Weather was pretty good with 2 late afternoon and evening exceptions. Crowds were reportedly down with the news stations blaming the economy. In Daytona that's always a relief as hotels and restaurants become more available. The traffic still sucked especially the last few days.
Cops were as brutal as ever. Many buds got ticketed and some were just bullshit. A1A down the beach was especially bad. Burnouts or 5 mph over and there were blue lights. Gals quit showing their tits much because they get hauled off to jail or at the least a fine. Daytona law enforcement has been pretty unfriendly now for a number of years so no surprise.
I hung at the V8Chopper tent a bunch as Stan and his crew were ultra friendly and most V8 guys stopped by there at one point or another. I was riding regularly with Steve Barr, Chris Capp, Wild Bill, and David Ward. David has some wild bikes (2 V8 bikes, 2 V8 trikes) and he rides the rubber off them. Great guy and very generously had me riding all of his while mine was being tweaked. It's a good sign someone's really cool when they keep encouraging you to smoke the tires off THEIR bike.
Stan hosted a great barbeque with David's help and there were at least 50 people. The weather was really bad with severe thunderstorms and hail and tornado warnings both before and after the barbeque. The God's were good to us because it cleared at meal time and stayed good for at least an hour or more.
Can't name everyone there but lots of really good folks.Got to meet two Brits, Jimbo and his cousin Mathew from London. Really wild guys who know how to have a good time and are getting ready to pull the trigger on some V8Chopper bikes and trikes. Stan's inventory of bikes at the show were exceptional including a $100k custom with a 360 rear tire and lots of custom "stuff", the Jack Daniels and another fuel injected bike going to Norway, and of course the best...a deep dark candy burgundy chopper with a 520 hp DART motor....mine.
Some other really beautiful bikes such as Ricky Redtro's. One of the nicest big block Boss bikes I've seen. The SW Florida guys came Thursday a.m. and the riding really started getting interesting. Gary had his smallblock blower bike without the blower but did have a 175 hp nitrous hit. When we traded bikes so he could ride my new one, he turned on the juice suggesting I use it. Forgot what a violent little mutha that bike is. There was a thread on the other site talking about BB vs SB. Here's one SB that will clearly whip the shit out of all but the nastiest (and modified) BB's. Lots of fun. A group of us, David, Wild Bill, Gary, Chris, Rick V. went to the Cabbage Patch but missed the cole slaw wrestling "ladies" by a day. Damn!
Crazy Charlie from Naples was there with his Mad Max 600 c.i. Donovan. The bike makes 1,100 h.p...no kidding. Has a big scoop coming out of the middle of the tank, painted a gun metal matt black, two big scuba sized nitrous bottles sticking straight up in back. Charlie regularly busts belts and Daytona was no exception. Drove by the BH display on the infield of the speedway, twisted it up and BANG!, there goes a belt. He got it fixed in Stan's trailer and was mobile again soon. The bike and Charlie are a trip.
I'm trying to get Russ to post his nasty pictures here. Perhaps Ricky will point him in this direction. He posted one on the other site but couldn't do the good ones as a result of the policy there. I posted he would be welcome to post them here and hopefully he will.
I saw a bunch of other really good folks. Jack D., Jack P., Brian Ward and friend Jennifer (who looked really cool piloting David's nasty DART trike), Stu, the list is endless. I was disappointed not having hooked up with Marco Mike Kelly. We had talked via phone but missed one another. He had a few bikes set up off Main Street and I kept going there too early in the day and looking behind where he was. I really wanted to see Mike and the bikes. I'll look forward to seeing him either in Myrtle (anyone here going?) or back in SW Florida in a few months. I got to rub shoulders with many more than mentioned here but old age and feeble mind prevent my mentioning everyone.
Partnering up with Steve was great as usual. Steve has a beautiful condo setup on the beach same place as Jack D. and a few others and it was a great place to stay. Steve was really a friend when it came to some shuttle needs with the truck. Great partner.
Again, I apologize for not taking pics. You all have seen the bikes and I know you just wanted to see the babes anyhow. That by the way was another issue this time as there was some recent legislation that required some of the favorite watering holes to require the dancers wear bikinis rather than bearing skin. Hmmm, I'll say nothing as I have nothing good to say about that.
In conclusion, much of Daytona this year was about my picking up the new chopper and so I was pretty preoccupied along those lines. Didn't go riding or exploring as much as a result. Had to take it a bit easier than normal due to break-in and lack of being familar with the bike. It turned out to be incredible both looks and performance. It's quite a bit more snotty than a 502 as far as sound and lope. I'll explain personally to you Geez! It is the quickest bike I've personally been on outside Gary's blower chopper. As far as street performance, Gerry in Atlanta had raced his 383 stroker chopper (425 hp) against a Boss bigblock and beat it (according to Gerry). David raced Gerry with his big DART and blew him away. This suggests the 520 hp DART is faster than the Boss 502? Having had 4 bigblock Boss bikes, I can attest it to being a fact by way of the butt dyno. This bike is not only making a LEGITIMATE 520 hp, it weighs less than 940 lbs and is set up to make the power very early on. Richard Maskin and the DART folks, Stan and the V8Chopper team have a real winner here. I couldn't be happier. Stan did everything I used to have to polish in chrome. Intake, head covers, Holley breather, all brackets and small parts chromed. I hate polishing and love the look of the chrome. The 300 Avon tire gets blown away on request and you don't have to be into the 4 barrel to do so. The bike is truly exciting and beautiful.
That's the whole ugly story. For those guys I got to visit with and enjoy your company, thanks and hope to see you soon. Also hope to meet many more I haven't had the pleasure of hooking up with. Best,
Elliot
Having had a total of 7 Boss bikes/trikes and now 2 choppers, I have a pretty good feel for both. There's no doubt that in spite of both being V8 bikes, there are apples to oranges comparisons that need to be considered. I too love them both.