2009 Buell 1125CR Sneak Peek

Buell Inside Pass attendees got more than just a glimpse of the 2009 models, they were able to hop on and play moto-journo for a day. Your brand loyalty and enthusiasm created great privilege that day. Privileges usually reserved for the press had to take the back seat while you folks got to rip up the asphalt.

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Harley's 105th Anniversary Party

There was no way to determine just how many visitors came to Milwaukee for the four-day event. Harley-Davidson pre-sold 125,000 passes to get into many of the scheduled events. But tens of thousands of riders came to town even without those passes to enjoy many of the free events and venues. The Chamber of Commerce reported that over 20,000 hotel nights were purchased just in Milwaukee, and it was reported that you couldn’t find a hotel room within 40 miles of town. I met several people who were staying in suburban Chicago, which is located 60 miles to the south. Having attended the 100th Anniversary party five years ago, I can say that this year’s event was much larger, and I’d estimate that there were at least 200,000 bikes in the area, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that number turned out to be 250,000. And trying to get to Miller Park for the HOG rally, it seemed like all 200,000 odd bikes were in front of me trying to get into the stadium parking lot.

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2008 Sturgis Coverage

But this year I had the time, and MO gave me the desire and a new test bike to get there, plus a campsite to use when I got there. I heard it was one of the 10 places to go before you die. I was a bit skeptical about that. I was commissioned to ride to Sturgis, camp at the Broken Spoke Campground, ride back home, take 8 days to do it, and tell all the MO faithful how it went. So how was Sturgis, you ask? Well, before I go forward with that, I will go backward a bit.

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2008 L.A. Calendar Bike Show

It was mid-July, the sun cooking up a barbecue, and I was invited to the grill which happened to be located in Long Beach, CA, specifically at the Queen Mary and the site of the annual L.A. Calendar Bike Show.

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Broken Spoke Campground

Described as a “Museum that serves Beer,” the Broken Spoke Saloon is steeped in nostalgia and features an enormous collection of motorcycle memorabilia, including dozens of vintage machines, some nearly 80 years old.

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2008 R1/R6 Forum East Coast Convention

This past June McCoy Motorsports once again hosted what has become an annual retreat for Yamaha enthusiasts devoted to the tuning fork company’s performance-leading R1 and R6 motorcycles. It was, in fact, the sixth consecutive year for the Forum convention with approximately 200 R1 and R6 riders descending on southern Appalachia to attend.

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Summer of Scootin'

The Vespa, a cute little competition-orange thing with a spare tire riding on its rear-end like an Victorian dress bustle, was a loaner from a buddy named Augie, an ex-cabbie who had migrated from Chicago to Tinsel Town in quest of an acting career. He and his wife Alba used to trundle around Hollywood on the scooter and then got a car and offered me the scooter. Although the 150cc Single only managed about 6 horsepower and a spritely max speed of 58 mph, it did have a range of 230 miles and sipped gas.

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Joe's Garage Vintage Auction Wrap-up

Up on the podium, big screens flashed the latest item to come up for bid at the Joe’s Garage/MacPherson Collection auction held recently in Tustin, CA. The RM Auction guys were loving it as the two deep-pocket collectors fired salvo after salvo up at the guy holding the gavel. When the smoke cleared the two guys took home several motorized “toys” after spending some seven figures like it was their lunch money. Meanwhile I was at the sandwich bar counting my nickels to see if I could afford the turkey sandwich at eight bucks.

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Historic Vintage Bike Auction Preview

Little did Mr. Willis imagine that 100 years in the future people would be flying in jumbo jets to Los Angeles, some maybe even from Fort Worth, to enjoy the pleasures of motorcycles. And in the process leave some big chunks of change and return home with some even larger hunks of precious metal. Case in point, the upcoming June 12, 2008 auction of some 20 antique and vintage American motorcycles (not to mention another 50 radical automobiles and several dozen items of memorable memorabilia). The event takes place at a facility in Tustin, CA called Joe’s Garage, a combination garage/museum/event center built by Orange County car dealership magnate Joe MacPherson who passed away last year, his garage closing its doors this past January and now preparing to send its contents to other garages around the country and probably around the world.

