Archive for the ‘Motorcycles’ Category

Sunday, 5 October 08, is the 14th Annual Stevie Ray Vaughan Remembrance Ride & Concert.

The festivities begin at 9:30a at the world’s largest Hooters in the Dallas West End. The ride departs at 11:30a heading to Cowboy’s in Arlington.

The concert lineup includes: Bugs Henderson & The Shuffle Kings, Tallan “T-Man” Latz, Jim Suhler & Monkeybeat, Mike Morgan, Voodoo Blue and many more!

The after party will be held at Sons of Herman Hall in Deep Ellum from 7p - 2a.

Get on your bike and ride as all proceeds benefit the Stevie Ray Vaughan Scholarship Fund.

A new Texas Lottery scratch off-game will celebrate the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum while giving players a chance to win a limited edition Texas Ranger motorcycle.

The scratch off game’s official debut is being timed to coincide with the opening of the State Fair of Texas tomorrow in Dallas, although stores were to begin selling the tickets Monday.

Lottery officials are offering seven of the 100 limited edition motorcycles made for the Ranger museum by LDT Customs of Vanderpool, Texas. The motorcycles, retailing for $60,000 each, are decorated with the museum logo and features such as “Texas Star” wheels, a cowboy-saddle seat, and “Winchester rifle” clutch and brake levers, according to the press release. The museum received a $1,000 royalty for each bike sold.

Each winner of the limited edition motorcycle will receive a certificate from the museum signed by an active or retired Captain of the Texas Rangers. Their names will be engraved on a plaque at the museum, the release said.

Each $5 ticket buys players two chances to win one of the Texas Ranger Limited Edition motorcycles. Four motorcycles can be won through instant-win scratch-offs. The other three will be awarded through a “second chance” drawing of the game tickets sent in by players, the release said.

The 5.5 million game tickets also offer prizes ranging from $5 to $50,000, according to the Texas Lottery Commission.

As some of our steady readers know, yours truly is very involved with the motorcycle world. I’ve been staying in touch with contacts in Houston regarding the status of the Lone Star Rally and it IS all systems Go!

The City of Galveston wants the rally to take place and come hell or high water, they are looking forward to the 500,000 bikers!

For those of you that have hotel reservations, please know that the phone lines are NOT working on Galveston yet. If you call a hotel, it is being re-routed to their corporate 800# and those staff are thinking it’s all doom and gloom. My contact at the Rally said she was at the Galveston Hilton yesterday and the hotel looked fine. There was some broken glass but that was being replaced while they were there. Keep your hotel reservations - it looks like those are all going to be fine and ready to rock by the time you roll into town.

Here is the official update from LSR:

Dear Friends!
I¹d bet you have been waiting to hear from us! First, let me tell everyone effected that our hearts and prayers are with you and the Lone Star Rally
will not sit idle. We are prepared to help! We too lost our offices and
are working under combat like conditions. We apologize for being difficult to get ahold of.
The good news is that the City has asked us to remain in Galveston and to keep the dates the same. So, The Lone Star Rally will happen in Galveston Oct 30th thru Nov 2! Everything will remain the same only better. We are now officially the Rally to Rebuild! We encourage everyone to come and help rebuild the Galveston economy. Yes, hotels are going to be a little hard to find. Keep watching our website as we will add lodging daily.
LSR will create special logos that can be added to your shirts for a donation to the fund, provide donation centers, a telethon and more, all to help our effected community. Our vendors will serve as trick or treat stations for the kids with candy, etc.
For more details join us at San Jacinto Harley Davidson this week for our second LSR Preview Party. Everyone knows that San Jacinto throws great parties and we could all use one! Plase join us ther this Saturday beginning at 12noon for all of the festivities, parkiing pass sales, Beach boys tickets and much more!
Let¹s show the world how much bikers care and show up in droves to Galveston this year. Jean Lafitte founded Galveston and he will return with his two wheeled pirates to rebuild!
Please watch our website for lodging opportunities. Please be patient with the hotels as they are all trying hard to get back online. Please do not call our offices unless it is absolutely necessary. We are swamped getting re-ready and are operating with limited capacity. Thanks for understanding!
You can help further by emailing this to all of your friends to help us get the word out that all is well and happening!
See you at the Rally!
Ron

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Scott Horner for emailing us with the following details on Leslie Porterfield’s amazing times at Bonneville.

