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?Garage Art? original paintings of your vehicles, affordable for the times– Artist Eric Herrmann is well known for his original motorsport paintings on canvas and his highly collectable limited edition prints. For twenty years now he has elevated motorsport art to the museum and gallery level with massive canvases fetching mid five figure price tags. Well, temporarily at least, times have changed.
Always the creative one, Eric was searching for a process to create original paintings of your vehicles, with an affordable price tag. Not computer generated, or airbrush art, but an original painting done with a brush and paint. While painting some graphics on the bathroom door in my studio, I refined an old process, and developed my new line of ?Garage Art? paintings.
Measuring 16? x 30?, sheet metal panels are coated with black paint in a cross hatch pattern that resembles a canvas finish. I then paint in a reverse fashion, using the black of the panel as a color. Kind of like a Velvet Elvis or Jimi Hendricks poster from the 60?s & 70?s states Eric. Once complete, the panels are clear coated and framed. Bikes, Street Rods, Race Vehicles, Boats, the list is endless. From $400.00 for an original painting to $500.00 for a work of art with your vehicle & lettering, Eric has once again created a new market for the times.
In an effort to keep the price reasonable, Eric has standardized the size and will limit the original paintings only to vehicles. Don?t ask me to paint you on your bike, or your family or pets in the background, says Eric. These are only temporary, and I may not do them forever, but I?m sure having fun with them for now, says Eric. They don?t have the detail or size of my $40,000.00 canvas works, but they are original paintings for under five hundred bucks. Send me an e mail photo of your vehicle, and within a week or two, you have an original painting from Eric. For additional information contact Eric at (888) 200-6554 or at www.EricHerrmannStudios.com
H.O.G. MEMBERS RODE 4,373,937 MILES ON MILLION MILE MONDAY– 2009 Mileage Increased by 45 Percent over Last Year?s Total.
MILWAUKEE ? (July 2, 2009) On Monday, June 29, 2009, Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.) members around the world logged 4,373,937 miles during the club?s second annual Million Mile Monday riding marathon.
?Our members set the bar pretty high after last year?s three million miles, and we are ecstatic to have exceeded that by more than 45 percent this year,? said Benny Suggs, General Manager of the Harley Owners Group. ?But more important than the number of miles ridden is that so many of our members joined together on this special day to share the experience of motorcycling.?
To put the cumulative mileage in perspective, 4,373,937 miles is the equivalent of almost 77,000,000 American football fields (goal line to goal line) or more than 70,000,000 100-meter soccer fields.
If you could ride from the earth to the moon, you?d have to make more than nine round trips to log 4,373,937 miles on your odometer.
The world?s three longest rivers ? the Nile, the Amazon, and the Yangtze ? share a collective length of 12,124 miles. You?d have to travel the length of each river more than 360 times before traveling 4,373,937 miles.
Riding 4,373,937 miles on an average motorcycle compared to driving a standard passenger car saves nearly 109,375 gallons of gas (or 5,609 barrels of crude oil); at $3 a gallon, that?s a $328,125 savings in fuel.
Million Mile Monday is an annual event on the last Monday of June and is open to all H.O.G. members– riders or passengers. The feat was recorded by logging into the club?s exclusive members-only website (members.hog.com), where participants registered their miles ridden on that day. For more information about H.O.G., log onto www.hog.com.
CHOPPER SHOW COMING TO TOWANDA, IL– Ricky from Artkore Tattoo here in Normal, got the logo done for the chopper show on June 19th 2010 in Towanda, IL on Historic route 66.
I got a myspace page setup to send out updates. Also I have a website in the works. Please check them both out.
This will be a one day wham-bam thank you mam hardtail only show, all bikes are welcome to join the party. With Builders ONLY vendors, food, Chopper Show, and music next door at Kicks Bar and Grill. Please mark your calenders. This will benefit charity.
I will be giving away a hand tooled leather seat in a raffle that will only be for show participants. Other prizes will be presented to the public.
