Life on the Show Circuit
 

Not all driving jobs are pulling a box or a skateboard.

I will start this new thread with my recent Laughlin River Run show in Laughlin, NV. I got there on Monday the 20th of April. The show didn't actually start till Wednesday but the promoters always want the semi's in early before they start putting up all the tents since we need so much more room to get positioned.

I had come down with pnuemonia Sunday night / Monday morning and was only operating at about 25% so thank god I had 2 1/2 days to get set up and ready.

Here's a couple of pictures coming down the mountain into Laughlin. Not much exciting but I thought it was a cool shot.
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...0241565131.jpg
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...0241610436.jpg
Gotta love the 12 miles of 6% to 7% grade with the stoplight right at the bottom.

Here's what my awning looks like with all the framework in place and getting ready to get on top of the trailer and slide the sail down over it. (The sail weighs 185# in it's bag and has to be lifted the last 5 feet from the rear lift to the roof of the trailer.) Setting this up takes about 2 hours on a good day but this day it took me 4 hours because I was sick.
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...0246007420.jpg

Next comes standing the awning up on its legs which is best accomplished by 4 people (I do it by myself 90% of the time) The front of the frame work is square tubing which doesn't have much give so when I lift the first corner I'm lifting about half the weight of the entire system. After that I then start putting the floor down which is made by Race Deck. It's actually 1' X 1' squares that snap together but I take it up and store it in 2' X 4' sections. All together from start to finish I can get from nothing to ready for bikes in about 5 hours. Unfortunately on this trip it took me 2 days because of my inability to breath combined with the heat was making it almost imposible to work much more than an hour without having to go to the room and rest for a couple of hours.
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...0325972532.jpg

Wednesday morning and I'm finally starting to feel about 75% (Thanks to a lot of self medication) and I get the 24 bikes out of the trailer, lined up and polished.
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...0415035351.jpg
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...0415069141.jpg

My help finally flew in from Wichita about 4:00pm on Wednesday afternoon (4 hours after the show opened). Wednesday night we were open till 8:00pm then the next three days were 10:00am to 10:00pm which means I was at the truck at 8:30am getting the curtains opened up and bikes rolled out then there till well after 11:00pm each night getting everything put away and the curtains rolled down. (Still beats working for a living!)
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...0687043168.jpg

We tore down on Saturday night after the show closed and with two other people helping me I was finished by 3:00am Sunday morning. I then headed back up to my room and took a 34 hour reset before pulling out. I had to run a bike out to Costa Mesa, CA for the 30th anniversary of the movie Easy Riders then swung through Mesa, AZ and traded out a bike with a dealer there before running back home to off-load and re-load bfore going to Tulsa, OK for a dealer open house. Tulsa was actually postponed due to the rain and cold but we went anyway, put all 24 bikes in the dealers showroom and managed to sell 10 of them so I guess in the future we will postpone all shows :)

Here's a picture of one of my personal bikes, its a Suzuki GSXR750 that has been modified for racing. I ran it on the dyno drag truck in Laughlin on Thursday night and managed a 9.4 second 1/4 mile and 142 HP to the rear wheel.
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...0325988162.jpg

I'm at home this week getting some things done around the house. I will be loading on Friday afternoon and heading to Hooters in North Myrtle Beach, SC where I will be from Sunday night till the following Sunday. After that I will be home (at the lake fishing) over Memorial weekend then I'm off to Post Falls, ID - Boise, ID - Wichita, KS - New Jersey - Erie, PA.....................

Oops I forgot to start this thread with the proper picture
 

I'm jealous!:angryblue:

Nice pics, especially the last one:D

What the dates for the Eire,PA show? Might have to stop by.

Cool as hell man! Looks like a bitching job.

Looks like a hell of alot of work for one guy to do though.....no matter what the pay.

July 16th - 18th. I'll be set up right down town on the square.

Actually it's not all that bad, the water barrels are a pain in the ass but most places don't want us punching holes in the parking lot for anchors and we have to anchor the awning because if it blows over it's about $24,000 to replace it. As for the rest of it, once you get a system down it goes pretty fast and the results are worth it. We're the only comapny that runs single a single person crew on the circuit and believe it or not we can get set up just as fast (usually faster) than the companies that have a half dozen people there.

i'd LOVE to do something like that. my dream would be to go on the NHRA circuit

Very nice looks like a fun job. I ride a 07 yamaha r6 just for fun though i never took it to the track.

Did my son get hold of you there? He just spent 5 months of fishing money on a bike from your competition in CA.

Never seen him, what did he buy? I hope it wasn't a Big Bear.