Saxon Motorcycles

‘We rode Vespas for about four years because we thought we could get around riding on Scooters without getting any tickets. He confessed that he didn’t want to make Easy Rider initially. His favorite pastime? Painting - Harley-Davidson Japan is converting its domestic dealerships for the Buell bikes which it discontinued at the end of October, into service centers that will repair the motorcycles. Harley-Davidson is legally mandated to offer repair parts for seven years but says it plans to continue parts repair services for the next 10 years. By continuing to service Buell bikes, Harley-Davidson hopes to hold down any negative impact on its brand image – Wimmer Custom Cycle has recently decided to end their distribution relationship with Drag Specialties. Lee Wimmer, President of Wimmer Custom Cycle stated, “Now, more than ever, the consumer is shopping for the best price and we have found that having a distribution price level makes the MSRP too high”.

When you are making out your card list this year, please include the following: A Recovering American Soldier c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW  Washington,D.C. 20307-5001. If you approve, please pass it on”  Harlan Schillinger (Hamsters USA)

 
Add your legends…

All motorcycles will be on display in the secured area at Bruce Rossmeyer Harley Davidson, 1637 US Highway 1, Ormond Beach, Florida 32174. The auctio as I understand it (received conflicting info). On each motorcycle there will be its normal retail selling price. When the sale begins at 9 am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, November 20th-22nd, 2009, buyers will have an hour to inspect the bikes. Then at 10 am whoever is sitting on the bike when the posted price is slashed will have the first right to purchase the motorcycle at the proposed price. Prices will be slashed one time and one time only to the rock bottom price. To incite you to make the trip to Ormond Beach 2 Harleys will be priced at $88.00 (not a typo). The customer gets the best price up-front, without any haggling or wasted time. The dealer gets to reduce his inventory very fast!

Inventory will include over 300 used motorcycles, including Road Kings, Electra-Glides, Fat Boys, Dyna’s, Heritage Classics, Ultra Classics, Softails, Harley Davidson and other makes and models, even Customs, Kawasakis and Vespas. Financing will also be available, but you need to get pre-approved. For more info, call: 800-642-3464. And if this liquidation doesn’t work as well as expected, like the one of 2 weekends ago? What do you think may happen to Rossmeyer’s Enterprises?

The Indian Larry Issue, “Five Long Years” will be packed full of special content that has for the most part never been seen before. Their will be commentary from people out of Larry’s past that haven’t been heard from, stories of his life that haven’t been shared and additional industry insights into the man they called the Chopper Shaman. This issue will become available at the beginning of 2010 through an exclusive national deal with Barnes & Nobel stores and through a regional south deal with Books A Million. For more information on advertising in this issue or for advanced copy sales go to Cycle Source.

Showcasing the custom parts that you sell on a custom bike is efficient marketing strategy if the bike is extremely cool. Independent Custom Builders do it very well. Few large part distributors do as well, except when one of their in-house collaborators is also a talented builder. Rich Fulk, Custom Chrome’s Product Line Manager, knows quite a few things about mixing and matching the custom parts that he sells to make a factory bike look like a true custom. And since he also got the design and fabrication/assembly abilities he built this very “fast, black and furious” 2009 Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide featuring the “Custom Chrome New Dark products”. For the fast and furious parts of the equation ‘La Muerta Negra’ was modified with an S&S 106″ kit, some Zippers Cams and Thundermax ECM. For the dark part, Rich used the complete line of the ‘King Knurl’ accessories from Revolution and made this FXD-I rolls on RevTech® Midnight Series. Looks to me like the Milwaukee factory should sell it! Inspired and ready to do your own? All these parts and more are available in the CCI Catalog Update that you can see by jumping to Custom Chrome.

Attached is a pic of it. Thanks” Greg Shickle gregs@tech-alloy.com

In a statement he made to the Daytona News Journal I noticed that Mike Watts made 2 mistakes by stating 1- “That we hope to change the way people buy used motorcycles”. Really? I think it’s all the way around. It’s consumers who changed the way businesses sell their ware. Rossmeyer’s, like others,  just try to adapt. Never heard of eBay? 2- “That their website(s) have 1 million of hits”. Who cares the number of hits? A hit is not a visit to a website but the number of graphics & pictures downloaded when you open any internet page. If you open a page with 40 graphics or images, it’s 41 hits (one hit for the page + 40 hits for the images). But still only 1 visitor. Multiply by the number of pages visited by the same person and you have a ton of hits for still only 1 visit. Mike, the only important thing is the number of unique visitors, the number of pages visuted and the time spent on each page. Among other things, the reason why the first online auction was not a success is because of poor announcement and poor internet traffic for a company the size of Rossmeyer’s (I checked). It’s  what Rossmeyer’s should work on first. Rossmeyer’s Harley-Davidson.

