Ink, I think

I’ve wanted to do a post on tattoos lately, as I think tattoos and motorcycles kinda go hand in hand.

I have a few, literally.

I’ve recently seen Dave Perewitz get a tattoo on video http://www.lifeatperewitz.com/ at ACME Tattoo in Minnesota while he was here for the Donnie Smith Bike Show, and I recently commented on a fellow blogger’s post regarding a Harley tattoo he got.
http://harley-davidson-mystique.blogspot.com/ The comment was "similar" to what I’m about to tell you here:

I have three tattoos, and only three for a very good reason. I had two before I got married. I decided I needed a third tattoo and got the blessing from my wife. So, a friend and I decided we were going to get tattoos together after work one day. I told my wife I was going to get a Harley tattoo, which I honestly did intend to do. She said, "Are you sure? I don't want anything evil!" Well, needless to say, I came home with an evil tattoo, not related to Harleys at all. It started out innocent enough, but the tattoo artist asked if I wanted it embellished after he got the basic tattoo done. He said he had no one else in line and he’d do it for free. I said sure, and he made it kind of portrait looking, like it was under my skin. It looks pretty damn evil. This was to be my last tattoo if Mama was to remain happy. We all know if Mama ain’t happy, ain’t no one happy. She was not happy with me at all for a very long time. You should know if a very long time turns into too long, you ain’t happy with half your stuff. Well, It took a long time for her to stop complaining about it. She hates it to this day. She'd say "cover it up, It's looking at me!" I love my wife dearly, and the fight over wanting to get more tattoos is not worth it. I got a Harley though, and she doesn't complain about that,(much). The Harley is a whole different story. Anyway, I told him to enjoy his "first" tattoo, and said I'm sure there'll be more to come.

By the way, I still don’t have that Harley tattoo yet. And I love tattoos as much as my wife, Harleys, and custom paint.

Harley Davidson Sportster

Harley Davidson (HD) Sportster is an open invitation to take back the street, block by block. The Sportster is the longest-running model family in the Harley-Davidson lineup, it's introduced in 1957. The Sportster is small motorcycles design from Harley Davidson company if we compare to the other Harley models. Since 1957, the HD sportster models always develop with many interesting design. Started by using 883 cc, now on 2008 the Harley Davidson sportster ready with 1200 cc evolution engines.

Let's see how the Harler Davidson sportster models performance:

HD-883 (XL 883) and HD-883 Low (XL 883L)
HD-883 Custom (XL 883C) and HD-1200 Nightster (XL 1200N)
HD-1200 Low (XL 1200L) and HD-1200 Custom (XL 1200C)
Harley Davidson Sportster Roadster XL 1200R
Harley Davidson Sportster has improve in frame accommodating a rubber-mounted engine. But don't worry because although this made the bike heavier and reduced the available lean angle, This design will reduced the amount of vibration transmitted to the frame and the rider.

Ok, on the next post we will review one by one about Harley Davidson sposrtster models and the specification design.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Dad!

No this is not an April Fools day joke.

2008 Donnie Smith Invitational Bike Show

As Promised, a post about the show.



I have a Flickr flash badge of photos on the right side of my page with Pics. of some of the things I liked at the show.

I went to the 2008 Donnie Smith Invitational Bike show in St. Paul, Mn at the River Center on Sunday March 30th. The weather was beautiful. It was in the 50's which is like balmy for this time of year in Minnesota. People and bikes were all over, inside and out, and the weather was nice enough that people were ouside in t-shirts. Today I have about 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, and again ask myself, "Will I ever get to ride this year?" It was great to have such nice weather for all the bikes to come in and out of the River Center, and the warm weather brought a huge crowd to the show as well. There were bikes of all kinds there. Trikes, Harleys, Metric, old school, new school, and in general one off customs as far as the eye could see. There was a great swap meet, vendors, beer and food as always too.



The highlight of the show for me was seeing two of my painting idols. I stopped by the House of Kolor area and met with John Kosmoski, the legendary painter, and owner/creator of world famous House of Kolor Paint Products. http://www.tcpglobal.com/HokPaint/
John came to my Tech. School back in 1992 to do a custom painting demo. This was a day I'll never forget, because I was the most obsessed true custom paint enthusiast in the class, I got to be part of the hands on Demo with John. He taught me how to lay out my first set of scallops, and flames and I got to shoot his kandys on a snowmobile hood. Wow, what a memory.



I also got to meet with the legendary bike builder / custom painter, Dave Perewits breifly. https://www.perewitz.com/
Dave was in passing, so I did not want to intrude on his time too much, so I settled for a quick photo, and really quick small talk. I let him know how big of a fan of his I was. When I was a teenager, long before I could paint, I fell in love with one of his flame jobs, and have since revered him as a flame painting god.

Both John Kosmoski and Dave Perewits are class acts, and were gracious enough to be photographed with me and I was greatly honored.



Thanks John and Dave!