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April 2010 online edition:
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American Pickers
“We’re the caretakers of treasures and the stories behind them”
By R. Kabel
Le Claire, Iowa’s Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz are on a mission to recycle America, one treasure at a time. They’re part sleuths, part antiques experts, and part cultural historians. They are professional “pickers,” trolling America’s small towns and back roads to salvage rare collectibles and good junk from regular folks.
The History Channel’s American Pickers follows their adventures, giving viewers a glimpse at this little-known side of the antiques business. Their job: dig through junk piles, abandoned barns and neglected garages for hidden memorabilia. Sometimes they make a buck, sometimes they walk away with little more than the history of an item. They love their work, and the open road is their office.
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Do you know?
Toby “Tut” Tutton
Tutton was born and raised in Northeastern Iowa in the quaint little town of Manchester which is nestled just 20 minutes West of the Kevin Costner movie site for “Field Of Dreams.” The middle child — whom are often the most devious child — of Tim and Linda Tutton, Toby says keeping his roots close to him is what living in Iowa is all about.
Graduating from West Delaware High School some time in the 80s, he spent a few years in college and then moved back home, later marrying his college sweetheart, Michele.
Now with three beautiful daughters, Kenze, Kielyn, and Kaci he enjoys camping when the girl’s schedules allow and assisting his buddy Ken Edaburn polish off home brew when not riding eastern Iowa’s rolling hills..
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R/J Performance
Years of racing and tuning keeps Rick Canode well grounded
By Alec “Chop” Brynnenson
Rick Canode has a motto: “How do we stay small and sell big? It’s simple: years of experience.” As the owner at R/J Performance Inc. in Ottumwa, Iowa, his mission is to offer his customers the latest in parts and products, at the best prices, with unparalleled service. “We pledge our
best efforts to make your experience both beneficial and enjoyable. Once you give us a try, we’re sure you’ll be back for more,” Canode states.
Rick hails from South Dakota originally and shortly after graduating high school he moved to Iowa. With a little coaxing from a few friends Rick found himself quickly immersed in the flat track racing circuit. And it soon wasn’t a big leap for him and riding partner Jay Beach (National number 84) to start their own business together.
Opening in 1982 Rick soon bought his partner, Jay out in ‘84. Rick says that surviving the ‘80s was due to expanding into salvage for bikes which, they still do part time these days.
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 HELMET HAIR.COM
Christine Sommer Simmons
The American Motorcycle Girls
By Becky Shimek
With only a shoe-string budget and zero blueprints, Cristine “Cris” Sommer Simmons set out with her pal, Jo Giovannoni, to spread the gospel about women in motorcycling. Not realizing their “naive efforts” would actually help change the face of motorcycling.
Sounds pretty profound, but their magazine endeavor, Harley Women, is considered the first widely distributed magazine for women riders.* Both women went on to freelance notoriety in the world of motorcycle journalism, with Cris inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame a whopping three times!
Through music, film, and writing, Cris continues to place a spotlight on women, on motorcycles, and on how the two together make good sense. Her latest effort, The American Motorcycle Girls: The Early Year 1900-1950, takes a pictorial journey to the past showing evidence of female’s longtime love affair with motorcycling. We take a moment with Cris to learn more about her latest archival process and how she first arrived at the decision to write about the sport.
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Spring season arrives
Spring is in the air, let's ride. But wait one second...
By Kody Wisner
If you’re anything like me you are not so patiently waiting for the weather to turn nice, so you can ride. Other than the roads being not so nice by having sand all over them, spring riding is probably my favorite riding season. The cold air just seems to make your engine crave more throttle and no bugs. Most of us have been stuck inside all winter watching biker movies to help quench the thirst for the open road, but before you pull your bike out, I have a few things you should check before putting any serious miles on your scooter. Nothing will ruin your first ride of the season like a major break down that results in your bike riding in the back of your buddies truck.
Check your fluids. Make sure all your oils and fluids are topped off with the correct fluid.
Check your battery. Make sure both the connections are tight. If your battery is not a sealed type, make sure the cells are full of fluid. Be sure to check for cracks and leaks, and that the vent hose is not plugged.
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Get informed
5 ways to avoid injury in a motorcycle accident
By Corey J. L. Walker
www.motorcycleaccidentbook.com
While we all love riding our motorcycles, the reality is that riding a motorcycle is probably one of the most dangerous activities that we do. How can you avoid an accident or at least reduce the likelihood of injury?
Riding Skill Training: The number one way to avoid a motorcycle accident is training. 92 percent of motorcycle riders involved in accidents have little or no formal training. Maybe you have been riding for many years and know how to ride, but taking a course at the local community college to brush-up on your skills may make the difference in avoiding an accident. Training is the number one thing that you can do to reduce your chances of both being in an accident and the severity of your injuries if you are in one.
Be Visible: Another way to help prevent an accident is to make sure you have a headlight that works while your motorcycle is running. While the headlight on newer motorcycles automatically turns on with the bike, many older models and custom bikes do not. Research shows that just having a headlight on will more than double the chances that other drivers will see you.
