Thanks Ted

I went up north this past weekend and all through Boston we saw these signs. I thought it was cool how the whole state honored Ted Kennedy.

Sturgis Hail

Joe took this video of the hail storm that hit Sturgis.

The wind was so strong it blew the trailer off the block!

Thug on his way!

Check out the video Joe took on the way to Sturgis when him and Kory met Thug in a remote area of South Dakota, wait a minute remote defines the whole state...

Dirti's Hair

Dirti needs to do something with his hair. Check out the poll on the side of the blog and vote!!

What do you think?

Movie Night! Friday Aug, 21

We will be having a Ride/Drive In Movie Night this Friday!! We have rented a big screen and sound system that will be set up in the front parking lot. There will be candy, popcorn, ice cream and more! The movie will start at dusk. Bring your chairs, blankets, etc.
Any movie suggestions? Movie has not been determined.

Street Rod Nationals

By: Chuck Vranas

Last week was one for the record books! The National Street Rod Association’s ‘40th annual Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, welcomed 11,003 street rods into town (varying in years up through 1948). The combination of color, horsepower, and styles built into the rides made it one not to miss. The heat was in the high 80’s and 90’s with humidity near 100%, but that didn’t take away from the party on the asphalt. Everything from Flathead-powered traditionally built Deuce roadsters, to full-fendered cars of the 40’s, and event bitchin’ T-buckets made the scene. Inside, there were endless manufacturers showing off their latest parts, well known celebrities like Norm Grabowski meeting the crowds, and the Factory Five ’33 hot rod built by Dave Perewitz and his team on display in the Street Rodder Magazine booth along side their Road Tour Chevy. The Perewitz hot rod was surrounded by fans most of the weekend and it wasn’t till early Sunday morning when we were able to get a clean shot of it in the booth. If you’ve never experienced the adrenalin rush of the Street Rod Nationals, its one to mark your calendars for in 2010!

How many guys does it take to load a trailer?

This was taken the day before the truck and trailer left for Sturgis... Can you name everyone? If you can I will send you a t-shirt!

You can't play if you are in the picture!

Harley Davidson Footwear

Some of us here have been blessed with HD footwear including myself. I love their shoes! The are durable, comfortable, and very cool. I have a few pairs that I wear often. I have a pair of HD tall "Ugg" like boots that I wore all winter. I have the infamous Ugg boots and I found that my HD ones were much more comforable and held up much better. They didn't seem to get that worn look my other boots got after not enough wears especially for the money.
As you can see Dirti's has about 80,000 miles on his HD shoes!
Check out their website to see which pair will fit you best!
http://www.harley-davidsonfootwear.com/
I will post some more pics of the Perewitz Crew wearing HD footwear. If you have the oppertunity to purchase some Harley shoes, do so!! You won't be disappointed.









Dave also wears his HD "sneakah's" Check out the cover of New York Rider!

Thug's Last Day of his adventure

Day last August 8
Never again.probably.
As I was heading East, the radar showed that so was the rain. I got up, found out that my boots, having spent the night on the heater, were still wet. However, I now have new rain pants, so how bad could it really be? I figured Id be out of rain by Toledo, tops.
I picked through a continental breakfast being offered by the Days Inn that I stopped at (the price of the room was back to normal), packed up, and headed out. I followed my GPS, that had miraculously survived yesterdays rain. Not quite awake, I guess, I headed West. A few miles of dizzying turns later, I was back on track.
Riding in the rain saps your energy. There is no time to sightsee, as you must focus on the environment you are in. The wind was directly from the South, pushing me all over the place, as the road was almost straight East. Most of the road surface was concrete and water was collecting where tires had worn it down. Between the grooves was oily, so I didnt have too much choice on where to ride.
It was still raining by Toledo, so I adjusted my estimate that the rain would end by Cleveland. Then Erie. The Buffalo. By the time I approached Rochester, Id concluded that it would rain the whole way. But thena very odd thing happened-it stopped raining. After 20+ hours of rain drumming on my helmet, it got quiet..for the last hour and a half home.
Only two cool cars passed me on the way home: A Maserati somewhere in SD, and a new BMW M3 near Rochester.
The bike ran flawlessly for the whole trip. My model year was susceptible to rear drive failures, but no problem. According to the GPS, I rode about 4000 miles total, hitting a top speed once of 97 mph (I don't recall when that happened).
Some concluding thoughts: racking up interstate miles is really boring. I think Ill fly to Sturgis until I have time to take local roads and really see the country. The few times I stopped in little towns to eat, I found myself wanting to spend more time, but I was always in a hurry. My life won't be complete until I tour the Spam Museum in Minnesota, so there is at least one more trip in my future. Also, waterproof must mean different things to different people. I probably should have sprayed my boots with silicone and treated my FrogTogs, but I didnt think to. Finally, two wheels almost always beats 4 wheels, long trip or short trip.
Well, I hope youve enjoyed my reports. See you down the road.
Thug

Long Island Show Aug 23

Thug Day 8

Day 8 August 5th

Michael Jackson didnt need an I V to make him sleep. He needed a motorcycle.
After a wonderful day of riding yesterday, today was an easy day. Dave invited me to join him downtown as he made an appearance on a panel about the future of custom bike building, then he went over to help MC the Starboyz stunt show.

