MOTOCLECTIC 002 by Motoclectic

moToclectic

ISSUE

002

moToclectic

RIDER FRIENDLY DIRECTORY

Please support these businesses that support Motoclectic! By partnering with us, they allow Motoclectic to distribute this magazine free of charge to you. So, when you’re looking for a business, look here first.

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Moto Z

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Stan’s Harley Davidson 4425 West Saile Dr. Batavia, NY 14020 585-343-9598 www.stanshd.com

Glenn H. Curtiss Museum 8419 State Rt. 54 Hammondsport, NY 14840 607-569-2160 www.curtissmuseum.org

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Photo spread begins on page 34

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The YNGODESS Shop 73 Main St. Batavia, NY 14020 585-343-3170

Lowborn Garage

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Right Side Up Kreations

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ISSUE

002 CONTENTS

IFC | R IDER FRIENDLY DIRECTORY 02 | F ROM THE TEAM

We’re just a couple of nobodies

05 | I NTERVIEW: JEREMY HIGGINS He’s got this racing thing down

STAFF SCOTT WAKEFIELD Editor-in-Chief

DAN HOSEK Art Director

CONTRIBUTORS Jon DelVecchio, Tom McCann, David Werner, Eli Hackett, Keith Johnson, Jr., James Meyers, Michael Hanlon

12 | 3 0 YEARS TO ITALY part 2

The conclusion to an emotional trip, 30 years in the making, for two long-time friends

18 | T HIS IS A GAME CHANGER

Level up your safety with a Pittsford native’s invention

22 | R OC MOTOSOCIAL

What’s all the noise? Eli fills us in

26 | R UST 1894

Something shiny catches our eye

The cover image is cool, and so is this!

36 | O UR CORKSCREW

A quick thrill on the Oatka Trail, and possibly Jon’s new nickname

40 | E VENTS

MOTOCLECTIC | 01

FROM THE TEAM Thank you.

Please allow us a short moment to tell you how great you are. We know, no one likes hearing praise and adoration, but bear with us for just this little while. When we set out last year to make Motoclectic, it came from a desire to mash our passions for motorcycles, cool people, amazing places, beautiful pictures, and great stories together. We thought this would take months to gain steam. A print magazine from a couple of wellmeaning goofballs isn’t exactly a recipe for atomic energy. Well, we were wrong, and I’ll tell you why: Because of you! From the moment we started talking about a motorcycle magazine, we were flooded with ideas for articles. Often, we couldn’t write fast enough to capture the stream of consciousness flowing from riders’ mouths. “You need to talk with so-and-so,”

and “Have you seen what such-and-such is working on?” were common refrains. Seeing the spark of interest, and the excitement over a moto-magazine has been an unbelievable shot in the arm. Thank you. The long lead-up to Issue 001 was a path full of uncertainty and snags. The successful launch of Issue 001 took us by surprise. The overwhelming response to Motoclectic has humbled and encouraged us. Now 002 is in your hands, and we couldn’t be happier. These are your stories. These are your friends building things, and going places, and serving our community. We all share a common love, and we couldn’t be happier sharing it with you.

CONTACT US! To inquire about advertising opportunities: advertising@motoclectic.com To let us know about any upcoming events: events@motoclectic.com For general inquiries: mail@motoclectic.com To contact Scott directly: scott@motoclectic.com To contact Dan directly: dan@motoclectic.com

www.motoclectic.com

02 | MOTOCLECTIC

COFFEE ǀ ESPRESSO ǀ TEA | DESSERT D A L A S | OUP PANINI | S

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LEAFANDBEANCOF

3240 CHILI AVE.

ROCHESTER, NY

04 | MOTOCLECTIC

INTERVIEW

JEREMY HIGGINS Scott and I met with Jeremy Higgins and his wife, Amber, at The Eli Fish Brewing Company in Batavia to have some food, a few drinks, and to talk about flat track racing and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The conversation ended up meandering and being about much more than that.

I walked into Eli Fish and the first thing I noticed was that it was busy for a Wednesday night. I made my way past the long bar stocked with all kinds of local beers, including some of Eli Fish’s own brews. I’m a little early, but see Scott already beat me to a table. I join him just as he gets a text from Jeremy that he and his wife are on their way and will arrive shortly. I order an 8 oz “Azacca What I Need!” IPA and before I finish taking my first sip, Jeremy and Amber round the corner, each with a pint. I should have gotten a bigger beer.

and the last thing I need is for our hour-long conversation to be drowned out by random questions about the Battle of Hastings in 1066. (Spoiler alert: the phone worked fine, which is why you’re enjoying this.)

