1. Brothers on wheels, Rumble Fish (1983)

   Based on the novel by S.E. Hinton, Francis Ford Coppola’s black-and-white film Rumble Fish stars a young Matt Dillon as gang leader Rusty James and an almost unrecognizable Mickey Rourke as his older, smarter, and weirder brother, The Motorcycle Boy. The motorcycle is a recurring symbol throughout the film, signifying violence, temporality, and transcendence. When, close to the tragic conclusion of the film, The Motorcycle Boy takes Rusty for an impromptu ride on a stolen bike through the dark, quiet streets of Tulsa, their mode of transportation solidifies their bond as blood brothers. Drummer Stewart Copelandof the rock band The Police composed the score.

2. Brando’s gang arrives, The Wild One (1953)

   This film may seem dated and kind of tame, but Marlon Brando’s iconic performance as biker Johnny Strabler defined the visual image of the ’50s-era rebel, influencing fellow actor James Dean and even Elvis Presley in his look for the movie Jailhouse Rock. At the start of the film Brando, riding 1950 Triumph Thunderbird 6T, leads the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club into a small town to check out their motorcycle competition. Soon, all hell breaks loose. When someone asks the leather-jacketed Strabler what he’s rebelling against, he coolly responds, “Whad’ya got?”

3. Bike crash, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)

   Like The Wild One, this too is the story of a rebel and his bike. The rebel in this case is a man-child named Pee-Wee Herman, played by comedian Paul Reubens. While on a road trip to recover his beloved stolen bicycle, Pee-Wee wanders into a biker bar — the private club for a gang called The Satan’s Helpers — and, after inadvertently knocking over all of the gangs’ motorcycles, saves his butt by dancing on the bar to the song “Tequila”. The bikers give Pee-Wee a motorcycle which he promptly crashes into a billboard.

4. “Born to be Wild,” Easy Rider (1969)

   The quintessential ’60s road movie. The film begins with Peter Fonda, dressed in stars and stripes, and Dennis Hopper, dressed in Native American fringe, hitting the road on two loud-as-hell choppers to find America. Both bikes were designed and built specifically for the film by chopper builders Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy, following ideas of Peter Fonda. Steppenwolf’s snarling, heavy metal anthem “Born to be Wild” is the soundtrack for this opening scene, and it will forever rock.

5. Che’s life-changing journey, The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

   January 4, 1952, a young medical student named Ernesto Guevara de la Serna hopped on a beat-up motorcycle with his buddy Alberto Granada and began an eight-month road trip through South America. This humble and unreliable mode of transportation brings Guevara, played in the film by Gael García Bernal, in close contact with poverty and suffering throughout a country he had yet to discover.

6. Steve McQueen motorcycle jump, The Great Escape (1963)

   Steve McQueen’s character in the World War II prisoner-of-war drama The Great Escape spends most of the film causing headaches for and attempting to escape from his captors. In the final climatic break-out, McQueen nearly rides a motorcycle to freedom. The final pat he gives to the wrecked bike while hopelessly tangled in barbed wire is one of those gestures that made McQueen a star.

   

7. Every single scene in which Marianne Faithfull rides a motorcycle, The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968)

   “It’s only people who allow themselves to be treated as machines!” In this psychedelic French flick, Marianne Faithfull’s character leaves her newlywed husband, takes off on a Harley-Davidson dressed only in a leather jumpsuit, and goes on a reckless trip in search of love. The movie’s poster image of that suit’s half undone zipper may have inspired Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying. In 1968, with the women’s liberation movement just beginning to gather its momentum, Faithfull’s performance shows that there was definitely something in the air.

8. Jimmy’s cliffside ride, Quadrophenia (1979)

   This powerful film is loosely based on The Who’s classic rock opera Quadrophenia. Phil Daniels plays Jimmy, a teenaged Mod experiencing a serious personality crisis while gangs of Mods and Rockers mindlessly beat each other senseless on the beaches of Brighton. Fancy, Italian-made scooters are all the rage among Jimmy’s Mod brethren, and in the final stages of an emotional breakdown, Jimmy rides a particularly fancy one along the cliffs of Beachy Head. The clue as to whether or not he has sailed over the cliff with the scooter appears in the very beginning of the film, when we see Jimmy at sunset, turning and walking away from the edge of the very same cliff.

9. Buster Keaton’s motorcycle ride, Sherlock Jr. (1924)

   Okay, so there are a few camera tricks here and there, but for most of this crazy montage, it’s just Buster Keaton riding, block after block, street after street, on the front handle bars of a policeman’s motorcycle with nobody in the driver’s seat. Keaton’s stunts prove that today’s CGI is for sissies. The final crash through the wall of the hideout probably put Keaton in the hospital. That said, it’s still incredibly funny. The soundtrack you hear in this clip is a new one created by The Clubfoot Orchestra.