I will be sending out more updates as they come in.
Adam Croft
Last Ride Leather
www.lastridecustoms.com
www.myspace.com/old66choppershow
ROYAL ENFIELD Bullet Classic C5 Motorcycle–Win one quick, enter the raffle.
The newest addition to the Royal Enfield line is also the oldest. The Bullet Classic C5 combines the celebrated design and heritage of the postwar Clipper and Crusader models with all the advantages of today?s EFI technology.
Tech stuff:
All-new, fully-integrated unit construction engine Beautiful vintage styling based on our earliest post-war models
Body-colored frame
Single-saddle seat with springs
Incredible 85 mpg fuel economy
Officlal Rules All proceeds will benefit The Caepe School Vehicle displayed in picture does not represent actual prize. Allow up to 6 weeks from event date for delivery. No substitutions allowed. Must be at least 18 years old to participate. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. The raffle is open to legal residents of the United States excluding California. Winners will be selected by random drawing at The Caepe School on Thursday, November 12, 2009. Winners need not be present to win and will be notified by phone. All decisions are final. The winner will have 90 days to claim their prize. If the winner cannot be located after a period of 90 days from draw date, The Caepe School will conduct a second drawing to award that prize.
Grand Prize award based on vehicle with MSRP of $6,850. Per IRS rules & regulations, raffles, lotteries or similar drawings for ? valuables or prizes are not gifts and, therefore, the entry does not qualify as a deductible charitable contribution. Should the raffle have inadequate ticket sales, a 50/50 raffle will be conducted in lieu of prizes.
Hamilton HOGs lose chapter but not their love of Harleys– TRENTON — John Thomas started the Fourth of July much the way he celebrates his liberty most weekends. This morning he planned to rev up his Harley-Davidson and go roaring down the asphalt with a group of friends from the Hamilton HOG chapter, in this case to a South Jersey diner for breakfast.
Owning a Harley, he said, is about camaraderie, getting his hands dirty, and the happy liberation of the open road.
“There’s a certain amount of freedom, of being outside of the box,” said Thomas, the treasurer for the 7-year-old club.
“One of the things I always notice is that you smell things,” he said. “Riding in Lancaster County, you smell the farms, you smell the vegetables. It’s a totally different experience than being cooped up in your car.”
But today’s trip is bittersweet. It is one of the riders’ last as members of the club. Their sponsoring dealership, Trenton World-Class Harley-Davidson on Route 130 in Hamilton, went out of business in May. Under the rules of the national Harley Owners Group, which is controlled by the Harley-Davidson company, they must disband this week.
“It is disheartening,” said Thomas, a telephone technician who lives in Hamilton. “I’ve been busting my keister for seven years, and to have someone pull the rug out is upsetting, not only to us but to the charities we supported over the last seven years as well.”
Thomas has a specific beef with the national HOG organization, which he wishes would let the club stay in business while the members try to figure out its future.
But the club’s demise also reflects a recession-driven slump in motorcycle sales over the past year that has forced dealerships around the country to shut down.
Harley, the top maker of heavyweight motorcycles, reported in April that it had seen a 37 percent decline in profit for the first three months of
the year. The Milwaukee-based company announced in January it would consolidate plants and cut up to 1,500 jobs in the next two years, including some 550 workers at its assembly facility in York, Pa., which may end up closing.
On an online forum for Harley riders, posters have listed about a dozen stores that have closed since December in Idaho, Oregon, Iowa, California, Missouri, Florida, British Columbia, Massachusetts and Ohio.
Dealer Harry Divins knows the progression to failure well. He shut down Trenton World-Class Harley-Davidson on May 8, after struggling with declining sales for more than a year.
“It started early last year with the recession. As the recession went forward, business went down,” he said. “It got to the point where there wasn’t enough money to pay the bills.”
Divins opened the dealership in 2001, after retiring from his job as a telephone company repair manager in Philadelphia and selling an RV park he owned on the Jersey Shore, he said.
