his is turning into a year of celebrations. Our Parts Magazine/Drag Specialties Magazine program is now in its 15th year. Lemans Corp, parent of Drag Specialties and Parts Unlimited is celebrating its 40th year, and when we hit Daytona for Bike Week, my family and I will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of my father’s 1948 Daytona 200 victory. I figured we needed a motorcycle to go with our celebration that was as close as we could make it to his Indian Big Base Scout race bike. Be sure to check out our Project Report on page 46 for more on that detailed restoration. Unlike the many custom projects we report on in every issue, this project took the exact opposite of a custom project. Custom builders let their imaginations drive their projects, while in a restoration, you need to get all the parts looking exactly as they were when they were original. Take a bike that there were only about 30 made, and things get tricky. Hope you enjoy the story.      It’s those great customs obviously that are the heart and soul of a company like Drag Specialties. Our feature bike in this issue has a great story. On an open weekend in southern Wisconsin, Fred Fox loves to take off into the countryside for a short day ride. Trouble was, every time he would get a bike someone in the company would “borrow” it to use at events or shows.      So behind the scenes, Drag’s Tom Motzko commissioned Don Hotop to build Fred a bike that he could keep in the garage. There was a surprise presentation at the NVP Dealer Showcase in Janesville last August, and with the exception of the time needed to get these photos taken, Fred has been able to hang on to his bike. Now he just needs some sunny weather and he’ll be out of the road.      The NHRA Drag Race season is just getting underway and there have been some big changes on the Drag Specialties/S&S Buell team. Read on page 50 about Chris Rivas, the team’s new rider. Chris is a very talented drag racer, as well as a good Drag Specialties customer at his store in California, so he was an easy pick to become the team’s new pilot for 2008.      I’m sure many of you attended this year’s V-Twin Expo in Cincinnati. We were there and got really pumped up about the upcoming season. Attendance was better than a lot of people were expecting and there were a lot of great new products on display. Read all about it starting on page 26.      Next up for us is Daytona. Check back here for our next issue and a full report on Bike Week.

Parts Magazine
Volume 15 #3

Parts Magazine Index