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2008 Legend of the Motorcycle Concours D'Elegance

The formula developed by founders Jared Zaugg and Brooke Roner remained unchanged for this third year – there's no point in arguing with success – and drew thousands of visitors and nearly 300 bikes for a celebration of the history and future of two-wheeled motion. Taken together, the motorcycles entered in the Concours d'Elegance competition, just on display, or to be auctioned that evening by Bonhams and Butterfields, provided an eye-popping buffet on golf-green grass and in the elegant rooms of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

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2008 Bike Week Wrap-Up

Fears and worries about an economic downturn have touched the motorcycling world in the same way that it has permeated every other aspect of American life. The numbers tell that bike sales are down across the board. Projections for the upcoming season predict no improvements. Dealerships with new showrooms and stockpiled inventory are looking for ways to tighten their belt, to downsize, to weather the expected storm.

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Bike Week Vintage Road Racing

They arrive in their own style as well; Harley Knuckleheads with sidecars, four-cylinder Hendersons, 100,000-mile BMWs and motorcycles that look like they haven’t been cleaned since they were manufactured in the 1940s. For pit bikes, they ride Honda TL trials motorcycles. Without a doubt, vintage road racers and fans are unlike any other in the world.

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Easyriders V-Twin Bike Show Tour

Since I was the Editor of Hot Bike magazine eons ago and later one of the Eds at Easyriders, I’ve heard the debate about the “bubble bursting,” the wags wagging about how the Great Surge (or Splurge) of bike building and bike sales had to come to an thumping, roadrash of an end. For years the bubble grew and showed no signs of collapse.  Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes paled in strength so it seemed. The motorcycle industry and with it custom bikes was part of our living/breathing/replicating lifestyle. It would not go the way of the dinosaur, unless we did.

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Hansen Dam Show and Ride

The herd of Triumph, Matchless, AJS, Greeves, Norton, Ariel, BSA, Velocette and Vincents was joined by an international gaggle of Italian, German, American, Spanish, and French classics as well as a posse of brand new swoopy sportbikes and several full-blown mega-buck custom Harleys, not to forget sidecar rigs that showed up to take part in the non-partisan, ride-what-you-brung 28th Annual Hansen Dam Ride, aka The Best Ride by a Damside.

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32nd Annual El Camino Bike Show

In any case, here I was perched precariously atop the multi-story parking lot of L.A.’s El Camino College as the heavens barfed upon us in apocalyptic volumes. What gods had we offended? Thor, Vulcan? We even saw their namesake bikes hunkering under the monsoon-like downpour.  Rarely seen SoCal rain clouds, dark and stormy, belched buckets on our little group crowded like sardines under one of those pop-up blue vinyl canopies. Huddling beneath that 8x8-ft. square of dryness were some of the rarest of bike collectors. Not bikes. Bike collectors. The bikes were outside being treated to the ultimate car wash whether they liked it or not.

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Love Ride 24

Love Ride 24 will be remembered as a milestone chapter in what is widely known as “the largest one-day fundraising event in motorcycling.” Held in Southern California each November, Love Ride attracts tens of thousands of riders taking part with the sole purpose of raising money for children’s charities. In a major departure from past Love Rides, this year’s event has become intimately entwined with the first annual, California Bike Week, held November 9th through the 11th.

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Biketoberfest!

So what’s the appeal that draws upwards of 100,000 motorcyclists to the World’s Most Famous Beach every fall? The same thing that will bring them back for Bike Week the following March, then send them on to Myrtle Beach, Laconia, Sturgis and all the rest: a good time!

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Two-Stroke Extravaganza

But where there’s smoke there’s often fire-breathing bikes, and that was the case recently at the 10th Annual Two-Stroke Extravaganza held at Woodley Park in the Los Angeles area. There was, you could say, a symphony (some would say cacophony) of bikes with letters for names: RD, RG, RZV, TZ. There were Singles, Twins, Triples, Fours – the full smorgasbord of hi-revving two-strokers included several “non-filtered” racers, home-grown hybrids and totally stock 1960-1990 show bikes, many meticulously restored.

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Femmoto 2007

Looks can be deceiving, and despite the cold windy morning on Saturday, the girls of Femmoto suited up and got the job done with style and grace. By mid-afternoon, the wind had stopped and the girls’ dance cards were only partially complete, as this year’s event spanned two women-only demo riding days for the first time. This six-year-old event is organized by the ultra-friendly Bonnie Strawser and Monte Lutz of SportbikeTrackTime.com.