10. Zed’s dead, baby!, Pulp Fiction (1994)

    “It’s not a motorcycle, baby. It’s a chopper.” There’s nothing more stressful, after you’ve just escaped the dungeon of two sadists and narrowly avoided getting killed by the local crime boss, than trying to hurry up your wife so you both don’t miss a train. It’s enough to tear a couple apart and tears are inevitable. But a gentle word with a big hug goes a long way when two people love each other. Having a tricked out chopper ready to go doesn’t hurt either. No doubt these two will make that train. But what will they do with the chopper?

Related posts:

1. The Good,the Bad and the Ugly: The Best and Worst Motorcyle Moments from Film and Television
2. Rossi, Spies, Hayden and More Star in FASTEST Motorcycle Racing Documentary Movie
3. You Can Buy the Steve McQueen Great Escape Bike And Help Out A Charity

The launch for a new reality-based game show called HOT LAP launched this week at the North American International Motorcycle Supershow which ran through Jan 6,7,8 2012 in Toronto Canada.

The show format features a team of riders – coached by CSBK champion Jordan Szoke – as they take on local challengers in a fastest lap shoot-out on super-sport bikes.

The upcoming reality TV series will be filming through 2012 at famous race tracks all over North America, and just as a bit of a warning, there could be some ‘PG-13′ sort of content, a little violence and maybe some coarse language. All that makes it sound like ideal fare for the adult motorcycle enthusiast.

If you want to check it out in more detail, you can get the whole skinny here  http://hotlaptv.com…

Season One Track Schedule

• Episode 1 Season One Opener
• Episode 2 Calabogie Motorsports Park
• Episode 3 Shannonville Motorsports Park
• Episode 4 Mosport International Raceway
• Episode 5 Circuit Mont-Tremblant
• Episode 6 New Jersey Motorsports Park
• Episode 7 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
• Episode 8 Beaverun Motorsports Complex
• Episode 9 Chuckwalla Valley Raceway
• Episode 10 Auto Club Raceway
• Episode 11 Mazda Laguna Seca Grand Finale
• Episode 12 Special Feature Episode TBA
• Episode 13 Season One Highlights

Season Two Track Schedule

• Episode 14 Season Two Opener
• Episode 15 Indianapolis Motor Speedway
• Episode 16 Jennings GP
• Episode 17 Nelson Ledges Road Course
• Episode 18 Homestead Miami Speedway
• Episode 19 Summit Point Raceway
• Episode 20 Snetterton Circuit
• Episode 21 Cadwell Park Circuit
• Episode 22 Nürburgring
• Episode 23 Isle of Man TT
• Episode 24 Brands Hatch Circuit Grand Finale
• Episode 25 Special Feature Episode TBA
• Episode 26 Season One & Two Highlights

Got a Custom or Race-Tuned Motorcycle?

Custom and racing motorcycles require a totally different insurance coverage package from your basic road bike.  To protect your significant investment in your bike, you need to know what kind of motorcycle insurance you’ll need.

We’re here to help you find the right motorcycle insurance for your custom or race bike, and our advice is free and unbiased…

Tips for buying motorcycle insurance for your custom or race bike:

• Collision to pay for damage caused to your vehicle in an accident with another vehicle or any stationary object.
• Comprehensive to cover such things as fire, hail, wind, vandalism, hitting an animal, etc.
• Towing / Pickup
• Medical payment or personal injury protection to cover the medical bills resulting from an accident.
• Uninsured or underinsured motorist to protect us when the other driver is at-fault and does not have coverage or assets out of which your bills can be paid.
• Additional coverage to replace or repair accessories specific to your bike.

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3. Antique Motorcycle Racing Video

It seems “American Choppers” star Paul Teutul Sr. will be appearing on yet another television reality show as he joins the cast of the upcoming season of “Celebrity Apprentice.“

Teutul, of Orange County Chopper‘s fame, will be competing in the 12th season of Donald Trump‘s horrible reality show. This will be the fifth incarnation to feature a cast of celebrities (or B-listers, depending on how you judge the threshold for that), and each of them will compete for their chosen charity.

Following the tired and true formula for the show, contestants will work in teams on a different business-related challenges on each episode, followed by the amazingly hirsute Trump “firing” a member of the team that does the worst job on a particular challenge.

Teutul will hand over any winnings to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The roster of “celebrities” this time around? American Idol contestant Clay Aiken, IndyCar driver Michael Andretti, radio and TV show host Adam Carolla, actress Tia Carrere, Lou Ferrigno from Incredible Hulk, 80s pop star Debbie Gibson, Teresa Giudice of  Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Victoria Gotti, the former mobster’s daughter.

Other contestants include former talk show host Arsenio Hall, magician Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller fame, insult comic Lisa Lampanelli, 2008 Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza, singer Aubrey O’Day, Dee Snyder of the band Twisted Sister, George Takei from “Star Trek”, and models Cheryl Tiegs and Patricia Velásquez.

The new season of “Celebrity Apprentice” premieres Feb. 12 on NBC.

Custom motorcycles require the correct insurance coverage package to protect what is, after all, a significant investment on your part .

