I guess once an asshole, always an asshole. This douche bag “Bud” Morton is up to his old tricks again. But instead of just publicly flaming me over a backordered set of gaiters, he’s turned his hatred towards censorship.
A few weeks ago I get this mysterious email from a ‘Jim Shorts’ inviting me to “check out” a new forum web site dedicated to Triumph Bonneville’s. Lovely, just what the world needed… another Bonneville forum. But what the hey, I go and check it out. Turns out to be a rehash of the same old stuff you see on reputable sites like Triumphrat.net and the Delphi NTB forum. I notice all these threads created by Bud, aka: “Bonifide” as in a bonafide tool and one or two of his minions. So I email this ‘Jim Shorts’ guy back the following:
“Thank you Jim. I need you to be very candid with me. Do you have any objections to me posting on your forum? I ask because I see a lot of members from the other NTB forums who know me well including a couple dickheads who always take pleasure in giving me a hard time.I don't want to cause any disharmony or leave any impression I'm using your forum as some sort of infomercial. At the end of the day, I'm just another Bonneville enthusiast who loves to see what others have done to/with their bikes.Please give it some thought before replying and whatever you decide, I'm comfortable with it.”
I revisited the site and decided that I would only post on off-topic subjects, like the thread on guns. A couple days ago I get an email direct from Bud asking me if I wanted to sponsor the web site for $200. Being a lot of things, but not one of them being a down-right fool, I replied” “no.” First-off, how can I trust someone who blatantly flames me publicly over a situation mostly his own damn fault for not properly identifying himself in his emails. And secondly, I do not sponsor any forum, as there is simply no return on my investment. I’ve been down the road before with click-through banner ads and such and they just not worth the cost. My support of forums is my participation in discussions and the technical knowledge I share… for free. And if I can make someone smile by cracking-wise now & then, consider that added value.
So Ol’ Bud replies back and politely says OK and offers me to reconsider in the future. But here’s the kicker… I can’t use my common screen name of BellaCorse and he’s changing it to “Mike.” Petty and juvenile at the least, but I understand how he doesn’t want any reference to my company in his little playground. Sort of like saying you can’t wear your Windows T-shirt inside the Apple store. So I ask him if I can use my Delphi nom de plume: Racedweeb? Nah, it’s going to be MikeS (as Mike was already in-use) and nothing more said.
I fired off an email to “Jim Shorts” outlining the situation and asking for some intervention. I also speculated in my email that “Jim Shorts” and “Bud” are indeed one in the same, but just on the odd chance they’re not, maybe he can help me. No reply back. [EDIT: I did erroneously accuse Bud of ripping me off for $132. This is not true. I had mistakenly confused Bud with that other dickhead Bruce Horne – see earlier blog entry. I do apologize for my mistake and said so in an email to Bud]. So I jump onto the Whoisit registry and plug in the URL and sure enough, Wallace (Bud) Morton is the owner. No doubt “Jim Shorts” is an alias for Bud, who apparently has the creativity of an 8 year old.
So back to the web site I go to take a quick sniff around and I see several posters who have hyperlinks in their signatures to commercial entities including motorcycle parts vendors who are not sponsoring the web site and at least one fellow who’s screen name is the name of his MC parts web site (I won’t say who as he’s a customer of mine and seems like a nice guy). I guess Bud has one standard for me and another one for everyone else. What this boils down to ladies & gentlemen is pure censorship. Bud does not want anyone to somehow put A & B together and ultimately end up on my web site.
This form of censor is nothing new for me. Long time Delphi NTB forum members will remember the late “Capt. Ron” and his Ace Café Forum, or as I preferred to call it; “The Hate Café Forum.” This Jew-hating motherfucker has such a hard-on for trashing me after flaming me on the NTBF and being ‘dressed-down’ by about 80 other forum members for being such a jerk, that he started his own forum and FORBID anyone from making ANY reference to BellaCorse. He went as far as filtering posts blocking the brand name as if it was some four little word. And the lies and insults he and his henchman Lee Alexander hurled at me were as sad & sickening as any rhetoric coming out of Tehran. Capt. Ron dropped dead of a heart attack and the forum ultimately disbanded. Alexander, the sniveling coward, vandalized my helmet at Mid-Ohio VMD last Summer. What a turd. I always thought there were gay overtones with his puppy dog loyalty to his parts vendor of choice.
