Radioactive LIVESTRONG

Lance Armstrong visits Nike HQ in Beaverton, OR. with OCC Bike and all the supporters

People who end up living their dreams are not those who are lucky and gifted, but those who are stubborn, resolute and willing to sacrifice – NY Times interview with Jonathan Vaughters a former professional cyclist.

Now that I’ve got your attention, we know… without a doubt Lance Armstrong is the biggest contemporary sports fraud alive.  Most could look the other way on the doping, but it was the lies — all of the lies — years of lying.

Remember way back to 2004 when American Chopper was firing on all cylinders?  There was even a Lance Armstrong/LIVESTRONG bike introduced on Jay Leno. We know that Lance’s net worth is upwards of $120 million and that he turned the rubberized yellow bracelets into a must-have, cause related fashion accessory.

However, the whole set of values that the LIVESTRONG “brand” was grounded in (resilience, courage, endurance, hard work), has now been shown to be a façade after the USADA doping report paints a story of lies, intimidation and deceit spanning 15 years.  It was only a couple weeks ago that Nike introduced the Holiday 2012 LIVESTRONG collection, but is now hoping to salvage it’s corporate image by ending the 16 year Lance endorsement and emphasizing the LIVESTRONG charity association.

Cutting the support of Lance Armstrong/LIVESTRONG

You might think that Lance’s future will be similar to Pete Rose?  A book signing tour – My Prison Without Bars or selling notarized copies of his banishment letter outside Caesar’s in Las Vegas.

Unlikely, because there is always a savvy marketer out there that is an expert when it comes to brand-washing, and will promote it as now is the best time to consider pursuing Lance because you’ll have a better chance at securing an affordable partnership.

It’s clear that his reputation, his legacy and his character were thrown away by the doping.  And, that is LiveWRONG.  I waited awhile before jumping on the “slam Lance train”, but the cutting photo above captures how I feel after being a long time supporter and the shame he’s brought onto the community here in Oregon.

UPDATE: January 18, 2013 – I watched the Oprah Winfrey “interview” last night.   Armstrong offered up at best a contrite explanation of his difficulties… hyper-competitiveness fueled his toxic need to control every outcome… but, there were no new facts beyond the USADA report and it was really nothing more than another example of Armstrong trying to control the apology narrative from Oprah’s chair.  More importantly he vehemently deny that he ever called Betsy Andreu fat!  Sure he called her a lot of names, impugned her character and tried to permanently wreck her ability to ever earn a living, but as a consolation he never ever called her fat.  I’m sure Betsy feels so much better!

Armstrong ran a doping cartel and perpetuated the doping scam for over a decade, was complicit in every aspect of the lies and cover up, sued or smeared into financial ruin and bullied so many “friends” that by his own admission he lost track of how many, lied to sponsors and strategically misled the public to improve his personal finances.  What he did to people was just plain mean.   And this entire “apology tour”, with the media circus and its elegantly choreographed week-long build up prior to sitting on Oprah’s chair was just another example of Armstrong’s need to control every outcome.  Shameful.

Lance Armstrong visits Nike HQ in Beaverton, OR., with OCC bike – Photo courtesy of Beau Hudspeth.

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Resolutions For 2012

Happy New Years!

Now that the champagne toasts are made and the ball dropped, it’s time to start thinking ahead:  What’s your riding resolution for this year?  Will you ride your motorcycle more often to work?  Take that epic journey or stay close to home?  Will you buy a new ride or enhance the existing one?

Before going forward let’s take a quick look back.

Over the years I’ve posted the occasional summary of the more popular and least liked stories from the past 12 months.  It’s not my “helper-monkey”, but the good folks at WordPress.com state their rankings algorithm is based on how many people read a particular article.  The average is the sum of views divided by the number of days and its gets even more complex if you are the sort of person who likes to verify computations.  I don’t.

The final tallies can be a little mystifying, to be honest.

Are readers giving a “thumbs-up” because they liked the content of the article or just the topic itself?  I don’t find these summaries a really useful exercise because some of the better written articles (IMHO) will sometimes have the fewest views.  It’s the old adage that writing about or reposting the nip slips, exposed undies and ever-presence dysfunction from the celebrity train wrecks for the whole world to see will bring a whole lot more views if that’s your goal.  But, if nothing else, the summary does provide a snapshot of what struck in my readers’ collective fancy during the past year.

In 2011, I posted 88 new articles (about 7 per month).  That brought the total archive on this blog up to just over 800 posts.  I uploaded 165 pictures (or about 3 per week).  The busiest day was September 25th (during the Vagos and HAMC shooting in Reno) with 1,120 views on an article I posted in 2008 (HERE).  Clearly the social behavior and the attraction of the events in Reno was a big draw, but I’m mystified why the more current article (HERE) had fewer views?  Maybe it’s a SEO thing.  I also want to provide a shout-out to the large number of UK viewers who consistently visit the blog.

