Cheap Chopper

The weather here in the great white north remains very winter-like. Though the ice houses are all off the river, the ice-road between Minnesota and Wisconsin in still in use. Personally, I like to wait and watch some much bigger (and heavier) pickup truck cross without incident before venturing out. What all of this really means of course is that it’s waaaaaay to cold to ride motorcycles, which is too bad as I’m really Jonesing for a motorcycle ride. I do get to go to Daytona Beach in a week, but without my motorcycle I’m afraid.

The cold weather keeps us inside, and makes it harder to find an excuse for not working. The fact that we are a little behind on some pending projects is just one more reason to take advantage of the weather and spend a few extra hours in front of the Sony monitor attached by umbilical chord to my laptop.

At the top of the list is How To Build the Ultimate V-Twin Motorcycle. This re-print of an earlier book goes to the printer today, and we should have books early in March.

Ultimate V-Twin Motorcycles was one of our first books, and we’re bringing it back. Finished copies should be here in 2 weeks.

Next up are two, tattoo books: American Tattoos, a series of start-to-finish tattoo sequences; and Tattoo Sketch book, a collection of sketches from Jim Watson of Superior Tattoo fame.

Filled with tattoo sequences shot in a variety of shops, American Tattoos is one of 2 new tattoo books due out late in April.

We will likely print two additional books at the same time we print the tattoo books: one is the re-print of How to Build a Cheap Chopper. Cheap Choppers, and bobbers, never go out of style. Which means that demand for our Cheap Chopper book is pretty consistent from year to year. The last of the books to be included in this batch is Kevin Baas’ revised Old Skool Bobber book, which includes a new wiring chapter and two new assembly sequences.

Cheap is cool and so are choppers and bobbers – thus the demand for out Cheap Chopper book remains steady. Which is a good thing

Networking is the buzz-word in every business article written in every magazine and newspaper of late. If you wanna sell more stuff, if you want success, if you don’t want to go out of business like so many companies have in the last few years, you need to network! That isn’t why we’ve forged a relationship with Keith Ball of Bikernet.com fame, but at the same time I think our little networking experiment will benefit both companies.

We’ve added our Wolfgang books to Keith’s “Shop,” located within the Bikernet website. And we’re working with Bikernet to promote both his books, and ours.

Bikernet and Wolfgang have decided to work together to bring bikers a wider range of motorcycle books.

At Wolfgang, we tend toward what might be called hard-core, nuts-and-bolts books. How-to Build a Choppper, V-Twin Maintenance, etc., etc. Keith, on the other hand, likes biker fiction. Harbor Town Seduction is his latest foray into this genre, and it promises to be as gritty as any classic western or detective book. According to a recent review: “The cover says it all, murder treachery and too many women at every turn! Chance is the name of the main character in the first of Bandit’s new series of Chance Hogan novels… this new novel is a wild ride from start to finish. There are more sex scenes than a six hour porno tape with some wild motorcycle rides and a couple of shootouts to boot. And the sex scenes are dirty, I mean really dirty…”

Though published a few years back, Wolfgang’s Cheap Chopper book still fills a need for anyone trying to build a bike that’s both unique and inexpensive.

So if you’re bored with nuts and bolts, with paint mixing ratios and torque specs, just click on over to Bikernet.com, and check out the huge selection of stuff, including some very entertaining biker fiction.

Think of the best detective novels, complete with the big city as a setting, and insert your favorite biker types. Fiction meant for high brow bikers like you and me. Special pricing starts this Thursday, 4/7/10.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Panhead book, written by Rick Schunk, walks the reader through all parts of a restoration, from the wiring to repair of the Pan-heads. How to Airbrush Pin-Ups, available from either Wolfgang or ArtKulture, provides seven start-to-finish pin-up painting sequences as a means or explaining exactly what it takes to create a beautiful, sexy pin-up. Each photo sequence is done with a professional airbrush artist, and each one has something unique to say about creating the image, mixing paint, and the best use of color.

Panheads might be more popular now than they were when new. Restore yours with help from our newest restoration book. With airbrushing sequences from people like Edward Reed, Steve Driscoll and Susan Heidi, the How To Airbrush Pin-Ups book brings a wealth of information and experience to each reader.

Good Sales in a Poor Economy

I recently took a look at book sales through August, and the results were somewhat surprising. Two of our best, most consistent sellers, are books that are anything but brand new. Advance Tattoo Art from 2006, a book that’s primarily tattooing sequences, continues to sell well and create good royalty payments for the author, Doug Mitchel.

Though published in 2006, Advance Tattoo Art is still selling very well through the big book chains.

In a completely different category, How to Build a Cheap Chopper from 2004 just kind of plugs along like a good annuity. The income is great of course, but it’s equally great to know that people are still interested in building bikes at home – a trend that many of us thought died when the economy went in the tank.

It’s nice to know that people are still building Bobbers and Choppers at home with help from this early Wolfgang book.