Miscellany
Miscellany
UP FRONT
David Edwards
HURRICANE KATRINA RAGED AS WE WERE putting this issue to bed—ironic, as it features two of Louisiana’s fastest sons, Freddie Spencer and Jamie James.
Among the casualties of Katrina were some 70 motorcycle dealerships in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, at least temporarily out of business, according to the publication Dealernews. Under the Silver Lining heading, remaining dealers report brisk sales in generators and ATVs.
The reports were initially devastating about Confederate Motorcycles, based in New Orleans’ Warehouse District. The company’s 150-year-old brick headquarters was destroyed by high winds, its roof crashing to the floor below.
“It looks like a bomb went off,” says J.T. Nesbitt, Confederate’s chief designer. “Everything’s about five feet high. We lost all of our inventory.”
Good news is that most of the components needed to build the initial production run of 20 Wraiths was in transit when the hurricane hit and have been returned safely to vendors. Between insurance, FEMA loans and recently procured investment monies, the company is ready for business once a new location is found.
“Ironically, in spite of all this, the future never looked brighter for Confederate,” says Nesbitt.
The folks from eBay Motors paid a visit last week to the Road & Track/Cycle World offices, armed with some impressive stats. As in: More than 1 million vehicles have been sold on the site since it opened in 2000, plus another 50 million parts and accessories. A car gets sold every minute, a motorcycle every four minutes, a part/ accessory every two seconds. About five percent of all used-bike sales in the U.S. occur on eBay.
One of those transactions involved our own Peter Egan’s ex-Vincent Black Shadow. It recently went under the online hammer and by the time bidding closed, its new owner was out a whopping $65,600-not quite twice what Peter let it go for in 1999.
Is it just me, or should Speed Channel rename itself All-NASCAR-All-The-Time and be done with it? Worse, while Speed’s motorcycle race coverage is cut or reshuffled, “Texas Hardtails,” the most unwatchable show on television since “Cop Rocks,” gets pimped to the moon. This turkey gives choppers and TV a bad name, which is going some.
Those in search of worthwhile flickering images about motorcycling could do a lot worse than pick up a copy of the new DVD, Choppertown: The Sinners from One World Studios ( www. choppertown. net). First-time filmmakers Scott Di Lalla and Zack Coffman hocked what they could to buy a pro video setup, read the instruction manual, then documented a budget bike-build by the Sinners, a loosely knit brotherhood (don’t call ’em a gang) of like-minded individuals heavy into traditional hot-rods and custom bikes, with a minor in beerdrinking and hard-drivin’ tunes. Tough, gritty and unscripted, Choppertown is the antithesis of the so-called “reality” chopper shows on TV-and eminently more entertaining. In fact, it just won the audience-choice award for Best Documentary at the Temecula Valley International Film Festival, a SoCal showcase for new independent films.
One of the original Sinners, Rico Fodrey, gave the movie a theme when he stated, “A bike’s not finished until you put some miles on it with your bros.” A philosophy that Joe Buffardi no doubt subscribes to. I met 20-something Joe at the recent El Camino bike show, where we shared the experience of basically being ignored by the judges. My circa-1950s Triumph T100 desert sled didn’t quite compute with their idea of a proper British classic, and Joe’s rockabilly Triumph bobber was simply too scruffy, even for the Custom Vintage class.
Cool as all get-out, though, a daily rider that probably ingests more asphalt in a week than all the sparkly-clean El Camino class winners combined do in a year.
Which is why you’ll see Joe’s Trumpet soon in our “American Flyers” section, as well as the most outrageous Hodaka 100 ever built, another non-trophy-getter at the show.
Staff stuff: Starting next month, you’ll note some changes to the Cycle World masthead. Moving up to the second-incommand slot will be Mark Hoyer, whose business card will now read Executive Editor. Mark’s been on staff for seven years, during which time he’s been responsible for some of our most memorable stories. He’s equally adept (and happy) manning the handgrips of an old chuffer Velocette or, as this month, a screamin’ new Yamaha YZF-R1 Limited, in the best CW tradition.
You’ll also being seeing more of Paul Dean, who moves over from our specials division to the new Senior Editor post. Paul already handles our popular Service section; now look for his byline on everything from road tests to comparisons to tech features. Likewise, you’ll be reading more from Mark Cernicky, newly promoted to Associate Editor.
Sadly, we’re losing longtime Contributing Editor Steve Anderson, who is moving to Wisconsin to become part of the Buell Motorcycles team. His title there will be Platform Director, and despite severe grilling on our part, he won’t tell us what platform or which direction. Not even off the record. We’ll miss ya Steve and wish you the best of luck-just make sure to toss us an exclusive every now and then. And the beer & brats are on you.
Helping take up the slack will be another CW contributor, Bruno de Prato, based in beautiful downtown Dresano, Italy, who now becomes our European Editor.
Which, if you’re counting, still leaves one editor’s chair empty. So if you’ve got a journalism background and an interest in all things motorcycle, from Ariel to Zundapp, from bobber to Bonneville land-speeder, then we want to hear from you. Send us a résumé and a 1000word essay on the bike-related subject of your choice. We’ll even assign you your first deadline. Résumés and essays need to be in by December 1. As always, spelling counts.
