Stars & Stripes Harley & Bikini Shoot

While filming my "Savage Roads" episode in Krabi Thailand we did a photo shoot for bike magazines with Swedish model Gunvor Friberg who just so happened to have a US flag bikini which made the shoot even better!  These photos are high res so blow up quite large :)

Photos by Nathalie Enlund 

Filmed by Ian Matthews

The Man Who Saved Harley Davidson – And Your Spine

Written by Todd Halterman and originally posted September 28, 2012

Missourian Jim Schmig was on hand for one of the most important developments in motorcycling history.

“I was cruising down St. Charles Rock Road around St. Louis one day in 1977, and I saw the most unusual Harley frame,” Schmig said. “I stopped at a bike shop, it was called Osborne’s. I asked the cat working the desk about the frame, and he said it wasn’t for sale. I financially persuaded him to part with it, for like $650.00.”

Schmig had little notion that the frame he bought, and later used to build a bike, was one of the most important developments Harley-Davidson would ever discover outside the walls of their Milwaukee plant.

“I came back with my Rambler station wagon (I actually lived in Northern Illinois) and I built the scooter from a ’73 shovelhead motor, a ratchet top tranny. My Dad and a buddy of mine were machinists and we stoked out some good custom made parts,” Schmig said. “I went to the State Police, and they said I needed a builder’s title for the frame, so I called down to Osborne’s, but he had gotten himself killed somehow, so I called Bill Davis and told him my plight. He said he would only send me one, if I promised not to show it that year.”

So who was Bill Davis and why all the secrecy? Schmig had stumbled on to The Frame That Saved a Million Spines.

Schmig takes over the story again:

“I rode up to Al Muth’s in Blackriver Falls, WI, to his annual party, and ran into Willie G (Davidson) and his entourage, and he asked me if he could take a picture of the scoot. He offered me a shiny new leather jacket. He sat on it and got a few pictures and asked me how I came upon the design, I told him the story about St. Louis and told him (Davis) advertised in the back of “EasyRiders.”

Schmig’s bike, and those like it with the revolutionary frames built by Bill Davis and his company, RoadWorx, became the basis for the Harley Softail.

Not thrilled with the styling of his 1972 FX Super Glide, Bill Davis of Saint Louis, Missouri set to work crafting a custom version of his bike. The frame he came up with found so much love from other riders that Davis hired an attorney and filed US Patent 4087109 during March 1976, and that set the ball rolling. In August of that year, Davis met with Willie G. and Louie Netz of Harley-Davidson to gauge their interest in his design. While both men praised Davis’ work, they didn’t initially pull out their checkbooks.

Undeterred, Davis kept up work on his design, selling a couple dozen of his new frames and working on a version for the Sportster. It was also during that time that Davis entered into a business partnership  with a person, at least according to Greg Field’s book “Harley-Davidson Softail,” whose name is lost to history and whom Davis refuses identify.

Six months passed, and unable to shake the experience of seeing the frame, Willie G. wrote to Davis to reopen talks. Davis met with Harley-Davidson again, but unimpressed with their opening offer, walked  away empty-handed once again.

Davis forged ahead once again and continued to refine his design. This time, he placed the shocks under the transmission, lowering the bike, and found his latest design failed to meet one critical issue. On a shakedown cruise to Sturgis, Davis discovered that a build-up of heat broke down the urethane cylinders of the shocks.

Davis found that the Road Worx frames were labor-intensive to build and while his frames were selling well enough, the money wasn’t rolling in fast enough to cover a series of loans. Unable to find a way to scale up production, RoadWorx came to a sorry end and closed up operations. Unwilling to give up on his idea, Davis placed another call to Bleustein at H-D headquarters, and this time, the Men From Milwaukee wrote up a suitable offer. But there was one troubling caveat to the deal – all royalties would be capped. Davis, trapped between a rock and a hard place, signed the deal in January of 1982 , and the first bike featuring his revolutionary frame design (the FXST) rolled off the production line during the summer of 1983.

The Softail design was an immediate hit and provided H-D with a serious jump in sales. With the introduction of the Heritage Softail in 1986 and the Springer Softail a couple years later, Harley had discovered the formula for a bike which provided the level of comfort riders were searching for.

Davis’ quest for a bike with the look of a rigid and long-range comfort on the highway was ultimately a smashing success. His sketches of swingarm designs ultimately led to the triangulated swingarm which  hid the suspension and improved the lines of the bike, and it went on to become the standard.