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BMW Motorrad Days

Answer: BMW Motorrad Days, held annually in the gloriously quaint ski area of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, host of the 1936 Winter Olympics.

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Bikes of the Blitzkrieg

The photograph seen below, perhaps taken by a comrade in arms, identifies them as members of a motorcycle rifle troop thanks to the license plate left on the grave along with the carefully placed wildflowers. The license plate was once attached to the front fender of their Zundapp, NSU or BMW motorcycle.

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2007 MotoClassica

MotoClassica is a weekend chock full of just about everything the vintage road bike enthusiast could want in one-stop shopping. Spawned from a mutual love of and desire to ride, race and just plain show up and enjoy vintage road bikes with friends, Yoshi Kosaka, founder of the

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2007 LA Calendar Motorcycle Show

It was hot enough to fire up the long dormant boilers of the famous Queen Mary cruise ship berthed at its Long Beach, California home since 1967 after the Cunard luxury liner was decommissioned from more than 30 years of service. If you were aboard ship, now a floating hotel and museum, you could have poked your head out of one of its 2,000 portholes and have seen a sea of gleaming chrome and scintillating paint bathing the shore.

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2007 Honda Hoot

Since I had never been to the American Southeast, I decided the trip alone to Knoxville, TN, would be worth the effort. To sweeten the deal Honda was providing a bike of my choice (a Honda, naturally) to get around on while there. With an awakening urge to explore new territory and a steel horse named ST1300, I was ready to attend my first Hoot.

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Laconia 2007: Come for the Maple Syrup, Stay for the Bikers

“Bellying up to the bar” took on new meaning at Laconia Bike Week 2007. I knew prices got jacked up at bike rallies, be it Sturgis, Daytona, whatever, but $13,000 to take a seat on a bar stool? What’s up with that? (Stay tuned for answer.)

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2007 Legend of the Motorcycle
2007 Daytona Stunta Report

We all know the type; baggy jeans and skater shoes, bandanas and race gloves; their bicep tattoos and piercings complimented by fresh scabs on their knees and elbows. Distinctive, even in a biking culture where you can guess a person's ride by looking at their outfit, these guys are pegged way before you see theirn motorcycle. It will be a sport bike. It will be modified with a 12 o'clock bar, smashed-in gas tank, hacked-off muffler and crash cage, the wild paint and fake fur covering the scars of repeated contact with the pavement.

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Cutting Our Own Throats

Earlier this year I attended the annual Advanstar "International Motorcycle Show" at the Javitts Center in Manhattan. I look forward to attending this show, as I'm sure many of you do. I look forward to these Advanstar events every year, as a chance to see what the major OEMs have planned for the coming riding season, and to rub elbows with virtually everyone involved in the industry -- all in one place at one time. It's worth every penny of the admission fee. But I have to admit that the last couple of shows of theirs I attended got me pretty upset.

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The 2006 Monterey Classic Bike Auction

The 2nd Annual Monterey Classic Bike Auction began on Thursday afternoon with a preview and included auctions Friday and Saturday nights.

Anyone with a fondness for classic motorcycles and a curiosity about taste and what defines it could indulge themselves at no cost other than time. It was a buffet laid out for everybody to look at and everyone was welcome. To sit at the table and eat heartily required "only" a credit card and an appropriate bank account to back it. Momentarily lacking those assets, you could still have fun watching others spend theirs, in real time.

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BMW Tahoe Rally

Not to be confused with Sturgis, Daytona, or even Myrtle Beach, BMW's event was held recently in the near hallucinatory mountain paradise of Squaw Valley, adjacent to Lake Tahoe, CA. Burnouts, arm chaps, and coleslaw wrestling were noticeably absent, and I don't think there was so much as a loud argument, let alone a drunken brawl.

I tried to start one but couldn't find any takers, so I finally gave up and did some polka dancing instead. Felt equally ashamed of myself the next morning so it actually worked out OK.

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Fonzie Shoots Daytona Beach 2006

The sea of bikes wasn't just on Main street, but everywhere you went, from ice cream parlors in Deland to historic landmark lighthouses in St. Augustine and Ponce Point to backwoods swampland. I tried to see them all and the biggest lesson le

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Kings Classic Scooter Rally

There are legions of fans devoted to the vintage steel-bodied scooter, especially those built in Italy between the 1940's and 1980's. They have steel chassis, manual transmissions and clutches, and smokey, noisy, ring-a-ding-ding two-stroke motors.

