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.

He was heading back to Vegas for work. Got back on at City Center. Told him to go harass you. Bought the bike from a used to be TV show.

The picture going down the hill,it used to be a 2 lane road with a T at the bottom. Ford used it for testing trucks,all day long up & down the hill. Go up it in July @130 degrees,an old 220, no A/C.

Update Tuesday June 02
 

Well it has been a hectic schedule since Laughlin & Tulsa.

I was home for a few days after Tulsa and waited around till almost 7:00pm on Friday night for the last of the first 6 new bagger model bikes to be built. We wanted to get as many of them to Myrtle Beach as possible and I wound up with 6 total.

I headed out and made it into North Myrtle at Hooters at 1:00pm on Sunday. Due to the new Anti-Motorcycle-Rally laws in Horay County we were not able to start setting up till midnight Sunday night. We did however take my truck over to the Wal-Mart parking lot and off-load 6 bikes then distributed them out to 3 of the 4 dealers who were also waiting on the midnight bell.

Monday morning and we are all open for business and all was going well. Monday was a relatively slow day but as in years past things get better as the week goes on. Then Tuesday morning rolls around and all hell breaks loose. We get a call from one of the sales guys working for one of our dealers down south of the city at about 9:30am saying the state DMV was there along with half a dozen SC State Troopers writing citations and shutting them down. Soon after that a SC State Trooper and another unmarked car pull into the drive at Hooters and within minutes they had issued a citation to our dealer there and gave them till the end of the day to be gone. They then came over to our truck and asked to see our license. We don't have a license as we don't actually sell bikes from the truck, they have to go through a dealer and our permit from the county said we are "For Display and Advertising Only". So we dodged the bullet on that one but it gets better.

They managed to run every motorcycle dealer out of town, or at least shut them down on Tuesday. Most just packed up and left overnight. Then Wednesday morning the state tax collectors came around checking everyone’s business license. If they had a photocopy and not the original they got shut down. Again they came to us and we didn't have a license because we are display only. Then about 4:30 yet another state official shows up counting parking spaces. I asked what the purpose of that was and was informed that there is a law in SC that states a business that is open to the public cannot occupy more that 30% of it's parking space for special events, 70% must remain open for public parking. Well hell with our two semi's we take up 20 spaces which is 30% not to mention all the other vendors in the lot. I was informed that the zoning people would be back in the morning and some of us would have to leave. Well that Hooters store in particular makes the bulk of its profit during bike week so the corporate lawyer comes in overnight and the next morning gets a Judge to interpret the law. Well the law says space not spaces so it was his judgment that every square foot of paved area is space and the vendors were using less than 30% so we got to stay. We were however informed by the zoning bitch that the law would be changed by October and I told here that it would be pointless because there wouldn't be any rally after this one was over.

To make a long story short, we took 2 show rigs and 45 bikes to Myrtle Beach for no reason, it was a complete waist of time and money. Mayor Rhodes of the City of Myrtle Beach has succeeded in getting rid of the nations largest bike rally. Once he got to work Monday morning and realized his new draconian laws in the city didn't stop the rally (because the bulk of it has always been outside the city limits) he then got lawyers to find obscure state laws and get them enforced.

Moving on, we left Myrtle on Sunday and got back to Kansas on Tuesday. I took two days of vacation and re-loaded again on Friday morning. Headed to the lake (with the truck full of bikes) and spent the weekend on the boat getting sunburned and catching a freezer full of walleye.

I left the lake Monday afternoon, stopped in Salt Lake City to drop off a bike they are giving away then got to Coeur d’ Alene, ID on Wednesday night. We had Thunder Thursday bike night then a dealer open house and block party Friday and Saturday. Sunday a group of us went riding through the mountains on Northern Idaho, Western Montana and southern British Columbia. Monday was spent doing laundry, some little stuff on my truck and trailer and resting.

Here in the next couple of hours I’m hitting 95 and heading to Caldwell, ID for another dealer event at Bad Ass Bikes.

