Heavens outcasts were spotted in Chatsworth getting ready to leave for the Dragon Rally




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The original V-Rod was described as a muscle bike when it was introduced, competing against such intense machines as the original V Max from Yamaha and the Rocket III from Triumph. This year, The Motor Company has seen fit to actually introduce a new model based on that same VRSC platform that carries the name Muscle

A Hells Angels clubhouse in east London was seized by police this morning. The single-storey, white and red-trimmed home at 14 Swinyard St., near the police reporting centre on Bridges Street at Egerton Street, was seized around 6 a.m. by members of the OPP-led Biker Enforcement Unit and Asset Forfeiture Unit, whose members come from police forces across the province, including London. It's the third Hells Angels clubhouse seized by the unit over the last few years, the others being Thunder Bay and Oshawa. The home is owned by Robert Barletta, whom police describe as a full-patch member of the London chapter of the Hells Angels. No one was inside the building when police arrived.
Barletta — whose family has owned the Beef Baron, which Barletta has managed — could not immediately be reached for comment. "We're seizing it under the (act) for a hearing in August," said Police Chief Murray Faulkner. "The organization that owns it will have an opportunity to defend itself and argue why the property should be returned to them." OPP Inspector Tom Murphy, who heads the Asset Forfeiture Unit out of the Orillia headquarters, said assets valued at millions of dollars have been seized since the act was passed in 2002. "This property by itself is not worth a whole lot of money, but the community impact is huge," said Murphy. "This (act allows us) to remove assets and that's an important part of dismantling a criminal organization. An important part of those types of organizations is profit motive and when you can remove that it becomes a deterrent." By 9:30 a.m., a contractor hired by police was on the scene measuring windows for boarding while police officers took notes about the property, which is painted in club colours with the logo on a front porch railing. The home is equipped with security cameras on each side. In a press release, police said the home was seized after a Superior Court judge granted a preservation order applied for by the Attorney General's office under the Civil Remedies Act. A hearing is scheduled in Triage Court in Toronto for Aug. 1 where the ministry will apply for a motion to extend the order until it's determined whether the building will be permanently forfeited. In 2002, London police seized the clubhouse of the Outlaws motorcycle club a few blocks north on Egerton Street between Florence and Dundas. That home was seized under a federal criminal law relating to property alleged to have been used for criminal activity. That seizure is still before the courts. Murphy said the Thunder Bay clubhouse was eventually turned over to the municipality after a successful court battle.

A foreign businessman has landed a R500-million settlement from the country’s embattled Road Accident Fund, after losing an arm and a leg in a motorcycle accident. This record amount, the highest in the fund’s 62-year history, and possibly in the world, will be paid to Swiss resident Joachim Schoss by the end of this month. This settlement comes nearly six years after a South African motorist, driving on the wrong side of the road, crashed into Schoss, who was on a hired Harley-Davidson between Cape Town and Stellenbosch while on holiday. Although the driver later admitted to reckless and negligent driving and to fleeing the scene after the accident, he paid just a R500 admission of guilt fine. Schoss’s original claim of R4.5-billion focused attention on the need for South Africa to cap claims at a certain limit and on concerns about legislation that allows foreigners to claim in foreign currency. Road Accident Fund chief executive Jacob Modise said if England soccer star David Beckham, or any of his fellow players, were injured in a car accident during the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, this could ruin the fund — if the law remained unchanged. He said a 2005 amendment act, intended to cap settlement amounts, was on hold because the necessary regulations had not been passed by the Department of Transport. The Schoss payout is a huge concern for the fund, as payments to foreign nationals are increasingly depleting it, said Modise. He warned that “if the system stays as it is, after 10 or 20 Schosses, the fund will be bankrupted”. Although Modise said the second-largest amount paid by the fund was to a South African actuary, who received R82-million, he said the majority of payouts over R1-million (‘as much as 60 to 70%’) were paid to foreigners. According to the fund’s latest annual report, nearly 80% of outstanding claims in excess of R5-million involve foreigners. Modise said this was because “a lot more” foreigners were coming to South Africa and their claims were paid in foreign currencies. Modise said the problem lay in the fact that anyone injured on a South African road had an unlimited claim on the fund. Schoss, who runs a non-profit organisation for disabled people, previously had a number of lucrative business interests, including founding and chairing several companies, which increased his claim to above the billion rand mark, mostly for loss of earnings. After an unsuccessful arbitration, his case was eventually finalised, after nearly six years, a little over the five-year average for Road Accident Fund cases. In May, Modise flew to Zurich to meet Schoss, in a bid to reach a settlement. “I flew to Zurich, had a discussion with Schoss and, in effect, we took them (the attorneys) out (of the process),” said Modise. Modise said the settlement was “never going to be R4.5-billion” because the claimed “amount tends to be inflated by attorneys”. But Schoss’s attorney, Manie Bosman, said: “I think R500-million was not his real loss ... but he was rather anxious to finish the case and move on with his life.” Bosman said the fund’s contribution in this matter would be about R100-million and the balance was likely to be paid by the funds’ re-insurers. Modise said South Africans, who contributed to the fund over a life- time, were essentially “subsidising” payouts for foreigners involved in accidents. “It is criminal. But we can’t change it because we have to go through the law. “This system of unlimited compensation, where payments are also made in foreign currency ... is unaffordable,” said Modise. He said the Schoss matter, which was the largest road accident claim worldwide to be dealt with by the Road Accident Fund’s re-insurers, reflected “the extent of largesse in our system”. Modise added: “To think that many first world economies are less generous than a developing economy like South Africa is sad.” Personal injury attorney Michael de Broglio said the fund’s claim of virtual bankruptcy was calculated on the basis that it would be insolvent if it had to pay out all its current claims, which are generally valued at more than actual payouts, as well as anticipated future claims tomorrow. The fund derives its income primarily from a fixed fuel levy of 46c per litre, which doesn’t increase proportionately with fuel price increases. De Broglio said the ideal would be to follow what other countries had done, by stipulating a capped amount and offering travellers a top-up option for wider cover, at an extra cost.