OK, Bud wants his sandbox for himself and that’s just fine with me. But who is really getting shafted here? I say it’s all the other members on Bud’s forum. I don’t claim to be the Oracle of Truth for new-gen Triumph Bonneville’s, but after seven years of running -arguably- one of the larger & better known vendor sites and having personally owned a dozen Hinckley twins, I think I’ve gained a certain level of expertise and insight about this bikes. How many times have I read incorrect and flat-out bad advice one these various forums? Like the guy who recommended using rubber o-rings as an alternative to the aluminum oil drain plug crush washer, or just today, the newbie who claimed that a Thruxton front wheel & rotor are interchangeable with those from a T100. People read this stuff and take as gospel, only to find out the hard (and often expensive) way that it’s wrong.
I’m not here to police these sites and everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I strongly feel that I have some valuable input to offer, and I cheerfully do so. If I sell a few parts along the way, great, but no one is holding a gun to anyone’s head to buy from me or anyone else. And most of what I sell is available from multiple sources. But I guess that will not the case with Bud’s forum. So if you are looking for uncensored information about your Bonneville without the politics and Jihad attitudes, I can personally recommend Triumphrat.net, Bonnevilleamerica.com and the various Triumph-related Delphi forums.
I forgot today was a bank holiday. So with both the banks and Post Office closed and my ISP’s servers conveniently crashing on what may be the last Summer-like day of the year, I decided to drop everything and go for a ride.
Being blessed with a fleet of bikes to chose from, I opted for my personal favorite: my Project TTSR. It’s a 2002 T100 I bought with a salvage title. The originally green & gold bike came out of the Atlanta area, where some poor soul crashed the bike and bent-up a few parts. The basic bones of the bike were sound; frame, engine, wheels & hubs all perfectly fine. I had a spare set of forks and everything else was going to be replaced anyways. The list of major modifications is a fairly small one: Air Box removed, Norman Hyde Scrambler exhaust system, alloy fenders, 1966 tail light & grab rail, flat track bars and Hagon shocks. That’s basically it. No hot carbs. No piggyback shocks. No big bore kit. No 6-pot calipers. Just a fundamentally stock T100 with pipes and the airbox eliminated. The rest is just paint & trim.
What I like most about this particular bike is how easy it is to ride. Easy as in both the bike handles very well, and it is as very comfortable which greatly adds to one’s riding confidence. The stock carbs have a lighter throttle spring than my CR-II and FCR-equipped bikes, which is easy on the wrist. The stock brakes are easy to modulate and the Norman Hyde exhaust is not very loud, both aspects helping to reduce rider’s fatigue. And you all know what a big fan of Hagon shocks I am.
So off I went with no particular route in mind, only a mission: to get lost. I didn’t want to take any highways because I was wearing an open face helmet and the SE MI roads are horrible. After gassing up for $2.79 a gallon (Hazah!) I headed North on the only non-straight roads near me. Note I did not say “winding” roads, as I’m a good 30 miles from any of those. Traffic was light on this warm fall day. A dry summer has left fewer leaves on the ground than normal, so some spirited riding was achieved.
Along the way I had time to reflect on business, friends and life in general. The warm air… the fall colors… and the open roads. If I could bottle this shit, I’d be a Billionaire. I just can’t express strongly enough how much I needed this ride. A ride with no destination, direction and/or path. Just an objective: getting lost. So exploring I went.
I discovered some interesting new roads and points of interest as I meandered in a somewhat Northwestern direction. I navigated old school: by the location of the Sun. This technique came in very useful zipping around the many finger lakes we have in the region. Ultimately I found myself not so far from a familiar eatery, so I stopped for lunch. With my bike parked in front of the restaurant and me seated by the window, I was able to watch the reaction of patrons and road traffic passing by my bike. I’m still somewhat surprised at the wide range of people who are attracted to Triumphs. From the silver haired ladies with their canes and walkers, to the chain-smoking pregnant teenager with less than a full set of teeth (thanks dad!) and virtually every middle-aged man who passed by. Even the local cop gave it a walk-around before coming in to dine.