That is just an absurd story there. Sounds like that mayor really has the local economy's best interest at heart. Isn't that amazing, imagine how much time,money and resources it sucked out of the state and local budgets to come out and run off a revenue generating event that doesn really cause any trouble and really helps out the local economy. Iw ill never understand the mentality of our elected officials. Let's spend a whole bunch of money to run money out of our city. Almost laughable. I am sure that Hooters owner and all of the girls working there are not laughing much though, thats a crap ton of money that is being robbed from their pockest by running off that big of a piece of business.

Mid July Update
 

It's been quite a while since updating this thread and don't know if it matters at this point but will go ahead with it anyway.

Upon leaving Couer D'Alene Idaho I took the scenic route down to Caldwell, ID for a dealer open house at Bad Ass Bikes. What a beautiful trip. I did have a little problem with an Idaho DOT officer who got his panties all bunched up because I'm too long to travel that route without a special permit but we argued through it and after coughing up a hat and t-shirt I was on my way again.

Once I got to Caldwell to our dealer I was unloading my personal bike which is (was) a crotch rocket. The owner of the dealership was giving me all kinds of static for riding a jap bike. I told him that I had been looking for a Harley Raod Glide for 4 years and some day I will come across one at the right price and I will give up the 150+ mph wheelies. He walked over to a Road Glide he had sitting there for sale and told me he would sell it to me for what he ad in it. I asked him the price and was shocked. That was Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning I rolled in and he walked up and asked if we were going to do the deal on the Harley so I told him I had to get rid of the Suzuki first. He asked what I had to have out of it so I gave him a number. He asked for the keys, took it for a spin then told me it was sold! Well I'm now the proud owner of a 2007 Harley Davidson FLTR Road Glide

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...6-04110457.jpg

After Caldwell, ID I made my way out to Cherry Hill, NJ to Rockstar for an open house and party. Well it rained all weekend so that was a complete bust.

Left Cherry Hill on Monday morning and rolled back to Kansas to swap out a couple of bikes then headed to Colorado Springs for another dealer open house and demo rides plus the Tejon Street bike fest. I picked up the dealer rep from the factory and we rolled into CO Springs late on Friday. We spent the next 3 hours setting up the awning and getting ready. Saturday was a great day, well over 1000 people in attendance. Saturday evening was spent putting all 23 bikes back in the trailer and tearing the awning down. We finally got back to the hotel about 10:30pm. Back up at 4:00am and headed downtown to set up for the street fest. We were allowed to begin setting up at 5:30am and finally got finished about 8:30am just in time for all the people to start rolling through. The day went really good till around 3:30 when it began to hail and pour rain. Now there were 1000's of people and as soon as the storm hit they went running for cover. I have 1000 sq feet of awning so they were trying to crowd under it at the same time we were trying to get bikes in out of the hail. There was some name calling and I was called an ******* a few dozen times as I was kicking people out to get bikes in. The rain finally passed by about 5:00 but it had already run almost all the people off so we began tearing down early. Made it back to the room by about 9:00pm and crashed. Monday was spent sleeping!

Got back home on Tuesday night then went to the office Wednesday morning to check in and took the rest of the week/weekend off. Spent the 4th of July holiday fishing. Lost track of how many catfish we caught but it was somewhere around 150 (between 10 of us).

Tuesday morning I rolled back into the office, loaded 1 more bike then headed back to Bergen County, NJ for a dealer open house. That was this past Friday and Saturday and went very well, lots of traffic and sold a couple of bikes.

Left there yesterday morning, swung through Cherry Hill, NJ to drop off a bike and made my way to the Homestead Suites here in Erie, PA late last night. I'm going to spend today polishing aluminum. Did I mention that the Blue Beacon in Hubbard, OH burned all the aluminum on my truck and trailer on my way to Bergen County? I told them as I always have at every BB that I wanted absolutely no acid on any of the wheels or tanks. Well I was in the bay that couldn't be seen from the viewing window and when the bay manager came to tell me my truck was ready I walked into the bay and went off the deep end, the wheels, tanks, fender flairs and door trim on the trailer where WHITE. They acted like it was no big deal and thought an appology was all it would take to get me to go away. I guess the non-english speaking guy running the buttons didn't understand my english explination of what I wanted. Anyway, water under the bridge and now I'm going spend the entire day doing it all again!