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Gravel roading and Enduro
Riding hard and fast anywhere possible
By Tony Tice
Back in the day, I’m talking about the late 60s and early 70s when I was spreading my motorcycle wings quite a little bit, my favorite past time was riding the gravel roads surrounding my home town.
There were a few good roads that had lots of turns and elevation changes with positively cambered corners. As I gained experience on these deserted back roads, I found that sliding the bike around was a lot of fun and going out on the days after it rained was the best. Depending on the amount of rain, the road’s surface could be either, slick and muddy or just damp and full of traction.
Originally my route followed a creek for the first couple miles, winding alongside the creek’s path, then, with a 90 degree right hand turn suddenly veered
away from the creek where for the next couple miles were nothing more than a series of 90 degree bends connected by short straight-a ways that allowed higher gears on a good day.
Back then, my riding buddies and I used to rocket down these roads as fast as we could go, sideways and steering with the throttle, at every corner. Youthful abandon for sure.
READ MORE
Interview with James Stewart
Motocross Superstar
By Sean Goulart, MXNewsfeed.com
It was an innocuous email from our friends at San Manuel Yamaha. James Stewart was coming to New York City to shoot some promos for his show “Bubba’s World” on Fuel TV and did we want a little one-on-one time with the two-wheeled hero?
Of course we jumped at the chance. We spoke to James about a number of topics, from two-strokes to neck braces, and although it was fairly quick, we found the champion to be laid-back, relaxed and easy to relate to. We hope you find it as insightful as we did.
James Stewart on Racing:
Throttler Magazine: When are we going to see you riding again, how is your health?
James Stewart: The health is coming back, it’s tough you know with this injury…I’ve never really broken a navicular before but I guess it takes a while and I’m just trying to be careful to come back and hopefully at the end of the Supercross Series. If not, maybe the outdoors if we get everything lined up.
TM: Now that’s our next question, are you going to make a commitment to ride the outdoors?
JS: Well you know I think it’s more about budgets, and see if we can work everything to work it out. Yes, I mean I would like to ride them. I think maybe there might be a good chance this year over last year, because the Supercross Series has been, well not cancelled, but out for me, so we’re working on it right now and I think there is a strong chance that we might go racing but there hasn’t been any official announcement that yes we’re in or not, and we’re still waiting on a couple of things, but it looks good.
READ MORE
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE
Sic, Man! Just sic
Gearing up for the 2010 season
It seems we’re stepping up a notch with our content unbeknownst to us here in the office. As you’ll read later, Throttler Magazine garnered a sweet interview with the fellas from the History Channel’s “American Pickers.” That’s not an easy feat to get accomplished. Especially, since we had to get through the PR red tape of the History Channel to get to the once un-famous pickers themselves.
Frank and Mike were gracious enough to grant us a little time and glimpse into their Americana, their story is a great beginning to the year.
Likewise, a recent assignment to our motocross editor Sean Goulart to interview rider Jason Lawrence had to be shelved for now, in a good way, though.
An e-mail from Sean read like this; “Listen, I got called on Friday from Cheryl at Yamaha/San Manuel Racing saying there was an interview opp at Fuel TV with James Stewart if I wanted it... Oh… Yeah! So I rode like a bandit all weekend and dragged my sorry ass to NYC today in the POURING rain and did the interview. It was mint.”
This isn’t to say that we haven’t been aiming at the stars. It’s just that we didn’t quite think the caliber of articles would rise so fast for us. However, we won’t take the credit for it, either. All the credit goes to our great writers we call friends.
All that said, don’t fret a bit about us ever losing our Midwest focus. Keep in mind Frank and Mike may be ginormous TV stars, but they are from the Iowa/Illinois area and getting an “exclusive” on James Stewart is a treat we just had to share with you all.
That’s not all, folks. Surrounding ourselves with the elite of the industry, Kody Wisner, famed bike builder at J&P Cycles recently contacted us wanting to do some writing in our mag. Look for his articles in upcoming issues including a piece from him on his recent carb rebuild of the original “Captain America” bike he performed. Kody was the only person the American Motorcycle Museum trusted to do the work. Not too shabby, huh?
Lastly, Sean Goulart strikes again in the coming months. Sean has struck an another exclusive deal for Throttler Magazine with his close buddies Vinnie DiMartino and Cody Connelly, formerly of Orange County Choppers (OCC) and their new endeavor of V-Force Customs. We’re hoping Sean can get us a little inside dirt of their departure from OCC and some great insight to their future in building custom bikes.
So we’ve just tooted our own horn and jinxed us, right? Well, we’ll deal with any backlash later. We’re pumped about a sic 2010 season and hope you are too.
As always, Ride Hard.
R. Kabel and Scott Chambers
P.S. Check out page 27 for a 2010 U.S. Helmet law pocket pal. Cut it out and stick it in your wallet to be legal and safe.
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