Even with a $7,999 price tag, the Softail provided Harley with an immediate 31% jump in sales during the 1984 model year and easily outsold every big bike in their lineup. While other factors were part of the equation which allow H-D to survive some lean years, it was the Softail design, more than any other single factor, which kept the Motor Company from disappearing down the rabbit hole of history.

A Citizen of the World

 

An aware traveller sees each new journey as an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of humanity.

As the technology of travel grows ever more refined, the world grows smaller. Whereas a journey of a hundred miles once took many days, we can now travel across the globe in mere hours. The four corners of the earth are accessible by plane, train, and ship, and there are few pleasures in life as soul-stirring and trans-formative as travel. In a new land, the simplest of joys can be profound meditation takes on a new quality because the energy in which we are immersed is unfamiliar. Our sensory experiences are entirely novel.Yet, the relative ease with which we can step out of our own culture to explore another means that we are ambassadors representing not only our own way of life but also our culture. As a conscious citizen of the world, you can add value to the places you visit while simultaneously broadening your own perspective.

A truly aware traveller sees each new journey as an opportunity to improve international relations, spread goodness, and gain a greater understanding of humanity. To immerse yourself in foreign cultures is to open your mind to fresh ways of being. Your natural curiosity can help you navigate the subtleties that define a culture. While you may not agree with all the traditions or laws of a country, abiding by them demonstrates that you understand and respect their value. Staying centred in another culture is often simply a matter of learning about your destination, being patient with yourself and others, and accepting that people may treat you as an example of your country’s attitudes. New worlds will open to you when you take part in the everyday life of a locale the reality of a destination lies in its markets, its streets, and its people.

Travelling presents a wonderful opportunity to practice being open-minded and grounded. The voyages you make help cultivate a worldwide community in which we, as humans, can acknowledge and appreciate our differences as much as we recognize and appreciate our similarities. Though you will eventually return home, the positive impression you leave behind will remain as a testament to the respect and amiability that marked your intercultural interactions.

Harley-Davidson Study On Women And Motorcycles

 

 

A Harley-Davidson-sponsored study about women and motorcycles says those who ride are considerably happier, more confident and more fulfilled than those who do not.

Freud asked, "What does woman want?"

Harley-Davidson has the answer. She wants a motorcycle -- or should.

That is the result of a study of female motorcycle riders and non-riders, commissioned by the Wisconsin-based bike manufacturer.

Female riders were twice as likely as their non-riding counterparts to feel "confident." They were twice as likely, too, to feel "extremely satisfied" with their appearance.

More than half of those riders said the two-wheeled experience made them feel "free" and "independent." And while they were marginally less inclined to say they "usually feel good" about their senses of humour and intelligence, they were almost twice as likely to say they "usually feel good" about their sex appeal.

Harley-Davidson's director of women's outreach marketing, Claudia Garber, is one of those female riders. She took up the sport six years ago with the purchase of a Harley Nightster and moved on to a Fatboy.

"It's about freedom," the married mother of two says. "When you’re doing things you want to do, for yourself, and you feel confident, it goes into every aspect of your life, including how you feel about yourself. You feel more comfortable in your skin."

More and more women are, in fact, riding. A 2012 study by the Motorcycle Industry Council found that women accounted for 12% of U.S. motorcyclists -- up from 10.5% in 2009. 

Veteran rider and motorcycle journalist Susanna Schick found the results of the new study consistent with her own experience.

"I ride because I need the freedom," she said. "When I drive my car, I feel like a caged wild animal, trapped and forced to live within everyone else's limits."

The study, in which 1,013 riders and 1,016 non-riders were interviewed by the market research company Kelton Global, seems to bear that out. The results say female riders are happier in their careers, happier in their friendships, happier with their home lives, and twice as likely to be "extremely satisfied" with their sex lives.

Uh, maybe, said Schick.

"Being a woman in a man's sport means I meet loads of men who tell me how much they dig chicks who ride," she said. "Then they go home to their girlfriend or wife who doesn't -- and [who] eventually talks them out of riding altogether. So there's a real disconnect between the compliments I get and the reality. Having professional racers half my age flirt with me feeds my ego, but not my soul."

Whatever their experience, the rise in women riders is working for Harley. The company is selling more motorcycles to women than all their competitors combined, says the company's Garber. 