Her name is Ms Piggy, she is a 1942 model and she was bought for R5 in the 1970s.

This Harley-Davidson motorbike shines in Bryan Hinks' backyard.

Hinks says people can hardly believe he paid only R5 for it.

But that was back in 1974, said Hinks, and the investment was worth it because today Hinks estimates the value of the bike to be about R80 000.

"At that time R5 was the equivalent of two tanks of petrol in the Beetle I owned, so for us it was a large sum. When we bought the bike, the man who sold it to us didn't want to take any money for it because it was broken.


"But we persuaded him and struck a deal of R5," said Hinks, who earned R27 a week at the time and lovingly fixed the bike over almost two years. It cost him roughly R500 to get it back into shape.

"When we went to buy the bike, the engine was lying in a fowl run, it was broken and had a tree growing through the frame," he recalled.

As he spoke, Hinks paged through an album of faded, sepia-tone pictures he kept that showed the bike at different stages of repair.

Hinks, 68, belongs to the Classic Motorcycle Club and is an honorary lifetime member of the Harley-Davidson Club. He owns four other motorcycles, the oldest of which is a 1964 model he bought 35 years ago.

Hinks often puts his bikes on displays at motor shows. He also enjoys going on rallies with fellow bikers across the province.

His wife, Veronica, is comfortable on a bike and happily hops into the side car of Ms Piggy.

Hinks said he has worked at a car manufacturing company most of his life as a motor mechanic and was thus able to do all the mechanical fine-tuning on Ms Piggy.

"There are only five or six other 1942 models in the Durban area," he said. These particular 1942 models were ex-army bikes which were used by the South African Police after World War 2.

The president and sergeant-of-arms of the Oakland Hells Angels chapter were arrested Tuesday morning after 58 marijuana plants, guns and money were seized at two sites in Oakland and Alameda, authorities said.

Another man and three women were also arrested during the raids.

The raids began about 7 a.m. at a trailer in the 1100 block of Fifth Avenue in Oakland and at a home in the 2200 block of San Antonio Avenue in Alameda.

Five of the arrests happened at the Oakland site, including 66-year-old Elliott "Cisco" Valderrama, who authorities said is the president of the Oakland Hells Angels chapter. Authorities said Valderrama lived at the site.

Arrested at the Alameda residence was Gavin Malone, who authorities said is the chapter's sergeant-at-arms.

The names of the others arrested were not immediately available.

BMW's new sports tourer will be out soon
here is a shot of it

Alan Thoresen might have a GPS and computer to fine-tune the performance of his motorbike, but he is just as determined as the legendary Burt Munro to break a land-speed record. Thoresen, 53, is one of 11 New Zealanders heading to Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah next month. Bonneville is where Munro broke two land-speed records, in 1962 and 1967, both on an Indian motorcycle he bought four decades earlier and modified in his Invercargill garage. His deeds were immortalised in the 2005 movie The World's Fastest Indian, which Thoresen said "sealed the deal" for him in deciding to go to Bonneville. A long-time motorbike enthusiast and drag racer, he had longed to go to the Salt Flats since the late 1970s and said the movie helped make up his mind to pursue his dream. "[Munro] was over there on his lonesome, and the bike he had, it was amazing what he managed to do," Thoresen said. The former pilot and flight engineer made his first, very respectable attempt at following in Munro's footsteps last year. He reached 186 miles per hour (299km/h) on the Bonneville track, just 10mph below a world record set for his class. But misfortune struck just before the five-mile mark when he hit a piece of debris and was propelled into two timing markers further down the track. He was uninjured but learned lessons about the slippery, marshy surface, which he described as "a combination between a beach and ice". The heat was also extreme, with temperatures of up to 50C to cope with. Thoresen was the only New Zealander to compete last year and said others at Bonneville showed great respect for Munro, who died in 1978. This year, of the 11 Kiwis competing, four are riding motorbikes and the balance are racing in cars. Thoresen is riding the same bike as last year, but has weighted it down with 35kg of lead shot which he hopes will improve traction. He had his last practice run at Hamilton Airport yesterday before the 1352cc Kawasaki ZX-14 - called Black Thunder - leaves for Utah on July 29. He and his crew of three, including his American wife Violet, follow two weeks later, before Speed Week begins on August 17. Despite wet conditions, Thoresen reached 299km/h on the runway yesterday and said he was confident of achieving his target - and a world record - of 315km/h in the PP (production) class at Bonneville. He has reached 340km/h in training and holds several national records for motorbike drag racing.