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WIMA International Rally- Sweden Ride Report

After dragging my gear from Arlanda airport, wrestling with it through the city of Stockholm using all forms of public transportation, including the subway, plus traveling the last several blocks on foot, I finally arrived at the hotel. Getting there only about two hours later than I had planned, not bad. Linda Lockhart an energy attorney from Gray, Maine, whom I'd never met, was waiting with two big cans of beer on ice in our bathroom sink. Again, not bad, pretty damn good, actually! Tonight we would get to know each other over dinner at the hotel and tomorrow we'd pick up the bikes. Kawasaki-Sverige (Sweden) was providing us with two test machines for the week. Linda would be riding a Z1000 and I was on a Z750S.

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Biking Germany on a Beemer

The rally was great with well over 30,000 people attending the 3-day event that coincided with the long Fourth of July holiday. So I was able to take Friday off as leave and of course with Monday and Tuesday as a holiday/training day, I had a five-day weekend. One of my fellow BMW GS riders, Matt, made the 300 mile jaunt down to Garmisch with me. This unfortunately was his first and last real ride in the German-Austrian countryside as he is PCSing (going back to the states) mid July. He already shipped his 1150GS to Texas.

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25th Annual Hansen Dam British Bike Rally

This event originated in 1980, with sponsorship by Johnson Motors, the west coast Triumph distributor, before the baton was passed to Pat Owens. Pat is one of those living legends. A motorcycle instructor at L.A. Trade Tech for many years, he is also well known for his riding prowess, his well-worn Triumph, purportedly having carried him something like 500,000 miles, was on display at this year's event that for the past fifteen years has been under the care of the Southern California Norton Owners Club (SCNOC).

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EasyRider Show: True American Art

The crowd was treated to over 100 of the sweetest custom scoots you'd ever want to see. The majority of the bikes were from the South. North and South Carolina making up a large number of entries. When you attend one of these shows, it is impossible to really check out all the bikes. You start to feel like a little kid at Christmas who can't wait to open the next present.

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2004 Griffith Park Sidecar Rally

The GP Sidecar rally is quite a mixed bag... British bikes, Russian bikes, German bikes, Japanese bikes, American bikes, even Chinese bikes... plus a wild spectrum of vintage and modern sidecars hailing from around the world... Belgium, Holland, Russia, the U.S., England, Canada, the Philippines.

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2004 Star Days in Roanoke, VA

Of course, I knew that some of the fare would be standard issue motorcycle rally stuff; charity rides, bike cleaning and safety seminars, custom bike show, and vendor booths galore. So I thought about approaching the event with a more grounded sense of place and purpose. I intended to be a biker. Of course, I was there for the festivities, but I would soak up as much of Virginia as I could in the two, short days I would be there.

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How I Learned to Love the Bomb and Fry My Butt in Utah

Ogden, Utah, about a half hour putt outside Salt Lake City is one of those best kept secrets you hear about. But when this rider/writer ventured there recently to experience the STAR Days rally, he got more than he bargained for.

They sat Life is a matter of timing, and this time Ogden was experiencing a record breaking heat wave... 105 degrees F as in Farfrigginhot! Like it was reaching critical mass. I had to keep ice in my tankbag to make sure my film wouldn't melt. Stuffing some in the pocket of my jeans helped, too, except for the frostbite where frost usually never bit. But despite the brain fogging temperatures and freezer burn, I'd have to say it was a cool deal, all five days running.

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Skating Into Skagway

While it's basically frozen into a snowball and deserted nearly seven months of the year, during the five-month "season" of May 1-September 25, the southeastern Alaskan town literally blooms after emerging from its own form of hibernation. In fact, the 100-year old municipality has earned the title of "Garden City of Alaska" by dint of its exceptional flora and foliage. Yes, it's the Land of the Giant Cabbage and probably where the Killer Tomatoes first popped out of the rich soil bathed by nearly 24 hours of sunlight.

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West Coast Trippin'

Upon arrival, the MOFOs were nice enough to set us up with a beautiful Victory Custom Classic, and offered to let me take it around SoCal on an extended tour to places unknown, at least to me. Being a Harley man, this cruiser was right up my alley. The Victory was a lot bigger (94 inches long), and heavier (634 lbs) than my own Sportster, so I spent the first day bitchin' about handling and lugging the beast around. The funny thing was the more I rode it, the more it grew on me. My lovely riding partner enjoyed the bike right from the get go, as she's used to riding on my admittedly not-very-comfortable custom seat.