“My wife and I got into biking some more. We enjoyed ourselves. But we’re kind of workaholics,” he said.
After spending several years getting the necessary permits from Hamilton Township, Divins spent $5.8 million to purchase a property at Route 130 and Kuser Road, and millions more to renovate the site and buy the dealership from its previous owner, who had been located on Broad Street in Trenton, he said.
The shop had its ups and downs, including a slump after the 9/11 attacks, but Divins said he and his wife made a decent business selling bikes that went for up to $26,000, not including extras that could run another $10,000. The dealership also sold parts and merchandise and did repairs.
“I loved the business,” he said this week. “I never really went anywhere from the day it opened.”
Then 2008 arrived. Divins watched, appalled, as the recession worsened. His more affluent and more dedicated customers continued buying, including members of the HOG chapter, but others stayed away. He needed cash to stay afloat, but in June 2008, the banks stopped lending, he said.
“I’ve never been in a business that went into default,” he said. “I didn’t know exactly what to expect. As time went on, things got worse and sales started slipping.”
“Hope springs eternal,” he said. “But the hope was not enough to get us through, particularly at the end of ¤’08.”
Dealers usually stock up on the latest bikes in January, but this year he took little new merchandise because he didn’t think he could sell much, he said. As cash for expenses dried up, he went to 15 to 20 banks looking for credit, without success.
This spring he laid off some staff and prepared to sell the business. Bruce Rossmeyer, a dealer who has eight locations in Florida and six in other states, got as far as an agreement of sale before suddenly canceling the deal, Divins said.
On May 8 he received a letter from Harley-Davidson saying the company would repossess all the bikes and other merchandise. He closed up for good that afternoon, laying off the rest of his staff and notifying customers with signs taped to the shop’s glass double doors.
“It’s sad, because I love my customers, but it’s just not happening,” he said. “I don’t have any money now. It’s all gone.”
“I haven’t paid my mortgage for almost four or five months now, because I don’t have any money to do that. I expect any day to go there and see a sheriff’s notice,” he said.
The Divins are not in good health, either. He had a minor heart attack in May, which he attributed to the stress of the business failing. His wife is still recovering from an aneurysm she suffered last year, he said.
Divins doesn’t blame himself for the dealership’s collapse, except perhaps for not shutting down sooner.
He does blame the economy for depriving potential buyers of disposable income. He blames the banks for holding tight to their money, and the U.S. government for massive stimulus spending and bailouts that gave him no help.
He doesn’t blame Harley-Davidson — “if you look at their balance sheet, they’re in bad shape,” he said. And he certainly doesn’t blame his customers.
“A lot of people had their feelings about motorcycle people. Whatever. But those HOG people, they’re great, great people,” he said. “We never had any differences. They just had their act together. I feel bad for them. I can’t do nothing about it.”
Thomas said Divins supported the 159-member HOG chapter by giving members store discounts and donating gift cards, which the club raffled each month to raise money for its website, phone bills and other expenses.
Much of the club’s activities naturally involved rides, whether to restaurants in the area, to Bike Week in Daytona, Fla., or to scenic destinations like the Thousand Islands region of New York, where members rode for an overnight trip last month.
Mason Eldridge, the club’s assistant director, said he’s ridden his bike all over the East Coast, often stopping at Harley dealers along the way to pick up a T-shirt or a new piece of chrome for his bike. As part of a vacation this week, he’s making a stop at a Harley-Davidson museum and manufacturing plant in Wisconsin.
He loves the club in part because it’s family-oriented, a welcome and safe place for his three young daughters, including 8-year-old Kaitlyn, who wears a leather vest when she rides and was the youngest member at last year’s New Jersey HOG rally in Vernon, he said.
“It’s like a very extended family, with people I never thought I’d associate with. We’ve got police officers, welders, pilots. I’m a greenskeeper,” he said. “You ride a Harley and you want your face in the wind? Come ride with us.”