As reported on landracing.com…(early Sept 5)
NEW FASTEST WOMAN ON A MOTORCYCLE……..231mph
Leslie Porterfield of High Five Cycles working with tuner Scott Horner ran a 231mph one mile speed at the Bub event today. That makes her the fastest woman running a motorcycle! This surpasses the exactly 30 year old (Sept ‘78) 229mph record held by Marcia Holley in the Don Vesco streamlined motorcycle.

She also accomplished a 209mph “naked” record during Speed Week to earn her entry into the Bonneville 200mph Club.
With both of these runs she is now the fastest woman on two wheels faired & unfaired.

Outstanding job Leslie & Scott. Great comeback from last year!

Late Sept 5-
She backed up her 231mph mile run with a 233.184 which will net her a 232 FIM/AMA World record in MPS BF 2000!!!
She ran a 234.197 in the Kilo and in fine racer fashion, pushing every last bit out of the engine, sent a
rod through the cases! She shut down and got off the course without incident. Outstanding job!
Congratulations to Leslie for surpassing the exactly 30 year old (Sept ‘78) 229mph record held by
Marcia Holley in the Don Vesco streamlined motorcycle. She is now, as Bill said,
the Fastest Woman on a Motorcycle and she accomplished this by not only running faster but by also
setting a record!

Leslie will be riding a Honda CBR 1000 on 9/6 in the production class. Thus far she has run as fast as 191.9 on a 191.2 MPH record.

This hasn’t been confirmed from a second source yet, but as of Friday evening (5 Sep 08), we were contacted and informed that Dallas girl Leslie Porterfield just cracked 231mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

AMAZING!

The amazing Leslie Porterfield has set the Womens Land Speed Record at the Bonneville Salt Flats with a speed of 209.046mph.

She had to hold her speed for a full mile of the track which is not easy when a 5′-10″ woman that weight 115 pounds is traveling that fast on two wheels on a surface not renowned for great traction. She had the full 200mph wind hitting her all over. But she did it! And now she is the first woman in the Over 200 Club for speeds at Bonneville.

Last year Leslie tried for the record and the bike lost it at 110mph. 7 broken ribs and a punctured lung later, she fired herself up for another go of it this year on the same Suzuki Hayabusa bike.

When Leslie’s not showing the boys how it’s done, she’s running her dealership, High Five Cycles on LBJ Freeway between Greenville and Abrams.

TxDOT has recently stated that there have been 1,000 more motorcycle wrecks this year than last year.

Let’s see….gasoline is really expensive, economy is sluggish, consumer spending is down yet motorcycle and scooter sales are through the roof. I suppose logical deductive reasoning would say that with more bikes on the road, yes, it does seem logical that there might be more wrecks.

A recent NBC5 report, or course, focuses on “inexperienced” riders v. “inattentive” drivers. It was interesting reading some of the feedback on the site that accompanied that report. Some posters - anonymous of course, God forbid they actually use their name - stated it was all the bikers fault because we ride like idiots, lane split, etc. Personally, sounds like someone has some sour grapes because Harley Davidson Financial denied their application for credit.

Speaking as a biker, I don’t lane split. A Harley with an engine guard and highway pegs is too wide to lane split. I also don’t split because I don’t trust drivers to stay in their lanes because it’s been proven time and again that the vast majority of them are clueless when they are behind the wheel.

On an almost daily basis, this biker, who cannot be classified as “inexperienced” by any stretch of the imagination, has to deal with “inattentive” drivers often. They swerve because they simply aren’t paying attention; they drift into your lane (I guess they haven’t figured out what those white striped lines on the concrete are for), they’ve evidently bought vehicles that didn’t come with the luxury option of turn signals, etc etc.

However, for every inexperienced rider on the road each day, I would dare to guess that there are 50 inexperienced drivers. With those odds, it’s kind of hard to continously bash the bikers as always being in the wrong.

Chill out, have some dip, and just share the road. Cutting in front of us bikers won’t get you to your destination that much faster and may prevent us from using our motorcycle boot to kick off your driver’s side mirror to get your attention.

NOTE: If you are a rider and you have not done so, please take time to sign the petition asking the City of Dallas to implement Designated Motorcycle/Scooter Parking.