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Getting Hacked on Halloween

By the way, Doug's an inductee into the National Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame, an honor well earned as a designer/inventor, a racer and for his contributions to the advancement of motorcycling in general. Doug also serves as the Director of the Sidecar Industry Council so if Doug builds a sidecar rally, they will come.

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Death Becomes Him

"Death tugs at my ear and says, 'Live, I am coming'"
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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Harley's 100th Party - West Coast Style

This certainly was a good 'ol Harley party, with loads of chrome and a fist full of classic rock bands to entertain the masses. Vanilla fudge rocked us with the appropriated Superme's hit, "You Keep Me Hangin' On." Dave Mason, of Traffic & Fleetwod Mac fame, kept us "Feelin' Alright" with his stock of classic rock hits. And headlining the whole event was Eric Burdon and the Animals - another mid-70s staple of early rock radio. "House of the Rising Sun", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" and "See See Rider". You all know the tunes, you just don't remember who all performed them... we know the story... and if you were there and having as much fun as I had, you still don't know who sang what.          

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Dancing in the Moonlight

So out of necessity, I learned how to ride in the dark. A career was born.

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2003 Fast Dates Calendar Motorcycle Show

There was also a truly pitiful Horsepower Dyno Shootout. When I walked over, they had just taken a stock GSXR off the dyno and were rolling up a stock Warrior. Zzzzzz. What did grab my attention, however, was the SB2 Supermoto Nationals featuring a truly studly array of talent including Jeremy McGrath, Travis Pastrana, Mike Metzger, Danny LaPorte and others attacking both asphalt and dirt with equally heaping helpings of disrespect. Madness, madness I tell you! These man-gods are not of this earth!

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Sportster CAMS

I met four of the group @ Bartel's HD in Marina Del Rey around 9am. We rode up the coast along the PCH to Oxnard, hopped on the 101 for just a few miles and exited to Hwy. 33 on the north side of Ventura. After a gas stop for the peanut tank riders, we made it to the Deer Lodge in Ojai by 10:30 am just in time for the temps to begin rising and breakfast to be served. The group made the stop to say hello to a few members that would not be attending this years CAMS due to broken parts both body or bike... more good people.

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2003 Myrtle Beach Spring Rally

One thing you won't get in Myrtle Beach is bored. It's WFO all week. There are so many different venues; it would take you the whole week just to sample the variety of attractions available. Okay, now that I've bored you with all the Chamber of Commerce spiel, let's get down to some of the subjects that might interest a lot of MO readers. First off, no helmets required in South Carolina.

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A Photo Tour Of The Isle Of Man



 

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Bikes and Babes of Daytona 1999

We tried to raise the editorial content with a high-brow Cormac McCarthy-styled article about BMW's K1200LT, but it went over with our readers like a lead balloon. We heard you, loud and clear, and we're going to come down from the high-falutin' rarified air of literature and culture and back to the grimy asphalt to give you what you really want.

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Are We Having Fun Yet? A Chronicle of Love Ride 13
Open Bikini Shootout

When the Open Bikini Shootout was proposed a few months ago, we instantly had a picture in our dirty little minds how the homepage should look for such a comparo. After all, how can you have an Open Bikini Shootout without an, umm, open bikini?

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1997 Rolling Thunder X Rally

May 30, 1997. The peace of a quiet Virginia morning was disturbed by a distant and scattered rumble. Though at first indistinct and widespread, it had unsettling similarities to the big guns that had once shredded this gentle countryside. Then, brother fought brother in a conflict that nearly destroyed this great nation at places named Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Antietam, Bull Run, and Gettysburg during our Civil War.

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ECF Bikini Bike Wash

If you appreciated this feature please send a donation to the ECF:

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Like a bad horror flick or a "Rocky" movie, the Babe Archive is back for anoter edition. In our shameless effort to win your loyal readership, we coerced the babes back into the studios with these custom bikes.
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Unfortunately, the weather in Colorado was fine. Daytime highs were in the 70s, and the roads were clear and dry all along the Front Range.
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Daytona Bike Week 1996
So does freezing cold temperatures, both of which combined to turn the latter part of Daytona's '96 Bike Week festivities into a sloshy, cold, G-rated mess.
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