NEW PRODUCTS

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:52:46 -0700

M-C Wiring Jeff Zielinski is an old friend and the man you see behind the NAMZ booth in Cincinnati or the vendor area in Sturgis. NAMZ is the go-to company for any kind of electrical components you might need while assembling a custom V-Twin motorcycle. From flexible antennas to Deutsche connectors, Jeff has the products you need for that motorcycle project. He’s also a wealth of information when it comes to wiring, most of the wiring diagrams in recent Wolfgang books are compliments of Jeff. Jeff is so proficient with the wiring diagrams and so good at explaining the best way to put together your own harness, that we’ve convinced him to write a book for us. Advanced Custom Motorcycle Wiring will debut this summer. Designed both for Harley-Davidson owners who want to customize their bikes, and anyone building a bike from scratch, this book contains wiring diagrams for both the factory bikes and any custom machine that you might want to construct. Jeff also walks the reader through issues like basic DC electrical theory, charging and starting circuits, whether or not to build your own harness, and how much battery you need to reliably start that 124 inch engine. If wiring is the one job you also farm-out to someone else, pick up a copy of Jeff’s book and do the work yourself. Anyone building a Chopper or Bobber, or just fixing up an old Softail, will find this new book extremely useful. Chevillac: Another Doug Thompson beauty,
this Chevillac started as a 1950 Chevy, before Doug added the Caddy taillights and Imperial
grille. Additional work includes extended front
fenders, chopped top and a long sculptured
line that serves as both a subtlecolor break
and an accent that helps to make the car
look longer and lower than it really is. Hirohata Mercury: Doug Thompson built
the "Hirohata Mercury" in tribute to the
original car. George Barris was so impressed
when he saw the car that he gave Doug a
pair of Barris crests for placement on the
front fenders. Jack Walker is the
current owner of the Merc. Road Trip Number Three On Monday, the 23rd of February, I pulled out early in the AM driving the trusty Ranger with the trailer in tow, headed south just ahead of an approaching snow storm. The V-6 isn’t entirely happy pulling the trailer, especially in head winds, but in spite of that I managed to make good time between Stillwater and Kansas City. By 4:00 O’clock I was enjoying the company of two old friends, Doug and Nita Thompson, who live in a small town just south of Kansas City, Missouri. During my earlier life as co-publisher and editor of a regional Hot Rod magazine, Midwest Rod & Machine, I often crossed paths with Doug and Nita as they traveled the custom car circuit. A very talented automotive artist, Doug is the man who built the re-creation of the Hirohata Mercury long before the original car was discovered and restored. The famous Merc is only the best known of numerous Doug Thompson creations. Instead of restoring and building old cars, Doug and Nita currently spend their time restoring an old building from the early 1900s, and building interest and support for the county historical museum. T-bird: Gary Chitwood’s T-bird photographed
at the Sloss Iron Works in Birmingham, Ala. Saturday morning found me heading south again, this time to Birmingham, Alabama, home to Gary Chitwood, the man who knows more about old Triumph motorcycles than nearly anyone else. Gary is also the man who restores most of the Triumphs owned by Bobby Sullivan, (and co-author of a Triumph restoration book due out from Wolfgang this fall). Birmingham is coincidentally the home of a Sullivan warehouse, managed by none other than Mr. Chitwood. The warehouse is full to the brim with helmets and motorcycle clothing, except for a certain small shop-area at the rear where Gary spends his free time wrenching on old Thunderbirds and Bonnevilles. Gary and I spent Sunday photographing Triumphs for Wolfgang’s next Classic Triumph Calendar. With my hard drive full of images and my belly still bulging from dinner and drinks the night before, I left on Monday morning bound for Pine Island, Florida. Pine Island is just offshore from Ft. Myers and near the better known Sanibel and Captiva islands. It’s also one of the last pieces of coastal real estate in Florida that hasn’t been buried under concrete. But I digress. My day on the road was pretty uneventful, except for one little unforeseen event, best explained by the photo below. Unforeseen Event: The bad news, I blew a
