Motorcycle Nation Podcast

I hope you did not expect to come to this post and find some great blues song about a bike being down and a rider drowning in his beer over it. The song is not here but this post is about looking at your bike knowing it is not running and you can not do anything about it. It is one thing if you are strapped for cash or you don’t have the time. It is something altogether different when you have the time and your credit card has already been provided but you can not get the part.

We always try to promote using your local shop to help boost the economy but there are times that the deal at the online retailer is so good that we make the decision to purchase it online. Many times you can save hard earned cash by purchasing from the online parts house even if you have to pay shipping. The problem is that you have such a wide variety of shops to choose from in the vast world wide web world that you have no idea who is legit or who is true to their word.

You are sitting back in your chair right now wondering why I am ranting on about this subject aren’t you? Well, I have been listening to the continuing saga of a coworker who ordered a simple part online to save $7. He placed two orders online approximately 55 days ago, one with Bike Bandit and the second with another retailer to be left unnamed at this time. My buddy owns a mid 80’s (I believe) Yamaha Venture and it is hard to locate parts to keep this motorcycle on the road. The part he ordered from Bike Bandit was at his door within 4 days. The part he ordered from the anonymous retailer is yet to be delivered even though the website said that it ships within 5 days. After numerous phone calls around the 25 day mark he was told that the part should be shipping in 1 week as it was backordered. It never came. So, he made another phone call last week and had to leave a message with the newly installed automated phone system.

Today, he received a phone call from one who claimed to be the owner saying that he was looking over the orders list and that he noticed this order being so late. He wanted to apologize and said that he had good news. It looked like the ordered part would ship in 4-5 days. My buddy said he wanted to tell the guy, “Excuse me for not getting excited.”, but he just told the guy if it is not here next week he could keep it.

There is nothing worse than having a ride that is down and in this down economy we are all looking for a break on the cost of maintaining our bikes. It is understood that sometimes things happen but two months to get a part that says it ships in 7 days is ridiculous. If you find yourself down make sure to do your homework. Either buy it from the local shop that you can deal with face to face or get on some forums and track down that reputable parts dealer that won’t leave you stranded. If the owner turns out to be stretching the truth then I will reveal the name of his company on the blog as one to avoid. After all, I don’t want anyone in the Motorcycle Nation Podcast family to live with the Bike Repair Blues.

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In this episode we discuss some quick news. We mention the Vegas Bikefest and let you know that Jay Leno is auctioning off his 200hp V-Max to help a friend. We joke about Sen. Lautenberg from NJ helping to push a helmet law in Uganda (purely a joke). Motorcycle sales are down and we let you know just how bad the outlook is and we mention a study by the Freedonia Group that says that internationally, motorcycle sales are expected to rise 8% per year over the next 5 years.

The return of Casey Stoner to MotoGP this weekend and the trade off from World Superbike to MotoGP and vice versa of James Toseland and Ben Spies is mentioned as well. The majority of this episode involves the alarming trend over the past years of returning war vets losing their lives on motorcycles and what the Department of Defense has done in an attempt to stop these tragedies.

We close it out by mentioning friend of the show Adrian Blake, creator of the motorcycle show Ride! over on BlogTalkRadio. I urge you to go give Adrian a listen at Ride! Finally we close out the show by mentioning some interviews that we have in the works. Dwayne from Cycle Outfitters here in Indy will be joining us soon to talk about cold weather riding gear. Dwain DeVille, author of “The Biker’s Guide to Business” will promote the book on the Motorcycle Nation Podcast. This is a unique look at the world of business through the eyes of a biker. And we are in the process of setting up an interview with Jensen Beeler, Editor-in-Chief of Asphalt and Rubber, a website providing the latest motorcycle industry and racing news to the web. You won’t want to miss anything that is coming up!

Finally, we send you out with the song Ride by Adrenaline Factor. You can find this song and additional band information at MusicAlley.

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Riding with Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Motor Company moving manufacturing to Indiana?
Competition Accessories leaving Ohio for SC.
Billy Lane is sentenced.
MotoGP in Indy this weekend
Other news and recalls.

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So many times we hear people talking about an acquaintance or a loved one and you hear the words, “they died doing what they loved.” Now doing what they loved could mean so many things. It could be jogging in the park, snow skiing down the most challenging slopes, fighting a raging house fire, defending the streets from crime, or thousands of other activities. Mark Garback died due to the injuries he suffered while riding a motorcycle. Now this was not your ordinary, every day motorcycle riding. No, this was riding funeral escort, providing a clear path for the procession to move their loved one to their final resting place.

