There’s an old joke I remember from my days on the PRA bull riding circuit. “ How does a guy become a bull rider? Easy, you take a hand full of marbles and put them in your mouth. Every time you ride a bull you spit one out. When you’ve lost all your marbles, you’re a bull rider”.

Today there’s a different kind of rodeo in town. Bucking bronks have been replaced by motorized bar stools and the Barrel races have taken on a new twist. But the big beefy bull has been traded in for the 120” motor HD trike. It’s called the Sled Pull. The sled pull has it’s origins back in our agricultural past when a farmer needed to clear his field of stones and debris for planting. Then came the tractor and gave the horse a break. County fairs have kept the tradition alive with tractor pulls but leave it to the ingenious bikers to put a new spin on it.

Now, Motorcycle sled pulls are an up and coming event for those with enough cash flow to have some hi tech shop put together a 120” Merch motor that can literally drag a team of horses backwards in low gear. It’s a big money sport indeed, but what about the average guy that can’t seem to get up the scratch or the corporate sponsorship required to get some famous shop to build their ride?

Enter Tom McNeilly and Mikie V. Tom is the five time national sled pull champ and Mickie V., his main wrench, runs a little back street M.C. shop on Schoharie Turnpike just outside of Catskill, NY. These guys know the sport inside and out. They aren’t sponsored by any infamous motorcycle companies or any cigarette manufacturer either. These guys have guts and seek glory on their own. What they lack in cash they more than make up for in ingenuity. Mikie spent a few weeks scratching his head ( actually he scratched and thunk till most of his hair was gone) and said to Tom “ Shit, I can build us one of them trikes if you’re fool enough to ride it”.

The talented two spent weeks scrounging around the bone yards till all the necessities were close at hand. A set of STD cases, an old shovelhead top end, tractor tires etc. were scattered on Mikie’s Twin-Tech M.C. shop floor. “ Now that you got all this crap, how are you gonna make it work” Tom asked Mikie V. “ Leave that to me” Mikie replied “ I got a plan”. And Brothers, it must have been some plan ‘cause that old pile of junk is now the hottest trike on the circuit.

I asked what type of pistons they ran in the trike that could handle the load required to pull a 5,000lb load for over 100 yards with out disintegrating? “Shit”, Mikie replied “that was the easy part, good motorcycle racing pistons are as expensive as a hooker in Vegas so I got me a set of Ford Truck pistons and milled them down a tad. I ended up with eight of ‘em a lot cheaper than buying two from Harley” That’s kind of their garden tractor mentality. “Why pay for the name when you can build it better and cheaper yourself?”

Tom and Mikie took third and forth place with their trikes in the Qualifiers at the Easy Riders Rodeo in Middletown, NY. last weekend and are off to North Carolina this weekend to defend their titles. I personally wish the boys all the best. They are the last of a dying breed.

In a world being slowly taken over by big money and corporate sponsors who dictate everything from racing policy to biker fashion, these guys and others like them are still clinging to the belief that they, the riders, still know what’s best.