Bloated and ready to ride, I headed out of the restaurant and took a quick spin around this quaint little town dotted with antique stores and little mom-and-pop boutiques. The Bonneville just seemed to fit in somehow. I just don’t think I would have enjoyed the experience as much on my Harley or hot-rodded Ducati. Certainly the noise alone from either of those bikes would have somehow ‘spoiled the moment.’ I wasn’t looking for fancy, high-tech or loud on this particular day. No, today called for a simpler machine for a simpler ride. Stripped-down and back to basics. Man-machine-road.
On my way home I really got lost. And I guess that is what I was really searching for all-along. Something to take my mind off of the routine of everyday life and allow me to focus on the road, not knowing what’s coming next. No expectations, just new experiences around every corner. Returning home, I find myself refreshed and anxious to hit the road again. And I will… in about 5 months.
Geez... and I thought getting banned from an internet forum was pathetic, but it ain't got nothing on this.
I frequent a local Coney island restaurant twice a week for breakfast. I've got to know the head waitress there and we get along very well, always kidding and teasing each other.
Those who know me know that I'm a smartass... a kidder... but rarely a schmuck. I walked in to the restaurant today and saw my fav. waitress standing just inside the kitchen doorway. I walked over and poked my head into the kitchen joking about how "You should never look inside the kitchen of the restaurant you're eating at." All tongue-in-cheek. Of course she says how clean the place is and jokingly I ask "No rats or cockroaches the size of armadillos?" An older couple seated nearby overheard me and laughed at my wisecrack as did my friend and the cook.
Oh, but the owner was not so amused. An immigrant and not very good with English, he didn't understand I was joking. He darts out to confront me in from of all the customers yelling at me "If I'm not happy eating here, then just leave. You're always complaining about something"... blah-blah-blah. Not true BTW. Towering over him and out weighing him by about 150 lbs., I got really pissed and jumped right down his throat. "MOCKERY... do you understand the word?" No replies. "EXACTLY, you do not understand that I was just joking with my friend (waitress), so shut the fuck up AND DON'T EVER CONFRONT ME IN PUBLIC LIKE THAT AGAIN."
He went on blabbing about how he doesn't like my attitude which sounded to me like white noise with an accent. Not wanting to make a further scene and more importantly not to get my friend in any trouble, I sat down to order my breakfast. My waitress friend was obviously concerned about the situation from the look on her face.
I quitely sat and eat my breakfast (which BTW seemed to have extra large proportions on this particular day - thanks cook) and every time I looked up, the owner was standing behind the counter giving me the evil eye. Just as I was finishing-up, I see the owner's wife saying something to my friend who was casting glances my way as they spoke. My friend had a very upset look on her face. A moment later she went into the ladies restroom and didn't come out. As I got up to pay the bill the owner yells over to me not to come back.
My gut reaction was to say nothing and simply never return. I can just see this tool punishing my waitress friend over all of this. What a total asshole. Oh well, I guess I'm finally going on the diet.
/Mike - 'Making friends & influencing others for more than 50 years.'
It is with great regret, that after more than a year since my last Blog entry, I'm -forced- to post this bit of unpleasantness. Please believe me folks when I tell you that my decision to post this was not an easy one. I take no pleasure in any of this.
I've always have been sensitive to the needs of customers especially when their bikes are in service. They want their bikes back on the road and that's understandable. So when a previous customer of mine named Bruce Horne of Knoxville, TN who I also know from the various Bonneville Forums and always had a good working relationship with, contacted me and explained that he needed on of my rear fenders overnighted to his dealer and he would send me a money order for the part plus enough to cover shipping, I immediately dropped everything and accomondated his request. Pushing his order ahead of others who had already ordered on-line, I made a special trip to the PO and overnight shipped the fender to his dealer; Kingsport Cycles.