We’re here to help you find the right motorcycle insurance for your custom bike…

Tips for buying motorcycle insurance for your custom:

• Collision to pay for damage caused to your vehicle in an accident with another vehicle or any stationary object.
• Comprehensive to cover such things as fire, hail, wind, vandalism, hitting an animal, etc.
• Towing / Pickup
• Medical payment or personal injury protection to cover the medical bills resulting from an accident.
• Uninsured or underinsured motorist to protect us when the other driver is at-fault and does not have coverage or assets out of which your bills can be paid.
• Additional coverage to replace or repair accessories specific to your bike.

Related posts:

1. A Different Kind of Wining For American Chopper Star Paul Teutul Jr
2. The Teutels Vs Jesse James – Bike Builder Cultures Clash
3. Progressive International Motorcycle Shows Are Heading Your Way And Bringing the Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show

By most measurable metrics, the boys from Milwaukee are headed in the right direction, the stock price and earnings results are mostly positive and the design team is coming out with bikes people under the age of 60 want to ride.

On the red ink side of the ledger? They’ve cause some waves and negative publicity with money-saving layoffs designed to cut wages for their work force and their bikes are still too expensive.

When I opened up my email today, I was confronted with the following four stories from the web, and they were actually presented in the order you’ll see below, so I leave it to you to be the judge.

What does this kind of news say to me? It’s says it’s a good time to make motorcycles but a damn tough time to be selling the product to the riding public…

HOG Futures Up?

New York, January 4th

(TradersHuddle.com) – Shares of Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG) closed the trading session at $39.33 just above calculated resistance at $39.22 effectively breaking out, grabbing the attention of momentum traders, which could eventually push the stock to different trading range

Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG) manufactures and sells motorcycles. Its products include heavyweight touring, custom, and performance motorcycles, as well as a line of motorcycle parts, accessories, and general merchandise.

Harley-Davidson’s stock was trading in a well defined range with support at $36.06 and resistance at $39.22, given that this range was broken traders will be closely monitoring the stock.

 Harley-Davidson shop in Christiansburg has closed

Jan 04, 2012

(The Roanoke Times – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX)

New River Valley Harley-Davidson in Christiansburg has closed after three years in business.

Loyd and Kathy Shiffer, who have sold motorcycles in the Roanoke Valley since 1982, opened the Christiansburg store in 2008.

The Christiansburg store, at 2700 Roanoke St., closed Saturday and has merged with Roanoke Valley Harley-Davidson on Peters Creek Road in Roanoke, said manager Zack Shiffer.

(c)2012 The Roanoke Times (Roanoke, Va.) Visit The Roanoke Times (Roanoke,
Va.) at www.roanoke.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

Copyright (C) 2012, The Roanoke Times, Va.

Cape Town’s premier Harley-Davidson dealership has been liquidated.

January 4th, 2012

Harley-Davidson Cape Town, in Somerset Road, closed down on December 20 and was placed under provisional liquidation in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, following a court application brought by Turnsil Investments, which owns the store.

According to court papers, the dealership’s motorcycle sales had declined over the past three years and it presently had a shortfall of more than R2.5 million.

According to an affidavit by Jason Nicol, one of the Green Point branch’s directors, they needed to sell about 200 motorcycles a year to sustain the business.

Sales figures had steadily declined since 2006 and 2007, during which years it sold 214 and 222 motorcycles respectively.

Sales dropped to 170 in 2008 and 141 in 2009. In 2010 the dealership sold only 80 motorcycles – 64 percent fewer than in 2007 – and in 2011 it sold 100 motorcycles.

Nicol said they had attempted to secure additional funding from banks, private companies and automotive groups, without success.

“Between 2006 and 2011, the number of sales of motorcycles effectively halved. The only explanation for this is the global financial crisis,”he said.

Harley-Davidson set to see decent profitability growth

January 4th, 2012

Harley-Davidson (HOG) faces demographic headwinds, an uncertain global economic environment, and increasing competition, which could make for a choppy ride in the near term. Still, we think the motorcycle manufacturer is set to see decent profitability growth once consumers recover from the economic downswing and are willing to once again spend on big-ticket items. We believe the shares are currently about fairly valued, but given a wide enough margin of safety, we would be buyers as we start to see stability in the employment and overall economic picture.
We believe operational changes are key to improving profitability over the long term. Management has made great strides in creating a best-in-class manufacturing process. Its new lower cost structure provides additional flexibility, which allows Harley to adapt production to marketplace demand and outsource processes when it makes competitive sense to do so. The company’s restructuring is expected to yield savings of $300 million annually–equivalent to 7% of the total expense base. Harley’s transformation strategy also includes two brand-boosting goals: improving brand acceptance by extending customer outreach, and maintaining leadership in the cruising and touring segments by increasing loyalty through innovative products and services.

