MNO Blog – Motorcycles, News, Opinions

Not the speed your are doing in the wind or in your desk chair. I am talking about your internet connection. The speed of your ISP (internet Service Provider) and the performance of your modem.

There are places on the web where you can check your connection speed, I suggest speedtest.net. Speedtest.net will accurately test and record your connection to different parts of the country. Your results can be saved for future reference.

Technorati Tags: speed test, cable modem, internet, connection speed, tweaks

I first featured the art work of David Camp back in January 06 on my bike week site with a great piece of work called “American Still“. David’s work is amazing. I have seen the original picture that this piece of art below was drawn by.

Brian Green, the individual who modeled for this work, is a TSgt with the USAFR 419 Fighter Wing at Hill AFB in Utah. In this scene, he sits upon his 04 Road King custom in front of an F-16 fighter aircraft that he supports. The title for this piece, “Choose Your Ride”, reflects the idea that Brian would never turn down the chance to fly in the F-16 but he prefers riding his bike through the mountains of the southwest and furthest reaches beyond more than anything else.
He’s a dedicated airman who has served his country well. At his first assignment, he was involved in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Dahran, Saudia Arabia. He was awarded the commendation for valor medal when he saved the life of another severely wounded airman. As a result of the bombing, Brian himself was wounded and refused medical treatment.
Later, he served in Bahrain, Saudia Arabia, Prince Sultan Air Base and Kuwait Al-Jabbar in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001.
Some rides he’s embarked on include, Salt Lake City, Utah to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Texas and twice to Sturgis. His dedication to his country as well as to his hog is exemplary.
Visit David Camp 419FW web site

Technorati Tags: motorcycle art, biker art, motorcycle news, biker blog, art, motorcycles

There was no big press release in the news papers or on the Internet to tell visitors traveling to the Melbourne, Florida based Choppers Inc of the store closing. On the front door hangs a small printout from the company web site made into a sign. The sign says that Billy Lane’s store, Choppers Inc. will only be open during major motorcycle event and race days and those hours will be announced 30 days prior.

While it was announced that Billy Lane was planning to work hard at his Choppers Inc. location preparing motorcycles for the up coming 2007 bike shows, it seems this announcement was low profile. The only way visitors would know the store was not open for business was to visit the news section of the Choppers Inc web site or, as many, visit the retail store location only to find it closed to the public.

Billy Lane, is probably most famous in the motorcycle industry for his creation of the hubless wheel design and known to the general public as 3 time biker build-off winner, Monster Garage and owner of Choppers Inc. located in Melbourne, Florida. Billy Lane also holds many patents on custom motorcycle parts that he designed.

While Billy Lane and Choppers Inc motorcycles were well known, it was the Choppers Inc. shirts, hats and posters that people would visit the Melbourne retail location to shop for. Those purchases must now be made online only until the store opens during the next motorcycle event.

Source:

http://www.choppersinc.com

Technorati Tags: choppers inc, florida, melbourne, motorcycle news, motorcycles

It should come as no surprise to the fans of the show American Chopper that Paul Jr’s bike won by popular vote in a biker build-off that pitted Senior against Junior.

Orange County Chopper owner Paul Teutul Sr did not seem to mind and why would he? Either way the OCC team wins, his son is following in his foot steps and its just good for business.

Strange thing was that Senior did not seem upset when he uncovered his biker build-off chopper to reveal that the gas taken had been beaten with a hammer. He just shrugged it off and stated that they had another one inside which was promptly mounted as the voting began.

I don’t know, can you see guilt on either of the boys faces? Was it Mikey or did Junior do it? Maybe both? I guess we will have to wait and see the episode on the new American Chopper that has been moved to TLC. The first show of the new season airs January 18th on TLC Turbo channel.

ORANGE COUNTY CHOPPERS

Technorati Tags: motorcycle news, occ south florida, occ, orange county choppers, motorcycles, motorcycle pictures

As I was cruising around today, I passed this motor bike by, it caught my eye. I immediately turned around to see what it was, in quick passing it appeared to be a replica type of a motor bike.