Here are the 2011 most viewed highlights:

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs Flying Colors in Oregon

OCC Family Feud Ends

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs Are New Media Darlings

Vagos MC Meeting In Grants Pass

Harley SAMCRO Limited Edition Motorcycle

Harley-Davidson’s SwitchBack

Vintage Motorcycles – Honda CB750

Harley Engine History

“Green Nation” Busts On Saint Patrick’s Day

No Angel

The Day Laughlin River Run Changed

Men Of Mayhem

A “Legend Bell” Full of Mystery

Harley Snubbed In Benjamin Button Movie

Operation Black Rain Nets Oregon Mongols

I enjoyed this past year—and I hope you have, too.  If I’ve done my “job” right as editor of this blog, then your visits will have helped make your motorcycle hobby a bit more meaningful.  Hopefully you’ve become closer to your motorcycle and grown your relationship with friends that you’ve met on the road.

Happy 2012!

Photo’s courtesy of WordPress.com and Northwest Harley Blog.

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The Ultimate Custom Chopper Builder – YOU!

Go ahead and admit it.  You’ve always wanted to become an elite custom motorcycle builder and compete on the national stage to win cash prizes.

Now you can!

Any motorcycle enthusiast can learn with the click of a mouse how to build custom motorcycles.  All of this happens thanks to Chopper College, a Minneapolis-based technical school who tapped Chicago digital agency Oncall Interactive to revamp its website which will include a new video curriculum.  The result is that you can express your vision of a custom-built motorcycle and show up at the rallies from Sturgis to Shanghai.

Chopper College and Oncall Interactive, an award-winning digital agency who also list’s Harley-Davidson as a client began working on www.ChopperCollege2020.com in November and the new site is planned for a March 31, 2012 launch.

The closest many motorcycle enthusiasts have gotten to designing and building custom bikes is by watching American Chopper — which is fun if you can get past all the yelling — but it’s not hands-on. By making the training available via  the web anyone interested can participate in motorcycle design and fabrication.

Get your virtual grinder and tool belt out…

Photo courtesy of Chopper College.

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It’s How We Roll

Five of a Kind At Grand Canyon

This is a shout out to an extraordinary posse.

Hardly the stereotypical, tatted-up, badass bikers portrayed in pop culture or do we ride the machines of American Chopper — slick and polished.

From the outside looking in you can’t understand it, but there are many benefits to riding a motorcycle with a group.  Aside from the obvious “wind in the face” to take your mind off daily troubles to the cool events that you visit from glitz to back-water destinations.   From the moment you mount the motorcycle the most important aspect from my vantage is the posse camaraderie.

Whether I’m with my family at home or the “family on the road,” the center piece of the posse is the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Oh sure some lost their way for a time and rode other kinds of bikes, but these days the posse is like a mini-community based on a shared passion and a common interest around the Harley brand.  And while we defend the motor company we haven’t drank the Kool-aid!  We’re a demanding and very vocal enthusiast bunch when it comes to items the company needs to do to please it’s customers.

A Half-Dozen at HCMR

Has the posse always agreed on everything?  No.  We’ve had the typical debates about the merits of camping vs. checking in, riding with a large group or going solo, silence vs. Boom! Audio, up early vs. sleeping in, freeway speed or riding slow back-water roads and the more contentious item of planning way ahead or plan as you go.  We’ve tried them all and each has offered up some unique and fun adventures.  And no matter what the trip or the destination, all a good motorcycle ride needs is camaraderie and fun roads, right?

And speaking of roads, one common thread is that we all have plenty of time to ride.  That is to say, we make time to ride.  As much as we have in common, all of these accomplished riders is also entirely unique.  Each has his own set of experiences, his own philosophy of life and riding, and his own collection of interesting stories about life on the road.  I especially look forward to riding in the dry hot desert while others think a misty Highway 101 ride down the coast is “just perfect.”

I’ve been riding with this group for many years and everyone adjusts.  In fact, some of the members have history back to the coastal range and the dirt bike days at Lee’s Camp before a Harley-Davidson motorcycle stirred up any emotions.

The remainder of the posse at the CCA Ride

I’ll often get ask how we do it.  How do we handle riding all those miles.  I’ll typically just say that if you string a few 300 mile days together, one day at a time, then you’ve got a Posse Ride!

We’ve enjoyed following the “road less traveled” as so many other riders do.  It made us appreciate how divvied up this western part of the U.S. is, with dozens of valleys separated by mountain ranges, woven together by asphalt strips. These roads are really three-dimensional curves, and a rider will certainly get longer life out of the Dunlops, wearing out the sides as much as the middle.

