16/03/2010 by info.

Shares of Harley-Davidson  (HOG) rose 6% to a three-month high on heavy volume Tuesday morning amid trader speculation that the motorcycle maker could be the target of a leveraged buyout from private-equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

While the markets buzzed about the possibility the company could be taken bought out, KKR was mum. “We never comment on deal speculation,” Peter McKillop, director of corporate communications at KKR, told FOX Business.com

Harley-Davidson spokesman Bob Klein said, “We don’t comment on market rumor and speculation.”

Still, the motorcycle maker’s stock gained 6.98% in recent trading to $28.35. Earlier, it hit $28.46, its highest level since Dec. 8. Harley-Davidson’s shares have surged 137% from a year ago.

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09/02/2010 by info.

The Learning Channel has just announced that the long running pseudo reality show American Chopper has finally been cancelled. After Paul, Jr. left the show and Paul, Sr. sued his son, the show finally succumbed to the same fate as many custom build shops. The finale will run this Thursday, February 11th.

I didn’t like the programme but you couldn’t argue with the fact that the series brought custom motorcycles to the attention of a lot of people who probably wouldn’t have thought about or gotten involved with custom bikes, which has to be a good thing for everyone involved in the industry.

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21/12/2009 by info.

We at Pro-Street Cycles would like to wish all our customers and the readers of our blog, a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful & Enjoyable 2010 !

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03/12/2009 by info.

The vote is over and the employees in York, PA accepted the contract, but almost half of the jobs at the plant will be lost.

Wednesday, the union employees at Harley’s plant in York, Pa., approved a seven-year contract that will likely keep the motorcycle assembly operations in York but will result in the loss of nearly half of the 1,900 jobs.

The vote was 1,587 in favor of the contract and 193 against it, according to the York Daily Record.

Now, with the approved contract, York keeps about half of its jobs. The terminated employees will be eligible for severance pay and a $10,000 buyout payment.

It looks like the plant will survive, costs will be cut and HD will move forward but that is quite a downsizing. Will it be enough to keep the company going?

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15/08/2009 by info.

VIERA — Celebrity motorcycle builder Billy Lane said he has driven every day for nearly three years past a stretch of State Road A1A in Melbourne Beach where he fatally struck and killed Gerald Morelock in a head-on collision.
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It’s there, Lane said in court Friday, that “I pray to God for his soul and for his family.”

For the next six years, Lane will be an inmate in the Florida Department of Corrections after a judge delivered his sentence Friday in Morelock’s Sept. 4, 2006, death. Police said Lane was driving drunk — his blood-alcohol level at twice the legal limit — when his pickup collided with the 56-year-old’s motorcycle.

He had faced up to nine years in prison under the terms of a plea deal in which he pleaded no contest to one count of vehicular homicide.

“I take full responsibility,” Lane, choking back tears, told the judge before his sentencing. “I was very careless. I’m not looking for pity on myself. Whatever you decide today, judge . . . I hope you’ll look at Mr. Morelock and myself and make a fair decision.”

Circuit Court Judge Robert Berger also sentenced Lane to three years of probation and suspended his driver’s license for life.

Lane also must attend a victim awareness class and undergo random drug and alcohol testing during his probation. He already has completed a court-ordered class about driving under the influence, his attorney said.

The sentence capped three years of legal wrangling, which included a change in defense attorneys, a change in judges and a settlement of a wrongful death suit brought by the victim’s family. A civil suit filed by Lane’s passenger, who was injured in the crash, lingers in civil court.

The judge in June approved a plea deal in which prosecutors agreed to drop the DUI manslaughter charge, saying both charges carry the same penalty, and their goal was for Lane to accept responsibility.

In court Friday, Lane’s attorney, Greg Eisenmenger, argued for a sentence without prison time, citing a desire by Morelock’s family for a “positive resolution” and saying the need for restitution outweighed the need for incarceration.

BY KEYONNA SUMMERS • FLORIDA TODAY • August 15, 2009

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31/07/2009 by info.

We are sad to report that Bruce Rossmeyer, owner of Daytona Beach Harley-Davidson and many other Harley Dealerships, died just a few hours ago in a motorcycle accident in Wyoming on his way back from a Dealers meeting in Colorado enroute to Sturgis.

A family friend said Rossmeyer was riding with several motorcyclists when they pulled out to pass a recreational vehicle. Rossmeyer was the last in line and was killed when the RV strayed into his lane, hitting his motorcycle, according to the friend who didn’t want to be named.

Bruce Rossmeyer was an incon in our industry and he will be greatly missed.

Source :- Bikerhotline.com

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23/12/2008 by info.

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14/10/2008 by info.

“Here’s someone who should be an inspiration to anyone who calls themselves a biker…….!” Phil 

Age and crashes can’t stop biker

By Keith O’Brien, Globe Staff  |  October 14, 2008

At the scene of her motorcycle crash last week, 80-year-old Margaret “Peggie” Blais, covered in blood, hobbled by broken bones, and laying on her back between two guardrails, made a simple request to the hovering paramedics: Don’t cut off her leather jacket.

