A Small Town Holiday

Today Tim Clifford shares his 4th of July holiday and observations of the kids and their bikes in his town.



So I live in a small New England college town right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. On the fourth of July my wife and I, with coffee in hand, wander 100 yards up the street to the center of town to the large rotary (or round-a-bout for those of you in the UK ). There we stand with the 2,000 other “townies” to watch the parade come through. Since college is on break for the summer, the majority of bikes we see at this event are with younger children. Actually most of the bikes were parked (unlocked) and the kids were off watching the parade.

Since I’m overly protective of what’s mine, I expect everyone should be overly protective of what’s theirs, and kids should learn this at a young age. I mentioned to my wife “these bikes must have been abandoned, and obviously they are now looking for a good home.” Of course she didn’t see the humor in my remark and abruptly told me NO, like I was a dog on a choke chain.

But it got the salesman in me wondering….why don’t kids, and for that matter, a lot of adults, lock their bikes? Is it true that most people only think about theft after something of theirs has been stolen? For many people their bike is their mode of transportation and I expect there is a larger percentage of that group that locks them up. But for the recreational user I can’t imagine coming out of the Seven Eleven and finding my bike stolen. The stroll home would truly be the walk of shame. I hope kids and adults don’t take crime too lightly and realize that as much as you love your bike, someone else wants to love it just as much. Keep it locked.

So, later that night my wife I walk to the end of driveway where we can see the fireworks exploding about a quarter mile away. It’s raining a little and the show seems to be somewhat shorter than previous years. Fine by me, since standing under an umbrella being chowed by mosquitoes is not my idea of fun. Off we go, back in the house and awhile later we go to bed.

At 11:30pm we’re now asleep, only to we awaken by a loud explosion. Being overly protective of what’s mine, I shot out of bed, cat flying through the air to see what happened. The fireworks were starting again !! Hours had gone by, everyone had gone home and now they were starting again!! As I mentioned, I’m overprotective of my things and sleep is one of them. As I was tripping over the second cat heading for the phone to call the fire department and complain my wife, once again, intervened and told me not to be that guy. You know, the miserable old guy (or lady) in the neighborhood that complains about everything. With that I tried to go back to sleep with what sounded like the invasion at Normandy happening down the street.

On my way to work the next morning, one eye closed as I tried to catch up on my lost sleep, I noticed the “abandoned” bikes in the center of town were gone. I hope all went home with their original owners.

- Tim Clifford

And The Winner Isssssssssssssssss.....

Its Friday afternoon and time to announce the winner of our contest to help Tim Clifford figure out how to keep his new Stratocaster secure. While we heard some interesting ideas, both through the blog and around the watercooler, the winning ideas come from blogguest tom iv....He offered meaningful suggestions on how accessories that come with our R4 and L2 locks (usually used as ski locks) can be used to help Tim navigate his way through an evening at his local pub, of course along with suggestions of how to use the lock itself to keep the guitar safe. Congrats tom! Watch for your prize coming to a mailbox near you.

Perewitz Open House

Saturday was a nice, spring day here in Massachusetts. A little chilly and a little cloudy, but the sun did break through during the day so it was a nice day for a ride. Hundreds of motorcyclists took advantage of the early season good weather and headed down to Perewitz Cycle Fabrication to join in the fun and festivities at their Open House. As I mentioned, part of the Kryptonite crew was there, too.

There were free hotdogs, sodas and bags of popcorn, music, airbrush tattoos, prizes tossed from the roof, raffles, doggies and lots and lots of motorcycles of every variety parked in front of the store. For those that came out, it was a great day.

Kryptonite raffled off one of Dave Perewitz's custom painted trashcans with all of the money going to the National MS Society (a charity near and dear to the Perewitz family). The can was won by Jack M. who was one of their first service customers when they moved to this building. But, on this day he didn't arrive on his motorcycle, he arrived with his friend and kids on their bicycles! We see that often, actually - the crossover with motorcycles and bicycles.

It was a fun day at the Perewitz kick off to the summer riding season. Here are some photos taken during the day. Enjoy!

Motorcycles were everywhere....

Every make and model you could think of.....

Being a family affair there were lots of kids on bicycles, too, including these next to the burnout pad...