As the years fade away — I’m reminded of winding our way along the back roads of the countryside – and it made me appreciate how rich the memories are of the years riding with an incredible group of friends.

Thank you all for the memories!

Photos taken by author

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The Shock Of OCC’s Doping Scandal

Since the first day when Federal Agents raided the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) back in September 2003, the ‘steroids scandal’ has engulfed some of the biggest names in sports and brought increased scrutiny to the illegitimate nature of pharmacy law.  This link provides more information on the MLB debacle.

Now we’re learning from Times Union about a connection with James M. D’Amico, a dentist from Cape Coral, FL., who had a revoked dental license while prescribing “nutritional supplements” a.k.a. steroids and human growth hormones.  This case, prosecuted in South Florida has ties to a steroids-distribution investigation launched four years ago in Albany and recently brought to light one of Mr. D’Amico’s high-profile clientele as none other than Paul Teutul Sr. of Orange County Chopper (OCC) and ‘American Chopper’  fame.  According to Mr. D’Amico’s seized records, Paul Teutul Sr. received 73 prescriptions at a cost of over $51,000 from August 2, 2002 to October 3, 2006.

Now I’m not a dentist, but clearly there must be a lot of legitimate uses for steroids in a dental practice for 73 prescriptions?!

Maybe Paul Sr., was overwhelmed in the fiercely competitive custom motorcycle business and realized it’s not enough to be smart and charismatic — you need to have bigger, stronger and faster moving biceps than all the other also ran’s — and as a result looked to nutritional supplements to build the one-of-a-kind choppers in record breaking time.

According to the Albany NY based Times Union web site article, the D’Amicos prescriptions to Teutul were processed by Orlando’s Signature Compounding Pharmacy, whose operators remain under felony indictment in Albany.  Robert G. Calson, a Sarasota, FL., physician who pleaded guilty in Albany three years ago to insurance fraud for his role in that case, also prescribed supplement drugs to Tuetul through Signature.

In connecting the dots it wouldn’t be a big leap to assume that some of that ‘American Chopper’ yelling for prime time was more related to “roid rage” and it’s possible that this doping scandal is truly the end of the road for the Teutul dynasty.  Translated: The threebie that isn’t.

More blog posts on the “Ragin Teutuls” HERE.

Photo courtesy of Automated Trader

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Too Much Of Nothing

Paul (Senior) Teutul -- The Hair Club Motorcycle

That’s how I would described American Chopper, the reality television show based on the Teutul family business, Orange County Chopper custom-built motorcycles.

Unless you live in a cave you’ve been unable to avoid hearing about Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. revving up their litigators and fighting it out in the courtroom — a shareholder dispute or family feud?  If you’ve missed it I’ve previously blog about this father/son feud HERE and HERE.

At this point I suspect that Paul Jr. is doing a victory break dance after the decision by the appeals court reversed a lower court’s ruling that would have forced him to sell his 20% interest in Orange County Choppers to his father, at a price to be determined by the court.  Teutul v. Teutul, 2010 NY Slip Op 09248 (2d Dept Dec. 14, 2010).

You may recall that the lower court’s April 2010 ruling enforced Senior’s exercise of a buyout option contained in a January 2009 letter agreement that had temporarily patched up the father-son business relationship, and avoided cancellation of their television deal with Discovery Channel, following Senior’s on-air firing of Junior.  The court enforced the option notwithstanding that the buyout price was expressed in terms of “fair market value as determined by a procedure to be agreed to by the parties as soon as practicable.  The solution to the parties’ inability to agree on valuation procedure, the court concluded, was for the court itself to step in and determine the fair market value of Junior’s shares.

Only a legal student would find the previous two years of this business divorce interesting.  I did find it curious that according to Discovery Channel the Jan. 3rd premiere show garnered 2M+ viewers and was the number #1 cable program (excluding sports and movies) during prime time among the male 18-54 demographic.

American Chopper’s Hair Club Motorcycle

The next new episode of Senior vs. Junior is Jan. 17th where Paul Sr. will unveil the newest completed chopper built for the 35th Anniversary of the Hair Club.  Most notable is the brushed metal skull-themed paint which illustrates Hair Club’s signature “magic” where one skull is bald and the other has a full head of hair, flowing like flames.  In addition there is a promotional opportunity that I wanted to make you aware of where you can win the Hair Club motorcycle by entering their contest HERE.

Thanks to Sam Mazzarelli of Marlo Marketing and Communications for the  email with this information and corresponding photos.  The Hair Club motorcycle will be unveiled for what is expected to be a large crowd at Washington State University (Pullman, WA) on January 17th.

