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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29/05/2008 by info.

Two priceless, multi-award winning, custom motorcycles also known as “art bikes” were stolen from a service area on the A1 this week.

The two machines, known as Psy-Bawg and Barnstormer, are well known to the international motorcycling community and there is a £10,000 reward on offer for information leading to their safe return.

The unique nature of the one-off hand-made components makes both motorcycles easily identifiable and worthless to anyone wishing to sell the bikes on, but to the team at Hawg Haven in Norwich, a Harley-Davidson aftermarket store, the bikes are priceless, representing the culmination of years of dedication and hard work.

Members of the public who have any information which may help track the machines down are asked to contact Jon direct on 07776 185 608.

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09/05/2008 by info.

With petrol rapidly becoming a luxury item, the EFuel100 MicroFueler might be just the ticket. You just set this up next to your garage, plug into 110 or 220 volts, route to a waste-water drain, add sugar, yeast and water and in a couple of days you pump ethanol into your tank at a cost of about £0.50p per gallon. It makes 5 gallons per day. Hmm …

The MicroFueler is about £4,995, given the current exchange rate - but in the USA federal tax credits can cut the price to $6,998. £8 buys yeast for 560 gallons of ethanol, each gallon requires 4 gallons of water. In the USA you need a permit from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms to make the stuff and you can’t run E100 in your motorcycle or car, it’s illegal for some reason, so you put in some petrol at your local station then drive home and top up from your ethanol pump to make E85 or thereabouts. There is also a distillation only mode which you use to recover ethanol from discarded liquor and beer. (Who the hell discards beer?) This is crazy cool.

E-Fuel Corporation makes this little refinery which will begin shipping at the end of the year though you can pre order now. Maybe it’s just me but if this works as well as described, I think they’ll sell a ton of these. VERY cool!

http://www.efuel100.com/default.aspx

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01/04/2008 by info.

Battistinis Custom Cycles, based in Bournemouth, England are ecstatic to announce on 1st April 2008 that they have been selected and are now established as a key supplier to the National Space Program for the latest Mission, Prestige that is due to blast off in 2018.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Organization, tasked with implementing the National Space Policy established on previous missions that the broadening vision of space activities shall contribute a major significance to the future of all Space exploration.

In an attempt to reduce overall mission costs and maximize on each mission, Space exploration must be aimed at extending the human presence throughout the solar system. The development of the new Battistinis two person motorcycle styled Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was an urgent requirement to the mission program.
NASA required to land the two person human crews anywhere on the Moon’s surface and allow the CEV to transport the pair to any given location. One of NASA’s reasons for going back to the Moon is to demonstrate that astronauts can essentially “live off the land”. The utilization of this new Crew Exploration Vehicle, equipped with the complete Battistinis Product Range will allow this must needed solution and ensure that it is undertaken in utter style. The CEV that has been created is to be unveiled at the Las Vegas 2008 S.P.A.C.E Exhibition.

A L.O.O.F agency spokesperson stated that “This is a huge and very ambitious space program, Battistinis have been selected to equip the CEV with its complete line up of parts as the vehicle that has been developed is based on the American V-Twin and without doubt the Battistinis range is at the cutting edge of the motorcycle industry.

Mark Battistinis stated, “When initially contacted by the agency we could not believe the challenge that was being asked and have been working intensely and in partnership with all involved. Now having stepped up to the agency’s envisions we are poised to turn a new chapter in the custom bike industry with the departure of what one would expect is achievable. The projection of the challenge is immense yet the sole objective here maintains for the truth not to get In the way of a good old story.”

Please do not hesitate to contact Pro-Street Cycles should you require any further info about the Battistinis Product Range that is NOW AVAILABLE!

Visit Pro-Street Cycles for more info.

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06/03/2008 by info.

St Louis, Mo., based distributor Mid-USA Motorcycle Parts has been sold to John Stdko and a consortium of St Louis-based businessmen.

The company was owned and operated by Sandi Morrison, whose family started the company, and whose husband Les Morrison died of a long-term illness eighteen months ago.

In a competitive and changing market the decision to sell is understood to have been a financial one, with staff at the company being informed of her decision on March 3rd.

The new owner is a former long-time senior buyer at local rival Midwest Motorcycle Supply. Stdko left Midwest a year or so ago and has since been operating his own custom motorcycle business, Johnny Stdko’s Motorcycle Company, in the St Louis, Mo., area.

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12/02/2008 by info.

We have heard on the grapevine that Indian Larry Legacy is breaking up. A US contact has spoken to a representative of Legacy and confirmed the story.

 Paul Cox will be forming his own company and building under his own name.The same for Keino. Indian Larry Legacy will still exist but they will mostly be selling t-shirts, caps, clothing etc which they are doing currently. They also said that there is still a lot of interest in Larry’s bikes and they hope to continue to show them at various events.

From the outside the split seems amicable. Everyone involved has tried to do things the way that Larry would have wanted. Everyone involved had and still has the utmost respect for Larry and each other.

We at Pro-Street were and still are, great Larry fans.  To us, Larry was an industry icon, a great builder and more importantly to us, a real biker who was true to the lifestyle and not just doing it to make money. 

We respect Paul and Keino and wish everyone well with their new ventures.  R.I.P. Indian Larry.

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