What I found was that it was not a replica motor bike, it was a production motor bike that can be purchased these days called a Whizzer. With all the new styled motor scooters, mopeds and motorbikes that have hit the market lately coupled with all of the pocket bikes and mini choppers, this motor bike is a back to basics concept that can be appreciated. Back in 1901 the concept of the original Harley Davidson motorcycle was put on blueprint with the drawing of a engine to fit a bicycle by William S. Harley. The Whizzer on the other hand was not created until 1939 and was sold as a bicycle motor kit.

While most of today’s scooters and mopeds are sold with a 49 cc engine, the Whizzer has a 138cc or 1.95 h.p. engine that still can be purchased as a kit to build your own or a full production model as seen here.

A belt drive and centrifugal clutch from the motor bike leave the pedals and chain in tact for those times you feel like getting a little exercise. I think that if I was in the market for a motorbike, the Whizzer would be in the running.

Source:

http://www.whizzermotorbike.com

http://www.harley-davidson.com

Technorati Tags: motorcycle news, motor bike, whizzer, motorcycles, bikes, two wheels

As a web designer, like most do, I watch keywords and rankings for all of my sites. Today the latest key word top list was posted at Word Tracker and most of the normal search terms were knocked out by the Saddam execution video.

In fact, the Saddam hanging video replaced keywords and search terms that normally hold the top 10 position. The execution of Saddam Hussein video holds 8 of 10 in results giving way to only sex at number 1 and porn listed at number 3. Sexy celebrity gossip and paparazzi hits Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are usually steady in the top 10, but slid down to take the 11th and 12th position in the key word report.

Along with Paris and Britney in the top, Google is normally listed as well. While many search engines visit this site, the pages have yet to receive any type of page rank….. hint, hint

Welcome to the year 2007 and my first blog post for the year. I figured instead of doing a looking back at the year 2006 (that is over), better to look ahead at the new year 2007.

The first part of the new year is going to bring a lot of travel time for me with the first being a small road trip down to Ft. Lauderdale (about 170 miles) for the grand opening of Orange County Choppers of south Florida on January 6th.

Then on January 11th we are to be back up in the State of Virginia for Cindi’s probate litigation suit. We are hoping that this trip will not be wasted as was the first trip. Well, the trip was wonderful actually, it was a waste in the legal department.

Of course I am already excited and ready for Bike Week 2007 that will be in the first part of March. Daytona Bike Week is going to be from March 2 – 11 this year. It may sound like a long time away, but planning for bike week now is important. I need to begin putting together a bike week schedule and we will soon be announcing what day we will be on the Daytona Loop for our 3 hour photo shoot. We set a few hours aside during bike week 2006 and we took almost 200 pictures for the Daytona Motorcycle Rally Loop Album. This year we will be shooting with two cameras and will even do better coverage of riders on the Volusia County Loop.

Happy New Year Everyone! Here is looking ahead to a great year of rides and motorcycle events. Keep it safe.

Mike

Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn is the report for the past hours in the Mainstream Media groups. However, some are careful and watchful before reporting the incident as truth. While many of the top government leaders around the world have already commented on the news of Saddam’s demise, the stories that are coming out have too many conflicts to be ruled as a fact.

Conflicts in the many articles that have been coming out in the past hours:

Where the execution was held. There were reports of two places where the execution was to be held and now as the stories are released it appears that he was hanged at both places.

Three men were executed. There have been reports that all three men scheduled to be executed were hanged at dawn, one was Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim, while other reports say that the only one executed was Saddam Hussein.

The news of the death of Hussein did spring up a series of events in Iraq and around the world, however the good news is that none of the events reported have been violent. For me, it is still a wait and see at this time. I am not convinced at the series of articles that have been released as to the completeness of the reports , but the official witnesses seem to agree on one fact and that is that Saddam Hussein remained calm and refused to have his face covered before the hanging.

