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Posted on 04/23/2004 10:13:44 AM PDT by Willie Green
What do men want more than anything else? No, not that ... well maybe that also; but that is not the topic of today's column. According to a survey of 1,000 men nationwide, besides wanting more money and keeping their wives happy, six out of 10 men dreamed of owning a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Steve Piehl, Harley-Davidson communication director, said, "When asked why they had not bought one, there were some interesting answers such as, 'My wife won't let me,' 'I don't have the time' and the one that really drives us crazy, 'Don't they cost at least $20,000?' "
The survey revealed that 75 percent of the respondents thought a Harley was too expensive. Not true, says Harley. "What we're finding out is that people know owning a Harley is cool, but they just do not have the facts. If they did, they'd have one in their garage right now," Piehl said.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Yes, I was kidding about the term.
Hey, I'm getting ready to take my daughter out for her 21st birthday, but tomorrow, I'm going to call the Farmington Hills police department and find out which city they train at. It's bugging me now. lol How does Amherst sound?
Well, I think that's a bit of an overstatement. The Japanese and European makers make all sorts of bikes besides cruisers and race replicas, but those are the two biggest-selling categories in North America. Since we here apparently want to buy mechanical anachronisms, it would be foolish for the Japanese not to fill that demand.
In Europe cruisers make up a relatively small part of the market, and stricter licensing laws with graduated HP licenses and such mean that you see a lot fewer young squids riding 150 HP bikes in shorts, tank tops, flip flops and Oakleys. And helmets are mandatory everywhere there. Personally, I've paid for 4 new bikes so far, and none of them were cruisers. I know what you mean, though, many of the young guys who finance the hyperbikes crash and burn before they've paid them off.
MEDIA RELEASE
A 56-year-old Kealakekua, Kona, man was killed Thursday in a motorcycle accident on Hawaii Belt Road (Route 11) in Kealakekua.
The name of the victim is being withheld until notification of his next of kin.
Responding to a 6:30 p.m. call, officers determined that the victim was riding his 1995 Harley Davidson motorcycle about a tenth of a mile north of the Konawaena High School intersection in a no passing zone when he attempted to pass two vehicles on the highway.
The motorcycle hit the rear end of a 1985 Ford pickup truck crossing the highway from a driveway on the mauka side of the road to another on the makai side, then crossed the centerline and sideswiped a 1998 Ford pickup truck traveling south on the highway and finally ending up on an embankment on the makai side of the road.
The victim was taken to the Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:15 p.m.
Speed and alcohol are believed to be factors in the accident.
Police have ordered an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death, and Traffic Enforcement Unit officers are continuing an investigation into the accident.
Thursday’s death was the 16th traffic fatality of the year on the Big Island, compared to 10 at the same time last year.
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| News Headlines |
| First fatality of Bike Week '98 |
| A Tennessee dentist died after a car pulled into the path of a friend's motorcycle, the first fatality of Bike Week '98. |
| March 5, 1998 ORMOND BEACH, Fla - A Tennessee dentist died after a car pulled into the path of a friend's motorcycle, the first fatality of Bike Week '98.
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PUBLISHED: March 3, 2004
LINCOLN PARK -- An elderly woman who turned her vehicle into oncoming traffic is believed to have caused a fatal accident last week that cost a motorcyclist his life.
Normand
Traveling north on Dix-Toledo, the 72-year-old woman turned west onto Moran, directly in front of the Harley-Davidson Road King Classic being driven by Louie Phillippe Normand, 54, of Wyandotte, police Lt. Thomas Karnes said.
Skid marks in the road showed that Normand had seconds to react before the collision occurred at about 6 p.m. Feb. 22, but it wasn't enough time, Karnes said.
Normand, who was wearing a helmet, was thrown from his motorcycle. He was pronounced dead of head injuries less than a half hour later at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital.
The handlebars of his motorcycle went into the passenger side of the woman's vehicle, striking her husband in the neck, breaking bones in his face and fracturing bones in his neck.
As of press time yesterday, the 82-year-old Taylor man remained in serious condition at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.
