Inside The Motorcycle Industry

Night at the Museum
Harley-Davidson recently announced that Bill Davidson, vice president of Core Customer Marketing and great-grandson of Company cofounder, William A. Davidson, has been named vice president of the Harley-Davidson Museum and Factory Tours. The museum's current leader, Stacey Watson, is taking on a newly elevated role leading marketing for all Harley-Davidson customer segments across North America. Speaking of the H-D museum, its latest exhibit, True Evel: The Amazing Story of Evel Knievel, will run from July 10 through September 6. The exhibit comes off the heels of the 35th anniversary of Evel jumping Wembley Stadium back in May 1975. Visitors will see legendary pieces including his signature leathers and cane, personal photographs and letters, collectors' toys and memorabilia, and the rocket-inspired Skycycle X-2 used in Knievel's infamous 1974 attempt to jump Idaho's Snake River Canyon.
h-dmuseum.com/visit.

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Burn Baby Burn!
Compared to older competitive designs, E3 Spark Plugs' patented DiamondFire technology was recently and conclusively proven to provide more rapid and robust combustion by research engineers at Michigan Technological University. Real-time combustion images were captured during advanced testing methods employed at Michigan Tech, a nationally acclaimed automotive research facility, to show a comparison between conventional competitive designs and E3's DiamondFire technology. The images show that E3's "diamond-shaped" side-wire electrode projects the combustion spark in a way that more quickly ignites the air/fuel mixture, thereby creating a significantly faster and larger flame kernel. In effect, this burns more of the available fuel, resulting in increased combustion efficiency for improved power and fuel economy with reduced emissions. While conducting engine dyno tests comparing E3 technology to competitive brands, Jeremy Worm, lead Research Engineer for the Advanced Power Systems Research Center at Michigan Tech, stated, "We found that the E3 spark plug produces a faster burn, especially in the early stages of the combustion process. In an engine, the early burn duration translates to the stability of the combustion process. By making that early burn more stable, we can run more dilution in the cylinder, and that directly translates into improved engine efficiency."
e3sparkplugs.com.

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Vintage Roll
A few issues back we ran a piece on the vintage Motorcycle Cannonball coming up this September. Well, the event has sparked industry-wide interest and support. Recently Coker Tire and Motorcycle Cannonball promoter Lonnie Isam Jr. announced Coker Tire's sponsorship of the coast-to-coast endurance ride of pre-1916 motorcycles. Coker is the world's largest supplier of vintage tires and wheels. President Corky Coker related that Coker Tire will have a complete assortment of clincher tires and tubes in stock on its support vehicle following the Cannonball ride from coast to coast ensuring that these original two-wheeled machines will have good rubber all the way across the U.S.A. All riders who start the Motorcycle Cannonball with new vintage motorcycle tires (mounted on the vintage bike they are riding which were purchased either in 2009 or 2010) will receive free support tires as needed during the event.
cokertire.com.

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Broken Spoke County Line
brokenspokecampground.com
•Great concerts planned with 38 Special, Gallagher, Eddie Money, Great White, Dokken, and so much more