Very competitive prices when you export and a huge currency trade profit when your euros are exchanged back in US dollars. And you don’t need to be a big manufacturer to do it. Example, small manufacturer Santiago Chopper signing a distribution agreement with a French company to sell its Sportster and Softail trikes to european dealers, including official Harley ones. Worth noting, some countries don’t require a motorcycle license to drive a trike, your car license being enough to pilot a 3-wheeler. Target? Like here in the US, baby boomers and a greater percentage of women. Santiago Chopper.

The Mods. Post WWorld War II England saw the end of rationing, military service had been abolished, economy was booming, people had money to spend on clothes and bikes. The Mods were essentially from London and the South East and were complete followers of the latest fashion. They were discovering new sounds, rhythm and blues,  new jazz, rich exotic sounds like Ska brought over with the Caribbean immigrants (while mainstream England was listening to the Beatles). They were ultra hip subterranean night club dwellers. Mods held down well paid office jobs (whereas Rockers tended to be more rural and manual workers), were arrogant, strutting kids and loving to create confrontation in nightclubs. The green shapeless army surplus Parka coat became the uniform. It was adopted to protect their expensive weekend suits from the damp London climate and to keep warm when riding their scooters, predominantly Italian brands like Vespa and Lambretta. Because police was harassing them for insufficient lighting and size of mirrors, in derision they decided to install numerous headlights, crash bars, white wall tires and high backrest seats, each Mod competing to have the chicest ride and the hottest chick riding behind. Amphetamine was the Mods drug of choice, pot not fitting their ideology (Pot was slowing you down, amphetamine kept you hyperactive for days without need to sleep between office hours and nightclubbing). Their influence on the London music scene was such that the Mod subculture resulted in the creation of new bands like the Small Faces, the Yardbirds and the High Numbers, known later as The Who, the band who defined the Mods with the song “My Generation”. Mods hated Rockers that they saw as out of touch and grubby. Rockers saw Mods as arrogant and young effeminate snobs. Scuffles occurred wherever they happened upon each other. To protect themselves some Mods went to sew fish hooks into the backs of their lapels to shred the fingers of Rockers assailants.

The Rockers. The Rockers movement started sooner in Liverpool during the late fifties. Illegal import of rare rock and roll vinyl albums coming from the sea trade with the US created a scene of teen agers in black leather jackets be bopping in night clubs. They rode motorcycles, listened to Elvis ad Gene Vincent. and were rebellious. To the uninitiated, a Rocker looked like trouble, Typical rocker outfit was black leather, a white scarf tightly wound around mouth and neck when riding, a pair of Levi’s jeans or black leather pants and sometimes wool white socks folded over the top of their boots (a look borrowed from the World War I aviation pilots). They are credited for influencing rock stars of the mid sixties in wearing leather. It is also believed that it is at this time that the gay community adopted leather to copy the image of the manly Rockers. New ring roads were built around cities and for Rockers they became tracks to race their machines. Trucker cafés on these roads were meeting places, the most famous of them being the London Ace Cafe still in existence (although in a different location). Rockers main love affair was speeding on their bikes, something that they thought was very glamourous and a way to defy a very puritan and rigid English society. Rockers were a very tight group extremely supportive of each other. The rivalry with the Mods came to a culminant point in May 1964 during the Bank Holiday weekend. Traditionally, Londoners head for the seaside resorts of Margate, Broadstairs and Brighton. A large number of Rockers and Mods had the same holiday plan. Inevitably fights between the 2 groups started all along England south coast resorts, the most serious acts of violence happening in Brighton. Many protagonists on both sides were arrested and heavily fined. These serious riots were later immortalized in the cult film “Quadrophenia” (in it, a very young and next to be famous musician and singer called Sting, playing a Mod character)