The club has also focused on helping charities like the Emerald Society and Habitat for Humanity, and has been a strong supporter for years of Anchor House, a shelter for abused and runaway kids in Trenton.
The club hosts an annual “Hogs and Dogs” picnic for the kids every summer and drives over a truck full of gifts at Christmas, escorted by a phalanx of Harleys. Last year, Eldridge was coaxed into dressing up as Santa Claus for the event.
The club’s future is unclear. Eldridge said it could affiliate with another store, such as Mills Harley-Davidson in Burlington, but he fears that his club could become a clique within the existing Burlington HOG chapter, a problem he said has plagued other clubs.
Another prospect is to create a new club affiliated with the American Motorcyclist Association and called “World-Class Riders,” out of respect for Divins.
But what Eldridge and Thomas really want is to see their home dealership restored and their club allowed to continue as it was, proudly bearing the official blessing of their favorite bike maker.
by Meir Rinde/The Times
THE MONKEY ROCK SIGNS A DEAL WITH DR. CHOPPER– Sturgis, SD, June 29, 2009 – – Monkey Rock is pleased to announce it will host famed photographer Tom Zimberoff and the Art of the Chopper MotoMuseum Exhibit July 31 ? August 9 during the 69th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
Photographer and author, Tom Zimberoff?s critically acclaimed coffee table offerings, Art of the Chopper and Art of the Chopper II, have been read and re-read by riders, dreamers and fine art aficionados since the first book was released in 2003. Zimberoff?s photographic mastery manifests itself in a series of one-off motorcycles, paired with portraits of their famous builders.
With proficient lens and ingenuity, Tom is able to capture the nuance of man and machine, art and artist. What makes them cool, Zimberoff believes, ?is getting something wrong just right.? And the Kings of Custom rave about him –
?Tom Zimberoff has helped us ?Chopper Artists? bring our art to the attention of the main stream public and for that, I am very grateful!? – Rick Fairless
The Art of the Chopper MotoMuseum Exhibit will be open 9:00 am ? 7:00pm. Admission is free.
The easily accessible Monkey Rock Event Center (formerly Thunder Road) is located at the heart of the rally on Highway 34 and will be open July 31-August 10, 2009 from 8am-2pm. We offer an abundance of free parking. Entertainment and event updates as well as exhibitor information can be found on our web site www.monkeyrock.us
DUNLOP TIRE PROBLEM–Touring Motorcycle Tire Deflations Require Investigation, Attorney Says.
Harley-Davidson, Honda and Goodyear Dunlop should investigate a number of motorcycle crashes involving sudden deflation of Goodyear Dunlop D402 and other tires, attorney Billy Edwards said today. The tires, installed as original equipment or sold as replacement tires on touring and cruiser motorcycles, may need to be recalled, he added.
Harley-Davidson, Honda and Goodyear Dunlop should investigate a number of motorcycle crashes involving sudden deflation of Goodyear Dunlop D402 and other tires, attorney Billy Edwards said today. The tires, installed as original equipment or sold as replacement tires on touring and cruiser motorcycles, may need to be recalled, he added.
Five more instances of sudden deflation of the Dunlop D402 tire have been reported to the safety website, UnsafeMotorcycles.com, he noted. Four of the incidents involved Harley-Davidson classic touring motorcycles and one involved a Honda GL 1800. All occurred in the last 13 months, he said. The latest incident occurred in Marino Valley, CA, he said. Others have been reported in
Massachusetts, Texas and Georgia, he said. “We believe this is the tip of the iceberg. The defect in these tires appears to be worsening as the tires age, leading to more instances of sudden deflation and serious injury,” Edwards said.
These reports join at least two lawsuits filed recently involving allegations of Goodyear Dunlop tire deflations, one in Butte, MT, the other in Atlanta, GA.
