by Buzz Kanter - Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Our editorial crew works hard to feature as wide a range of custom and classic bikes and styles as we can. And we try to balance the features so there is something in these pages every month for just about everyone.
How many times have you looked through the pages of
American Iron Magazine and wondered how we found one motorcycle or another that was featured here? Well, often it’s a motorcycle we saw in our travels and liked, and sometimes it’s one an owner or builder submitted to us for consideration. We’ve been blown away by the quality and creativity of our readers’ bikes. So we’d like to try something new and invite readers to submit photos of their customs and classics for a possible feature. If we feel the bike is feature quality, it’s in. It’s as simple as that.
Here is how this deal works. Our offer is open to any customized or classic American V-twin motorcycle you own that has not already been photographed by, or been featured in, another national motorcycle magazine. Send us a good photo of the entire bike from the right and left sides. It is important to show the whole bike and not crop off any of it. Make sure it is well lit and in sharp focus. Send the photos, along with your name, contact info (address, phone number, and e-mail), and a little about the bike to
American Iron Magazine’s Reader’s Ride, 1010 Summer Street, Stamford, CT 06905. You can also e-mail to
ReadersRide@americanironmag.com.
Our editorial team will sort through all the submissions and select a handful of finalists, which we will publish in our April 2010 issue that goes on sale at next year’s Daytona Bike Week. Then our 200,000-plus readers can vote on their favorites. We will arrange for at least one, and possibly more, of the bikes to be professionally photographed for a full-color feature in the magazine. We’ll also publish photos in our Letters section of several of the bikes that didn’t make it as finalists.
If this isn’t enough motivation to finish that last item on your pride and joy and get it on the road I don’t know what is. Please remember we can’t run a full feature on any motorcycle that has been photographed for, featured in, or even submitted to another major American motorcycle magazine.
Pewter Run For Classic Motorcycles
If you own or appreciate early motorcycles and live in the Northeast, you might want to join us at the fifth annual Pewter Run in Hillsborough Center, New Hampshire, this Labor Day weekend, on Sunday, September 6.
The Pewter Run was started in 2005 as a celebration of the first 50 years of motorcycling. It’s a road-reliability trial and an opportunity for owners of early machines to run them on public roads. It’s part of the United States Classic Racing Association’s events, but it’s not a race. It’s a vintage endurance event where the old bikes and riders are tested at legal speeds over specified routes along public roads.
Participation (you must be an AMA member) costs only $45 per person, which includes all entry fees and a barbecue lunch. What a deal! The focus of this event is the Class A Veteran motorcycles that were manufactured prior to December 1914. However, there are plenty of other classes for newer motorcycles. Class B is 1915 through 1924, Class C is 1925 through 1929, Class D is 1930 through 1949, and Class E is 1950 and later, with the event coordinator’s prior approval.
Each registered rider is given a specific route sheet with map and written directions for the course. Riders start at timed intervals, and a pewter trophy is presented in each class to the rider who comes closest to the predetermined times. For more info, e-mail Mark Gibson, the event
coordinator at
Pewter_Run@charter.net.
I plan on competing. I might ride my original paint 1924 Harley JDCA if I’m happy with how it performs at the AMA’s Vintage Days event in Ohio, July 24-26. If at least three American Iron Magazine readers show up with Pewter Run-eligible motorcycles, we can all enter as members of the Team American Iron Magazine. I’ll donate AIM team caps to everyone who completes the event with me. Hope to see you there, with or without a vintage motorcycle.
Ride safe, ride smart, have fun.
August 2009 - Share Your Ride With Our Readers 
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