Mark was a 47 year old military veteran who loved motorcycling. Much of his everyday life involved motorcycling whether riding the funeral escorts, riding for pleasure, or teaching motorcycle safety. Mark was a long time instructor in the ABATE of Indiana Motorcycle Safety Program teaching both the Beginner Rider Course (BRC) and the Experienced Rider Course (ERC). I remember watching my first ERC back in 2002, my rookie year of instructing, where Mark was one of the instructors. In the experienced course the students ride their own motorcycles in the class and the instructors ride their personal motorcycles for the demonstration rides before each range exercise. As I observed this class, I noticed that there was an instructor on a white Fatboy that was showing amazing handling skills. That was Mark. A confident motorcycle rider and a confident person.

And let’s not forget, he was pretty confident with the ladies too!

It is ironic that tomorrow we will have the showing for Mark and on Wednesday the memorial service will allow friends and family to say their final goodbyes. As the motorcycle hearse takes Mark for his final ride, led by his beloved Fatboy, I will choose to remember Mark as he is in the pictures in this post, always smiling, and I am sure that others will choose the same. Goodbye Mark. It was a pleasure knowing you.

UPDATE
The last time that I had the opportunity to speak with Mark was early in the training season around the end of March. When Angie, Derek, and I arrived at the showing last night there was a Yamaha FZ1 parked outside the entrance doors in the grass. Marks boots were on the pegs turned backwards. I inquired about the motorcycle and was shocked to learn that on April 11th, Mark had traded his beloved Fatboy for the FZ1. He had always wanted a sportbike in addition to the HD and had quietly made the trade. So, Mark will be led home today by his newest two wheel love, this Yamaha FZ1.

We left off last time after we had taken the training required to work the race. Then all we had to do was wait for the race. I did forget to mention one thing about the training day in the last post and that was where we were issued our jumpsuit that we would be wearing during the 3 days in September. We got full coverall jumpsuits that we wore and we were also required to provide our own gloves. The funny thing that we observed was that the jumpsuit had elastic cuffs on both the wrist and ankle area. It was understood that there was some safety reason for this but could not imagine how we were going to survive the heat of early September in Indiana. The firefighters let us ABATE guys, and gals, know that the normal suits they were required to wear during Indy and the Brickyard were much worse. I can’t imagine.

Anyway, September 14th came and ABATE of Indiana was well represented. Besides the sixteen that were working corners, we provided further personnel to “man” some other responsibilities. During the festivities in the downtown area and around the track ABATE was ready to provide transportation to anyone who had been drinking. The person was provided a ride after their motorcycle was loaded onto a trailer. This was a free benefit as the idea was to protect the race and motorcycling community from bad publicity. ABATE personnel also manned motorcycle parking on the backstretch of the Speedway. Perhaps the biggest hit with the crowd though were the gear check stations. Different locations around the track were provided for riders to check in their riding gear so they did not have to carry it around. How many rides have you been on where this would have been a welcome benefit? I can think of quite a few.

Anyway, working the corners was a great experience. We arrived at the track around 6 to 6:30 every morning and made our way to our assigned areas. I was in turn 11A which was in the 180 just off the backstretch. I saw some great racing from this vantage point. This turn is situated just behind the main bleachers on the inside of the front stretch. We had alot of fans standing behind us as you could walk around in this area and it provided a great vantage point. Many photographers stationed themselves along the fence to get that perfect shot of the riders coming off the backstretch out of turn 10 and barreling towards us in 11A and followed them through 11B. Turns 10 and 11B saw action as they had many riders leave the track in their areas but 11A had a pretty uneventful weekend.

If any of you watched the practice and the race, you know what type of weekend we had. It was a rainy mess. If you have ever participated in a motorcycle safety class you were taught that you slow down and reduce your lean angles on wet pavement. Somebody forgot to tell these guys! I was amazed at the speeds and lean angles even in pouring rain at times. True professionals with truly great equipment. The rain tires stuck perfectly and they put on a show. Race day was the worst weather day of the weekend and caused the MotoGP race to run with fewer laps than normal. Nicky Hayden on the Repsol Honda was putting on a show while being chased by Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner. You could sit back and watch Rossi slowly reel the Kentucky Kid in and a small mistake by Hayden allowed Rossi to pass and run away with the win. What a great weekend.

Hopefully the 2009 show will see better weather. On race day the wind got so bad that the Yamaha tent blew over and injured some shoppers browsing inside. We hope that everyone recovered and returns for the show this year. When you park your bike or check your gear this year, thank that person working because they have volunteered to make your MotoGP experience in Indy a great one.

**I apologize for this post being so late. This week was filled with visits to my Mom in the hospital and the death of my wife’s grandmother. We are back on track now and hope to stay that way. Thank you for your support.

Bullitt