The company’s high-level financial objectives seem reasonable. Management aims to outperform the S&P 500 over time, increase earnings at a faster rate than revenue, and run a high-margin, high-return business. A few years ago we might have doubted these targets, but since CEO Keith Wandell took the helm in 2009, the manufacturing business has undergone major changes which, in our view, reset the company’s earnings potential trajectory. The focus on increasing revenue through introducing new products and reaching a wider audience via international expansion makes us feel better about potential top-line gains over the longer term.

While shipments have reset to lower normalized levels, Harley can still squeeze out decent margin gains. Motorcycle demand remains soft, but we think management has taken appropriate steps to keep the company strong. Domestic shipments in the most recent reported quarter were still off more than 40% from the peak–there were 273,000 bikes shipped domestically in the trailing four quarters ending December 2006 and 146,000 bikes shipped in the trailing four quarters ending September 2011. But the company is still quite profitable, and the operating efficiencies that it has implemented will further rightsize the manufacturing capacity for market demand that might remain depressed for at least a few more years. We expect operating margins will return to their 10-year historical average of 21% in 2012, up from 4% in 2009.

So you just bought a brand new Harley-Davidson off the showroom floor and you’re going to need motorcycle insurance to take care of it if anything turns ugly. It’s not easy finding the right insurance for your bike, and you could use a little help.

We’re here to help you find the right motorcycle insurance, whatever you ride, so check out our Definitive Guide to Buying Motorcycle Insurance. It’s free…

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1. Harley-Davidson Back From The Lost Years After Restructuring
2. Harley-Davidson Q2 2011 Results Suggest The Company Ain’t Dead Yet
3. Is Harley-Davidson Stock A Good Buy For Investors? The Market Says Yes

Wha? A moped gang?

Puga cranked out and edited together enough files to make his wild, and apparently satirical,  jab at the process of documentary film-making and “motorcycle gang” life entitled Satan Since 2003.

The term “moped” now applies to low-displacement bicycles with motors, but pedals were fitted to lots of early motorcycles. Better transmissions with wider ranges, better clutches and better engine performance made pedals obsolete on most motorcycles by the late 1900′s,  but the pedals on mopeds remained on moped models into the 1990s. The earliest mopeds were bicycles with tiny front wheel mounted motors like the VéloSoleX  which used s simple roller to drive the wheel. The Whizzer and the Cyclemaster had powered rear wheels and chain drives.

And who knew that from those humble beginnings would spring turf battles among rival gangs of “Moped Toughs?”

Remarkably quasi-violent teens with Star Wars tattoos getting exceptional gas mileage. The horror…

“You can  get 125 miles per gallon,” says the leader of the Hell’s Satans. “But the faster you go, the worse the gas mileage gets.”

Satan Since 2003 purports to be an inside glimpse of a hard-ass moped gang willing to fire up Molotov cocktails and torch any tiny bike that gets in their way to protect their hardscrabble turf.

Puga, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker responsible for this tongue-in-cheek masterwork, once worked as a field producer for MTV’s documentary series “True Life.” His “moped mockumentary” and homage to the 1970s moped is a hoot.

“The point of the film was to use real footage of the gang and within that be able to infuse a believable fictional plot line by using small amounts of ‘faked’ footage and scenes,” Puga said.

To do that, Puga created an ersatz turf war among moped gangs – that don’t actually exist -  and then portrays the  Hell’s Satans as outrageous, business-unfriendly ruffians.

The club’s 1%-er like motto?

Live fast, ride slow…

As for Puga’s take on his creation, he once said he hopes people who watch Satan Since 2003 “learn to trust a little less in things that are fed to us as ‘real’ and figure out that once something has been filmed, edited and presented, it has inherently been manipulated in some way.”

Mad Bastard Scooter Rally 2011

Out there on the dusty highways of America you can come across some perilous hazards and riders with nothing to lose. To protect yourself and your investment in your ride, you’ll need some wise council on how to buy the best possible motorcycle insurance.

Have no fear, citizen, we’ve got your back.

We’re here to help you find the right motorcycle insurance, whatever you face on the road…

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2. Barry Sheene – Life in the Very Fast Lanes
3. The World’s Fastest Production Motorcycles – For When Fast Isn’t Fast Enough

The colorful riding gear alone is worth the price of admission, but what makes it all really cool is the bikes. The specially fabricated handlebars are a piece of engineering cool, and the front suspensions are some fine work as well. These guys look like they’re riding on a rail…

It’s sort of old school board track racing without the banking and the intermittent, crowd-pleasing deaths.

You’ve also got to love the way the rider in the first video offers his apologies to the crowd in a face-saving gesture of supplication. Not the middle finger we’re used to here in these United States, but perfectly tuned for the more, shall we say,  genteel Japanese audience.

The front suspension looks like a very simple telescoping fork, as used on circa 1914 Scott motorcycles and lots of speedway bikes over the years. The upper part of the forks are fixed and have some triangulating to give them stiffness. The hub is mounted on short sliders that fit inside the fixed fork tubes, and with just the springs in there, no damping is provided, so it looks like they bolted on some steering dampers to make them easy to reconfigure – and easy to adjust. The steering dampers just move up and down with the front hub like a springer.

