1. Throttle Therapy

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2. Scooter's Story

Scooter’s Cruiser, a VStar 650 Classic. Her wish list at Cruiser Customizing is growing…

Scooter with her scoot, at one of the many events she attended in 2005.

I am a forty-five year old Indiana grandmother named “Scooter”, and last year I decided that my turn had come to have a motorcycle of my own. My husband of seven years, who now rides an ’05 Vulcan 1500, has been in the saddle for some two decades now. Back in February of 2005, I let him know my feelings about getting my own bike. My husband’s response? “OK, you can go ahead and get a bike as long as you can pass the permit test.” Of course, he was thinking that I would never pass it. Wrong!

I easily passed the test and afterwards spoke with some of my rider girl friends about which bike to buy. Soon I chose a 2005 Yamaha VStar 650 Classic, a great all-around ride and a fine starter bike for women (or guys), too. Except for a set of Baron’s risers, I haven’t started to customize the VStar yet, but my wish list at Cruiser Customizing is growing…Over the past year I’ve become a much more experienced motorcyclist, going from obtaining a beginner’s permit, to buying a bike, to passing the ABATE course in June. (Incidentally, I highly recommend the ABATE course to all riders—beginners and experienced alike.) I suppose that you can guess what happened next; my husband went out and passed his permit and then obtained his license. Right—the same guy who thought that I could never pass the permit test finally obtained his own endorsement. Better late than never!

The Yamaha was love at first ride: I loved it from the very first time I sat on it. I look back and remember how I used to ride circles in the school parking lot, working myself up to feeling comfortable on the roads. I meet lots of great people on my bike, through the bike shows, at the biker charity events, on poker runs or just hanging out. I’ve made a whole new circle of friends. Today there is a new attitude towards bikers: you see a lot more lady riders than you did ten or even five years ago. I still ride behind my husband from time to time. After all, it was my husband who taught me to love bikes and I’m thankful to him for that. Bikes seem to run in our family; when our three-year-old grandson Dustin visits, he makes one of us put him on the bike.

In the past year I’ve put around 10,000 miles on my bike and I can’t wait to see how many miles I’ll put on the bike in ’06. We’ve started a group of riders called the Crazy 8’s Motorcycle Club (www.crazy8smc.com), which consists of eleven women and nine men, and we plan to have a ride to benefit United Cerebral Palsy of Indiana. We will also be having our Rebel Ride to Fairmount, Indiana, home of James Dean. We’ve met James’ cousin Marcus Winslow who still lives in Fairmount, and we’ll be visiting James’ grave site there.

It’s so much fun to be out there with the sun on my back and the wind in my face. Over the winter I have had serious PMS (Parked Motorcycle Syndrome), but when the mercury hits fifty degrees you’ll see me out there once again riding. I love being on the bike, being on the road with my husband and our friends, riding and enjoying life. Now when my girl friends see me riding my own bike, they want one, too. Spring is just around the corner. Enjoy life to the fullest, Cruisers and, when you see another biker, be sure to wave.

Hugs,
Scooter "scootergirl"

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3. Custom Spirit by Paul Schmidt

Schmidt’s Spirit is a spirited custom: Paul’s sumptuous street rod gets back to basics and displays just how far creativity can go with a Honda Spirit.

Front, back or side, Paul’s ride reveals tasteful customization—shared passion and individual style—from every angle.

Move over Orange County Choppers, at Cruiser Customizing we’ve started to wonder if member Paul Schmidt is going to be the next Discovery Channel mega-star. Readers might agree with us once they notice what Paul has done with his humble Honda Spirit 750. Paul was a customizing enthusiast right into the early 1970’s, but then, well, marriage happened and all that follows. (Why, oh why, is it that the bikes get sacrificed first right after the knot is tied? Look, New Husbands, those golf clubs and tennis rackets should be much higher on your sacrificial list than your most prized possession, your beloved motorcycles!)

