business that produces overpriced motorcycles (junior). Is this an accurate assessment?” –Brett
We will see in April on the Discovery Channel.–Bandit
WILD TOOL ROLL OF THE WEEK– Introducing our best tool roll yet. Combines both the wrench and tool roll into one great product!
Learn more online at www.atlas46.com
Yorktown Tool Roll is the ultimate tool roll pouch, delivering more carry options and organization. Four generously sized pockets (480 in³ total) store a variety of tools, while the back is designed to organize and quickly find wrench and tool sets. Atlas 46’s Quick Roll System allows the pouch to easily roll up and condensed for better mobility.
Features and Benefits
– Condensed Quick Roll for Throw N Stow
– 4 large front pockets. (16″ x 2 1/2″ x 3″ = 480 total cubic freedoms)
– 11 wrench slot organizer
– 7 multipurpose tool slots
– Patriot made 1000D Cordura
– YKK USA made zippers
– 2 carrying handles secured by precision tack.
– As long as America is the land of the free this product is guaranteed for life
– Made in the greatest country in the world
About the Name
The Siege of Yorktown was a combination of American and French forces, resulting in a victory that began peace negotiations; eventually leading to the independence of America. The culmination of two great forces into a final amazing product. This was our inspiration in creating the Yorktown; taking two of our loved products and championing them into the ultimate tool roll pouch.
–from Sam Burns
AT The GYM– This morning I asked this young woman at the gym what her New Year’s resolution was going to be.
She looked at me and said, “Fuck You”
… so, all in all, I’m pretty optimistic about 2018!
–Geno Dipol
Grand Poh bah
Deluxe and Ol’ Skool Rods Magazines
Motorcycle Mania And Hugh King
Hello Hugh,
Double D here. Would like to talk to about you telling the story of my life. A Marine that was raped. Hugh you may remember me I was your camera man for biker build off the only person Indian Larry would let in his shop.
I have many A.K.A, Dave Lee pro.
Camera man biker build off, Deadliest catch
American chopper, Gave Wayne peliter American loggers the business card in ’96
Filmed the browns in the start Mountain men
Down east dickers is one of my show ideas
The killing fields.
Met with Joel Wilkinson to get Northwoods law started, Street outlaws.The list is Long.
I’m From Maine. My bronze statue is one of the soldiers in the Korean war memorial
I worked for the Regan’s as a guard for their oldest daughter.
Filmed videos for
Ginger Mae
Hank Jr
Kid rock
Signal to noise
And more
Please call me (207) 400-2208
I’m Waiting
–Donald Dyer
Oceanside, CA
QUICK, KEEP THE BIKERNET BAD JOKE LIBRARY WIDE OPEN– “With cigarettes, my wife and I, we made a deal. We only smoke after sex. I’ve got the same pack now since 1975. What bothers me is my wife. She’s up to three packs a day.”
My wife told me she wants to have sex in the back seat of our car, and she wants me to drive.
“With my wife, I don’t get no respect. The other night there was a knock on the front door. My wife told me to hide in the closet.”
My doctor told me I have six months to live. I told him I want another opinion. He said you’re ugly too!
–from Rogue and Sidehack Jerry
LET’S PARTY ON CHRISTMAS— I gotta laugh at the world and all the bullshit conflicts. I’m sure I mentioned this, but I watched a documentary about the universe. A Ph.D stood on a beach and picked up one grain of sand. “This single grain of sand represents the earth. All the other grains of sand on all the beaches on earth represent all the other planets in the Universe.”
We are a speck. The other night I found out that there may be a million billion planets capable of life. What the fuck. Let’s party, enjoy ourselves, love one another and live Free.
May we all have adventures and ride free in 2018.
–Bandit
