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Posts Tagged ‘Indian’

Motorcycle TV: What’s In The Barn

Posted: February 25, 2014 in Motorcycle TV
Tags: Harley, Harley Davidson, Indian, Motorcycle, vintage motorcycle

I ran across a new motorcycle related TV Show, Velocity channels “What’s In The Barn”. Evidently this series premiered last summer; I must have missed it while I was out riding. LOL

Based on what I watched and what I read on their website the show is primarily about the “Wheels Through Time” motorcycle museum and it curator, Dale Walksler, search for vintage motorcycles. I have not been to the museum yet myself, but it is on my list of things to do.

The first show I watched “A Motorcycle Crime Story” was quite interesting. If you have ever been to a motorcycle rally or read a motorcycle magazine you are aware that the museum raffles off a motorcycle every year to help cover their operating costs. This episode begins with the build of the 2013 raffle bike coming to a halt due to a lack of rare, vintage parts, in this case a cateye dashboard that Harley produced for one year only.

Mr. Walksler sets off to Illinois to get the part from a guy that has the barns full of old parts he purchased from a family whose mother and fathers were killed by members of the Outlaws MC, thus the title. He also has a side trip that involves him getting an original 1970’s Arlen Ness chopper.

The most interesting show was “12 Hours and Running”, they started 120 vintage motorcycles in 12 hours. There was some really old bikes in this bunch including Pierce, Excelsior, Henderson, Crocker as well as Harley and Indians. It is cool and amazing that they have a museum full of running, functional old bike!

While parts of the show are “cheesy” over all it is well laid out and well put together. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Washington DC International Motorcycle Show 2014

Posted: January 14, 2014 in Motorcycle
Tags: Café Racer, Ducati, Harley, Harley Davidson, Indian, Motorcycle, sport bike, victory

International Motorcycle Show

I went to the show (Debbie had to work again) with my friends Tim, Karma and their daughter McKenzie. We got a bit of a late morning start but got lucky with the metro (subway) and made to the show at about eleven AM.

The show was held at its now normal location, the DC convention center. The last time I had attended the event was two years ago so I was looking forward to seeing new products and get any cool swag. One note of interest was that attendance was free for military, with ID cards, but Deb had bought my ticket as a Christmas gift before we knew of the discount….oh well.

Progressive Insurance is the major sponsor of the event and their area was front and almost center to the entrance. They and an old school electric slot car race track setup for people to race in order to earn a t-shirt. We did not race but the race track was cool. OH, Flo was not there.

In addition to the major manufactures there were a lot of vendors but, I do not think there were as many as the last time I attended. The crowd was about the same, it was a nice turn out on a wet, rainy day.

The only disappointment for me was in the helmet area, I am looking for a new modular (flip-up) helmet to replace the Fulmer that I currently own. My Fulmer’s locking latch broke and is over five years old, it needs to be replaced. I am interested in the Nolan 104 and was hoping to check it out at the show but no one had the Nolan helmets.

2014 Honda Valkyrie

We took a good look at the new Indian bikes, they are nice! I was surprised to see that they are using a mono-shock on the rear end (see pic below). There were a lot of folks swirling around the Indian booth which made it hard to take good pictures but also indicated that there was real interest in the bikes.

I also looked though the Victory, Honda, Yamaha and Ducati venues. The new models for those bikes were out and had a lot of interest from the crowds. The Honda area was very packed with bikes. Because of how close they were to each other and with the crowd of people it was almost impossible to get a picture. The Honda that was getting the most attention, at least when I walked though, was the Valkyrie.

After we were done with the show we headed back to Tim’s and Karma’s house. When we got off the metro the consensus was to go to Chili’s for lunch…this was where the most interesting part of the day occurred!

As we were walking into the restaurant a guy was coming out and asked Tim for a smoke, to which he replied “Sorry, we don’t smoke.” At that the guy became belligerent and started yelling and cussing at Tim. This guy was a bit on the big, solid size and I thought he might be trying to start something. I moved to the right of the two of them, I was placing myself in a position to jump in if the guy made a move, it was very clear that he had been drinking….or something! Luckily for him (it would not have been a fair fight) he chose to move on.

When we went into the restaurant we found out that they had just refused him service because he was causing problems. But, even with that we had a good day with friends and motorcycles!