Anyway motorcycles being as they are part and parcel of a rider’s ingrained psyche, they can never be completely forgotten, nor can a true love of biking ever entirely go away. In time, Paul and his wife began attending the Bikes and Blues Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas. By this association, Paul’s wife became a motorcycle enthusiast and now she rides a Shadow ACE. So Paul, who has suffered from M.D. (Motorcycle Deprivation) long enough, began hankering for something really different. Displaying some hard-core humility, Paul wrote to us that he and his wife “did a few things to the Honda Spirit 750 to make it ours”. Yeah right. In our opinion Paul’s redesigned Japanese street rod cruiser (we’re calling it Schmidt’s Spirit), is a rolling work of art fit for the Guggenheim Motorcycle Club, something Vincent Van Gogh might ride if he was throttling in the here and now. Paul’s “Violet Van Go” has a spring solo seat, a set of loud 2-inch custom pipes, l-o-o-o-n-g four-inch extensions on the forks, forward pegs and (would you believe…) a hard tail kit, as well as a whole bunch of other subtle changes. (Can you spot ‘em in the photos, Cruisers?)

Each naysayer who once told Paul that he was a total nutcase for his re-engineering of a perfectly good Honda is now whistling another tune from the other side of his mouth. Now, whenever and wherever Paul drops a kickstand, people gawk at his labor of love, and all agree that Schmidt’s Spirit is one rad ride. Very few gooseneckers can even figure out what on earth this sexy beast is. Paul, your next cruise should be to Washington DC, to the patent office, before, well…you know the story!

Is Paul crazy, or is he just an unwired creative genius? Take a look at his Violet Vixen and form your own opinion. We at Cruiser Customizing think that there’s only one vote here for Paul’s Mega-Honda, and that is “Best in Show.” Paul’s message to all his Cruiser Customizing members is “Thanks for looking!”

Paul Schmidt, aka "okshadow"

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4. Backfire: Biker Jokes

Joke of the Month: Here’s one from Cruiser Customizing member Greg Porter, a Shadow rider: A biker decides to go for a ride when he finds that the zipper on his leather jacket is broken. No bother, rather than scrub the ride, he just turns the jacket around and slips his arms through. Well, after a glorious few hours, he begins to get a bit road weary, so he pulls the bike over and lies down under a billboard. While sleeping, his bike’s kickstand slowly sinks into the soft earth and falls over. Passersby mistake this for a crash scene, so they dial 911 for the sleeping bro’. First an ambulance arrives, and then a few minutes later a State Trooper pulls up on his Harley. The trooper whips out his pad and pen and demands of the medic, “Is he all right?” The flabbergasted medic replies, “Well, he was fine until we turned his head in the right direction!”

More humor in a V-twin: A seasoned old cruiser gets pulled over for doing 66 mph in a 65. The hard-nosed rookie officer demands of the biker “Let me see your license. You were going one mile per hour over the speed limit.” The biker replies, well I can show you the license of the guy whose bike I just stole, it’s in the saddle bag.” “Wh-a-a-a-a-t?” the rookie cop demands, “You stole the bike?” “Sure did,” the biker replies, “I’ve got his license next to the gun I shot the owner with. May I get it for you, Officer?” Now the rookie was really freaked. He takes two steps backwards, and calls for back-up. Hearing the details over the radio, the Captain himself responds to the call. When the Captain arrives, he demands to see the license and regi, and the biker quickly and politely complies. Flabbergasted, the Captain demands, “Why, the junior officer here said that you just stole this bike and that you shot its owner.” “Right” the cruiser responds coolly, “and he probably told you that I was speeding, too!”

And those well-known quotes about motorcycles through history? Suzuki Volusia rider Ed Thompson reminds us that motorcycles were the true rides of choice in Biblical times. Just see this quote concerning King David: “The roar of his Triumph was heard throughout Israel!”

The last word, comes to us from my old buddy Jeff Medved. Jeff is the nephew of that big Russian dude in the old black and white film footage you see on TV getting shot with a cannon ball in his gut. Jeff, for sending this pic you are the wind beneath our wings, plus a few pounds of air pressure in the tires!

Don’t need no milk bottle,
When my hand’s on the throttle;
Perched on my throne,
I’m Bad to the Bone!

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