It was classic Peggie. The redhead from Danvers, gone a bit gray, has been a rebel on two wheels since the 1950s. She practically raised her nine children in black leather. And from the beginning, Blais was not content to ride on the back of her husband’s bike. She’d have her own.

But there was nothing Blais could say last week to persuade authorities not to cut away her leather jacket; her injuries were too great. In the single-vehicle crash on Route 62 in Danvers last Tuesday afternoon, Blais lost control of her three-wheel bike and was thrown to the ground, smashing her right arm in multiple places, breaking her left leg, and causing severe facial lacerations that initially left her hard to recognize.

Now listed in fair condition at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Blais is talking to family while fellow bikers talk about her. In text messages, e-mails, and phone calls, every biker seems to want to know how the matriarch of Massachusetts motorcycling is doing.

“She embodies the whole spirit of freedom, the ability to take control, to do things your own way,” said Vince Silvia, secretary of the Massachusetts Motorcyclists Survivors Fund. “Not only did she ride with her husband, she wanted to be in control herself. She wanted to ride herself, to step up. ‘I’m woman, hear me roar,’ type of thing. And she did. She roared.”

Blais, the daughter of an electrician and part-time waitress in Marblehead, was not amused when her husband, Robert Blais (pronounced like “blaze”), first brought home a motorcycle in 1949. Women simply didn’t ride motorcycles back then, recalled her oldest son, Larry Blais, now 61. And it wasn’t like the Blais family had money to throw around. Peggie Blais cleaned houses and did others’ laundry to help make ends meet.

But she soon changed her mind about biking. In an interview last year with the Salem News, Peggie Blais said she came to like the feeling of the wind in her hair. Motorcycling became a family hobby. The children were often dressed in matching pink and black outfits and helmets. The youngsters rode in side cars while Peggie Blais cut a striking figure straddling a bike of her own. It was pink and black, too, and adorned with a donkey. The joke was that Blais was as stubborn as a mule.

“She had screaming red hair and she liked to dress us up and parade us around,” said Larry Blais.
“Sometimes, us kids would get bored with it. But I don’t know how many people would stop us and compliment us.”

By the late 1950s, the family was well known at motorcycle rallies, including Laconia Motorcycle Week in New Hampshire, where family members won awards for their matching get-ups. But life soon intervened. Peggie and Robert got divorced. With nine children to raise, Peggie Blais had less and less time for riding. And even though the children kept up the family tradition - each one of them learned how to ride - Peggie essentially stopped.

She grew old, and had a heart attack and two knee-replacement surgeries. Friends died and so did her former husband, in 2006. By then, Landon Blais, Peggie’s youngest son, said his mother seemed ready “to sit around the house and be old.” And that’s when Landon made a decision that not all his siblings agreed with: He gave her a new bike, adding a third wheel to make it safer.

“Some people think I’m crazy for letting my 80-year-old mother ride,” he said. “But you know something? It made her feel 60 again.”

It was pink and black and adorned with a donkey, like her original. It said “Mom” on the side, and Peggie Blais loved it. She rode it around Danvers, in her signature pink and black helmet, and began to recapture a slice of the fame she had known long ago.

In August, she was named marshal of Nelson’s Ride, a motorcycle run to benefit the Massachusetts Motorcyclists Survivors Fund. She led 1,200 riders out of Salisbury Beach, all smiles in a leather vest, and returned to Laconia this year, riding with her children again.

“She’s just a doll,” said Charlie St. Clair, executive director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association.

“Just a really, really down-to-earth, nice person. And she’s obviously, like any mother, just thrilled to be with her kids.”

Now her children are trying to determine what happened to her on the road last Tuesday as she drove to a local clinic for a regular check-up. State Police are investigating. But Landon Blais, and some of her other children, say they have no regrets about letting their mother ride again, and they believe she’ll be back on her motorcycle soon.

“She’s a tough old girl,” said Larry Blais.

And, according to family members, she has her priorities in order. In her first conversation with her children after the crash last week, Peggie Blais said she was worried about one thing.

Her bike.

Keith O’Brien can be reached at kobrien@globe.com.

© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

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24/09/2008 by info.

Came across this great video of David Mann Easyrider Centerfolds and featuring music from Bob Seger.  David Mann was THE best biker lifestyle artist of all time….. for me his images captured the very essence of what being a biker is all about!  R.I.P. dude!

Roll Me Away

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09/06/2008 by info.

Given the current state of the custom motorcycle industry, closures are a sad state of fact….. however I’m really sad to hear that Kim and Cheryl Suter have decided to call it a day. I’ve always enjoyed looking at their creations and know they have a good reputation within the industry. The industry will certainly be poorer for losing them….

Good luck in all your future endeavours.

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