jack and cokes, and biker parties

I don’t always get a phone call from a guy or a lead from someone that walks into the shop. Sometimes I have to go to it the old fashion way go to a bar, sit on a bar stool, have a few jack and cokes and talk to anyone with a Harley shirt on! I do try and hit the internet first thing in the morning, but Shovelhead Joe seems to always be on the internet looking. One day he sent me a link for an ad on a shovelhead parts lot. It was about an hour and a half away from me. Now that’s not that far, but I stay very busy right in my home town, so it’s hard for me to get away. But I thought I’d call the ad and maybe the next Sunday I could get down there. I called the ad and a man name Chris answered. We talked for a bit, the ad was for a shovelhead roller but he said he had other parts too. He wanted me to come right away, I told him I couldn’t and that I would come down the next weekend and check the stuff out. Chris said ok and hung up. The next day I was surprised to see Chris calling my phone. He asked if I was really going to come down, to which I replied “yes of course”. I asked why was he calling and asking? Apparently someone else had called and said they would be down that day. I told Chris “hey if you sell it no big deal” better luck for me next time I thought. Well I guess the guy didn’t like what he seen at Chris’s because that Sunday Sandy, Josh and I were heading to Chris house. It was a nice summer day and what better way to spend the day, family and Harley parts! Chris had all the parts out in front of his garage. As I looked though all the stuff I couldn’t help but noticing all the hot rod shovelhead parts. Dual Fire heads, old clutches, flywheels, all kinds of stuff. I had to ask where did they all come from. That’s when Chris opened his garage, there under a few blankets laid a full blown Shovelhead drag bike! It had an S&S super G with two thunder jets in it. It was a Shovelhead swing arm frame that had been strutted, the fenders were moved down lower almost sitting on the tires. The wheels where a custom 3 piece set, it was all black and looked mean as hell!! Chris started telling me how it was his dad’s bike and they had raced it all over. It was cool hearing all the old stories and seeing the smile on Chris face, going down memory lane, thinking of his dad. As cool as it was I needed to get back, sandy and Josh were ready for lunch and we needed to start planning for the last bike night, not to mention we still had a truck to unload. With the last bike night apron us, it is the biggest night of the year for me; there is always a ton of bikes and even more people that come to it. I hope each year is busier than the year before, when you run an event for 16 years and give away 18 motorcycles; it becomes more pride then financial. There is a ride in bike show for people whose bikes have won at our bike night though out the year, they compete for 6 foot tall trophies. I give out a free dinner buffet for everyone (those rascals ate a 1000 pieces of chicken this year), tons of give a ways from me and our super sponsors (The Horse BC is one of them, they are very devoted people to their friends and their work and that’s why I’m honored to be part of all of it!!). Not only do we do all that but I also give away a bike every year and it’s FREE! All you have to do is walk into the bar sign your name and that’s it, there’s sign in sheets out every bike night so if you come for every 22 bike nights then you have 22 chances to win! People try to put their name in more than once, I go thought them every night and before I give the bike away, if I find your name in there more than once then all of your entries get thrown away. This year was the biggest I’ve had in a while. We stopped counting bikes at 700! Hammer and Mz Debo even made it out. The night went on late and people were drinking like it was the end of days! I may of even had a few, finally it was time to give the bike away, the bar was pack, people were standing as tight as they could. It was almost dead quit in that bar, I called out the first name, once, twice, but no answer. Someone yelled “they just left” sucks to be them I thought. I called off another, this time a girl came running up, she was yelling “I won, I won!” Her name was Margaret, her and her husband come every bike night. It was nice to see them win! It was a long night but I am always sad when it’s over because it means the end of summer is coming. But until winter hits I’m going to keep riding and buying!