True to his word, Mr. Horne sent me a money order, however he a) shorted me $12 and b) made the check payable to BellaCorse. The problem with the latter is that my company name is SEL-MOTION Motorsports, not BellaCorse. This is all very clearly spelled out on my web site. I took the check to my bank and showed them my business card with the BellaCorse & SEL-MOTION logos and tried to explain to them that the check is indeed intended for me, but they refused to cash it. I can certainly understand their position. They don't know me by personally and I could have stolen a check made out to any company and for $10 had a bunch of fake business cards made-up to try and cash it.
So I mailed the check back to Mr. Horne and VM'ed & emailed him that the check needs to be made out to SEL-MOTION. Here's were it gets ugly. Mr. Horne emails me back stating that my bank should have cashed my check regardless of the name on it and that he's not going to pay twice. He also went on to say that he had lost the receipt for the check, so he will not be able to cash it. His rational throughout this whole ordeal is that he doesn't think it's fair for him to have to pay twice. Explaining to him that -I- did nothing wrong here and that -I- should not have to take the loss because -he- wrote the wrong name and lost the receipt, is falling on deaf ears & blind eyes.
After several emails trying to politely impress on the man that I did nothing wrong and simply want to be paid for the product he received, he then offers to "settle-up" for 50%. Funny, he won't pay twice, but 1-1/2 times is OK... hmmmm. This clearly implied to me that he got the check and had cashed it and now is weaseling for a 1/2 off deal. I refused his offer and insisted that he pays me in-full promply. He counters by saying he'll send me the check back for me to endorse and once he cashes it, he'll pay me. Nope I told him, you got to first pay me what you owe me and after I'm paid in full, if you want to mail me the check back to me to endorse it, I will. I knew this was BS, because anyone can sign the name BellaCorse on the back of check, so no bank would ever accept it. And now he's claiming he never got the check back from me. More BS.
I know I'll never see any money out to this guy. As I wrote in my final email to him, "Your rudeness, veiled accusations that somehow I'm cheating you out of more money and his constant contradictions to his story speaks volumes for the kind of man he is."
I post this story not out of spite, but rather to serve as a notice to would-be rip-off artists that I will not tolorate this type of behavior and that I will never again ship anything without being fully paid in advance. Let's hope the next Blog isn't such as downer.
This was a week I hope never to repeat. So bad, it brought me out of a 6+ month hiatus from blogging. It actually started a couple weeks ago when a new customer placed an on-line order. He used my default PayPal Shopping Cart to make his payment. That's where everything started to fall apart. You see, PayPal uses email addresses to identify buyers and sellers. It can work fairly transparent for most new users, accepting your credit card info or personal check. It does however require a valid email address from the buyer to work correctly.
I get an email from PayPal every time someone places an order. My -usual- practice is to email the customer (the "Buyer" in PayPal parlance) to confirm receipt of the order and to let the customer know that a further email will be sent when the order ships or if there is a backorder or additional shipping charges due. My records show I sent that email to the customer's email address used with his PayPal account. The customer emailed me days later wanting to know where his order is. He signed his email with his nickname, not the name used on his PayPal account. Furthermore, he emailed me from an email account different from the one used with PayPal. So I email him back saying that I cannot find a customer with his nickname in my database and asked him if it could be under a different name. He emailed me back with the correct name (and a third email address which wasn't the PayPal address) but sure enough, there's his order in the backorder file.
I thought I emailed him back to tell him about the backorder status of a part he ordered and that it should be in shortly, but he claims I didn't. One week after placing his order, he places a dispute with PayPal, which freezes the funds in my account. Since his part hadn't arrived yet, I gave him a refund immediately. So what does he do? Jumps onto a popular Triumph Bonneville user board and trashes he claiming I was ignoring him... unprofessional business practices... kidnapping the Lindberg baby... you name it.
After be goaded by other board members to hear from -ahem- "The Horses Mouth", I replied with my side of the story and an apology to the customer asking him to consider giving me a chance to make it up to him. The original thread got locked-out by the Form Moderator, so I created a new one. The wag replies back calling me a liar, even after several others have posted that none of the well known Vendors on the board are known for deception or bad business practices -and- that his response is a bit overboard considering the facts.