I'll be setting up Wednesday morning here in Erie for the Raor-On-The-Shore rally then blasting off Sunday morning headed to Pocatello, ID for the POW-MIA Rally next weekend and then to Sturgis to Monkey Rock for 2 weeks then to Salt Lake City, UT

About time you actually do some work. It's only a couple of hundred out of the way to stop by.

Glad to see a new update, keep this thread going, one of the more interesting travel threads I have seen on here.

I would but I have to swing back by the factory and trade out 3 of the demo bikes. My original plan was to stop by for a day but now I'm going to be pressed for time.

I will probably fly up for a day or two when we hit a slow point but at the rate they are scheduling us I wont get a day off till November.

Glad your enjoying it. It's much more interesting than hauling cheese and mushrooms :)

I'm on a show tour for the next month too. 6200 miles for the next month with revenue that I won't disclose.

Now why wont you disclose it? It's not like there is anyone on here that will question your numbers and say you are a windbag. I say post the numbers and tell whoever to kiss your :moon: lol....By the way, this stuff is interesting,start a thread on your show circuit and tell us about it. I like reading these things.

Been there, done that. If I'm not accused of taking the whole linehaul and lying about my cut, it's another. And secondly, I won't hijack a great thread. Vey interesting taking these bikes places and the hotty models :) My tour isn't really too exciting- cases with AV equipment and a few displays.

WOW, Great thread! Very interesting stories. Last year I had an opportunity to drive for Kawasaki to take their bikes and equipment to the tracks. I turned it down because I was a trackworker at the time and they needed a driver right then for the rest of the season. I wasn't going to just quit my current job on the spot and leave for 6 months. If I had had time to prepare, I think I would have been all over it though. I still wonder what it would have been like.

Glad your enjoying it scyhe08:

It can become somewhat boring at times as there's some times during the week between shows just sitting in a motel room. I spent the day yesterday polishing all the wheels, tanks, steps, fender flairs on the trailer and door trim. It wasn't my idea of a great day but the ole girl looked good when I was finished. Now I just have to figure out how to get my hands turned back white, maybe the Blue Beacon acid that turned everything else white will work on my hands.

Today is going to be a day of rest and play, I'm going to go riding and probably do some laundry since I won't have much free time starting tomorrow. I have to be down town at 10:00am tomorrow morning to begin setting up then the show officially starts at noon on Thursday and runs through midnight Saturday night. hen I have to pack it all up and hit the road Sunday morning, run back through Kansas to swap out 3 bikes then be in Pocatello, ID on Wednesday to start setting up for the POW-MIA Awareness Rally.

BanditsCousin:
Don't worry about hijacking this thread and as for not disclosing the pay, I understand as I'm contractually obligated to not disclose my pay either. There are a lot of things I'm alowed to talk about but pay and benefits are strickly off limits. I know another driver who ran his mouth about pay at a show and found himself bragging about unemployment a week later.

I will try and get some more hotty model pictures this weekend :D

Kansas to here and then Pocatello is the way a real "strapper" would run it. Remember no such thing as not enough time.

Yup but I'm a strapper no more HA!

Old habits die hard. Been a long time since i had to fire a strapper over a radio and cell phone. I think that one was your fault.