We start to look at the menu. I want a burger, but never had one from here before. Amber tried the pork belly burger a week ago and liked it. Jeremy loves the pulled chicken tacos. I’m torn now—chicken tacos or a burger? Scott wants to order banana pepper perogis, which leads to a discussion about what the plural of perogis We had previously met Jeremy at the launch is. Pero-guy? Pero-gae (like Nebulae)? The party for issue 001 at Leaf & Bean, and that’s conversation floats from there to English in where we hatched the idea to continue to follow general, to texting habits, and to the ever-evil the RIT story by interviewing the man who misuse of there, their, and they’re. “There are would ride REV 2, the bike the Electric Vehicle Team was building to race at Pikes Peak. We reintroduce ourselves, sit down, and discuss our beer choices (Jeremy is having a “Sloop Juice Bomb” IPA and Amber the “Lil’ Dreamer” white ale). As the conversation continues we learn that Jeremy and Amber had their rehearsal dinner at Eli Fish on the day before New Years’ Eve. In the middle of Amber’s sentence a loud voice booms over the speaker system. It’s trivia night. First thing I think is that explains the big crowd. Next, I think, hopefully my phone will record our conversation more than the background noise. It’s the first interview I’ve done like this

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Liberty Pumps. A little rougher, the tolerances were loose. It was still cool, ‘cause you take this water-soluble wax, and then dip it in ceramic, then take the ceramic and pour the metal inside of it. You’d make the negative to the positive of the negative, if that makes sense.” I say yes, but my confusion must have shown on my face, because he continued, “You make the inside of the outside of the inside of the part.” He liked what he was doing, but wasn’t progressing. He wanted to get more into it. Get more accurate. That’s when he landed an interview at Romold that lead to Jeremy getting into the New York State Apprenticeship Program. Then Jeremy told us about his daily schedule, which made me ashamed that I ever some guys, they’ll use all three forms exactly complained about a couple late nights working wrong every single time,” Jeremy said. “If you just on this magazine to get it ready to go to press. randomly picked one, you’d have a better shot.” “I’m working 50 to 55 hours a week. Tuesday The server comes to take our orders. Amber nights I have night school and I do online orders the pulled chicken tacos; Jeremy, the pork courses for my apprenticeship.” That’s already belly burger; Scott, the pretzel weck, and I go an impressive workload, and he hasn’t even classic and get a bacon cheese burger. Another touched on the flat track stuff. round of drinks, and I follow Jeremy’s suggestion and try the Juice Bomb. Finally—after we order “Obviously on top of that, I basically run all of the food—we turn the conversation to “real my own race program.” interview” questions. “When do you find time for the race program?” I don’t know a ton about flat track racing, but I I ask, honestly wondering when he could do it. know most people aren’t getting rich doing it, so I ask about the 9-to-5 job. “Right now I’m a mold “It’s late at night,” he replied. “A typical day making apprentice for Romold Incorporated. It’s for me would be wake up 4 AM, get ready for a mom and pop shop out of Gates. We do a lot work...” of medical optical and farm molding. Very tight tolerance, very close precision parts. A lot of “There’s a 4 AM?” Scott asks half-jokingly. medical and optical stuff. When I was working down in Pennsylvania, when I first moved down “Yes, yes, there is. I leave the house around 5, there to live with Amber, I was working in a wax and I work 6 AM to 4:30 PM at my job, and then injection mold shop and we did a lot of work for if I don’t have school or anything else after work,

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JEREMY HIGGINS I’ll go to the gym and work out for an hour or two. That gets me out of there around 6:30ish, home around 7:30, and 7:30 to 10:00 I’ll go out in the garage and work on bikes for a while.”

races ‘cause all of my equipment was blown up very early in the season. My two twins that I built last year never even touched the track, which was heartbreaking.”

“Wow,” Scott and I both say.

Scotts asks the same thing I was wondering, “What exactly do you race?”