tire on the trailer. The good news, the tire store
was located at the top of the first exit. Pine Island, home to another Triumph collector, represents another chance to shoot bikes for our 2008 calendar. After arriving at the green isle I met up with Randy Baxter from Baxter Cycle in Iowa, and together we made plans to photograph the nicest of the Triumphs there. During our three days on the island we met a long list of helpful locals, most of whom either are retired or on vacation. There was only one crabby lady who threatened to call the cops because we were apparently trespassing, even though the bike we were photographing sat squarely on public land? We managed to avoid the gendarmes long enough to do the final photo shoot on Thursday morning. Which meant I had the rest of the day to visit friends who winter nearby, and enjoy a couple of cool ones at Bert’s Bar, a very funky, fun place. For the next set of photos we moved up to Mt. Dora, located in central Florida, south and west of Daytona. Once again we crossed paths with a long list of interesting folks, including a retired ATF agent and the city administrator. The agent, a motorcycle nut in his own right, owns a very nice piece of property with some ideal settings for old-motorcycle photography. Equally helpful, the city administrator gave us his business card and carte blanche to use the local town square as backdrop for our photos (Randy Baxter called this our “get out of jail free card”). Saturday morning found me headed north to Daytona Beach. The change in this event can best be described by explaining that I was able to drive down Atlantic Avenue and take my pick of the motels, all of which had Vacancy signs illuminated out front. Not so many years ago you made your reservations months in advance or else settled for some dumpy shit-hole well off the beaten path. How much of the downturn in Daytona’s numbers is the result of an overall softness in the motorcycle market and how much of it is the result of people staying “up north” closer to Destination Daytona is anyone’s guess. I only know that Daytona ain’t like it used to be. Iron Horse Fun: If you can’t have fun at the
Iron Horse, there’s something definitely wrong
- with you. Smokin': Hard to tell if the smoke is from a
burn out or the abundant food booths. Daytona: It’s all the same as before, just bigger. Daytona: What can I say? Which is not to say that Daytona sucks. In fact, it’s hard not to have fun in Daytona, especially when the “to do” list includes a visit to Mike Corbin’s new facility near Destination Daytona. Considering I was in the neighborhood, it made sense to visit the new Destination and certain nearby waterin’ holes. Many Daytona’s ago I spent the week running a photo booth at the Iron Horse Saloon with my partner Mikey, and I’m pleased to say the place really hasn’t changed much. It’s bigger, but the overall sense of abundant energy and good times is still pretty overpowering. One of the world’s best Biker Bars, the Iron Horse starts with live bands and cold drinks early in the day. By noon on Saturday the band convinced the early revelers to put down their Budweisers long enough to do some dancin’. The Porchdogs, with their unique blend of bluegrass and southern rock an’ roll, helped remind all of us not only how to dance, but why we hauled our motorcycles all the way to Florida for God’s sake. I also made the mandatory stop on Main Street, and like the Iron Horse, it was hard to tell anyone forgot to come to Daytona. The bars, the bike, the people, it looked like Daytona has always looked. Main Street: Looking at Main Street it
was hard to spot any missing participants. Enjoying: quality time on Main Street. Unfortunately, my to-do list also included a long list of items to do back at the office (like this blog). So after dinner with author Doug Mitchell on Monday, I left on Tuesday morning, bound for Nashville. This Music City is home not only to the Grand Old Opry, but also Anderson Studios, a silk-screening operation run by Andy and Sherri Anderson. When he’s not designing art for T-shirts, Andy is in the basement painting motorcycles. I don’t believe Andy does it for the money, I believe Andy paints bikes simply because he loves custom motorcycles (sound familiar?). Wednesday proved to be one of those long driving days. By 10:00 PM when I rolled into the driveway, I swore I’d never drive to Florida again, especially with a trailer. That was over a week ago though and the pain in my back from sitting for thirteen hours is long gone. All I ask for next year is a little more horsepower and a bigger gas tank!