According to the allegations described in a lawsuit in the Butte, MT crash, a defect in the bead seat area of the tire allowed excessive leakage of air leading to a “sudden and catastrophic deflation” of the tire. Stephen Gageby, Butte, MT, was killed, and his wife was seriously injured in the resulting crash, the suit says.
The Georgia suit was filed in U.S. District Court, Middle District of Georgia, Athens Division,(Case no. 3:09-cv-74 ), and involved the death of a passenger Patricia Morris. Among other things, the suit alleges Harley-Davidson knew it was “false and misleading” to represent that its 2007 FLHTCU and its tires were safe for carrying up to two riders weighing more than 250 pounds each, plus their cargo and motorcycle accessories.
The Montana suit (Cause No. DV-08- 480) was filed Nov. 10, 2008, in the Second Judicial District Court, Butte Silver-Bow County. Attorneys representing the Gageby estate are Michael McKeon, with the law firm of McKeon and Anderson, PC, Butte, MT, and Billy Edwards, with the Edwards Law Firm, Corpus Christi, TX.
–from Rumblenews.com
UNCLE MONKEY FREEDOM INTERVIEW– Freedom. We cling to the idea that it is something real, something tangible, something we can point to and say, “That – that is freedom!” It is something we’ve fought for, sent our youth to die for. We see other countries and we sympathize with them. Their freedoms taken, striped away and stomped on by their governments.
But what is freedom? In the day-to-day existence of man, are we not all free. We decide when we’ll rise, what we’ll have for breakfast, what we’ll do that day. Does a person living in China have any real less freedom than we do?
With the exception of censorship of media are we really that different from those other nations? Our freedom of speech. But when was the last time you openly read something that the government would frown upon? When was the last time you read something that was more then simply grandstanding contradictory points of view of our government, by those that wished to be in power? It probably has been a long time. Your nudie magazine? Pornography finds a way to permeate its way into all cultures.
For the most part freedom is something we take for granted, something that is an ideal and not something we take seriously. But our freedoms are being eroded away everyday, by government, by technology. The government tells us to wear helmets, how fast we can ride, what we can ride. Once we would slip away for the weekend and escape to the wide-open spaces of this country but now we are wired in, cell phones, wi-fi, GPS, a constant link to the “real world”.
Where revolutions and rebellion once ran free, now we find acceptance and compliancy. We over look government and civil interference and don’t question the importance or the relevance of their actions. The question we have to ask is “Are we really free? Are we really independent?”
–Wayne ?Uncle Monkey? Wuschke www.myspace.com/badunclemonkey
NEW ORLEANS BIKEFEST STUNTS– They?re electrifying, mortifying and death defying ? TIM DYSON FMX, will be the stunt act at the 2009 New Orleans Bikefest.
— Don?t try this at home!!!!
Check out our website
www.neworleansbikefest.com
–Barry Lee
BIKERNET STUDIES STATE MAPS, COMES TO STRANGE ASSUMPTIONS–
Tennessee–
The owner of a golf course was confused about paying an invoice, so he decided to ask his secretary for some mathematical help. He called her into his office and said, ‘You graduated from the University of Tennessee and I need some help. If I were to give you $20,000 minus 14%, how much would you take off??
The secretary thought a moment, and then replied, ‘Everything but my earrings.’
Alabama
A group of Alabama friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night, one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under the weight of an eight-point buck. ‘Where’s Henry?’ the others asked.
‘Henry had a stroke of some kind. He’s a couple of miles back up the trail,’ the successful hunter replied.
‘You left Henry laying out there and carried the deer back?’ they inquired.
‘A tough call,’ nodded the hunter. ‘But I figured no one is going to steal Henry!’
HEALTH ADVICE FROM DR. WEIL–7 Ways to Prevent Eyestrain, Part 1
If you spend a lot of time doing close?up work like reading or staring at a computer screen, you may find your eyes are dry, irritated, and sensitive to light. You may also have difficulty focusing, and may even experience headaches and shoulder or neck pain ? all symptoms associated with eyestrain. To help prevent eye fatigue and keep your eyes in optimal health, try the following:
Work in a well?lighted area, but avoid glare by choosing bulbs that are 75 to 100 watts. Use full?spectrum light bulbs, which mimic natural light, whenever possible.