Airbrush tattoos were a huge hit. Here some young, future riders show off their love of motorcycles. Even the Perewitz clan had some fun with the temporary tattoos.

And the winner is....Jack M! Congrats!

Kryptonite's Tim Clifford with Jack, kids and their new treasure. Shortly afterwards, Jack jumped on his other two wheels and took his prize home.

Congratulations Perewitz Family!

While at Sturgis the Perewitz family was presented with the 2nd Annual Chrome Heart Award from the Children's Care Hospital & School. The award is given each year to someone "in the motorcycle world whose philanthropic support and civic duty represents everything positive in the motorcycle industry". This year they chose Dave & his family. Very cool!

Since we've known them, we have seen first hand just how much this family gives of themselves to support different charities and funds. I don't know how they do it! I'm glad that the whole family was recognized because Dave is truly the front person but Susan, Jody, Jesse and Jaren help to make it all happen, too. They work the logistics and back end details of all their charity work. It's not easy, but they work together to give back and it's truly special to see. I can't think of a better family that deserved the award this year. Great photo of Dave & Susan with the award from Iron Works Magazine!

Not to mention....while they were in Sturgis, Dave played auctioneer for the annual Hamster USA auction and dinner where they raised over $200,000 for the Children's Care Center. The funds will help with physical, occupational and speech therapies to children with special needs in Western South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska.

The press release about this says..."Children’s Care of Rapid City served over 1200 children in the region last year through outpatient and outreach programs. It is affiliated with Children’s Care Hospital & School, based in Sioux Falls. Children’s Care is a private, independent, non-profit organization with a mission to help children with special needs reach their full potential. The organization as a whole served over 2500 children last year."

Pretty cool that the Perewitz family and the Hamsters help out this cause each year. Oh, what are the Hamsters? It's an international motorcycle group founded by Dave and some of his friends years ago. From what I can tell, they are a great group of guys who all give of their time, talent and monetary donations to many, many charities across the country. Clearly, they were all more than generous out in Sturgis at their annual banquet!

While we are talking Perewitz....here are some photos from this month's Bike Night.

All set up and ready....a big kudos to Tim Clifford who

was on vacation but came to work the event anyway!

All kinds of motorcycles filled the parking lot.

Guitar Man

This weekend marks the beginning of a new unbreakable bond between Tim Clifford, our director of sales, and his new pride and joy Fender Stratocaster.... So that he doesn't lose any sleep over keeping it safe, I thought it would be a good idea for you to weigh in with your ideas about how to secure it, using any combination of Kryptonite locks, cables, chains you think appropriate. Come on, let's hear from you! The most creative idea will win a Kryptonite cable lock to lock up some precious of your own...Winner will be announced next Friday, September 5th.

Internal Team Kryptonite

It was pointed out to me recently that the folks posting here haven't been putting their job titles on their posts. You all know who Bob Roll is and Dave Perewitz but, it was pointed out to me that we said in the beginning that you'd get to know the internal team Kryptonite, too, through this blog. However, if readers don't know these people already they would not necessarily know who someone is or even if they worked for Kryptonite or were just a guest.

So...with that being said, we'll start adding people's job titles to the posts and, I'll reintroduce those that you've met already....

Dwight Gibson - he's our GM...expect to see lots of posts on our new Justice League locks in the coming weeks from Dwight.

Karen Rizzo - she's our director of marketing and a little shy, but don't worry, she'll get there.

Tim Clifford - he's our director of sales for action sports. He doesn't like fireworks in the middle of the night so much, if you remember....but he's a good writer. I want to see him here more often (hint, hint).

Roby Holland - our national sales manager for action sports. He started riding earlier this season and posting here, but we haven't heard from him in awhile. I know he's riding, though, since he's training for the Cycle for Life.

Dave Miller - he's our machinist and just loves the 4th of July! He's always in such a great mood that I call him "smiley".

Melissa McPherson - she's in customer service and lead the charge in protecting the turtle laying her eggs here earlier this spring.

Craig Glab - our newest poster here....Regional Manager, Midwest. You'll be hearing from Craig often as he's putting his bobber together.

And me...the chatty one...but you know me already.

I've got a few more people lined up for you to meet, too. We aren't a shy bunch, but sometimes new products, catalogs and trade shows get in the way doing some posts. But, you'll be meeting more of us soon....