Once again, the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building set up shop smack dab in the middle of Sturgis and true to form, exhibited the absolute cream of the crop when it comes to fabrication. In fact, it appeared to us that fabrication skills were on display more so this year than bike-building skills.

Functionality appeared to be lost in the translation on a lot of these entries. To us, it looked like builders were more intent on showing off their insane engineering and fabrication pieces, and the motorcycles themselves were secondary. So as Zach and I cruised the isles looking for the perfect machine for our Partner Pick … Continue Reading

A few months back I wrote a blog entry about becoming a new Harley motorcycle rider after the passing of my grandfather. In that post I shared how, quite unexpectedly, I became the owner of a 2001 Heritage Softail Classic.

J&P Cycles Senior Technician Scott Holton, recently blogged about how motorcycling is often a hereditary thing – an obsession that’s often passed on down the family tree. What Scott didn’t explain is what happens if that trait skips a generation in the gene pool. Where’s your mentor? How do you learn? Of course there are huge benefits when you have a close relative or friend take you through the paces. … Continue Reading

Chances are, you’ve spoken to him on the phone. Maybe he sold you a new leather motorcycle jacket. Or a new open belt primary. He may have given you some spot-on advice about the installation of your new Performance Machine wheels. Or he could have been the guy who helped you diagnose why your FXR is running in reverse only (Yeah, it happened).

We’re talking about Don Sasko here, head of our tech specialist program at J&P. Don works out of our Destination Daytona-based call center in Florida. He dishes out advice on everything motorcycle, not only to our customers, but also to his fellow call center crew … Continue Reading

This year marked my second consecutive in-person visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy MotoGP after years of following what I consider to be the world’s premier motorcycling championship on the television set.

Last year I experienced some culture shock during my first visit — but it was my kind of culture and so I embraced it! This year’s trip was just as exciting, but I experienced less awe and a whole lot more agenda. It was after all, a working trip, so the first few days were spent setting up the J&P Cycles rig in the interactive vendor display area.

Then it was off to ride “Willies … Continue Reading

All good things must come to an end, and that includes summertime and the J&P Cycles Cruise Nights and Swap Meets for the 2011 season. This Tuesday marks the final Cruise Night from 5:15 p.m. to dusk at our headquarters at 13225 Circle Drive in Anamosa, Iowa.

The majority of this year’s Cruise Night events have taken place just down the street at the National Motorcycle Museum, but this final wingding will be held back at J&P. Make plans for one last summer fun event before bidding the season farewell. Enjoy great company, good food and awesome-looking cars and motorcycles.

Our final Swap Meet of the season will take place … Continue Reading

As you read here on the J&P blog earlier this week, a few of our employees rode directly from our world headquarters in Anamosa, Iowa, to the Black Hills of South Dakota, to take part in the 2011 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Arriving approximately three weeks before the first day of Rally, they played a big part in getting our Sturgis-based operations up and running prior to everyone else’s arrival. Those of us who left a few weeks later took a different route. Traveling west from Iowa, our crew passed through Nebraska and on into Colorado, where some of us spent two nights in Broomfield, Colo., which is located between Denver … Continue Reading

For the past seven years I’ve worked in one capacity or another in Sturgis, and each of those years I’ve thrown a leg over my bike in late July, pointed it west and pinned it for 800 miles. I do the ride in one day, simply because I just don’t have all that much time.

I get there three weeks before the start of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and when I arrive, I’ve got exactly one day to do whatever I want before I get down to work. Other than my short morning blasts through Vanocker Canyon, that’s the last riding I do for the next month. While most of … Continue Reading

More than 200 automobiles graced the 18th fairway at the 61st Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance near coastal Carmel, California, on a recent Sunday, dwarfing the 18 shiny Italian motorcycles on display. But when it came time for the presentation of awards for these two-wheelers, it was the machines from the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa, that took center stage.

The results of the Italian Touring Motorcycles class competition saw a first-place award going to a 1957 Aermacchi Chimera — a strikingly beautiful blue and yellow “streamlined” machine. Second-place honors went to a bright red 1956 Maserati 160 LM, also a motorcycle museum resident.

Two years ago, the producers of … Continue Reading