I Humbly Request Forgiveness From My Fans – Japanese Motorcycle Racer Crashes

Whether you ride in races, around the block or tear up the turf at hillclimbs, your insurance needs can get complicated.

We’re here to help you find the right motorcycle insurance coverage for your bike, whatever you ride…

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3. Antique Motorcycle Racing Video

We keep at it and try to give you a commercial-free motorcycle Twitting panorama…

Edmunds https://twitter.com/#!/@edmunds

Edmunds.com is a leading resource for motorcycle and car reviews, news and pricing, tweeting its deals on wheels. You can also interact with editor-in-chief @karlbrauer – ask him about his 100-mile daily commute!

Top Gear https://twitter.com/#!/@topgear_america

Not enough motorcycles, but too good to pass up anyway for the best motoring photography…in the world.

Ewan McGregor https://twitter.com/#!/@EwanMcGregor

The king of motorcycling actors, McGregor is the real deal.  And if you’re a fan of his riding adventure movie series, The Long Way Round and The Long Way Down, you can keep up with him here.

Charley Boorman https://twitter.com/#!/@charleyboorman

McGregor’s partner in crime on the Long Way trips. Cool and very active on Twitter. You can also check out his adventures on http://www.charleyboorman.com/ to keep up with all things Boorman.

Whether you ride a sport bike or an American cruiser, your insurance needs can get complicated.

We’re here to help you find the right motorcycle insurance, whatever you ride…

Tips for buying your motorcycle insurance, coverage you need:

• Collision to pay for damage caused to your vehicle in an accident with another vehicle or any stationary object.
• Comprehensive to cover such things as fire, hail, wind, vandalism, hitting an animal, etc.
• Towing / Pickup
• Medical payment or personal injury protection to cover the medical bills resulting from an accident.
• Uninsured or underinsured motorist to protect us when the other driver is at-fault and does not have coverage or assets out of which your bills can be paid.

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A motorcycle and a snowmobile will simultaneously fly over water in the latest installment of Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.

This year’s spectacle will bring together two athletes who have found their way back to the annual New Year’s Eve celebration via different paths.

The event airs live from San Diego, California, on Saturday, December 31 at 11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT on ESPN, ESPNHD and ESPN3 following the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.

Levi LaVallee has fully recovered from a crash suffered while training for the same event last year, just hours after shattering the world record with a leap of 361 feet on a snowmobile. Robbie Maddison (pictured below) kick-started the series in 2007 by jumping his motorcycle 322 feet over a football field in Las Vegas and followed it up in 2008 by jumping onto and off the 96-foot-tall Arc De Triomphe at Paris Las Vegas Casino.

This year, LaVallee, a 28-year-old native of Longville, Minnesota, will jump his snowmobile alongside Maddison, a 30-year-old Aussie now living in Temecula, California, who will pilot his motorcycle as both athletes concurrently jump over 300 feet of water from the North park to the South park at the Embarcadero Marina Park in the downtown area of San Diego Bay.

LaVallee will attempt to break his own record of 361 feet and Maddison will be aiming for a leap of more than 400 feet to eclipse the current record of 391 feet.

On-site viewing will be free to spectators at both parks. Gates will open at 6 p.m. PT.

“I am so pumped to be able to come back to Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.,” said LaVallee. “Last year obviously didn’t go the way I was hoping, and I am excited to have another chance at this amazing opportunity.”

Robbie discusses New Year’s Eve plans…

“Jumping long distances is a passion of mine, and I’m excited to come back for New Year’s Eve and sail over San Diego Harbor,” said Maddison. “400 feet is my goal. It’s not all about getting the world record to me, it’s more about understanding this feat and the commitment ahead to achieving what most would consider an impossible jump.”

LaVallee is a seven-time Winter X Games medalist and champion snocross racer. He is widely known for becoming the first person to double backflip a snowmobile in 2009 at Winter X Games.

San Diego may not be the first place that comes to mind when discussing snowmobiles, but the lack of snow won’t hinder LaVallee, who will use artificial turf on his run-up path, which will provide the necessary grip for his snowmobile’s track to ensure maximum speed as he hits the take-off ramp.

Maddison boasts an accomplished freestyle motocross career, with an X Games silver medal in 2010 in Moto X Best Trick and two wins on the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour (Calgary 2009 and Madrid 2010). He also has a successful history of record-breaking achievements and globally captivating feats. Among them are backflipping across the Tower Bridge in London and clearing the Corinth Canal in Greece, to go with his previous New Year’s Eve successes.

Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.

Red Bull’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration highlights extraordinary athletes pushing their physical, mental and technical limits to break boundaries and records. Leading up to their big night, LaVallee and Maddison will work with Red Bull’s athlete performance experts, physicists and engineers, in addition to their core teams, in an effort to get the most out of their bodies and machines. Valuable information will also be attained and put into future technological development.

