Dec. 27, 2004 – Distributor Report

HONDA AWARDS NATIONAL CYCLE
National Cycle, Inc., Maywood, Ill., was the recipient of a Honda INNOVATION Award, presented by Honda Access America, Inc. (HAA) at a ceremony in Las Vegas on Nov. 2.

The award was granted to National Cycle for its Quantum Coating windshield technology. The award ceremony was a part of the 2004 Honda Supplier Forum. National Cycle’s Tim Logsdon accepted the award from Hidecki Tsukada, President HAA; Naboru Hashimoto, President and CEO HAC; and Kathy Au, Manager HAA.

National Cycle says Quantum Coating extends the durability and UV resistance of a windshield from four years to 10 years. The special coating is applied to a base material of polycarbonate in a multiple chamber class 10 clean room environment at the National Cycle plant in Maywood. The company says Quantum offers ten times the abrasion resistance and two and a half times the UV life of GE’s FMR coating.

“For the motorcycle rider this means not having to look through the glare of fine scratches that eventually show up on your screens,” says National Cycle President Barry Willey. “(What’s) important to the industry overall is we are able to do offer this substantial improvement without adding cost.”

In business for 68 years, National Cycle has a production capacity of 1,000 windshields per day at its Illinois facility. A diversified manufacturer, the company’s other product includes racks, saddlebags, lighting and chrome accessories.

For more information, call 708/343-0400 or visit www.nationalcycle.com.

IEM ADDS PERSONNEL
International Engineering and Manufacturing, Inc. (IEM), the producer of Woody’s brand snowmobile product, recently announced changes in its personnel.

Assisting President Robert Musselman, Jennifer Sample is appointed as Senior Administrative Assistant of Legal, Insurance, and Marketing. Tanya Leonard is newly appointed Marketing Manager, focusing on yearly marketing tasks set forth from organized long range marketing strategies; Becky Buck is a new Marketing Assistant, charged with assisting Leonard and Sample; Colleen Grant has been appointed Senior Accounting Manager; and Serena Gardiner has been appointed as Human Resources Manager.

IEM is headquartered at 6054 N. Meridian Rd., Hope, Mich. 48628. For more information, visit www.woodystraction.com or call 989/689-4911.

PURCHASE MODIFIES H-D LICENSEE
VF Imagewear, a division of VF Corporation, has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Holoubek, Inc., an apparel licensee of Harley-Davidson, Inc. for over 20 years. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to be completed in January 2005.

With sales in excess of $40 million, Wisconsin-based Holoubek produces t-shirts, fleece and other casual apparel products sold exclusively in Harley-Davidson dealerships around the country.

VF Corporation branded apparel includes jeanswear, intimate apparel, sportswear, outdoor products and workwear. Its principal brands include Lee, Wrangler, Riders, Rustler, Vanity Fair, Vassarette, Bestform, Lily of France, Nautica, Earl Jean, John Varvatos, JanSport, Eastpak, The North Face, Vans, Napapijri, Kipling, Lee Sport and Red Kap.

“Through this acquisition, we will continue to work with Harley-Davidson as a licensee, leveraging our expertise in apparel design and sourcing to provide the fashionable and high quality products that the Harley-Davidson consumer expects,” said Ed Doran, President of VF Imagewear. “We look forward to working with the Holoubek team and with both Harley-Davidson and Harley-Davidson dealers to continue to grow this business.”

TR EXPANDS THROTTLE JOCKEY LINE-UP
Kevin Hough, Tucker Rocky Product Line Manager, says Throttle Jockey’s entire line of products are now available through Tucker Rocky Distributing.

The Tucker Rocky/Throttle Jockey relationship started in the spring of 2004 with the Throttle Jockey Team Honda/Woody Woodpecker graphic and seat cover line. Now, Tcuker Rocky carries every Throttle Jockey graphic kit and the entire seat cover line, including products designed to match bikes from Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and KTM.

“To supply the demand we looked to Tucker Rocky for distribution and they have been very helpful and supportive,” said Matt Davis, Throttle Jockey Vice President of Operations.

TUCKER ROCKY ATV SALESMAN HONORED
The winning salesman in Tucker Rocky’s mid-year ATV sales contest was Brant Graham of Sandy, Utah.
Twenty of Tucker’s top ATV sales reps went into a drawing for a brand new Suzuki ATV. Graham also happened to be the rep responsible the largest overall sales figure.

Tucker Rocky would like to thank Brad Childs, the owner of Carbon Emery Motorsports, Rod Lopusnak with American Suzuki and Craig Petersen with ITP for their help in supplying product for the contest.

ATV WAGEN EXPANDS WITH LA BOITE
ATV Wagon, Caldwell, Idaho, has secured distribution rights with La Boite of Lowell, Mich. La Boite will supply ATV Wagon pull-behind trailers to dealers in Michigan, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

ATV Wagon’s 1600 Utility recently won the “Most Innovative Product of the Year” at the 2004 ATV Expo in Louisville. The trailer features an electric dump bed, independent suspension, tandem axles with 25″ tires, electric brakes, and a gross vehicle capacity of 1,600 lbs.

For more information, call La Boite at 616/897-9803, or visit www.atvwagen.com to find the company’s 14 other distributors.

MOTONATION HIRES
Bill Berroth, President of Motonation, the California-based distributor of Sidi, Set Up and Spidi brands, says he recently expanded his team with the addition of Paul (Pablo) Eddy as Spidi Brand Manager and Jacob (Longhorn) Claypool as Texas inside sales rep.

To learn more about Motonation or its brands, call 619/401-4107 or visit www.motonation.com

8TH GRADERS BUILD GLOBAL KIT BIKE
Eighth grade students at Western Middle School in Parma, Mich. Recently completed building a Hard Core II, one of Custom Chrome’s HR3 Kit Bikes, as part of their School House Chopper program.

Assisted by George Danke of George Danke Motorcycle Company, the class, consisting of mostly “C” or lower grade students, arrived before school and stayed late to learn, working as a team to transform boxes of parts into a sparkling cruiser.

“It quickly became apparent that this would be the best cross curricular learning tool that we had ever run across,” said Ted Densmore, Western Middle School’s teacher heading up the program. “Besides learning the mechanical skills which will be lifelong learning skills, the students also had to learn applied math, applied science, reading and information gathering skills.”

“I think that this is a truly ground breaking project idea that is inspiring many school districts to take a new look at their technical programs. When we look at all of the learning and emotion that are gained from a project like this, it’s easy to see that schools need to build these programs into the curriculum. The hands on type of learning involved does not take away from the math, science, and reading curriculum, but instead reaffirms it. It allows many students an opportunity of applying and using concepts that they simply did not understand in the traditional educational format.”

The bike will be raffled, with proceeds going toward the purchase of additional bikes kits to continue the program.

Officials at Custom Chrome say they were inspired by Western Middle School’s program. Custom Chrome now is working to sponsor a similar program at local schools near its headquarters in Morgan Hill, California.

Custom Chrome is a part of Global Motorsport Group, Inc., which designs, manufactures, markets, and distributes aftermarket motorcycle parts and accessories and does business as Custom Chrome, Santee, Custom Chrome Europe, Custom Chrome Far East and Motorcycle Stuff.