Yeah it was my cell phone you fired her on the I had to listen to her sh-!-t for the next 30 hours. I think you still owe me for that one!! The up side, I learned lots of new names for you :)

Update 09/22/2009
 

Okay, I'll start this one off the right way:
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...011th20008.jpg
It been a while since I updated on here and I got a pm from another user saying some people wanted some pictures of the girls from Sturgis. Sorry but I didn't get any girl pictures because where I was at (Monkey Rock) they had over 100 girls working there but they're only compensation from pictures was tips. (and my wife was there most of the show)

Anyhow since leaving Erie, PA I ran back to the factory in Wichita, traded out a few bike then hauled to Pocatello, ID for the POW-MIA awareness rally. Other than being hot as h*ll it was a good time. They always draw a good crowd. I won the Loud Pipes contest with my Harley and took Best of Show in the bike show with one of our new baggers. I donated the winnings from both, $750, back to the POW-MIA and pissed a few people off because I did it in front of 2500 people and challanged all the othr winners to do the same.

After Pocatello, I rolled out towards Sturgis and took a day off in West Yellowstone and went riding through the park and southern Montana. Had almost 600 miles in one day and saw some amazing scenery.

I rolled into Sturgis and set up at the Monkey Rock which is a new venue there that is being geared more towards the "upper class" of bikers. They have built an amazing place and hired over 100 girls to work the place. The girls were all dressed in t-backs with full body paint every day. They also hade several "dancing" poles set up inside and had girls on them from 10:00am till 2:00am every day. Unfortunatley we were so swamped at the trucks that we never got to participate in any of the fun.

On the second Friday though everything went to s**t, there was a storm that rolled in from the west, dumped a lot of rain and small hail in town but by the time it got out to where we were at 5 miles east of town it had grown and proceeded to pound us with baseball sized hail for 24 minutes along with 80+ mph winds. Fortunately for me we got the bikes under the awning in time and my awning held up pretty well. The truck took a pretty bad beating on the tailgate which now looks like someone took a ballpein hammer to it. The roof looks like the surface of the moon and it took all the clearance lights and mirrors off the tractor. I was one of the luck ones, the rig behind me had the awning shredded and most of his bikes were badly damaged. The cars out behind the building had most of the glass knocked out of them.

Here's some of the pictures I got from Sturgis.
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...l11th001-1.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...l11th003-1.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...ril11th004.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...l11th006-1.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...l11th007-1.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...ril11th010.jpg

After leaving Sturgis I headed back to Salt Lake City for a dealer open house. It was pretty much a non-event as there wasn't any pre-planning for the truck so I sat around for a week watching the cars drive by (and replacing mirrors and lights).

After Salt Lake City I headed back to the factory, off loaded and reloaded the demo fleet then went up to Omaha to Werner Cycle Works (yes the same Werner as the trucks) and had a great weekend there doing demo rides.

Came back to Kansas, put the semi in the shop for repairs and grabbed one of our Dodge dually pickups and took a bike to Halifax, Nova Scotia for a new dealer there. I don't care what anyone says, a Kenworth T-600 rides 10 times better than a 1-Ton Dodge. I figured out that fall is coming though, I spent the night in Calais, ME and when I got up the next morning it was 40 degrees and I didn't bring any kind of jacket.

Got back from that trip and took 2 weeks of vacation at the lake. Not much exciting, caught a few fish, got a good sunburn, wore out my arms and legs skiing and generally had a good time.

This past weekend I was in Lake Ozark, MO at the Lake of the Ozarks Bike Rally. Pretty slow except for Saturday when we had good traffic. I was set up at the Horny Toad @ Toad Cove which is a fantastic place. We had suites in the Yacht Club which were out of this world. Sunday we tore down then late in the day we got to go for a ride in a 44' offshore Super-Cat that belongs to one of our customers and it had twin 4,000hp turbine engines in it. All I can say is 190mph on the water is a rush.

Now I'm setting in Fayetteville, AR getting ready for Bikes, Blues and BBQ which starts tomorrow afternoon at 3:00. Then on to Montreal, QC - Dallas, TX - Costa Mesa, CA - Pomona, CA - then either Little Rock, AR or Galveston, TX.

I recognize one of the women in those pictures. How come she won't dress up(down) and get on the bikes?

Nice to see a new post, i was wondering what happened to this thread. This is one of the more interesteing threads we have had to follow on here. Certainly a big change from the way most do trucking on here.