“But it’s me and my dad that do all of the bike stuff,” Jeremy says. “Every season he and I personally tear down my engines down to the cases. Inspect our cranks, inspect our rods, binding parts, selecting main bearings for the next season. Always playing with cam timing and tolerances. We’ll build them from the frame up throughout the winter, little by little, when we can afford to buy some parts. Then we can get this far, then afford to buy a little bit more.” “So it’s safe to say you race for the love of racing?” I ask. “I do not make money from this,” Jeremy answers. “I will be the first one to admit it. There’s a lot of guys, especially in the pro stuff now, that operate off their parents’ credit cards and stuff like that. I’m not one of those guys. I do it solely by myself. My dad helped me until I turned pro and a couple years into it, I was spending every dime I had and he was still helping me out… It got to the point where I’d rather see him do what he wants to do and have fun. So my dad’s kinda phasing out of the week-to-week grind of it. I mean, he’ll show up, and still hang out with us and help out at the races and stuff. I usually try to do about 40 races a year and he usually comes to about 10 or 15 of them.”

“So, my main flat track bikes are Kawasaki EX650-based engines. They’re in hand-built frames. We take an EX650 engine, which is a parallel twin 650cc, liquid-cooled. We’ll take it from 48 to 50 horsepower and push it to 103 to 105 horsepower. They have billet cranks— insanely expensive billet cranks, billet rods, billet pistons, the cams are all one-piece billets, special transmission ratios, hand-built clutches. When we’re done with our engines, the only thing that’s OEM is the casting of the head and the cases.” “And you do all that work yourself? You machine it yourself?” Scott asks. “We’ll purchase the cranks. We don’t have the technology for that. That’s very specialized. You’ve got to have a million-dollar machine sitting there just for that. We’ll send that away, there’s a guy in Michigan that does that. But, for instance, I bought a crank from him for $4,300 and it was a nine-month wait. Just to give some perspective.”

“Are most of them local, or do you go all over for the races?” “We go all over the place. Last year, I had the opportunity to ride for someone for a couple

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JEREMY HIGGINS He continued, “We had a local guy that helped us out a lot with head porting and valve sizing. We open up the valve size, we open up the throttle body, hand-built exhaust, hand-built intakes. That’s the cool thing about the flat track stuff, they’re race bikes, but they’re almost works of art by the time you’re done with them.”

wanted the opportunity to, so I guess when he had me, he saw a chance to live vicariously a little bit. You know, he never pushed me to love it or enjoy it. He always gave me the option. He brought home a dirtbike and asked if I wanted to learn to ride it. I got it for my third birthday and sure as shit, before you know it, I had the training wheels off the thing before I had the Scott, realizing the appetizers have arrived but training wheels off my bicycle. Jeremy hasn’t eaten anything says, “If you want to eat food and not talk the whole time, feel free “I took to it right away. I don’t know what it was, to eat. I feel bad, I’m here ‘Oh, tell me more, keep but it was what I was meant to do. Throughout talking’ while I stuff my face.” high school I played sports. I played football, I wrestled, did baseball, even a couple seasons I Jeremy laughed, “I love this stuff, obviously. If I did swimming and basketball just to keep active. didn’t love it and still did it, I’d be pretty dumb. But I always did that stuff to stay in shape for I could talk about it for hours. It’s a lot of fun. I racing. I was never committed to the sport. I really love doing the flat track stuff. The speed was always committed to it to get me better is awesome. for racing in the spring. I never wanted to be a great wrestler, I always wanted to be the best “When I first started I was always helping my motorcycle racer. That’s all I cared about.” dad in the basement building bikes. And that’s stuck with me my whole career. It’s a cool thing that he and I do together in the winters. It’s a good amount of time spent with my dad and it is fun. We’re both into it, we both understand it, and we’re both very good with it.” Scott asks, “Now, did he do it before?” “No. So he got me started when I was three years old. He bought me a PW50. I’ve got a picture of me. It’s the most ridiculous picture you’ll ever see.” “Can we put it in the article?” We say again in unison. Jeremy laughs, “Sure. Sure. So when my dad was growing up, he lived on a farm out in Elba. Always had dirtbikes, always had motorcycles. He was always around bikes, but his parents never really got him into the racing. He always Jeremy on his PW50

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RIT’S ELECTRIC JEREMY VEHICLE HIGGINS TEAM Curious about his other experiences I asked, Have you tried motocross?”