Source:

http://www.kwtx.com/breakingnews/5042821.html

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/947603

http://news.google.com

Entertainer James Brown died early (1:45 a.m.) Christmas Day at the Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia where he was admitted on Sunday with pneumonia. James Brown, to me, was not just a soul singer, he was an artist as a entertainer. His music is still heard today and has inspired many others to accommodate his style of stage performance that include a dance that was distinctively the one and only James Brown. A dance style that was so distinctive that many times people could recognize just by seeing his feet!

James Brown has appeared in many movies, one of my personal favorites, the Blues Brothers and has produced over 100 songs that hit the chart top. Though James Brown has left us, his music, art and dance style will live on forever. 

Source:

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20005355,00.html

It is interesting to see the different outlooks of the MSM (Mainstream Media) about what we do as the people of the Internet. The individuals that have chosen to commit time to the world wide web by writing a blog, and using video and photography to report news to readers.

In a article written by Wall Street Journal editorial assistant, Joseph Rago, he appears to either be uneducated to the blogging web or feels threatened by the same. The article he titles “The Blog Mob“, Rago lashes out at the blogosphere saying

“The blogs are not as significant as their self-endeared curators would like to think. Journalism requires journalists, who are at least fitfully confronting the digital age. The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps.”

This is just one man’s opinion, the opinion of Joseph Rago, and maybe his opinion is not as significant as he would like to think. At least not if one is to judge by the popularity of the blog for the reader as well as the writer. The blog writer of today is not making a post just to read it online! If this is true, then the post would be kept private and password protected. As one writer has put it:

“The blogosphere is a celebration of citizen journalism and the freedom
of speech.”

While further down the article, writer Rago, seems to point more to political blogs that seem to be a thorn in his side, calling most blogs “pretty awful” and without naming names, refers to the more popular blogs as “downright appalling”. Certainly, Mr. Rago would not be wise to reference popular blogs such as the WSJ Law Blog or could not have read the WSJ special report Find A Blog.

Near the close of the article, the true heart of Mr. Rago’s message; he is not to fond of the computer, nor Internet:

“Certainly the MSM, such as it is, collapsed itself. It was once utterly dominant yet made itself vulnerable by playing on its reputed accuracy and disinterest to pursue adversarial agendas. Still, as far from perfect as that system was, it was and is not wholly imperfect. The technology of ink on paper is highly advanced, and has over centuries accumulated a major institutional culture that screens editorially for originality, expertise and seriousness.”

While the rant of one mainstream writer is now buried days into the archives of the Opinion Journal, Time Magazine cover page was released naming the person of the year for 2006, You. Yes, You that control the information age. Quite the reverse of the previous, Time Magazine sees things such as the blog, You Tube and My Space as a major contribution not only to changing the world, also to change the way the world changes.

Time looks at the way we, as citizens of the Internet report on things saying:

“And we didn’t just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software.”

So, congratulations to you and all of the people that work hard on their place on the web! You chose to entertain and inform us, reporting to your readers on information that you find important. You have delivered us a honest and unbiased account of the world as it happens blogging from home on your computer, at the airport on your lap top and even directly from your cell phone. Time magazine has pointed out a very important factor in what shapes the world wide web, You.

So while many of the people that contribute to the Mainstream Media feel threatened by You, there are others that reconize that it is You that makes the choice in what you read and watch. It is what you find important that matters. The people that want to rail you for putting what you believe in or what you report on will only make you stronger.

Time Managing Editor, Richard Stengel, wraps it up by saying:

“Some have called it an “amateur hour.” And it often is. But America was founded by amateurs. The framers were professional lawyers and military men and bankers, but they were amateur politicians, and that’s the way they thought it should be. Thomas Paine was in effect the first blogger, and Ben Franklin was essentially loading his persona into the MySpace of the 18th century, Poor Richard’s Almanack.”

Merry Christmas and thanks to YOU for reading.

Source:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009409

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570743,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html

http://www.webproworld.com