Shark Tanks, Rock Stars, Simon, and Guns…

Like always, it’s been an interesting couple of days, boys and girls.

For starters, we found out that our good buddy Arlene Battishill of Go Go Gear fame is going to be on the TV show Shark Tank!

Trust me on this, boys and girls, this is a show you want to see!   You might even see….

Well, wait a minute, that would be jumping the gun…and I promised not to mention that…well, uh…hey, folks…just watch the show!

Arlene had her custom CSC Classic in for servicing, and I grabbed that shot you see above.   It is one of our prettiest bikes ever.  Like I said, you’ll want to watch Shark Tank on 23 March (that’s a week from Friday).   8:00 p.m. on ABC.  You might even see…

Nope, there I go again, and I made a promise…

When I stopped in at the plant today, I saw our good buddy Bruce.  You’ll remember that when we had that killer sale on demo bikes a few months ago, Bruce bought the Rock Star.  It’s one of the pre-production bikes we had with us on the Baja run.   Bruce had the bike powder coated, and it’s awesome!  Take a look at Bruce on his freshly-painted Rock Star…

Bruce’s new paint is very, very cool.  It’s a metalflake deal that changes colors depending on how you view it…from one side, it looks like a root beer brown, and the from the other side, it looks like emerald green…it changes colors as the light hits it differently!

See what I mean?

More cool stuff…you’ll remember our good buddy Simon Gandolfi, the British writer, philosopher, motorcyclist, and world’s most interesting man.  Simon rode the Rock Star (the bike that now belongs to Bruce) on the Baja run…

Simon is not a man who sits still.  He just turned 80, and he’s going strong.  He recently sent his newest book to me, Old Men Can’t Wait, about his ride from the southernmost tip of South America to New York.  The book is just awesome, but think about that title.   If you ever sit around and think you’re too old to do this or you’re too old to do that, you need to consider Simon Gandolfi and what he’s doing with his life.   You need to buy this book.   (You need to buy a California Scooter, too, but if you’re reading this blog you’re already thinking about it, or you’ve already pulled the trigger.)  Folks, I’m at the tender young age of 61, and Simon Gandolfi is my hero.   I want to be like him when I grow up.

I’m about three chapters into Simon’s new book, and folks, it’s great.   Simon has a writing style that literally puts you in the picture.   It’s funny…when I write (for stuff like the blog, and some of the other things I do), I sit down and bang it out.  Simon will ponder a single sentence all day long, and when he writes…well, it sings.   On the Baja run, I was still hurting big time from the busted hip I gave to myself several months earlier.   I explained to Simon about all the hardware the doctors had wrapped around my hip bone, and he listened carefully.   After watching me ride for a couple of days, his sentence on his blog about me was “Joe Berk is mostly metal…”  I thought it was extraordinarily cool.

And speaking of things mostly made of metal, let me go off topic and I’ll wrap up today’s blog entry with something a little different.   In my observations, I’ve seen that motorcycle riders (guys and gals like you and me) tend to have many of the same hobbies.   Photography is a common theme, as is shooting.  I’m guilty on both counts.   Boys and their toys, I guess.   Anyway, a few weeks ago I noticed a very cool old Marlin with dynamite wood on the used gun rack in a local gun store.   Last night was the first chance I had to get out to the range and wring it out.  I grabbed a few old reloads, and here’s the photo I put together showing the results…

You know, the funny thing is I don’t even remember the recipe I used when I loaded those rounds, but they sure seem to answer the mail.

So that’s it for now….Shark Tank…23 March…be there!