I simply cannot guarantee that I will have every part I offer in stock at all times. I do however spend a great deal of time
and money doing my best to keep the top sellers in stock. I, like all retailers, are dependent on suppliers to provide us with products. Some times they run out too. I also cannot afford to implement state-of-the-art software with real-time inventory status like JC Whitney & Dennis Kirk, like my complaining customer suggests. I guess what really burns me about this guy is that he didn't even take the time to pick up the phone and call me to ask what was going on. The knee jerk reaction to trash me on a public forum for a snafu that is more than partially his fault is hard for me to understand.
So that was earlier last week. On Thursday my dear friend and fabricator "Hot Rod Mike" stops by to pick up a fender he was going to sandblast form me. He brought along his contractor friend to get me a quote on some renovation work I need. On Friday I drove down to Cincinnati to attend the Easyriders VTwin Expo over the weekend. If you are a fan of high-end Harleys, this show is Mecca. For trade only, all the top manufacturers, distributors and builders were in attendance. And talk about a boost to my ego... apparently my reputation precedes me. I was introduced to several top builders (I won't drop names, but you've seen these guys on the Discovery channel for years... no not the guys from NY) and they knew about me. And had some very nice things to say. Now I've been around high rollers and celebrities all my adult life, and I'm rarely intimidated, but lets just say if you asked those builders about me today, they'd all say how impressed they are with what I've done considering my severe mental retardation.
I was literally walking 6 inches off the ground, until I checked my phone messages back home. My friend Dave left a message saying that Hot Rod Mike had passed away Friday night. Mike suffered badly chronic Asthma, and has been in and out of hospital for years. Apparently he had called 911 for an ambulance and while being loaded in suffered a fatal heart attack. I went back home immediately. I will not eulogize him here other than to say he was master craftsman, a sweetheart of a man and a loving father.
Please excuse the blurry photo of Mike and the custom bicycle he & his 14 year old daughter built. Check out the hubless front wheel.I'll leave you tonight with this thought: Think of those friends dear to you that you haven't spoken to for some time, and call them. In the final analysis, it's all about family and friends. Possessions can be replaced. Wives too, but that's a blog for another day.
The band on Letterman tonight sucked, so I’m making time to –finally- update my blog. Honestly people, the notion of someone deriving entertainment from reading about my life is nothing short of amazing to me.
I won’t bore you with excuses, other than to say that the last several weeks has been the perfect storm of business problems, supplier shortages, out of town travel, funerals, quarterly taxes, customs delays… the list goes on and on. Bottom line, I’m so far behind with filling orders and dealing with paperwork, that updating my blog is at the bottom of my priority list. But I’m here and I’ll do my best to catch you up.
Crikey, where do I start? It’s easiest for me to start with today and go backwards. I’ve got a new bike in the garage. A 2007 Ducati GT1000. I knew I wanted one since I saw the early pictures on the web. As I joked to a friend tonight; “It’s fits into my retro motif.” This is my first Ducati and first EFI bike. To say the least, I’m damned impressed. I’ll get into the specifics in a future blog.
I mentioned the perfect storm of problems. This Customs delay is a pisser to be sure. I’ve been buying parts from Jenk’s Bolts in the UK for years now. He and I go back to the first days of the new generation Bonneville. Customs is holding a shipment from him wanting what I believe to be an absolutely insane level of detail information on the sales receipt. Like the cost and country of origin of EVERY nut, bolt washer, vacuum cap, etc. in the various Jenk’s kits. Jenks and I are doing what we can to provide them with the info they want, but the wheels of Government are turning slowly. Customers are really angry with me and I don’t blame them one bit.