I, your intrepid reporter, went along with a camera and a new appreciation for what it takes to take good shots. Pictures I mean

The panel was sparsely attended, but these thing take time to gain a following. The panelists, Eddie Trotta, Cory Ness, Donnie Smith, Dave, and Jerry Covington were great and most sharing of their knowledge. Two common threads came through: What will attract the next generation of custom bike buyers and credit is still too tight to make enough people willing to say do it and have a custom bike built for them.

An observation: almost all of the Johnny-come-lately bike builders are history. The rigs with _____________ _____________ Choppers are all gone. I suspect that even the established ones are hurting to some degree. Labor and parts continue to escalate in cost, yet the number of people with the financial means continue to shrink. It's really tight right now and I don't see the turnaround in sight.

A big question is: will the next generation be attracted to the v-twin? In the same way classical music has struggled with attracting the next generation, will the current surviving builders be able to attract the next generation who appreciate the music coming from a v-twin with a great set of pipes?

Just my .02, but some of the straight pipes I hear sound like Sh*t. As do the braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapbangband of Asian bikes hitting their rev limiters.

There is a visceral experience of the wind and the torque and sound of a v-twin. If Im not explaining it wellOKI cant explain it well. But...to those who've never experienced itput on your bucket list a ride on a custom v-twin.

OK....also.I saw some undercover cops checking out bikes to identify fraud and thefts. Hats off to them for doing a great job. I feel much saferand my bike more secure knowing that they are here watching out for us.

Thug

Thug Day 7

Day 7 (and some of 6) August 3 and 4

The Hamster dinner was a big success for Childrens Care (http://www.cchs.org/). I forgot the amount they raised (maybe around $250,000) but it all goes directly to helping the kids out here. Back East, the population is dense enough to support therapists in schools for kids with special needs, but out here, getting to all the kids is next to impossible. Childrens Care does great work.

Earlier in the day I took the BMW up to Rapid City to visit the HD dealer there. They usually have a large array of vendors and the soft economy didnt seem to keep too many of them away. The BMW's electronics drain some current from the battery constantly, so it needs to either be on a battery tender or ridden every few days. I have seen precious few "non-V-twins" since I've been here.

Yesterday, I spent the day sightseeing including witnessing a blast of rock at the Crazy Horse monument. I captured it, but dont know how to send big files. Ill work on it. Work there is progressing, but very slowly. They don't want any public funds, so it will take a lot of time to finish.

After that, Dave invited me to a private party hosted by Dave Bell at Daves home in the mountains of Spearfish. Dave was a great host and his place is spectacular.
Then, we went to Michael Lichters exhibit at the Buffalo Chip for a private party for the industry. I saw many of the recognizable builders there along with great bikes and memorabelia. Dee Snyder from Twisted Sister dropped in, as did Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Pat Simmons from the Doobie Brothers. I saw Dee, but missed Steven and Pat.

Michael was autographing books of his postcards and he put a nice note on one for Mark in Afghanistan. Ill send it to Streets to forward on to Mark.

I talked briefly with Randy Sampson of Milwaukee Iron. Just before I left, I read in a bike magazine that Milwaukee Irons assets were being auctioned off. Steel made in America was their tag line. A real bummer. I have no idea what happened since Gary passed away and Lee left. To see it all goneprobably through a bankruptcy proceeding really sucks. Dave told me that competition from China did them in.

We then headed out to Deadwood to a party at Danny Grays place. Great people and time flew by. I think it was after midnight when we got home.

We traveled in a SUV, which was great as a monster storm came through. When we got back to the hotel, my rain cover was missing. I went walking looking for it, but its probably long gone.
Today (Wednesday) will probably be an easy day. Thursday is the annual Hamster lunch and run and then Im hitting the road to get back home.

Thug

"Representin' in Afghanistan"

How cool is this!!!! I just got this e-mail from Streets, see below. I will definitely post more when he gets them.

Jody,

If you expand the picture in the attachment below, you'll notice a familiar logo hanging out of the pilot's window. My son Mark is sending me CD with a bunch of pictures of "The Shirt" in action over the skies in Afghanistan. Apparently the poor internet connection he has over there doesn't transmit pictures very well. Anyway, it looks like you'll have content for your blog very shortly. Streets

Thug Day 6?

