Hells Angels

We passed a big group leaving a hillclimb. They were doing 45 on a 55 mph highway, in the rain, with no protective gear. We were all on our beemers with rain suits on. As I passed the lead guy, a 300 lb man with a leather vest that may have buttoned long ago, he flipped me off. I felt bad for a second, but I realized I had a full tank and I would never see them again. They get no more respect than I give any other person, it's worked fine for me so far.

News from a local Club in Ct regarding patches.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CT_MOTORCYCLE_CLUB_SHOOTING_CTOL-?SITE=CTNHR&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-09-24-08-31-52

Sep 24, 8:31 AM EDT

Motorcycle club murder case headed to trial

LITCHFIELD, Conn. (AP) -- A Connecticut judge has ruled that there's enough evidence to hold a trial for a 53-year-old man charged with killing the president of a Torrington motorcycle club in June.

Kevin Campbell of Watertown is charged with murder in the shooting death of 51-year-old Roland LaGasse of Torrington, who was president of the Forbidden Motor Cycle Club. Campbell, who was also in the club, has said he acted in self-defense and the gun accidentally fired.

Litchfield Superior Court Judge James Ginocchio heard testimony on Tuesday indicating that the shooting occurred during a dispute over whether to give a new member of the club his first-year patch.

One witness testified that Campbell deliberately shot LaGasse after LaGasse slapped Campbell's brother across the face.

I like your AGATT guy on chopper!!

but the clueless quote??? :huh

Tell me you have teen daughters at home...and accidentally heard it!


It is a good quote... tho!

The statement was made by Mel, Cher's father, to a guy she was going out on a date with. My last Army commander used to keep a shotgun behind the door, plainly visible to his daughters' dates. So the tradition lives on, but my daughters aren't near dating age yet.


Mom also has a non-nonsense approach to life.



The chopper is the SolidWorks Corp. chopper made by Orange County Chopper, but not the subject of a TV show (which is rumored to cost $1 mil). We borrowed for a day. The bike is said to have cost around $100,000, and according to the marketing folks, has been worth every penny as a trade show exhibit. Say what you will about OCC, but the workmanship of their portable sculpture is extremely high quality. We took the ATGATT shot as a goof.

Got to be tough if you wear an odd size.

You know I hear people talk shit about OCC all the time...

I have always been pretty impressed with thier stuff.

They have started a high quality business that has the potential to last well beyond thier time.

All this crap about... 'they dont actually build.. they just assemble...'


WTF??

That 'one-off' stuff.. while cool.. will never be consistant...
And when the builder dies... so does the company.

I've had the opportunity to work on a couple of OCC bikes.

Bike #1: Owner paid $66k for bike. Rode it for a couple weeks and had some minor problems with it. Called OCC many times and never got a person. Left many messages that were never returned. Finally brought the bike to me to fix. Rolled the bike into a corner of the shop until I could get a chance to look at it. Bike caught on fire just sitting there all by itself. Luckily, I was working on another bike nearby and got it put out before any real damage occured. The wiring was burned though, so I had to rewire the bike.

I found what caused the fire during the rewire. The bike was assembled with no fuses or circuit breakers whatsoever. None. And get this, the wiring was run in the frame to look extra bitchin'. Unfortunately, the holes drilled in the frame were never deburred or chamfered, creating some very sharp edges to rub on the wiring. And the wiring was not put in any kind of sleeve, so it was only protected by the wire insulation. Add in the paintshaker vibration of the motor, and you've got the recipe for disaster. The bill on his brand new $66k bike was quite high, as it needed a new battery, it needed to completely rewired, and I had to fix the other things that were wrong when it was sent out the door.

Bike #2: Paint problems, broken motor mount, more wiring problems, broken fasteners on rear fender. All caused by poor engineering and assembly. The motor was not shimmed at all, so the vibration broke the motor mount. The paint was applied over assembled part joints, so vibration caused cracking. The wiring was better than bike #1 above, but was still ridiculous.

I've worked on a lot of aftermarket bikes. My shop was the first Bourget dealer in Atlanta, and I worked at a shop that sold Swift, Ironhorse, Big Dog, Von Dutch, Big Bear, and many others. All aftermarket bikes have problems, mostly with electrical, but the OCC choppers were the worst. They were obviously assembled by people that didn't know or didn't care about the proper way to build a bike.

Sorry about the rant, but from what I've seen, OCC are total pieces of crap. Most of these aftermarket bikes aren't meant to be ridden, but thiers was the worst.