Let’s see, what else is new? Ah, my new Harley. At least new to me. I snipped this one off of eBay with 9 seconds left. It was listed as “THEWORLDSDUSTIESHARLEYSOFTAIL. All one word. So if you did a key word search for, say “Harley”, this listing would not come up. I created a web page, so if you want to know more, link over there. www.bellacorse.com/cobwebs.htm
And then there is my kit car. I can’t recall if I blogged this already, but several months ago I bought a 1970 Volks Wagon Beetle kit car. I was watching the Barrett-Jackson auction on TV, thinking ‘I need a kit car.’ So I got onto eBay to see what’s out there. Not looking for anything in particular, I come across this VW in nearby Ann Arbor, MI. It’s a 70 Beetle with a 1925 Bugatti Boat Tail Roadster replica body on it. Well, I don’t see a Bugatti 35B in the photos, I see the platform for a 1930’s Indianapolis 500 race replica. Hack-off the fenders, add an exhaust pipe down the body, 19” Model A wire wheels with skinny tires, car number on the tail… oh it’s so clear to me. So I snipped it a few seconds left and bought it sight unseen (other than the eBay ad). Last time I do that. The car needed a bunch of work. Fortunately there is only about 12 parts to the entire car, so working on it is a breeze. But it’s not me who is working on it, but my good buddy Mike Sustarich. If you’re read The Horse Magazine, there is a nice write-up on Mike’s daughter Shannon. Well, Mike is doing his thing to help turn my Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang Bugatti into a seriously cool 30’s track replica. You know I’ll be blogging about this one.
OK, CD done. I typically type these blogs listening to music on my stereo in my office. Tonight’s artist was Beck, Bogart & Appice: Live in Japan (Disk 1). I’m glad I made time to update this nonsense. Until next time.
It was the best of times. I was the worst of times. Let me start by apologizing for ignoring this blog for the last few months. At first, the idea of a daily log of experiences and amusing antidotes was intriguing to me. The novelty soon wore off as my increasing workload made it more and more difficult to find the time to sit down at the keyboard and bang out some ramblings. Steps are being taken to reduce my personal workload and increase my personal time.
This last week has been particularly difficult as I received some very sad news about members of the New Triumph Bonneville community. Last weekend, Brad Morris and his wife Drena suffered had an accident with a car while riding near their home in San Diego. Both are in the hospital with critical injuries, albeit not life threatening. Drena was thrown from the bike and suffered a broken pelvis and some internal bleeding. Brad has compound fractures and broken ribs. Both are expected to make a full recovery, but it will be a long recuperation with lots of therapy ahead of them. The situation is particularly sad as they have a young daughter at home. I’ve never met Brad, but I have conversed with him many times on both the New Triumph Bonneville Forum and the Brit Iron Rebels Forum. I’ve always liked his sense of humor and easygoing spirit. His screen name is SpeedTrophy.
And just as you think things couldn’t get much worse, another member experienced a very bad crash just yesterday. Chris Crain, best known as RetiredSF and co-moderator of the New Triumph Bonneville Forum wrecked his bike while riding in Deal’s Gap, NC, where a NTBF gathering is going on this weekend. Chris suffered many broken bones and well as a broken neck. The good news is that there is apparently no paralysis, but like the Morris’, he has a long and difficult recovery ahead of him. I’ve known Chris for a few years now, having first meeting face-to-fact two years ago at the first NTBF meet in Deal’s Gap. Talk about a great guy… they really broke the mold with this one. Ex Green Beret, Viet Nam vet and most recently, cancer survivor. He’s unanimously loved and admired by all who has met him and/or know him from the NTB & BIR forums. I was planning to go the Deal’s Gap meet this week, but I canceled because I’m so behind at work. Learning about Chris’ mishap makes me thankful I didn’t go as I’m so saddened by the news, I know I just couldn’t enjoy myself.
So relatively speaking, things could have gone much worse for Brad, Drena and Chris, but by the grace of God or just plain good luck, they didn’t and all will recover… I’m sure to ride again. The Brit Iron Rebels club has set-up a recovery fund for Crain and the Morris families. Donations can be made via PayPal to:
treasurer@britironrebels.com. Please include a note that the donation is for Brad & Drena Morris and/or Chris Crain. I plead with you to look deep into your hearts and reach deep into your pockets to help these fine people. We are a community, and as a community, what affects one, affects us all.
Thank you for your patience, generosity and consideration.
