As you may or may not know, I work as the Web Solutions Manager for Dennis Kirk, Inc. in Rush City, Minnesota. (Warning: self promotion ahead->) If you haven’t heard of us and you are into ATVs, Dirt Bikes, Snowmobiles, Sport Bikes, Cruisers, Harleys, Touring Bikes, or PWC’s, you owe it to yourself to check us out. (end self promotion)

My 2nd floor office overlooks the warehouse, and has for about five years. Over the years I’ve gotten used to just ignoring the movement of the conveyors, and forklifts, and people, working and walking through. However, once in a while, something will catch my eye. This past week, I was writing some code, and I could have sworn I saw someone wheeling a beautiful black shiny bike from our store, through our warehouse towards the receiving area.

I jumped out of my chair, and chased down the bike… turns out it’s the give-away bike for the 2009 Patriot Ride… a brand-new 2009 Harley Davidson Street Glide! I checked it out, and snapped a few photos as the guys from our store were figuring out how to get it in the door… which is why it was rolled back to receiving. Apparently, the fairing and handlebars on this bike are significantly wider than any of the other bikes we’ve displayed in our store.

Anyways, checkout the (bad and blurry) photos, and then go to the Patriot Ride site, and sign up for the ride, and buy some raffle tickets!

2009 Harley Davidson Street Glide - Patriot Ride giveaway bike

2009 Harley Davidson Street Glide - Patriot Ride giveaway bike

Emmett and I in front of the Buell display

Michelle, Emmett and I (Jess wanted to spend time with Grandpa Dave) went to the 2009 Minneapolis International Motorcycle Show (IMS) put on by Cycle World magazine last weekend, for Valentine’s Day… talk about having the perfect wife!!  We had a great time, watch an unbelievable Trials demonstration that just blew my mind, and had a great time wandering the vendor booths, and checking out the offerrings from Harley Davidson, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Ducati, Buell and about a hundred other manufacturers that I had heard of (KTM, Kymco, Polaris/Victory) and many I hadn’t heard of.

There was a great display of custom motorcycles and motorcycle art called “Architects of Inspiration” put on by Toyota, and most of the bikes I saw were built by Roland Sands Design. One of the coolest is the 450 Supersingle spec racer for WERA that he (and others) have been working on for a few years. It’s a great intro to roadracing, and although it’s out of my price range, for people who are really interested in becoming the next Nicky Hayden or Carl Fogarty it might be a great jumping point.

We checked out many of the cruisers, and sportbikes, and looked at and sat on the Suzuki V-Strom DL1000 that we had talked about buying. I still really like it, but the high exhaust looks like it could lead to some discomfort on long rides, for Michelle. We looked at the Buell Ulysses again, and really, it looks like the perfect bike for us. Parts availability is good (it’s a Harley… kinda), and the riding position and windscreen are much better suited to long distance riding than our current Buell XB9XS. We love our Buell, which means once it’s paid off, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say we’d happily upgrade it to the Ulysses!

Of course after taking one photo my camera batteries died, so I used my cell phone to snap a couple of fun ones of Michelle, Emmett and I. Oh, if you heard a screaming kid with parents frantically heading towards the exit… yeah, that was us. Emmett had had enough by about noon. Luckily we got there right away in the morning, so we got to spend about three hours checking things out.

Michelle and Emmett in front of the Harley Davidson Show Truck

Wow!

Over the past year, www.henrysrodshop.com has received visits from 116 countries, compared to 80 countries during 2007! It’s good to see that there are people with these common interests all over this big planet of ours. Maybe one day I can visit you, or you can visit me!

Oh, and I have an apology to Dennis, who called, and I have not called back… I would have loved to meet up with you, but didn’t get your message until later. If you’re in the area again, give me a call, hopefully it will work out this time.

Anyways, tell me where you’re from, and how you found the site, I’m very happy to hear from each, and every one of you… what your bike and hot rod projects are, and what you do for a living. I’ll post some of them here in the coming weeks.