The Rocker movement vanished in the 70’s. Then in the early eighties a few remaining Rockers organized meetings that would progressively become again very popular. The reunions include many too young to have been around in the early days. The lifestyle is still very appealing with groups all over Europe, in Japan and to a marginal degree in the US. At the end of the 60’s the Mod scene also disappeared. During these last years, as a consequence of the high price of gas, many have rediscovered the Scooter as  primary mode of transportation. White collar Baby boomers just remembered the Mods and their children are looking for reference codes. For the 1st time in 4 decades it is not uncommon to see in Europe and America Scooter Clubs organizing meetings where members wear the traditional green Mod Parka and ride Italian Vespa decked out with multiple oversized headlights. At the same the Cafe Racer culture is alive again and attracting a new generation of bikers with the number of participating Rockers growing more at each London Ace Cafe reunion. Could it be that we are seeing the beginning of a revival of both subcultures? Not sure, yet. But at least one thing is certain. The respective lifestyles are now based on nostalgia more than on rebellion and consequently both movements could grow again without any risk of confrontation. The potential benefit? More motorcycling and more customizing.

This guy just went for a few spins.

And now he wonders why his wife is mad at him…

Any comments?

(thanks Big Will)

Standard in the complete kit are: two Legend Air shocks that install in the stock location, so NO modification is necessary, an on board air compressor, rider friendly black handlebar mounted control for on the go adjustability, all necessary mounting hardware, solenoid valve, and a full color instruction guide to navigate the user through everything from the simple color coded plug and play wiring to the basic hand tools needed for this easy installation. The system is made in the USA and backed by a limited lifetime warranty. To learn more about the Legend XL786 air suspension system, or any of Legend Air Suspension’s on-road or off-road products, call at 605.737.4200 or visit their new website Legend Suspensions.

“Hi Cyril. Let me say again how much I enjoy your blog. I rise, brew a coffee and sit down to enjoy what is happening in the custom bike world. It must be a lot of work for you but I am sure you have many thousands of happy fans. Cyril, I am hunting around for some type of covers for Harley Tourers that allow the removal of the bags and cover up the ugly underside as does this one-off custom made one in the attached picture. It was fabricated at Klock Werks and made from aluminum, but I imagine that someone, somewhere makes something like this from fiberglass or some composite material. If no-one does, there’s a business opportunity going begging for sure! Hope you can help. Cheers”. Doc Robinson

And don’t worry too much about  such a beast powering your bike. Viper included a proprietary engine vibration damping system that the company claims gives the Diamondback a much smoother ride than other V-Twins with many less cubic inches. Noteworthy to mention are the carbon fiber body (total weight is 610 lbs.), an on-the-fly adjustable air ride suspension system, an adjustable seat (down to 24″), easy adjustable foot controls, all LED’s lights, a sporty inverted adjustable front end, 6-speed transmission, hydraulic clutch, a 21″ front and 18″ 260/40-18 rear wheel/tire setup. Wheelbase is 71″ on a frame with a 34-degree rake (5-degree triple tree). For now the Diamondback is sold through selective Dealers and is not exported. Viper Motorcycle Company.

But where do I hide my battery, my relays, my wiring, etc? n my saddlebag, of course. It has been done before by many builders, including this writer. Now Nash Motorcycle company offers what they call the “Juice Bag”. Not only find a place to hold all your electrical essentials (your rain gear will go on the other bag if you run duo saddlebags), but save a lot of time on the tedious process of hiding, soldering, connecting your wiring.

The “Juice Bag” includes an EtX 14 Deka Battery pumping out 200 cold cranking amps. The battery measures 5 7/8″ Long X 3 7/16″ Wide X 5 3/4″ Long. 3.5 feet of both positive and negative battery cable is included so you can cut it to whatever length is needed. A water proof key start is mounted on the outside of the bag.

Water resistant starter relay, circuit breakers, quick disconnect Deutsch connector, and high quality water resistant wiring is all mounted inside, along with the battery.  You can choose between 3 different style of bags: The Nashty Ol Bag, The Sancho Bag, or The Half & Half Bag. Each bag is universal to fit either Hardtail or Softail applications. You can decide to have it mounted on the right or left side ($857) and to buy the other side with the set of 2 bags, “Juice Bag” and regular bag for $1036. Choice of Brass or Nickel buckles & rivets. More at Nash Motorcycle Company.

The 2009 West Coast Choppers “No Love Party” is tomorrow Saturday November 14h at Jesse’s shop in Long Beach, CA.. And you are supposed to know your direction to go there. If you don’t know, don’t go….

Party slogan is “No thrills, no details, no kidding”. You can register at West Coast Choppers.