V-Twin Expo 2009 OH

Arlen Ness & Jimmy Kay

 

1967, Arlen buys his first motorcycle, a 1947 Knucklehead®. Working in his own garage armed with only a spray gun and a vision Arlen stripped his motorcycle and gave it a full custom paint job. Shortly after, Arlen entered his first custom bike show and took first place; the first of many to come. Spending the nights in his garage working on an ever-growing list of customers’ bikes Arlen realized it was time to quit his day job working for a private contractor and open a store. Renting a store space on East 14th in San Leandro, CA Arlen opened Arlen’s Motorcycle “Ness-ecities”. In the beginning the store was only open at night giving Arlen time to paint and work on bikes during the day. Soon demand for Arlen’s “Ness-ecities” became too great and the store had to be opened full time. Following in his father’s footsteps, Arlen’s son Cory designed and built his first bike in his mid-teens. Together they made Arlen’s Motorcycles “Ness-ecities” a hug success throughout the eighties and nineties resulting in several relocations into progressively larger stores.

www.arlenness.com 

Rick Fairless of Strokers Dallas TX one of the best bike builders in the USA

www.strokersdallas.com 

Strokers Dallas is world-famous for our one-of-a-kind bikes and cool custom paint. Whether you want classic or crazy, we can fix up your bike to look as good as one of these in just two weeks! My painter is the best around.

 

Dave Nichols & Some of Two Wheel Thunder TV Crew

 

2009 V-Twin Award Winners

 

 Denis has continued to expand his own company, BUB Enterprises, to become a manufacturer of high quality performance exhaust systems for cruisers, sport bikes and ATV’s.

Denis Manning is a world renowned land speed racer. He’s designed and built some of the world’s fastest motorcycles.

Manning has worked in the motorcycle industry for over 40 years. In his early years he worked in a motorcycle shop, employed by racer Dutch Mueller, who was also known as ‘The Flying Dutchman’. Denis was soon nicknamed BUB (‘Big Ugly Bastard’) and thus became the name behind the legend.
Early in his career, Denis was offered a spot on the USA Drag racing team in England. After England his racing career took a turn. Taking inspiration from his childhood idol, Mickey Thompson, Denis headed off to the salt flats of Bonneville, Utah.    http://www.bubent.com/ 

Two Wheel Thunder TV crew had the honor of having dinner with Denis and his wife at the Award Dinner on Saturday.

What a great privilege for us, we had a blast! Thanks..

 

Eric Blomer- of Cincinnati Harley – one of the best around!

 www.harley-davidsonofcincinnati.com

 

 

John Hoppe

Check out what great products they have at www.hoppeindustries.com