The Sombrero Galaxy by Hubble

 

The Sombrero Galaxy by Hubble

There are approx. 200 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way. Now look at this galaxy. It has 200 to 300 billion stars. Now there are billions of galaxies with billions of stars and that is just what we can observe with the current technology. A billion billion is a Quintilian and there is about 400 billion x a Quintilian stars in the known universe. Something to the power of 10 to the 24th. 

It blows my mind! What gets me isn’t just the number of stars, and the enormous scale and size and distance. It’s the amount of time and that each galaxy is 31 million light years away. The amount of time it took for the light from that picture to reach us, entire species could evolve on planets and develop into a space faring galactic civilization; empires could rise and fall, then fade into dust, and be lost in the sands of time, without us ever knowing. And that’s just the 31 million years it took for that light, which is a drop in the bucket of time that this galaxy has had to create life over many many billions of years.

Space vroom

Harley-Davidson Study On Women And Motorcycles

 

A Harley-Davidson-sponsored study about women and motorcycles says those who ride are considerably happier, more confident and more fulfilled than those who do not.

Freud asked, "What does woman want?"

Harley-Davidson has the answer. She wants a motorcycle -- or should.

That is the result of a study of female motorcycle riders and non-riders, commissioned by the Wisconsin-based bike manufacturer.

Female riders were twice as likely as their non-riding counterparts to feel "confident." They were twice as likely, too, to feel "extremely satisfied" with their appearance.

More than half of those riders said the two-wheeled experience made them feel "free" and "independent." And while they were marginally less inclined to say they "usually feel good" about their senses of humour and intelligence, they were almost twice as likely to say they "usually feel good" about their sex appeal.

Harley-Davidson's director of women's outreach marketing, Claudia Garber, is one of those female riders. She took up the sport six years ago with the purchase of a Harley Nightster and moved on to a Fatboy.

"It's about freedom," the married mother of two says. "When you’re doing things you want to do, for yourself, and you feel confident, it goes into every aspect of your life, including how you feel about yourself. You feel more comfortable in your skin."

More and more women are, in fact, riding. A 2012 study by the Motorcycle Industry Council found that women accounted for 12% of U.S. motorcyclists -- up from 10.5% in 2009. 

Veteran rider and motorcycle journalist Susanna Schick found the results of the new study consistent with her own experience.

"I ride because I need the freedom," she said. "When I drive my car, I feel like a caged wild animal, trapped and forced to live within everyone elses limits."

The study, in which 1,013 riders and 1,016 non-riders were interviewed by the market research company Kelton Global, seems to bear that out. The results say female riders are happier in their careers, happier in their friendships, happier with their home lives, and twice as likely to be "extremely satisfied" with their sex lives.

Uh, maybe, said Schick.

"Being a woman in a man's sport means I meet loads of men who tell me how much they dig chicks who ride," she said. "Then they go home to their girlfriend or wife who doesn't -- and [who] eventually talks them out of riding altogether. So there's a real disconnect between the compliments I get and the reality. Having professional racers half my age flirt with me feeds my ego, but not my soul."

Whatever their experience, the rise in women riders is working for Harley. The company is selling more motorcycles to women than all their competitors combined, says the company's Garber. 

 

 

Mystical Bridges Around The World

 

 

    Moon Bridge – Taipei, Taiwan

An ancient, mossy bridge is the perfect complement to any rural or river scene. These old and mysterious arched bridges are mankind’s way of traversing landscapes that are otherwise decidedly wild.

Interestingly enough, an arch is only kept in position by its own weight – the stones supporting an arch couldn’t possibly stay in their position without the stones above them weighing them down. So, while they were very effective and sturdy, their building process was complicated. This usually involved building an entire wooden framework underneath the bridge on which the arch could be rested until the rest of the bridge was built around it.

Devil’s Bridge In Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria

       Huangshan, Anhui, China 

            Pindos Mountains, Greece

    Låtefossen Waterfall, Norway

           Mullerthal, Luxembourg

           Rakotz Brücke, Germany

               Ronda, Malaga, Spain

 

       Multnomah Falls, Oregon, USA

        Gorge De L’areuse, Switzerland

        Glenfinnan Viaduct, Scotland

              Carrbridge, Scotland

 

  Gazteuatxe, Spain

     Stari Most, Bosnia And Herzegovina

               Root Bridge in India

                  Ponte Gobbo, Italy

 Tollymore, UK

Bridge Across The Merced River Yosemite USA

 

      Gapstow Bridge, New York, USA

        Hermitage Bridge, Scotland