Three months into 2014, and before I even pulled my motorcycles out of the garage, I had to fork over money for all of the membership dues that would take me into the new year. Let me see: H.O.G., AMA, NRA, American Legion, ABATE, AAA and, just for the hell of it, I joined AARP again. I am finally caught up with all of my membership dues; let the benefits begin… TC Sorensen of Evansville, Indiana, was on a flight home from a business trip when an idea hit him on how to ask Sarah Moore to marry him. TC sent a few texts to friends and the idea became reality. On a plane trip with Sarah to look at some property to purchase, the plane circled around and on the ground were the words “Marry Me” spelled out by motorcycles courtesy of Michael Brown and some friends. TC pulled out the box and Sarah accepted the ring. They are to be married in the fall… Brothers Mark and Mike Forszt who opened Harley-Davidson of Valparaiso, Indiana, in 1996, and have gone on to expand with H-D of Kokomo, H-D of Michigan City and H-D of Indy West, are expanding again. They have acquired Eagle H-D in Lafayette and Spyke’s H-D in Frankfort and combined them both into Boiler Harley-Davidson with plans to build a 36,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art dealership. It will be U-shaped with three 12,000-square-foot pods. It will have a showroom, service area and a pavilion for parties, motorcycle storage and used bikes. General Manager Jon Watson promises that this place will have the latest and greatest from The MoCo… Congratulations to the Sturgis Brown High School Student Build Challenge Team. They received first place in the High School Build Open Class at the 27th annual Donnie Smith Bike Show in St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 30. They started with a 2014 Harley-Davidson Street Glide provided by Black Hills Harley-Davidson on January 6 and finished the masterpiece on time for the show. They massaged the new motor and added a Trask turbo to the Dave Mackie hemi heads, stretched custom body with Ferrari red paint with graffiti-style graphics and a 26″ front wheel, as well as custom building some of the parts themselves. The bike will be auctioned off in Sturgis at the Legends Ride charity event. The 175 hp machine is just beautiful, and those young guns did a great job… Richard Marquez came home from a hard day on the job to find his 19-year-old stepson Alec Young playing Xbox—again. He told the punk to turn it off and went to get the mail; when he returned the game was still on so he turned it off himself. The punk went ballistic and started throwing remotes at him. Marquez went across the street and called 911, and the kid went totally Rambo; he grabbed a knife and started stabbing Marquez’s $40,000 2009 H-D custom, and then got into his car and ran into the scoot for the coup de grâce that caused a total of $25,000 in damages. They finally caught up with Rambo Jr. at a friend’s house and arrested him. He told the police he acted out when he threw the remotes and attacked the scoot in a fit of rage, and it was all done on purpose. The kicker: He said he didn’t take his last two doses of his medications and it played a factor in his behavior. I think the boys at the state hotel might even treat him the same as a pedophile for what he has done. Rambo to Jambo in 60 seconds, with no medication… As we get into our prime riding season, remember that all of the charity rides we like to sponsor are in jeopardy in just about every state now. Local and state governments are realizing how much money can be raised by organizations sponsoring poker runs. Illinois already charges organizations $400 per event with the participating stops each having to purchase a $150 license. Lobbyists with ABATE of Illinois in the capitol of Springfield said they are close to making progress to loosen the law… Henry Wolf, who filed a lawsuit against BMW motorcycles and Corbin-Pacific for causing him to have a 20-month erection after a four-hour ride on his K1100RS, had his lawsuit thrown out of court. He was seeking lost wages, medical expenses and emotional distress. Judge James J. McBride decided that the case didn’t have enough supporting evidence… What is the difference between a Harley-Davidson and an old dog? The dog can get in the back of the pickup by itself. Yeah, I thought it was funny, too, until I started trying to count all of the times some of my old scoots ended up there… That’s it for this month; it’s all about you, the Midwest biker. Ride fast, but ride safe.