Photos courtesy of American Chopper, OCC and Marlo Marketing.

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Teutul’s Fight To Voir Dire

The title is a reference to an interview process which is called voir dire, a French phrase translated as “to see and speak the truth.”  Another way to say it is democracy in action.

I’m talking about Paul Teutul (Sr.) and his son Paul M. Tuetul (Jr.) of OCC/American Chopper fame.  Like rock stars, they are.  A key part of building the custom motorcycle scene for mainstream America.  They weren’t in it for momentary good times, they wanted world domination from the outset.  I’ve blogged about them previously HERE, HERE and HERE

But their working landscape turned toxic, and rather than resolve the dispute they remained lockjaw-ed, rigid, corporate minded and took the low road of “I’ll get mine and F you” kind of thinking.  The problem, me thinks is greed.  The perpetual rock throwing finally hit the White Plains, NY., courthouse where an oral argument before a four-judge panel on Paul Junior’s appeal from a lower court ruling against him, enforcing Senior’s “option” to purchase Junior’s 20% interest in Orange County Choppers (OCC) for an amount to be determined by the court in an appraisal proceeding.

For the uninitiated here is a recap, in January 2009, after a nasty, made for TV, on-air power struggle in which furniture somehow became airborne, Senior fired Junior.  The two entered into a letter agreement that allowed Junior to continue working at OCC and avoided cancellation (and breach of contract) of their television deal with Discovery Channel, which owns The Learning Channel on which American Chopper is aired.   Junior rejected the option exercise, following which Senior brought suit to enforce it.  In April 2010, Orange County Supreme Court Justice Lewis Jay Lubell ruled in Senior’s favor (read the decision here). It’s a complex issue about fair market value and when it comes to valuing shares of close corporations for which there is no ready market, requiring agreement as to basic assumptions such as the date of valuation and the applicability of discounts.

Whatever your impressions are of the TV show and the Teutul’s antics, I’d think sitting in a courtroom and watching the legal experience unfold to determine your monetary fate separates the men from the boys.  Having had my disproportionate share of legal issues I’d never predict the outcome of an appeal, but it’s likely a decision will be handed down before end of year.

I personally like my custom bike builder hero’s to take me above this worlds problems!  That’s why I quit watching anything Teutul and instead was riveted by the rescue of the Chilean miners.  Everybody threw in together.  I was impressed by the technology, the fortitude.  We applauded the human spirit and believe that problems can be solved.  But not in Teutul land.

For those interested in learning more about the case, here are links to the appellate briefs:

Junior’s main brief (36 pages)
Senior’s opposition brief (25 pages)
Junior’s reply brief (15 pages)

Links courtesy of the excellent New York Business Divorce Blog and attorney/author Peter Mahler.

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OCC Family Feud Ends

At least on television!

The Orange County Chopper press machine couldn’t catch-up.  A daunting task considering the category-5 storm of controversy and problems for the Teutul family this past year.  Egos, fame and dysfunction causes problems in a family?  There’s a shock!  How will the motorcycle industry survive without them?!

It’s over.  After 6 years American Chopper skids to a stop.  The TLC series based on the Teutul’s custom-built motorcycle business was often like watching the drug cartels fight over a street corner in Puerto Palomas without guns.  Defiant Paul Jr. threaten the stability and the thrash was plainly visible as he co-opted to Seniors intimidation.  There was no blueprint for fixing the show, salaries were spent on expensive black t-shirts and that “we’re too powerful” attitude meant viewers re-discovered other reality TV shows.

No more shows of $50K solar-powered customs for corporations that spin the media to look green.  No more frustrated “artistes” motivated by monied interests and profiteers.  Rumor has it that Paul Jr. makes a life changing announcement tonight.  If that’s not publicist spin to beg attract viewers.  Call me crazy, but I suspect it has something to do with Celine Dion’s Vegas deal which begins a new 3 year run at Caesars Palace beginning in March 2011.

For me it became obvious way back when Vinnie departed that it was a downward trend and empty vessel.  Was the shows self-destruction a surprise to anyone?  The fights looked less scripted and a lot more about anger, then the pillow-talks with Paul Jr’s wife about the break-up and starting his own business, Mickey’s stupid is, as stupid does act then rehab and now it ends like they always do — in a court room disputing money.  Let’s celebrate.  Tonight is the final episode.

When you spend money like a rock star and all that’s left is an echo chamber in the form of a multi-million dollar shop…nothing but a lot of “indecipherable chatter” remains.

UPDATE: January 14, 2011 — Updates and new post on Senior vs. Junior HERE.

Photo courtesy of Picasaweb

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