The History of Harley: Over 100 Years of Motorcycle Greatness

If you’re a motorcyclist, you know that the name “Harley Davidson” simply can’t be touched by other names in the business. Harley Davidson started out as a pipe dream nearly 110 years ago now, and it’s spent the past century becoming perhaps the most prestigious motorcycle company across the entire globe. Over the course of the past century, Harley Davidson has produced some of the most beloved motorcycles in history. This house name continues to faithfully roll out new, beautiful bikes, all under the same dedication to craft and quality that the original Harley and Davidson stood by. From huge bikes to smaller one, everyone has their own personal Harley preference—and whatever model you love most, you know you’re riding a roaring piece of high quality machinery. You love your Harley, but you may not know the history behind the business. From humble beginnings Harley’s design of an engine to fit on a bicycle— to big earnings, Harley Davidson has left a rich legacy in the US and all over the world. The following timeline chronicles just a few of the great moments in time for the big business of Harley Davidson.  The excellent image below is thanks to MotorcycleInsurance.com
                                                                                                  

Iconic Marlon Brando on 1950 Triumph Thunderbird

                  

                    Marlon Brando on  his 1950 Triumph Thunderbird 6T valued at $20 million

   Marlon Brando leaning on his 1950 Triumph Thunderbird 6T photographed during the filming of The Wild One in 1953, inspired Andy Warhol 13 years later to create a silkscreen print titled "Marlon." The legendary piece of motorcycle art is expected to sell for a cool $20 million when it is auctioned in November 2012 at Christie's in New York City.

Pete Best Gets Left Behind

Consider it the most successful rock ‘n’ roll career that almost was. Finding themselves without a permanent drummer in 1960, the pre-fame Beatles hired local Liverpool skinsman Pete Best — but his time in the band would be short lived. After recording a demo for George Martin in 1962, the producer recommended that a session drummer be used in place of Best for future for recordings. The Beatles instead decided to outright fire Best depriving him of untold riches and rock immortality and Ringo was hired as his replacement.

Best attempted to commit suicide at the peak of Beatlemania, but gradually grew to accept his footnote role in the biggest band of all time. Finally receiving a multi-million dollar royalty check after the 1995 release of the Beatles’ ‘Anthology’ definitely helped the cause.

My crush of the day

                               My crush of the day is this sexy Shovel with springer front end,

Post card from sexy Texas gals :)

I was very surprised and charmed after the Stevie Ray Vaughn Ride & Concert event was finished down in Texas. I received a picture postcard inviting me to play by the gals who work the event holding one of Stevie's guitars and the SRV Chopper. Looks like they want me there! I say yes how say you!!

Actor Keanu Reeves And Custom Builder Gard Hollinger Partner In Arch Motorcycle Company. KR GT-1 Prototype.

The partnership first creation is this KR GT1 prototype that you can see below being ridden by Keanu Reeves. The actor visited for the 1st time Gard in 2007 at his L.A. County Choprods shop for a customizing job on one of his favorite rides. That led to a friendship and an ongoing dialogue about riding the ideal machine. Both sharing the same passion for life on two wheels, having common design taste and preference for performance motorcycles, they decided to collaborate under the brand name of Arch Motorcycle Company on a first prototype named the KR GT1s characterized by its power, stability, agility, and aesthetic beauty, offering smooth and impressive power in addition to a comfortable ride. This first prototype is the result of a five-year collaboration with the goal of building a custom motorcycle focused on its ride-ability. A bike begging to be ridden.

“We have a common vision,” says Gard of his partnership with Reeves. “We started with the idea of a performance-based modern machine. Once the bike was complete, it looked like a production motorcycle but unlike anything we had ever seen.



It’s unique and we can’t wait to introduce it to the world.” The KR GT1 is destined for production with Arch Motorcycle Company currently in the industrial design process with plan to have production models for sale in 2013.


Reeves, an avid motorcycle enthusiast has been quietly enjoying motorcycles for more than 25 years. Whether rain or shine, he rides daily and has even had long stints where he didn’t own a car and relied solely on two-wheeled forms of transportation. His passion for motorcycles dates back to his youth. His first ride was a Kawasaki 600 Enduro and he currently owns a variety of Norton Commandos as well as the first Arch Motorcycle. “I’m a guy that loves everything about motorcycles – the sounds, the style and the aesthetic combined with the function but most of all the riding experience. I’ve enjoyed motorcycles for as long as I can remember and I’m ready to share my passion with the world,” explains Reeves. Arch Motorcycle Company.


 

Published by Cyril Huze October 3rd, 2012

 

7 Ways to Save Time on Your Social Media Efforts

 

 

     Through my own social media efforts my music is popular & available in many areas in the world!

One of the most attractive aspects of social media for many small businesses is that it’s free, right?
Well, burn up half a day trying to figure out how to promote your new Facebook page and you might start to realize it’s not that free after all.

While many social media tactics can benefit your marketing and business-building efforts it’s essential that you find ways to get the most from the time you invest as well as the money you invest in marketing. To save time on social media for your small business, here are seven ways to get yourself organized.

1.  Despite what you might think—or have read or heard—you do not have to add a new post to every social network every day. This can eat up a lot of time from your daily schedule and leave you feeling just plain overwhelmed. The important thing is that when you do post, make sure it is valuable content that will generate a good response from your fans and followers.

Figure out what is going to work best for you. Know what time of the day/week you can expect to get more interaction from your target audience. If you know that the majority of them are only online in the evenings, then make sure you are posting in that window. Otherwise, your fans will likely miss your latest update because they’re at work.

It is okay to post every other day or even once a week. When you start to get a feel for what your fans want and when, you will have a clear picture of when you should be concentrating on social media.

2.  As a part of your social media schedule, set up a time during the week where you or a chosen employee sit down and brainstorm content ideas for blog posts, status updates, tweets, etc. This will eliminate any stress of having to come up with something on the spot from one week to the next. Then, when the time comes to update your posts, you can just select something from the pile and post.

3.  When you are doing things on your own, it can be hard to find the time to post to multiple accounts. You can link each of your profiles so that when you post on one account, say your Facebook page, then it is also sent out to the others and vice versa. Tools like Buffer, Tweetdeck and even Facebook Scheduled Posts can make this happen in the background for you.

4.  Many small businesses are starting to take advantage of social media as a way to provide better customer service. You can quickly and easily respond to any issues or comments that customers leave on social networks rather than having to wade through e-mails or have customers waiting to speak to someone on the phone.

You can do this by offering a specified time of the day for any customer service issues, letting the customers know when that is. This can be done easily on your Twitter or Facebook accounts.
Anything you can do that benefits your customers will make social media return even greater.

5.. One bonus of having a content stockpile is that you can use tools like Socialoomph, Buffer and Timely for Twitter to schedule its release automatically. This doesn’t mean you can put all of your social media posts on auto-pilot though, because that just defeats the purpose.
You can schedule certain things, but you still need to go back and make responses where needed and take time to actually interact with your fans.

6.. Other tools make it simple to monitor and update your accounts from one spot. You can use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to create a dashboard that lets you handle multiple social media accounts from a single platform, saving you time.

Create alerts for important topics such as your company name, product names and competitors. Create Twitter Lists of your most important customers, partners and media contacts so you can monitor their activity in real time.

7.. Save yourself time from searching for industry news articles by setting up a Google Alert for specified topics. You can search through the results for news that relates to your business. When you find something of interest, you can share it with your followers.
Social media is going to be an important marketing tool for businesses for a long time to come. With useful tools and planning, you can save plenty of time on social networks while still getting the most benefits from them.

Good networking! 

Pat Savage