Here is an interesting one from North Dakota. What do you get when you cross a Sportster, an Allis-Chalmers riding lawn mower, and a dirt bike? One cool looking riding lawn mower! 61 year old Duane “Tony” Olson, of Drayton, ND did just that. And it is not the first trike he has built. His original was a Volkswagon powered trike capable of 70 mph, much greater than the estimated 10 mph of this model. And he is working on another, based on a John Deere.
Gives a whole new meaning to “in the wind”, doesn’t it?
Maybe, if I had a lawn mower that looked as much like a motorcycle, I would not have started hiring my lawn work out. The front end comes from a dirt bike, the tank is from a Sportster, and it has a 42″ deck. This original model took Olsen “50 hours of building time and 300 hours of thinking time”, but he has more in store, and the time required will come down.
And, if you want to get your hands on them, it may come soon. Olsen says “I’ve put these together to see if other people are interested in them. If there’s a market for them, I’ll start making them when I retire next year.”
I came across some news about a biker who was hit from behind after coming to a stop for a traffic light, causing him to be ejected from his motorcycle and presumably be run over by oncoming traffic. This biker was declared dead at the scene. The driver of the van that hit the motorcycle initially fled, but turned himself in about four hours later (perhaps to allow the alcohol to wear off?)
This tragedy could have been the subject of this post, but I have already discussed defensive riding and motorcycle fatalities in previous posts. While This does not mean I will not go into these subjects more, after my long absense, I more felt like discussing something a little more upbeat.
So why did I start this post the way I did? Well, in the article, it mentioned that the biker was riding a “Big Dawg Chopper customized bike”. I was searching for more interesting information about Big Dawg Motorcycles when I came across a Big Dawg commercial on youtube. While I never had an experience quite like the biker in this commercial, I can always dream!
By the way, I guess I should explain my extended absense. Last week has been extremely hectic. It started with my brother-in-law Jack having another seizure, and the resulting doctor visits from that. To top that off, over last weekend we celebrated Jack’s birthday, with two sisters, an uncle, and some friends of his from Charleston coming to our house. And finally, my server crashed, and most of my blog files were lost, taking about two days to recover from. No excuses, but still a lot to be interfering with my free time.
My retirement plan includes a 401K from the company. That did not give me all the flexibility I wanted, so I rolled some over into an IRA. I diversified that IRA a lot, but one stock I made sure I bought was Harley Davidson (HOG), not so much as an investment, but for sentimental reasons, since that is the motorcycle I have chosen to prefer. The stock has done me well though, and today it more than paid for itself since I sold half my shares when the stock split, thus getting my entire investment back.
All the stocks I own through that IRA send me their annual report, but the one I really look forward to receiving is the one from Harley Davidson. This report is filled with the reasons I ride anyway, pictures of some great looking bikes, some beautiful riding scenes, and news about my favorite motorcycle.
Harley Davidson does an excellent job in their annual report of entertaining the reader, while still giving the data stock holders should have. On the page where a lifetime HOG membership couple from Sweden state “It’s a big world but Harley Davidson brings us all together, a bar chart shows how HD international sales grew 18.6% in 2006. And where a Harley Davidson dealer says “We don’t just deliver bikes, we deliver experiences” is another bar chart showing sales in the United States increasing 5.9% for the same period. You also find that 48% of the motorcycles over 650 cc that were registered in 2006 in North America were Harleys.
This information can be found on the Harley Davidson website as well as other places, but having it delivered to your door is great! You don’t have to be a huge stock holder to get it, one share is all it takes. If you are interested, One Share would be glad to help you get that one share, or you can do it like I did, and buy a little more, either in your IRA or other investment portfolios.
