Sturgis 08 Bike Week - Chapter 1

by Craig Glab, Central Region Manager

This chapter begins with my two day road trip (towing my bike) from my home around Cincinnati OH to Sturgis SD. I got there Saturday night just in time to hang with my Hamster friends at a block party..(priorities in order). Sunday, I got up and went for a ride through Spearfish Canyon to Deadwood. Great scenery and strange looking motorcycles too. Check out this one...

During the week I got ready for two Custom bike shows. One, that we sponsored, was the Dave Perewitz custom paint show, held at Thunder Road. The show was in a large tent where I set up a booth to show off our product line. I was placed right by the entrance where people would come in and go out of the tent. What a great spot! I talked to tons of people about our locks and proper lock up. A custom motorcycle was parked in the booth for "show and tell", to show them the best place to attach a lock. I gave away goodies like stickers and lanyards...funny how much these tough riders love the free stuff!

I helped Dave Perewitz hand out the winning trophies for a bunch of really cool custom paint jobs. You'll have to come back to the blog another day for more about that. I also worked out at the Top Fifty Rally Park bike show. We gave locks to the winners of the show. We also mixed things up with the crowd giving them crazy questions to answer for a chance to win a lock from us. This was alot of fun. While the crowd was a bit more thin this year than in the past because of gas price sticker shock, the spirit of the event was as strong as ever!

Locked Up Our Trip with Kryptonite

by Dave Perewitz

This past weekend my wife Susan and I went on the road to a show in Pittsburgh, PA. We left early Friday morning making a stop in New Jersey to drop off a freshly built bobber for a customer and then headed to Pittsburgh. We got there late Friday night.

Saturday the show was early morning ‘til early evening. That day was also my wife and mine anniversary. The show was busy throughout the day and the weather was great. We did the same thing on Sunday and packed up around 5 and were on the road home at about 6.

Here is where it gets interesting….the drive from Pittsburgh to Bridgewater, MA is about 11 hours. We get on the road and drive through most of the night till we get to Rhode Island. We were making good time - Susan and I were excited that we might get home before 4 am! We no sooner get into Rhode Island and we get a blow out. No big deal. We pull over, I change the tire and get back on the road. I didn’t even get a chance to turn the radio back up and we heard a loud pop noise! The spare tire blew out! Now we are in trouble!

I pull over and examine the trailer and tire. We are on the rim. What can we do? After making some phone calls, waking a few people up at 4 am, I realized there was nothing I could do till a tire place opened.

We didn’t want to sit on the side of the highway with $140,000 worth of bikes in the trailer so we decided to pretty much drag the trailer on the grass to the next exit. Thankfully there was a 24 hour gas station right off the exit. We decided to leave the trailer there locked up and come back for it later.

Well, I was a little nervous leaving it there because this is something we never do but I was a little more confident knowing that Kryptonite was protecting it. I backed it up to a light pole so no one could open the door, put 2 locks on the back door, one on the front door, one on the tongue, a rotor lock on each bike, chained the bikes together with a Fahgettaboudit, and put a chain around the one good wheel and tire. I would have to say someone would have a hard time stealing it if they tried. So all together I had almost 10 locks on everything. We told the clerk we were leaving it there and they said they would keep their eye on it.

At about 9 am Jody and Jeff headed down to pick it up with a new tire. The trailer must have looked terrible, sitting on the rim, fender ripped off, dirt and grass hanging out the back, ay what a site! But we got it home safe and sound! What a way to end a trip.

Road Trip

I spent the majority of last week visiting Bicycle and Powersport dealers with our 2 new Regional Sales Managers(Don - West Coast and Craig - Central) and our National Sales Manager (Roby). It was great to pound the pavement with the troops, speak with the dealers and really get a sense of what is happening in the marketplace. I spent Tuesday in Portland with Don and Roby visiting all of the major dealers - Shout outs to Mark, Dave and crew at Rivercity - what an awesome set up - expecially the test track upstairs. Got a lot of cool product ideas that we are excited about - keep em coming. Also got an idea for my oldest daughters 8th birthday gift (Specialized HotRock 20). We also spent some time out at establishments notorious for bike theft activity and was proud of the fact that a Kryptonite lock was the lock of choice. They are pretty serious about their bikes in Portland - seeing a multiple lock setup(cable and Ulock) wasn't uncommon and the Evolution ulock or New York Fahgettaboudit were everywhere.

Headed to Dallas for the second leg of the trip on Wednesday and spent Thursday with Craig and Roby visiting Powersport and Bicycle dealers. Being a former sportbike rider it was like being a kid in a candy store. I spent as much time talking to managers and store personnel about security as I did about the bikes. Thanks to the folks at Central Yamaha I now have my eye on a 04-05 Yamaha Vmax preferably black on black ( any sellers out there???) Psyched about the opportuntity to work more closely with many of the dealers in Dallas and Craig will be working hard to support them with some cool promotions and displays.

Being out interacting with customers and dealers is what its all about. Looking forward to hitting the East Coast next so look out for me I might just be in a bike or powersport dealer near you.

We've Come a Long Way!

This is a photo of one of our early motorcycle locks. This version started to be developed in 1979 and was one of the locks that started our long-standing partnership with the great Harley Davidson. This lock hit the market in the early 80s. Look how big it is! Wow. But, believe it or not, it was in use until a couple of months ago. Still works like a charm.

Secur-a-Glide, circa early 80s