After last year’s unfortunate cancellation, this will be the fourth Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. event in the last five years. In 2008, the year Maddison went up and off the Arc de Triomphe, Rhys Millen backflipped an off-road truck and just missed sticking the landing. In 2009, Travis Pastrana jumped his rally car a staggering 269 feet over water, landing on a barge in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor.

Whether you ride a sport bike or an American cruiser, your insurance needs can get complicated.

We’re here to help you find the right motorcycle insurance, whatever you ride…

Tips for buying your motorcycle insurance, coverage you need:

• Collision to pay for damage caused to your vehicle in an accident with another vehicle or any stationary object.
• Comprehensive to cover such things as fire, hail, wind, vandalism, hitting an animal, etc.
• Towing / Pickup
• Medical payment or personal injury protection to cover the medical bills resulting from an accident.
• Uninsured or underinsured motorist to protect us when the other driver is at-fault and does not have coverage or assets out of which your bills can be paid.

Related posts:

1. Leap of Faith – Snowmobile vs Motorcycle Jump Over San Diego Bay
2. It’s Motorcycle vs Snowmobile In San Diego Bay Jump
3. Riding A Motorcycle Backwards

And so it is with the namesake of the American Chopper dynasty. Paul Teutul, Jr., is taking in the sights out California way and considering a move to the west coast.

Teutul the Younger was spotted recently sizing up the two-story Borreo building in the California wine country as a possible location for a move to the left coast. Teutul Jr., the owner of Paul Jr. Designs and the second-fiddle co-star of the Discovery Channel’s reality show “American Chopper,” has been eyeing the 124-year-old riverfront building at Soscol Avenue and Third Street as a possible site for a new shop where he would build his custom motorcycles and film his portion of the reality show.

“We just started really looking because we figured we’re at a stage in our business where we’re ready for expansion,” Teutul said.  “Ideally we would like to do some of our filming here and building of the motorcycles, like we’ve done for the past decade in New York. We’d probably mix it up between here and New York, so we’d bring the show ‘American Chopper’ to Napa.”

Teutul has enlisted a local artist, Gordon Huether, to help him put together a proposal for using and renovating the building.

“It’s like putting a sculpture studio in here that’s open to the public,” Huether said. “At Borreo, you’d be able to watch artisans crafting these incredible works of art. Art and culture is breaking out all over Napa, so the timing is just beautiful.”

In past incarnations, the ancient two-story building has been used as a grain and feed store, a winery, a yacht club office, a library and perhaps in a move that foreshadowed the future, a motorcycle repair shop. The building was last occupied  in April 2001.

But it won’t come cheap, not that Teutul Jr. is hurting for cash.

At 9,600 square feet, the building was recently appraised at between $400,000 – and you can toss in an traditional $1 million if the buyer wants to take over some  parking in a nearby public lot.

Teutul, Jr’s problem might be the same one his dad is always complaining about – lack of experience.

“We want to work with an experienced developer who has a team assembled with experience in comparable development who has a good track record and would be a good steward of this building,” said a local official.

The building does have other advantages for the younger Teutul, it’s located directly across the street from Napa Valley Classics, a motorcycle repair and service shop. Napa Valley Classics owner Ron Kane is all for the idea.

“I think what it’s going to do is be a shot in the arm to motorcycling in the area,” Kane said. “I think it would create new enthusiasm. If anything, it might help my business.”

If all goes as planned, Teutul said his company build up to five custom bikes at the Borreo building location every year. He also likes the idea of filming segments of the show in the surrounding area.

“If we get our riding shots or just cut away to commercials, they would show the Napa Mill, different locations, some of the vineyards,” he said. “You’d have the local area airing globally.”

Custom motorcycles require the correct insurance coverage package to protect what is, after all, a significant investment on your part .

We’re here to help you find the right motorcycle insurance for your custom bike…

Tips for buying motorcycle insurance for your custom:

• Collision to pay for damage caused to your vehicle in an accident with another vehicle or any stationary object.
• Comprehensive to cover such things as fire, hail, wind, vandalism, hitting an animal, etc.
• Towing / Pickup
• Medical payment or personal injury protection to cover the medical bills resulting from an accident.
• Uninsured or underinsured motorist to protect us when the other driver is at-fault and does not have coverage or assets out of which your bills can be paid.
• Additional coverage to replace or repair accessories specific to your bike.

Related posts:

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Stoner began racing bikes from a young age and moved to the UK to give his career a forward shove, and after getting his first taste of international competition in 2002, Stoner took home the MotoGP World Championship title in 2007 for Ducati Corse – and then followed up with a dominant season to take his second world championship title in 2011 riding for Repsol Honda.

Stoner has said in the past that he’d prefer a life outside the limelight in favor of letting his riding do the talking.

In a recent interview with Australian Motorcycle News, said, given his choice, he’d head back to quieter times and racing in the 500cc class.

“Back in those days, it was just racing – Doohan, Rainey, Schwantz, Gardner, Lawson – not half as much bullshit as now,” Stoner said. “That was the life.”