Triumph today unveiled its new models for the 2009 model year to an expectant audience of dealers and press at its Global Dealer Conference in Birmingham, England, as well as officially announcing the eagerly-anticipated parallel twin-cylinder cruiser, which will be known as the Thunderbird. Set to go on sale for the 2010 model year, the all-new six-speed 1,600cc cruiser has been designed to take on the best in the cruiser category. Combining sleek and modern looks with great dynamics, the belt-driven Thunderbird will provide an authentic cruiser experience in a uniquely Triumph package. The Thunderbird will be offered with an extensive range of official accessories which will allow the rider to tailor the bike to their individual needs. Whether they want a stripped down and chromed up hot rod with muscular performance or a fully-dressed classic style custom-tourer for two-up touring, Triumph’s accessory range lets the rider customise the Thunderbird to their individual tastes. An ABS option is also available. Before then, Triumph fans can look forward to an exciting 2009 range. New for the coming season is the high-specification Street Triple R, aimed at discerning riders looking for a naked bike that provides a sporty riding experience normally associated with fully-faired supersport machines. Based on the phenomenally successful standard Street Triple, the 675cc triple features race-track derived suspension and brakes and will be launched with a new Matt Graphite colour scheme, complete with striking orange graphics. A Matt Blazing Orange (with Graphite graphics) option will also be available from January 2009. Triumph is also introducing a heavily revised Daytona 675 for 2009. Producing 3PS more than its predecessor and weighing 3kg less, the highly acclaimed supersport machine handles even better than before thanks to the latest race-developed suspension, featuring high and low speed damping at both the front and rear, while new Nissin monobloc brakes give improved feel and stopping power. The bike has also been restyled, with a new cockpit, headlight and screen complementing the Jet Black and Tornado Red colour options. Triumph’s Bonneville range has also been given a serious makeover. The iconic model celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2009, and Triumph is marking the occasion with a limited edition model. Just 650 Bonneville T100 50th Anniversary models will be produced in a unique orange and blue colour scheme that echoes the 1959 original. Based on the standard T100, the Anniversary model features a host of detail changes and comes with a numbered handlebar-mounted plaque and a certificate of authenticity signed by John Bloor, the owner of Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. Meanwhile, the standard Bonneville gets Seventies-look cast wheels and revised ergonomics. With its lower seat height, the 2009 Bonneville is more manoeuvrable than ever before. Also on sale is a higher specification Bonneville SE, which takes the standard Bonneville and adds a two-tone colour scheme, brushed alloy engine casings and additional instrumentation. The Sixties-influenced Bonneville T100 remains in the line-up for 2009, with minor detail changes and a new blue and white colour option. The Rocket III, Rocket III Classic, Rocket III Touring, Speed Triple, Tiger, Sprint ST, America, Speedmaster, Scrambler and Thruxton all remain in the Triumph range for 2009, benefiting from minor detail updates and exciting new colours, including an attitude-filled Matt Khaki Green option for the Scrambler. Triumph’s dealers were also treated to the full range of products for the forthcoming year. In addition to the new motorcycles, Triumph’s clothing team unveiled its most comprehensive range of apparel ever. Over 50% of the 2009 range is completely new. At the top end is a new product line developed in collaboration with Italian manufacturer Alpinestars, while a number of classically-styled ‘essentials’ have been introduced to bring high-quality Triumph products at very competitive prices. Riders of cruisers will be catered for with a new range of high-specification products designed especially for their needs, while the company’s first heated product will also hit the marketplace, in the form of the electrically-powered EXO2 vest. Triumph’s popular casual range hasn’t been forgotten about either. A special edition range celebrating 50 years of the iconic Triumph Bonneville is being introduced alongside a new summer range of T-shirts, including a new design inspired by legendary Triumph rider Steve McQueen.