Maybe you can talk her into it.

I have a picture of here from last year at Las Vegas Bike Fest when she was sitting on the Boss Hoss that Jim had loaned me for the weekend. It has a LS3 Corvette motor in it making 500hp - ON TWO WHEELS. We took it to the Dyno Drag truck but PJ wouldn't let us run em, said the tires won't hold up but got to weigh it anyway and with both of us it weighed 1380# so thats a pretty good power to weight ratio.

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...l11th030-1.jpg

I think I saw you back in late July. I was heading East on 90 in MT before the 212 cut across. I saw the BigDog rig in the rest area. Probably a week before Sturgis. Good gig.

You caught me, I was there brewing a pot of coffee and shooting the s__t wit Sandra and Paul from Strip Club Choppers

Update 10/01/2009
 

Since I can't get and decent TV stations in english here I guess an update is in order.

Bikes, Blues and BBQ in Fayettetville, AR was great, the crowds were awesome and I got to spend the weekend with a bunch of people from other rallies all together in one place. (Only happens a couple times a year.) Weather was perfect and the turnout was amazing. We made it down to Dickson street a couple of times and it was as packed as Main Street in Sturgis.

Packed up there on Saturday night and finally rolled out about noon on Sunday. Spent Monday at the factory re-loading then headed for hell in the form of US and Canadian Customs. If you ever have to try and take 16 custom show bikes into Montreal make sure you pack a lunch, your going to get to know a lot of Canadian Customs officers really well.

I'm finally at the Hilton Montreal/Laval after a 20 mile ride in from the dealership in a blistering 42 degrees. Supposed to be doing demo rides here on Saturday but from what I can translate from the !@#$%^&* french television stations its supposed to be raining. Great news after spending a few thousand dollars getting this put together!!!

Here's some pictures from Fayetteville (sorry no nudie pictures, it's a "family friendly" event)

Just a couple shots of the crowds at my booth
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...r/IMAG0015.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...r/IMAG0017.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...r/IMAG0018.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...r/IMAG0019.jpg

Here's a picture of Amanda, I work rallies with here a couple time a year. Sorry but I cannot tell you the company she's with, legal BS in her contract! (Shhh, don't read her shirt)
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...r/IMAG0020.jpg

Here's a picture of my favorite 3 girls at the rallies, Whitney and Meghan from Hellanbach and Cindy from Hard Core Watch Comapany
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...r/IMAG0024.jpg

And finally, from left to right, Whitney, Meghan and Serina. Can you say TROUBLE with a capital T in three
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...r/IMAG0035.jpg

After Montreal I will be headed to Strokers Ice House anniversary party in Dallas then on to Costa Mesa, CA for a couple of weeks then back to Little Rock, AR for demo rides on Haloween weekend.

do they ever send you home?

Sometimes, thats one of the BIG downsides to doing entertainment type work, hometime sucks. I was however home for a couple weeks before heading out to Fayetteville, then a day between there and Montreal and I will be home for a day headed to Dallas. But then after that it will be almost 4 weeks.

What are you up so early for?

Yesterday evening, as I was coming into Lubbock, a 4-door Ford pickup passed me. He was pulling a solid white trailer that had the BigDog Motorcycles logo on it. First time I've ever seen one.

Your asking me this question at 5:30am?? I know you live an hour away from the office and that you had to get up and take care of the dogs as well meanwhile I'm sitting at the foot of my bed so you were up before I ever posted that response. :smokin:

Anyway to answer your original question, I'm in Quebec and needed to be at the dealership which is 30 miles from my motel room by 7:00am and when I posted that it was 5:23am here so I had roughly an hour to get ready, eat breakfast and get on the road. :eek1:

In other words, I spent too many years working for you and have never been able to get my days and nights back in order since. :zzz:

I'm back on another tour like I was on a while ago. I like this one better. Unload, reload in 36 hrs. Stops in Chicago and I have 2 weeks at home :)