KENT KRIEGSHAUSER/The Register-MailJoe Lynch, left, looks over the completed Tribute Chopper 2, along with his son, Russ Lynch, middle, one of the builders of the bike, and Jim Perdue, right, at Speed Street Custom Builds Inc.
Back on the motorcycle map
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Speed Street Custom Builds found quite a starting point for its new motorcycle business.Led by President Bob Miller and General Manager Doug Niles, the Galesburg business unveiled the second Sept. 11 tribute bike for America's 9/11 Foundation Thursday. The bike, the first built by the new business, will be raffled Aug. 19, 2006, in conjunction with the foundation's fifth annual "Never Forget" ride. Proceeds from the raffle go to the foundation's education fund and scholarships are provided to children of active police, fire and rescue units across the country.
Niles had a hand in the first Sept. 11-themed bike, but in a completely different capacity. He was employed by the company that built the first tribute motorcycle, Mid-West Choppers, which filed bankruptcy in October. Ted Sjurseth, founder of America's 9/11 Foundation, commissioned a second bike with Mid-West Choppers and sent $30,000 to the company just prior to the bankruptcy.
"That pretty much left them hanging," said Niles, adding the foundation already started selling raffle tickets for the second bike.
Stung by one Galesburg motorcycle builder, Sjurseth and the foundation turned to the new Galesburg company.
"We're all really, really proud the 9/11 Foundation asked us to do the bike," said Niles. "It has a lot of meaning to everyone that works here. None of us lost anyone out there, but at the same time you feel the loss."
"This is a good foundation. This is 99 percent organization," said Miller of the amount of money the foundation actually funnels to its cause. "We did our due diligence and checked their federal tax filings and they are doing it right. This is for the people they say it's for."
The second bike has a few different features than its forerunner - images of the World Trade Center twin towers on the front of the bike, the Pentagon on the oil tank and the Statue of Liberty on the gas tank. Both the towers and Pentagon light up, and the towers are made of stainless steel. The paint work was performed by Jeremy's Designs of Blue Grass, Iowa.
The Speed Street team built the motorcycle from scratch in about seven weeks, hitting Thursday's deadline right on time.
"The guys really stepped up to the plate in the shop and made the time frame," said Niles.
The motorcycle is costing the foundation about $70,000 - including the $30,000 deposit it lost to Mid-West Choppers. To make up the for the extra cost, Niles and Miller said foundation is pushing to sell more raffle tickets this time. With the first bike, one man bought all the raffle tickets for $160,000.
Miller said the foundation has printed 15,000 tickets for the second bike raffle, at $10 per ticket.
"If they sell them all, they're going to make more," said Miller.
Tickets are available by calling the foundation toll free at (877) 771-0118, via e-mail at ted@americas911foundation.org, or by linking to www.speedstreetcustombuilds.com.