Final concept of theelse? REV2. “Have you renderings tried anything

“When I started out, my dad took me to both. We started going to some local flat tracks and local motocross tracks. I wanted to ride every night and go racing every weekend. We went back and forth between flat track and motocross, because that’s what was readily available for any 4 to 5-year-old child living in this area. It got to the point that my dad saw that I was really into it, and he wanted to give me a good opportunity to do something with it if I really had the knack for it. We kinda had to choose between the two ‘cause he would swap suspension and wheels overnight sometimes, we’d go race motocross Saturday and race flat track on Sunday. He’d drive all the way home, change a bike all over again, get it ready for the next day, and we’d go racing all day on Sunday. Obviously, I was no help in the garage at that point. It was all on him, so we decided we had to choose one path that we really wanted to go for, and I was just in love with the flat track stuff.

with on Friday night with from school. I would be texting my friends from Illinois saying, ‘Dude, I’m so excited to race in Ohio tomorrow’, and we’d go meet in the middle and go beat up on each other at some track in Ohio. I was spoiled when I was little.” “It sounds awesome. It sounds like your dad 100% supported what you wanted to do,” I say.

“Absolutely. I mean, to an extent. With anything motorsports-related you got the guys with money falling out of their ears. We weren’t that. He’s a tool and die maker by trade, my mom works in an auto body shop, so our racing budget wasn’t $250,000 a year. We didn’t pay a mechanic to get my bike ready. I think once I was 10 or 12-years-old, my dad got me into working Jeremy’s father soon built a track for him in the on them with him. We would hang out and work backyard, and his young life became more and on bikes all night to be ready for the next race. It more about flat track. “Once you start going to was cool, because it almost ended up becoming the track on a regular basis, you start gaining a career for me. I was really good at it. I still love your friends and expanding your family-base working on my bikes. It’s just fun.“ at the racetrack. ‘Cause you’re there and you hangout every weekend. I didn’t have many “It’s good, though, right? It saved you a ton buddies from school, I had buddies from the of money, ‘cause you don’t have to pay other track. I didn’t have guys that I would hang out people to do the work for you,” I ask. “Even today I’ll still do motocross during the summer. I’ll do Tuesday nights at Pavilion Motocross and then maybe Wednesdays I’ll hit Area 51 and do some riding, too. I haven’t done it yet this year, my practice bike is still set up for ice racing. I still do it, I still love it. But there’s something about the speed I was into more than the jumps.”

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JEREMY HIGGINS

“Exactly. I’d say there’s about five or less professional flat track racers that actually work on their own bikes to the extent that I do. Very few and far between. Most of them have crews that are six or seven people. Whereas, last year, I rented a bike for a race because all my bikes blew up. It was the only way I was gonna get pro points. So I rented a bike from a guy. Didn’t really know me, I didn’t know him much. We knew of each other, but we weren’t friends. Ended up, it worked out. Amber and I drove on a Friday after work. We drove through the night from New York to Oklahoma City for a Grand National. 18 1/2 hours. Unloaded next to this guy, I slapped my number plates on his bike about ten minutes before practice.” “And you worked the whole day?” I asked stunned. “Worked all day Friday.” Now, just for reference, I drove from Batavia to Yellowstone with my family this past summer. And the first night, to get it out of the way I drove about 18 hours straight, but I napped in the afternoon before we left, so I don’t know how he didn’t crash. By three or four in the morning I was done. I don’t know how you work a full day, drive through the night, get to the track ten minutes before practice and compete in a race. “We’ve done it a couple of times, unfortunately. It’s not the best-case scenario, but I’d gladly do it if I have an opportunity to race. And that was a Grand National. Sat on that bike about ten minutes before practice. Ended up qualifying in the top 20 and ended up getting 12th overall.” “On a borrowed bike,” I added, shaking my head.

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The food arrives, but Jeremy’s passion for racing keeps him talking, even if it means his food gets cold. “You guys can eat, don’t worry about me. So, in like 2015—long story short— my dad and I bought a used chassis off of one of our buddies and bought an engine off eBay for about $600 dollars, put all the good stuff in it—custom rods, custom pistons. We build that bike and ended up doing pretty good in 2015. We couldn’t afford the crank shaft at the time, so I was racing a 700 in the 750 class, which doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s a very, very big difference.” We all get distracted when we hear the next trivia question. “What speed does the Delorean in “Back to the Future” have to reach to go back in time?” Eyes rolling in concert, we all say 88 miles per hour. Coming up next are Beatles and Simpsons questions. Now we’re talking. Maybe we should form a team and come back next Wednesday? Stay tuned for the conclusion of our interview with Jeremy Higgins next month when we discuss RIT and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. And, for great grub and an outstanding assortment of local beers on tap, stop by the Eli Fish Brewing Co. on Main Street in Batavia. www.elifishbrewing.com

