hen I was at the Sturgis Rally this year, two things hit me loud and clear: First, the state of the art of motorcycle customizing continues to get better and better. There were a number of custom bike shows at Sturgis and that seemed to attract the best of the best. It was super cool to see so much innovation in metal work all in the same place.
     My other observation was that while those customs are fascinating to look at, what you see the most on the road are the Dressers, the Baggers and other styles that are setup to ride long distances. These are the machines with the fairings or windshields, saddlebags and comfortable seats.
     In our last issue we showed a Dresser that Tim Pfisterer built for Greg Blackwell, proof that those great customizing techniques can be applied to a machine that offers a lot of function. In this issue we’ve got another super cool machine built by Brian Klock of Klock Werks. It’s a great looking bike in full Bagger trim, but if you think it’s all show and no go, guess again. The Klock Werks crew took it to Bonneville in September for the International Speed Trials by BUB and with Laura Ellifson in the saddle, she set a U.S. record in her class with a speed of 147.359 mph…saddlebags and all!
     Speaking of Bonneville, a big congratulations to Denis Manning and whole BUB team for their new motorcycle world speed record. AMA Grand National Champ Chris Carr was recruited to be the pilot for the record attempt and after a couple of pre-event test sessions, Carr, Manning and company made it look easy. After Rocky Robinson had broken the long standing world record just the day before, Carr fired up the BUB streamliner and it took just one trip up and one trip back to set a new world motorcycle record with a two-way average of 350.884 miles per hour. Check out our report in this issue on the whole BUB-promoted event at Bonneville.
     There’s a lot more to read in the issue as well. Don’t miss Part II of our Sturgis Rally report, Drag sales rep Steve Zagorski’s custom project bike, the G2 Motorsports drag race “push bike” they call the “Punisher,” profiles on Roland Sands, John Andrews and more.

Ride Safe,