Tattoo

Not on the Road
This last month found me hanging around Stillwater, MN, instead of jet-setting off to Massachusetts or California. We just finished work on the Tattoo book mentioned above, and the Shadley Bros. book, How to Fix American V-Twin Motorcycles. In between lots of work, I’ve been dreaming motorcycle dreams, and making plans for the old Hot Rod (more later). We all know that Baggers, with the possible exception of the newest models, have an issue with high-speed stability. So even though it was two degrees outside this morning, I made plans to install the Ultra Ride stabilizer link that I purchased from Keith Terry of Terry Components fame last summer. Someday the snow and ice will disappear and when they do, I want to be ready to ride.

Speaking of riding season, I was in the No Name Saloon in Prescott, Wisconsin the other night, and people were talking about the Flood Ride. This is our annual spring “first big ride” ritual – thousands of loosely organized bikes following the river road south from the area around Stillwater, Minnesota and Hudson, Wisconsin, to points south. How far south is up to the individual, but it’s definitely the first big ride of the year. It’s unlikely I will need the stabilizer link for the Flood Ride, simply because there are very few opportunities for high speed cruising amidst all the two-wheeled traffic.

The J Bird
I know, you’re tired of sheet metal pictures that show micro-amounts of progress, month by month. So this time I give you linkage pictures. It’s like this: the new tunnel will block access to the kick-down lever on the old Torqueflite transmission, and it makes way more sense to install some kick-down linkage now, before we weld in the tunnel.

The parts, manufactured by Lokar, came from local street rod vendor, Twin City Rod & Custom, Ed had everything in stock and even showed me photos of how the kit installed in his personal street rod.

A swaying rearend may be a good thing - if you’re a blonde on the dance floor. For those of us who ride Baggers, the swaying rearend is a bad thing, which is why I plan to install the Ultra Ride from Terry Components.

Sold by Lokar, the two cables and bracket are designed to replace the standard throttle and kick down linkage.

New Book - Body Painting

Next up is Body Painting. This close up and personal look at the art of dressing beautiful women in nothing more than paint, is now available. While standing at a biker event a few years ago, a friend and I got to commenting on how tight the women wore their jeans (not that I'm complaining). We got to calling it "spray denim," because we couldn't figure out how they could actually slide into those jeans. Well, it turns out this new book is just full of real "spray denim."

You might wonder, what does Body Painting have to do with motorcycles and hot rods? Not a damned thing. It's all part of Wolfgang's attempt to try out some new categories. Speaking of books that don't have much to do with motorcycles, we have another airbrush book on the way. Airbrushing 101 contains 10, start-to finish painting sequences, done with mostly water-based paint. This is a departure for us, as most of our other airbrush books are really motorcycle or hot rod books in disguise, and all the paints are either urethanes or automotive enamels.

Calendars
We’ve produced the Classic Triumph calendar, as well as the Sturgis Best calendar, for over ten years now. The Classic Triumph calendar will be available by the end of August from Baxter Cycle and Motorbooks.com. We also will be producing the Dave Perewitz calendar this year under a slightly different name. Instead of calling it Sturgis' Best Customs with bikes by Dave Perewitz, we are simply calling it Perewitz' Best Customs. The format of beautiful bikes nicely photographed will continue. Copies will be available in September at the Perewitz shop, Kryptonite locks, B&B Racing and Boston Harley-Davidson, and some PPG dealers. At Wolfgang we sometimes get small numbers of printer's extras, and these will be available on our web site until we run out. Check out our calendar page for more details.
On the Road Again
This time of year the road leads to Sturgis. And for once I did not spend my week chasing David Perewitz and his band of merry misfits, trying to photograph nine bikes for the Sturgis' Best calendar. Per the mention above, we've decided to take the word "Sturgis" out of the calendar title, and let someone else do most of the shooting back in Massachusetts.

So instead of getting up with the roosters for that perfect first light, I enjoyed the comfort of my bed until at least 7:00 AM. The rest of the day was spent cruising the hills and hangin' with friends. On Wednesday I took my wife Mary to the Rapid City airport in the truck, then took gravel roads straight north until I managed to intersect with Highway 34 near the 'Chip. In this way I was able to enjoy some very nice prairie scenery, and avoid the standard horrendous Sturgis traffic (even in a bad year there are traffic jams).

The reason for sneaking into Sturgis the back way was to attend the first annual Dave Perewitz Custom Bike Paint show. The show, at the Thunder dome, included a whole raft of great bikes, and an appearance by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame. The Dome is also home to Micheal Lichter's art show, a constant stream of good musicians, and some very good looking bartenders!

From the Thunder Dome I made my way to the Sturgis Drag Strip, where I spent the balance of the afternoon watching the AHDRA bikes run the 1/8th Mile. The bikes included everything from stock looking Baggers to the long and wickedly beautiful fuel bikes. I'd forgotten just how much raw energy there is at the strip.

The first Dave Perewitz Custom Bike PAINT show saw lots of great bikes in attendance.