Az

I was comparing more to the other 'famous-I gotta TV show' guys...

The ones cutting and welding thier own frames and exhaust.. etc
for every individual bike.. doing the whole thing from scratch by themselves.

My take is... why would you NOT outsource to the pros that focus strickly on that component??

Imagine the issues those all have after about 2K miles... :eek1

That is interesting feedback you have, tho...

I'm sure there is a fat HA jacket that I can fit in.

I've seen the show on TV where a company builds bikes. Was it OCC? Maybe, I don't watch much TV and could care less about HD or chopper shit. But even if I were, I saw the way they slapped that crap together. I'm surprised they don't explode on their own as they roll out the door.

Until recently, I've never had any probs with the HA's.

9PM: I was head back from Bass Lake, Ca towards Fresno and came up on a Harley doing about 45 in a 55, he wouldn't wave me by so I just breezed by him on the next straightaway, with a courteous wave. As I was passing I noticed his HA embroidered vest.

Having put a little distance between us a settle back down to about 60, and just cruised. About 1 mile later I notice a bike coming up on me, not fast, but steady. His high-beams were glaring through my mirrors, and he just kept coming. I pulled over and tried to wave him by...no dice...He put is fully faired HD within about 1 foot from my foot pegs, almost like a pit maneuver setup.

At this point he started yelling some profanities, couldn't hear exactly what he said over the our exhaust though. I waited a few seconds then darted to the shoulder, braked and swung back around behind him. He starts slowing down, weaving across our lane. I think...WTF? Screw this...I attempt to pass in the opposite lane but he blocks. Again, and again...wouldn't let me by.

Anyways, I ended up getting around him once we hit traffic...he couldn't split lanes with my supermoto for shit.

The whole event really pissed me off though! I was so heated when I got home my wife was kinda freaked out. LOL. Anyways...that's my asshole HA story of the day.

Not HA but when I'm behind a cruiser that is going slow in the twisties (like 35 in a 45 on Rt 100 in VT) I usually sit behind them with my emergency flashers on. Eventually they're embarrassed enough to let me by.

I was thinking of putting a 4-way flasher control on my VFR. Don't know why they don't come with one. If you have engine trouble or a flat in multi-lane traffic it would be NICE to be able to signal some sort of distress as you try to get over to the side of the road. I know not to EXPECT people to notice, but I like to try all my options and having 4-ways would be one more simple thing to do to help the odds of getting squished -especially in construction zones where there are NO pull-off or shoulders and the concrete embankments are RIGHT there in both lane. I hate to think of how dangerous it would be to have your bike die there. Just climb out of there as fast as you can and wait for someone to punt your bike into next wednesday I guess.

If you pull over and put on the flashers, angle your bike one way or the other.

Believe it or not, police cars often get hit from behind as folks target fixate and don't register that it's stationary. That's one reason you'll often see SP cars park at an angle behind another vehicle: it gives approaching drivers a better visual reference to judge distance.

Actually well trained police park at an angle , and with the tires further turned towards the Left (for those of us who drive on the proper side of the road), so if someone hits their car, the front tires roll and steer the vehicles away, giving everyone a slightly better chance of survival. Also, if the perp runs, the wheels are already pointed the correct way, which saves a fraction of a second. That is why the leave the engine running and lock the doors, they have a remote on them and practice so they can unlock the doors while running back to the car. It is sad reflection on humans that this is required, but it is. An additional advantage is if it happens to be one of the cars that shift into reverse all by themself, the car steers off the road, further not endangering others.

If your policeman is well trained, everything they do at a traffic stop has been carefully thought out to keep everyone alive. This is a big reason they demand total obedience, if you do not follow their instructions, you may put yourself and them at greater risk, even if you have no intent to commit a crime and are simply excited or confused by the stop. They actually study stops and outcomes to maximize public and personal safety. For someone who may stop 1000 people or more a year, it is really important if you want to live to retire. You can understand why they get easily annoyed at some people, and why if you are not a idiot and are polite, follow instructions, you can often get a warning as a thank you.

Not all police are well trained, or stay that way, they are human also.

Rod

I personally think most of those bikes are just expensive butt jewelry for the owners.

Hi Gwen!! Ticket free and Keepin' the rubber side down??

Hear back from their website yet?

I saw the movie Wild Hogs. I know all about this stuff. Don't be afraid to ask any questions.