NEW Girls Voodoo T's!

She's rode all those bumpy miles on that tiny rear fender of yours without a single complaint, so now is your chance to say " Thanks Babe!" Fitted girls T's now available. $18 bucks to your door in the lower 48. European orders welcome - email for details. We also now carry the "Voodoo" T in Black for guys as well. Click the link over there on right for full details. As always all orders include stickers and some positive vibrations from yours truly!

Side Glances

My sometimes co-pilot recently brought these back from the road. Thanks for the great shots Shayna!

Cycle Porn #141

Cycle Source Show at the Broken Spoke. Sturgis 2010.

Thanks Everyone!

For all of you that texted, wrote, called or kept their fingers crossed for me today I say Thank You!

The Indy Mile - THIS WEEKEND!!!

Don't miss it folks. I had a blast last year with Shoe and his crew. Unfortunately I'm due in the hospital for some fixins this weekend so I will be MIA in Indiana for sure. Next Year!!!

How I Spent My Summer - by Diesel

"Hmm, Buffalo Bill really pissed in here!? That's so cool!"

Our Daily Sled #188

Deuce and 2 Quarters.

How I Spent My Summer - by MotoGuru

"Hmm, this sans bun weener tastes a little salty..."

"GabbyGlide"

Better Than Cake

Blodi - Version 1.0

Our Daily Sled #187

Spotted this fine little sled at the Buffalo Chip just after Dylan's last encore.

Rosemary - The Maiden Voyage

Tonight I took Rosemary to Royal Oak for bike night. It was her maiden voyage. I've spent the last few nights dialing her in and making her roadworthy. There are still a few minor tweaks to be made in the coming days but I'm happy to report it was a success. She purrs. Val and Marcel showed up to say hello and I even bumped into MotoGuru on the way home at a stop light on Woodward - good karma. Hopefully it will follow us around on all our future journeys - I have a feeling I will be putting some miles on Rosemary

Sturgis PT2 - Mr. Drea Lays Some Down

Ray Drea, VP and Director of Styling for HD was putting the finishing touches on a stand out '14 twin live in the flesh this year in downtown Sturgis. Always cool watching him do his thing. He is a true master of his craft. You may recall he striped the Bonnepan last year at the rally. Ray and I work together on joint design business between FMC and H-D and have become good friends which is why I can post a pic like the last one there. Sorry Ray, I could not resist. Love you brother!

The bike itself has a great story behind it. It's been in the same family since 1915 and at Sturgis every year since the early eighties. Stay tuned for more info on the bike and the individuals in the group photo.

"Kick" Start

11.5/1 compression, 99degree heat and a black full-leather racing suit = bad conditions for a manual start so this year Dennis Baker donated his brand new roller starter to our team for Speed Week. It worked like a champ and I never broke a leg or a sweat. Thanks again Dennis!

Nice Dreams.

Found this bad little blown chop in the basement of the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum. Wrote the builders name down and of course misplaced it. Bet one of you knows who birthed it. Love it!

Robbie Knights in Panascope! #2

Val!

Marcel counting his blessings. Wauseon 2010.

Sturgis PT1 - The AMD Bike Show

This shot captured my kid in the candy store moment when I first walked in.

Not sure if this knuck actually flexed in the middle or not but the super skinny proportions I dug.

Low, long and fat.

Gordon and Minna from Switzerland with their beautifully turned out panhead.

Dual BLOWN! Ural motors. I could see this one on the salt for sure.

Cool details everywhere you look.

What looks like wooden spokes are actually late model Road Glide wheels dolled up with a little paint. Not my first choice in the aesthetic department but at least someone is out of the box and creating something different which make sit cool.

I'm so hungry I could eat this petcock.

Slippery when wet.

My first stop in Sturgis was the AMD bike show pre-party. We were able to slide in the door thanks to Gordon and Minna who were invited to show their killer panhead chopper (first pic above). There were a lot of bikes from around the globe on hand. I think your bike had to win a show in it's original country to be invited to Sturgis for the final competition. Some of the bikes displayed feats of engineering and styling that left you really scratching your head to be honest, as in "why?" But I guess that's what makes a show bike a show bike. Just give me a perfectly proportioned bobber or chopper like Minna's and I'm a happy camper.

Bonneville - This Years Attack!

Day 1 - minutes after driving onto the salt. Inspection went smooth, then we set up our pit area and relaxed for the night at the annual Hop-Up magazine party.

Day 2 - Early in the morning prior to our first run. Greg was handling crew chief duties at this point which allowed me to concentrate on the run itself. Only about 80 degress.

Day 2 - just after the first run - 124mph. We were very optimistic at this point. The rear portion of the fender had broken loose just like last year even though we had beefed it all up. Fine, we will go without it. We decided to run a little richer jet and do some other minor tweeks. MotoGuru and Greg dial her in while I bask in the thought of things to come. The bike ran like a freight train - I was stoked since I had only babied her along to shake her down a little.

Day 2 - 96 degrees. About to roll on my second run. After pulling like a raped ape up through 3rd gear and the 2 mile mark, I jammed it into 4th gear and buried the throttle to the stop, tucked in and hung on for life. At about 125mph I felt a slight fault in the acceleration and looked down at the motor which was now spraying oil all over my right boot and leg. I pushed the kill switch a glided to the return road safety area. Once static it did not look good. Oil was everywhere so it was impossible to see what happened - time to get back to the pit.

Day 2 (a little later) - Greg and I cleaned up the motor and found a fractured oil return line which explained the mess - no big deal there. We still had no idea why we lost so much power - until I pulled the plugs and found the rear one without a head! In the pic above I'm handing the headless plug to Greg seconds after I found it. It had been completely burned away. Not good. Further inspection revealed a hole about the size of a pencil erasure in the rear piston at it's center. Game over. 5 Minutes later we were packing up the truck for the ride home. We had been on the salt less than 24 hours at this point. It took the rest of the day to pack everything back up, get the truck, trailer and bike to the car wash for a major spray down, deal with the hotel people, have a huge dinner with the entire crew and celebrate into the wee hours of the morning. What we were celebrating I have no idea but we did all have a hell of a good night with special guest star Camilo Pardo which made the night even more surreal.

Yesterday in Detroit - We tore the motor down at Lurch's place and found this. During the original engine build (before Lurch was involved) a lot of material had been removed from the inside (top) of the piston to reduce reciprocating weight on the crank shaft. You'll notice from the pic above there was less than 1/8 inch of material at the top of the dome! Note to self - Don't do this again.

So how did we do out there? It's a long story but here is the gist. We made two passes at 124MPH each time. The fastest (stock) vintage Harley went a 121 prior to our runs. So we are able to claim that the Bonnepan is tops in that department which is pretty cool. Unfortunately we did not get the record due to a strange decision by the SCTA crew that allowed a Vincent that was "re-manufactured" from the ground up (including re-engineering of the entire bike that made "Improvements in the original design to iron out it's faults" including recasting the engine cases and cylinder heads (!) according to their website) to compete in the Vintage class along with us? Oh well that's racing. We still had a BLAST out there!

McQueen Monday

Our Daily Sled #186

Yes Please!!!!

The Ride West - continued

After cruising along back country two laners for the first two days of the ride to Sturgis I started getting the itch to cover some big ground fast so we jumped on the interstate in South Dakota and beat it west in a hurry. The modern big twin we borrowed is lovely for counting the corn fields at a relaxed pace but it is especially well set up for charging down the super slab at 90+ MPH which is exactly were I left the cruise control for most of the final day. By early evening we made it to the Badlands and decided to stop and take a peek...