Keep your computer screen clean, at or below eye level, and about two feet away from your eyes.
Take frequent breaks. Look away from the screen or reading material every 10 minutes for about 10 seconds at a time. In addition, get up and move around or do some stretches every two hours or so.
Don’t miss next Sunday’s Daily Tip for four more ways to prevent eyestrain.
COWGIRLS AND DRIVE-INS FROM LARRY GROSSMAN– Larry Grossman’s exciting new print “Cowgirls & Customs Down in the Valley” brings back those glorious memories of warm nights spent at the local drive-in movie theatre. What better place to take your date on a Friday night in your custom or rod (or Dad’s T-Bird)? If you didn’t have a ride (or the $1.25 admission) you could always just hop the fence, like those two guys in the back of the picture.
Once parked inside, you could grab a pizza at the snack bar and then snuggle up inside your “tuck-n’ rolled” interior with your honey. You maybe even caught a glimpse of the movie between making-out and eating. Hopefully the bicycled “sex patrol” didn’t come around and knock on your steamed-up windows, in which case you’d be buttoning up your Levis real quick! It was all just too much fun …unless of course you were stuck babysitting your kid brother, like that poor guy in the custom ’59 Buick! Yup, those were the days!
Too bad all of those great drive-in theatres are long gone. But you can still “remember when” with this great new Larry Grossman print! Priced at only $30 for any of his high quality 19×25″ prints, how can you lose …in fact, for another five bucks he’ll even sign and date it for you in gold ink! You can see and buy all of his work on his cool website: www.retrovisions.com
Not only that, Larry also offers the option of creating customs picture whereby he’ll put your car(s) and/or bike(s) and you (or whoever) into any of his scenes …now how cool is that!
THE U.S. CHOPPER FINANCIAL STIMULUS RECOMMENDATION– Obama conceded the bankruptcy of Chrysler this morning after pumping $12 billion into the auto maker. Now it’s time to go to court for bankruptcy proceedings.
I say that we should go to “the hill” and lobby for aid for our community! At $12b this means there is enough fat for 12,000 of our motorcycle related companies to be given $1 million dollars each before we declare bankruptcy!
12,000 companies would cover our whole sector no doubt and $1mm would really help my cause, especially BEFORE I declare bankruptcy!
–Rick
U.S. Choppers
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
714-546-4699
http://www.uschopper.com/
FREEDOM–Everyone has a passionate comment, notion, or desk pounding rule. The only way we are going to sustain any notion of freedom is to get involved. Join your local motorcycle rights organization, the MRF, NCOM, the AMA or even SEMA. You’ll become rapidly educated and have every opportunity to support any freedom you deem necessary. It’s up to all of us. I’m not going to tell you which direction to head in, just do it. We’re all burnin’ daylight.
I’ll attempt to rough out a SEMA motorcycle Working Group agenda next week, with your help. Here’s some of the other wicked content heading our way, while I scramble to assemble the 5-Ball Factory Racer for the run to Sturgis: We have a road tale on a Kiwi Indian from Mike Tomas; we are working on a story about motorcycle restoration experts and the guys behind the online K&G parts shop, and I’m working on a seal replacement tool tech with Biker’s Choice and JIMS.
I have a killer photo feature on a dual Knucklhead vintage drag racer from Bozzie. The girl shot by Jerry Southworth is a knockout. Oh, and the first Monday feature will be devoted to the new S&S K-Bobb new vintage Knucklehead product bike.
Plus, a Saddleman seat tech is headed our way in addition to Greg’s Little Big Twin part 4 installment. Hang on, it’s going to be a wild week.
Ride Forever,
–Bandit