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SPONSORED ARTICLE

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18 | MOTOCLECTIC

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FEATURED EVENT

THE ROC MOTOSOCIAL Eli Hackett wanted a place for every rider, so he and his buddies made it happen. Btw, you don’t want to miss this monthly motorcycle mecca.

he ROC Motosocial originally grew out of a vintage motorcycle night that met at Glen Edith Coffee on Somerton, at the time known as Pour Coffee Parlor. It was a very lowkey gathering without any real advertisement, and was really not much more than a circle of friends who shared an interest in vintage motorcycles. I moved to Rochester in the fall of 2014 to finish my bachelors at RIT, bringing my ’94 Kawasaki Ninja 600 with me. It just so happened that one of my older brother’s best friends, Jed Burke, was looking for a second roommate in the 19th Ward.

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At the time Jed had a handsome blue ’05 Kawasaki Vulcan and shared my passion for being on two wheels. Jed introduced me to the vintage bike night and we would ride from the ward down to the Park Ave neighborhood whenever we could make it. It wasn’t long before the third person involved with the creation of the ROC Motosocial came on the scene. Joel Witwer moved back to Rochester after living in Zambia for a couple of years where a small 150cc motorcycle was his main mode of transportation; a small bike for a man several inches north of six feet. Joel liked the idea of the vintage

THE ROC MOTOSOCIAL

bike night but saw an opportunity to broaden the The first year was small and very slow growing. appeal to other types of bikes, and to free the meet We started in the Pour Coffee Parlor parking lot from its one location at Pour Coffee. and then branched out to Fuego Coffee in the center of midtown and then other local coffee We decided to start a monthly meet that was open shop locations. Most months simply consisted to all people and all bikes, and after exploring a few of our circle of friends with the occasional new name options, settled on The ROC Motosocial. person who had heard something through word of We decided on a monthly meetup that changed mouth. A true marker of our success was whenever locations, and that Wednesday was generally a one of the guys from the local custom shops— good day for broad evening availability. Our main Interstellar Motors or Lowborn Garage—would goal for the Motosocial was to create an event make an appearance. They were like celebrities in where all people and all bikes were welcome, the local motorcycle community, sometimes seen where they catch up with old friends or make riding their custom rides through downtown at new connections. There’s a lot of division among night but seemed to mostly keep to themselves. the riding community, American vs. European To them, we felt like we were just some nobodies. vs. Japanese, differences in riding style, safety By the end of the year we had doubled in size, to philosophy, fair weather riders vs. hardcore moto around twenty on a good night, and had learned vagabonds, an so on. While there are endless some things about selecting our location. One ways to divide the riding community, the two early month we made the mistake of trying to have main things all riders can come together on is the a cook-out at a local park, only to have almost no love and freedom of being on two wheels, and the one show up. We realized that a key in making pride they have in their own ride. Creating a space newcomers feel welcome was to host it at either for people to set aside their differences allows a custom shop, or a café or eatery of some sort. them to focus on what they have in common. These places give people something to do once

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THE ROC MOTOSOCIAL they get off their bike whether it’s looking around the shop or getting in line to grab something to drink. The end of the first year also brought a shift in management as Joel’s career and passion for photography brought him back to Africa, and organization of the ROC Motosocial moved to Jed and me. Things have come a long way since those awkward early meetups. Through word of mouth, Facebook, Instagram, and promotion from the venues who host us, we reached an explosive critical mass. By starting as an event that welcomed everyone like vintage bikes, scooters, and mopeds, we were able to build a large enough base to attract the more

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hardcore and stiff groups of riders. Our struggle is no longer getting people to show up, but to find venues that can accommodate our growing size. Starting with a core group of about ten riders, then twenty by the end of the first year, we’ve grown to 150-180 bikes during the prime months of 2018 with everything from scooters, mopeds, vintage and classic bikes, to adventure riders, sport bikes, touring bikes, and choppers. The people who enjoy the ROC Motosocial represent the full diversity that our great city has to offer. People from all ages, races, affiliations, clubs, and riding preferences look forward to the third Wednesday of every month during the riding season and know that they’ll be welcomed for what they are: riders.

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