So how does he do it?

If you watch closely as a MotoGP race is run in real time – and you’re a keen observer – you’ll note a wide variety of riding styles and lines the riders choose. Lots of body-english, and the races happen at such lightning speeds that’s it’s nearly impossible to apprehend everything that’s going on.

What happens if you slow all the action down by about 50 times?

You get this, The Art of Speed.

Red Bull  took their cameras out to do these Red Bull Moments, and as part of the shoots, they captured Casey Stoner at 1,000 fps slow-motion during the  Catalan GP, and it’s astonishing to see what’s really going on as the MotoGP rider tears up the track.

Casey Stoner’s MotoGP Career Results

Sport Bike

If you had the exceptional taste, refinement and pocketbook to buy an MV Agusta, your insurance needs can get complicated. We’re here to help you find the right insurance for your Italian superbike…

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There’s no doubt that motorcycles are, at least for the great mass of people, a sort of guilty, vicarious pleasure. And with that in mind, advertisers are seeing the light when it comes to packaging the biker lifestyle.

The biker stereotype as it exists today was etched into the public consciousness nearly 60 years ago when Life Magazine ran an article which pimped a relatively minor incident at an American Motorcycle Association event in Hollister, California. As a direct result of Hollister, you had the pleasure of Marlon Brando almost single-handedly creating the “biker image” during his turn as the star of the “Wild One.”

Everyone agrees that the wildest of the biker lot are a small percentage of motorcyclists overall, and the “One Percenter” type may well be a dying breed as governments around the world take their shots at neutering the last remaining outlaws. Let’s face it, they’re easy targets and it may well be that their time is over. Bikers themselves perpetuate the myth of the “bad biker“. Clamping on loud pipes, dressing like the stereotypical riders we all know and love and generally pretending to be more “outlaw” than they could possibly be.

But the Japanese led the charge during the 60′s for a public relations makeover, and Honda’s slogan “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” packaged up a clean cut All-American image in the name of marketing and a monster was thus born.

Everywhere you look these days some Madison Avenue types are trying to package up the “biker way” and get their products along on a piggyback ride to sell more units.

This may be just a fashion video, but anything related to motorcycles that gives the uninitiated an idea of what a truly compelling thing it is to ride a bike is a good thing.

So watch this. But you don’t have to buy the sweater…

Buying Your First Bike? The Women’s Guide to Motorcycle Insurance

Whether you ride a sport bike or an American cruiser, your insurance needs can get complicated.
We’re here to help you find the right motorcycle insurance, whatever you ride…

Tips for buying your motorcycle insurance, coverage you need:

• Collision to pay for damage caused to your vehicle in an accident with another vehicle or any stationary object.
• Comprehensive to cover such things as fire, hail, wind, vandalism, hitting an animal, etc.
• Towing / Pickup
• Medical payment or personal injury protection to cover the medical bills resulting from an accident.
• Uninsured or underinsured motorist to protect us when the other driver is at-fault and does not have coverage or assets out of which your bills can be paid.

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The Ken Fox Wall of Death was built in 1995 by Ken Fox and his team at a massive ship yard in New Brighton, was completed in just 20 weeks. The Wall made it’s official debut at the 1995 Rempstone Steam Rally and stands 20ft high and 32ft in diameter.

This film by Benedict Campbell is an excellent homage to The Wall of Death…

This unique show first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1929 and throughout the 1930‘s. By 1950 there were many Walls of Death” in the Country. Today there are few remaining in the World with only a handful of people able to meet the exacting standards required.

The Wall of Death – or motordrome –  is a carnival sideshow featuring a drum or barrel-shaped wooden cylinder within which stunt motorcyclists ride and perform a variety of “death-defying” tricks. The shows were mostly derived from US motorcycle boardtrack (motordrome) racing which saw its heyday in the early 1900s.

The first carnival motordrome appeared at Coney Island amusement park in 1911 and proved so popular with crowds that the following year portable tracks began to appear at traveling carnivals across the country. In 1915, the first “silodromes” with perpendicular walls was built, and this motordrome which featured straight walls became known as the “Wall of Death.”  The Wall of Death became a staple in the US and the craze reached its peak in the 1930s with more than 100 motordromes plying their trade in traveling shows and at amusement parks.

By 2004, only about half a dozen of these motorcycle shows were still touring the US.  The first known Wall of Death in the UK appeared in 1929 and was operated by the Messham family.

A similar act called the “Globe of Death” has the riders looping inside a wire mesh sphere rather than a drum to allow viewing from all angles.  The globe of death is a circus and carnival stunt where as many as seven performers ride motorcycles inside a mesh sphere simultaneously. Similar to the wall of death but allowing riders to loop vertically as well as horizontally, the portability of the act has made it a circus fixture in the US .

There have been three performance related deaths recorded on these globes between the years 1949 and 1997.

The youngest recorded person to ride a motorcycle in the globe of death is Maximus Garcia who was four years, six months, and 28 days old on August 16, 2006 when he accomplished the feat.