Day 6 August 2

Spent the morning preparing for my interview with the Hamsters, USA Board. I’ve been proposed/sponsored by Dave and part of the process is to meet the Board. A number of other potential members, and I, gathered in the lobby of the Holiday Inn and waited to be called in. Thanks to Dave, I didn’t have anything to say as he said some very nice things about me. I shook hands with the Board, and I was done. That was it! It is a true honor to even be considered for membership. The dinner is tonight, so I’ll probably find out then.

Dave invited me to a ride that started at the Broken Spoke Saloon and went probably 40 miles north to a real ranch (30,000 acres!) for a cookout, horseback riding, some motorcycle field games and things like that. Part of the ride was to be photographed by world-renowned photographer Michael Lichter (http://www.lichterphoto.com/) while in motion. I have always wanted to have Michael take a shot of me on my bike, so we’ll see how it goes. My only regret was that I was wearing the wrong sunglasses and the ones I had on were a back-up pair that are really ugly. Michael took a great shot of Streets, Dave O, and me at Daytona in 2008, so I’d like another piece of his work for my “I love me” wall in my garage.

Dave asked me to take Stacy (marketing director for Allstate) along and I was happy to. Stacy hadn’t ridden much, but it worked out great. She got a chance to ride a horse at the ranch, plus it was her birthday, so she told me that she had a great time the entire day.

Part of the activities were to practice roping a "calf" from a "horse" and I got a few shots of Dave and Donny Smith showing off their skills, or..er…lack thereof. It was all in good fund and good for a few laughs. I took a pic of the vast expanse of the ranch, which was amazing. Very quiet out there and you can see forever.

We beatfeet home as a storm was approaching, but we made it with only catching a few drops. Dave rode JoePros’s prostreet and JoePro got a chance to try out the new Indian.

Later that night, we went to dinner and a party sponsored by Dave of Black Hills choppers/American Cycle/American Bagger magazines. We got to see the proofs of Ruben’s Bagger’s photo shoot from Daytona during Bike week. Very cool.

One of the bikes at the party burned out its headlamp and it’s a special European type, so there was no replacement available, so to get it back to the hotel, Dave lead and I followed with our beams on high and everything worked out with Ted's riding "in the rocking chair" ('70s C.B. idiom).

Finally, about midnight, the rains came, but by then, we were home and the riding day was over.
Thug

Thugs Day 4, Aug 1

Day 4: August 1

“The Indian in God’s Country”

I got up bright and early yesterday morning…Eastern Time. Which made it really early Sturgis time.

I drove up to Sturgis and cruised Lazelle and went out to the Buffalo Chip. Came back, had breakfast and did some laundry. Went back to Sturgis and left the Baggah at the Allstate booth and walked around downtown for a few hours. I took some pics and did some shopping.

Dave asked me if I wanted to try the Indian and I jumped at the chance. He was going out to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming and I went along. What a great bike! Light as a feather, big wheels that made for tall gearing, and the music coming out of the pipes was symphonic.

I drove it hard through the twisties and it handled great. The drivetrain has no play at all and I didn’t need 5th gear below 80mph.

The entire trip was very scenic…more than scenic. The idea of a minimalistic, great handling bike on roads through beautiful country was…beautiful. I got completely covered with bugs on the ride home, but no matter. And a special thanks to Shelia, my physical therapist, who has improved my back enough that a hard ride on a hardtail was possible.
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RIP, Bruce Rossmeyer.

Let’s all raise our glasses in his memory.

{Rant on}:

The news article I read about Bruce mentions that “he wasn’t wearing a helmet”. I wish writers wouldn’t write that when a biker dies. Was that the sole reason for his death? Would his death have been avoided with a helmet?

Do they ever point out that others have died “because they had bad genes” or “ate too many cheeseburgers” or “wasn’t taking Lipitor”?????

I’ve read all the pros and cons of wearing helmets. There are those that say a helmet, puts more pressure on your neck in a crash and those that say “dress for the wreck…including a full-face helmet”.

I think it comes down to each person’s tolerance for risk and the risk/reward balance that is a person’s choice.

Everyone else should respect that choice.

I rode a great part of Friday without a helmet and it was some of the best riding I’ve ever done. Yet, when the winds came and the rain was on its way, I stopped and put my full face helmet on. The risk went up versus the reward of no helmet.

But that’s just me. What you do, whatever you do, is OK.

{Rant off}

Thug

Indian gone to Sturgis

The Indian left Thursday with Kory to make it's maiden trip to Sturgis, South Dakota. I, after some harassment from Dirti, took the bike for ride. OK so he really didn't have to pull my leg, just had to say the right thing. This bike is absolutely my favorite bike the shop has ever built. It is so comfortable to ride and handles so easy! and it is wicked cool to top it off. I was thinking about just heading west and not coming back to PCF!

I wish I was going to Sturgis to ride it all week but unfortunately it won't be me.