Scooter Grubb

The Dirty Dogg is positioned in the least likely spot you can imagine for a biker bar. Imagine a rowdy biker bar in a mall. Now imagine that the mall is in Scottsdale, Arizona, amidst a sea of Mercedes and very high-end shops and real estate. Yes, that’s exactly where the Dirty Dogg is situated. And the location doesn’t seem to hurt the attendance one bit. In fact the infamous Bean’re, the man with no permanent address, reported that they ordered beer for the week according to last year’s numbers – and ran out on Thursday.

The infamous Bean’re, doing what he does best – make people smile.

The staff at the Dogg included Jack Shit as MC, and Bean’re as the head of the party. Not the republican or democratic party, but the party at the Dogg. Like any good biker bar, the Dogg offers abundant alcohol and a good rock ‘n roll band. And if that doesn’t light your fire, there are the bar maids dancing on the bar, including one especially talented maid who swings from the rafters with the grace of an Olympic gymnast.

Master of Ceremonies his-self, Jack Shit, holding court at the Dogg.

What brought me to the Dirty Dogg in the first place was Arizona Bike Week, seven days of two wheeled exuberance located in and around Phoenix. By all accounts, this year’s event was better organized and attended than AZ Bike Weeks past. When I went to WestWorld – the official epicenter for the event - on Friday night in hopes of catching the Heart concert I couldn’t even get under the enormous tent, and finding a beer was a lengthy prospect at best.

As John Anderson would say: “We were swingin’” – and by one leg no less.

On Saturday I started the day with my team of finely trained journalists, Scooter Grubb and Ernie Mulholland, at the other gotta-go-to Bike Week Bar, the Hideaway in Cave Creek. We even put up a rack with Sturgis books and found out again that bars are not the idea spot to sell books, even a book as fine as our Sturgis 70th Anniversary book.

Our sales manager Ernie, hard at work on the patio at the Hideaway.

The other lesson I took away from the long arduous hours spent selling and hangin’ out in various Phoenix waterin’ holes is the well known fact that no one has more fun than bikers. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Dirty Dogg, the Hideaway or your local spot, anytime you put ten or twenty riders in the same building or patio, you’re bound to have a party.

Book Progress

Kay, our sales rep for the printing company located in Brainerd, Minnesota, tells me that all four of the books currently in production should be finished by this Friday. Cheap Chopper (a re-print), and American Tattoo, will come off press on Wednesday, while Tattoo Sketch Book and the revised Build An Old Skool Bobber book by Kevin Baas, will be done later in the week.

Which means all the back orders, especially those for Kevin’s book, will go out sometime next week. It also means that this is the last week you can buy that book for only $17.95.

So keep buying, keep riding, and keep having fun like only bikers can.

One man’s view of the patio at the Hideaway.

The St. Croix River Valley seems to be a nexus for book publishers. Especially books with a motor-head bent. North of us is Osceola, Wisconsin, the original home to Motorbooks, now owned by Quayside. And just south of us and across the river is Hudson, Wisconsin, home to Iconografix, which just happens to be owned in part by Tom Warth, the man who originally founded Motorbooks.

Iconografix publishes everything from books about fire engines and grand prix cars, to books about drag racing. One of their newest titles might be of interest to our readers. Harley-Davidson Drag Racing is a series of photo essays done by Scooter Grubb, a man who is very, very handy with a camera and a telephoto lens.

Filled with awesome photography, this new book is available from enthusiastbooks.com, or the AHDRA web site.

This new book is 144 pages of everything from the Softail raced by your neighbor, to the Top Fuel bike campaigned by professional and well-funded teams.

Scooter Grubb, author of a Bonneville book and contributor to many blogs and magazines, is the ideal author for a book like this. Shot at All Harley Drag Race Association events, Scooter’s photos take the reader into the pits, where mechanics hustle to get the bikes ready for the next round, and track officials work to keep the event running as smoothly as possible.

So take a look at the Iconografix site (enthusiastbooks.com), and see if this new Harley-Davidson Drag Racing book isn’t something that belongs on the shelf at your house.

The man on the other end of these great photographs is Scooter Grubb, internationally famous motor-sports photographer.