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If, on the other hand, you have a team of two people willing to devote six hours, a roll and a half of  wrapping paper and a red Ducati Multistrada, well then, you got yourself a Christmas, brother.

Pro Italia, a Glendale, California motorcycle dealershhip, gift-wrapped a brand new Ducati and then sent it home to its new owner.

Tammy Hilton and Karen Rickman of  Pro Italia served as the Elves in this Christmas wrap-a-thon.

“Tammy actually found a photo of a bike online that someone had wrapped, so we decided to do it,” Rickman said. “We were trying to come up with something for the window that had a big impact and didn’t cost a whole lot of money.”

I think Santa would be proud.

The wrapping paper, bows and masking tape only added up to $10, and as a marketing ploy, the wrapping pulled in a whole bunch of positive comments on Pro Italia’s Facebook page.

The dealership also posted a video which featured the exceedingly lucky new owner unwrapping the bike.

You can check out the video by going to www.facebook.com/proitalia.

Rick Nelson sold the bike and said it was a stroke of pure luck that the gift-wrapped bike sold so quickly.

“The new owner saw our ad for it in Cycle Trader, and he had just called,” Nelson said. “I sent him a picture of the wrapped bike, and he said he wanted to buy it.”

Rickman said it’s unlikely they’ll take the time to wrap up another bike, but you never know…

“The whole plan was, we were going to wrap the bike and put it on our Facebook page and write something really funny like ‘We offer gift-wrapping,” Rickman said. “And we had planned on doing two, but it took a bit too long.”

Though I’d be the last one to look at gift bike in the mouth, I’d probably plotz in full if my wife would buy me one of these…

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Paul Tuetel, Sr. of American Chopper fame, really knows how to hurt a guy. Dad took the extraordinary step of picking his son to lost the OCC Build-off, not to himself, but to the third wheel in the contest, chopper builder and celebrity Jesse James.

During a segment of the OCC Build-Off Aftershow Tuetel the Senior, when asked who he thought would win the three-way, made for television build-off event, picked James, and it didn’t sit too well with this rival shop and former family.The answer came as a surprise to Cody, Vinnie, Mikey and Paulie. It might not have come out of the blue as Tuetel Junior isn’t  on speaking terms with dad, but the look on the younger Tuetel’s face spoke volumes as he watched his father “pick a total stranger” over his son to win American Chopper: The Build-Off.

Junior and Mikey had a little something to say about dear old dad.

You can catch the first segment of American Chopper: The Build-Off tonight,  Monday, Dec. 5, at 9 p.m. ET. You’ll also have a chance  to vote for the winner during the second episode of the build off during Chopper Live on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 9 p.m..

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Fifty RAF officers died in the backlash after the so-called “Great Escape” from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III in March 1944, and a bike created to commemorate the event will be sold during a Bonhams’ auction of Collectors’ Motorcars and Motorcycles on Thursday, Dec. 1, at Mercedes Benz World in England.

The bike, based on a 2011 Triumph Bonneville T100, represents a modern version of the bike ridden by Steve McQueen in the 1963 film The Great Escape which pitted prisoners of war against their German captors and starred Richard Attenborough, James Garner and Steve McQueen.

McQueen’s most famous role may well have been that of Captain Virgil Hilts in ‘The Great Escape’, but it was McQueen’s pal,  Bud Ekins, who actually rode the bike for the most famous motorcycle jump in the movies.

The bike is being sold with the registration ‘WW11 POW’ and the auctioneers believe it will fetch some $14,000-18,000. While the bike isn’t necessarily historically accurate, it does a fine job of simulating the one Ekins used for the famous  “wire jump” scene. McQueen rode a 1962 Triumph TR6 Trophy in that film. The McQueen bike will be joined by six other classic Triumphs from the factory’s model line on a tour to raise money for The Royal British Legion and ‘Help for Heroes’.

The Great Escape bike is a 2011 Triumph T100 modified to incorporate Hagon shocks, wider handlebars, modified mudguards, a military paint scheme, asolo seat and Triumph performance exhaust. The bike has already covered 5,000 miles and it’s in excellent condition after a factory service, and as an added bonus, it’s still under the manufacturer’s warranty. What do you get with your purchase? As part of the deal, you’ll get a photographic record of the “Great Escape 2″ event.

All sale proceeds will go to Armed Services charities, so you’ll be helping out while you ride.

“It’s a pleasure to be offering this machine on behalf of such worthy causes,” said James Stensel of Bonhams. “The team at GE2 have put in so much effort in to reach the culmination of this project and we ask bidders to bid generously.”

Insuring your collectible or vintage motorcycle

As for insurance for your collectible motorcycle? You should be able to get Agreed Value coverage on a classic 1959 BSA Gold Star Catalina valued at $15,000 for somewhere around $25 a month, and that gives you the whole shooting match of coverage.

You can spend a lot less, but if you plan to ride the bikes in your collection, the above pricing is a reasonable approximation of what you can expect to pay.

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