Karnes said the elderly couple, who have only been married a few years, were driving home after going out for ice cream. Alcohol is not believed to have been a factor.
"When we talked to her, she told us that things were clear and that she didn't see him on his bike," Karnes said.
She hasn't been ticketed yet and an investigation continues into possible criminal charges.
"In the case of a fatality, and in this case possibly a double fatality depending on how well her husband fares, once our investigation is complete, it gets forwarded on to the prosecutor to determine if charges will be filed," Karnes said.
The driver of a dark-colored pickup truck is believed to have been just in front of Normand, possibly witnessing the accident as it happened. Karnes encourages that person, as well as anyone else who saw the collision, to contact him at 1-313-381-1800, Ext. 250.
MYRTLE BEACH--A fifth motorcycle fatality has made this year's Harley-Davidson rally the deadliest in seven years.
Donald L. Ashford, 49, of Aberdeen, Md., died Friday morning at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center following a wreck on state Highway 9 at Highway 90.
Law enforcement officials say there isn't a common thread among the wrecks this year.
"It's just the crowd," said Trooper 1st Class Ashley Mew of the Highway Patrol. "And most of the ones who have been fatally injured were not wearing helmets."
South Carolina law does not require bikers 21 or older to wear helmets.
Ashford wasn't wearing a helmet when he ran off the road and hit his head on the pavement, said Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Tony Love.
Grand Strand hospitals from Georgetown to Brunswick County, N.C., had treated about 60 biker injuries as of Friday afternoon. Last year, there were about 85 injuries for the entire 10-day event.
The annual Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association Myrtle Beach Rally wraps up today. Estimates Friday put the biker crowd at about 250,000.
Sep. 3 – The AMA has learned that Richard E. ''Dick'' Maxwell, 67, of Pickerington, Ohio, died Saturday, August 31, 2002, at The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident earlier that day.
A graduate of the University of Illinois and the Chrysler Institute, Maxwell served as the AMA's Vice President of Sports Marketing, managing professional motorcycle competition, from 1991 to 1993. He was the manager of Dodge Motor Sports for Chrysler, and was a member of the National Hot Rod Association Hall of Fame, the National Street Rod Association Hall of Fame, American Motorcyclist Association, the Honda Sport Touring Association, and the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Maxwell is survived by wife of 18 years, Sandy; children Patricia Costigan, Katherine Lynn Niemczak, Eric Maxwell, Susan Stevens, and Amy Maxwell.
Calling hours will be held at the Dwayne R. Spence Funeral Home in Pickerington on Wednesday, September 4 from 2 p.m. to 4 pm. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., with a service of remembrance at 7:30 p.m. Funeral services will be held 10 a.m. on Thursday at Seton Parish Catholic Church, adjacent to the funeral home.
In lieu of flowers, friends may make memorial contributions to the American Cancer Society or to The Ohio State University Medical Center in Dick's memory.
© 2002, American Motorcyclist Association
Every motorcycle fatality presents a unique opportunity to provide much needed hearts, livers, kidneys, eyes, lungs and skin to terminal patients everywhere.
If this man had been wearing a helmet he could have ended up a quadrapalegic and been a burden on society. As it turns out, he will probably save the lives of 4 or 5 terminal patients by his generous sacrifice.
Luckily the people of South Carolina care enough for kidney and heart patients to allow motorcyclists to choose to ride without helmets, thus increasing the chances that needed organs will be made available. The heart and liver and kidney patients in California can only wish their legislature was as forward looking as South Carolina.
Yes, more opportunity for the medical-industrial complex, not satsified with enslaving healthy people under exorbitant medical "insurance" scams, to further enslave the poor schmucks who recieve hearts and lungs and kidneys by burying them in debt and providing a standard of living that requires hundreds of dollars of medication per day, the inability to recieve further medical "insurance" because of their pre-existing conditions, and on top of all that, they really don't feel very well with other people's spare parts hacked into their systems.
Dead motorcyclists are indeed good for the medical economy.
Past and future dead motorcyclists should be very proud.
No thanks. I'll pass. There are far worse things than death.
For someone who takes such great pride in being a senseless risk-taker, you sure are a sissy.
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