The Build Begins. Step One!

This is the first installment of a series covering Harold Grissom and his participation in the 2011 Stampede.

After I burnt the Rebel bobber up in the 2009 Stampede, you can only imagine the anxiety of not having finished the race.  Not only did I not finish the race, but I didn’t even get to go to the Smokeout East.  I didn’t participate in the 2010 Stampede since I had promised my family that I would take them to Rosenblatt Stadium’s last College World Series.  Hey, that was a true moment of baseball history and we just had to be a part of that.  In the meantime, my mind continued to wander and I continued to brew on failing to finish the 2009 Stampede. The next year as I was tooling around at the 2010 Smokeout East I ran across a bike that really caught my eye. It was built by the talented group of FNA Custom Cycles out of Lakeland, Florida.  It was a hardtail airhead BMW which had been converted from a shaft drive to a chain drive.  The airhead jugs sticking out the side of the bike just rocked my world.  The visions in my head of a custom Beemer with an extended drive shaft kicked my imagination into overdrive.  By this time, the handwriting was on the wall.  I could definitely see a BMW in my future. I was completely ignorant about BMW’s so I started doing a lot of reading and talking to people in the ”BMW know.”  I even took a trip to rural heaven and camped in 30 degree weather in the foothills of Georgia just to be taught of the BMW mechanics by Beemer Guru, David Woodburn out of Roopsville, Georgia.  I learned that BMW’s are some of the most reliable bikes around.  David had not only taken his wife and child around the world on his BMW with sidecar, he and his wife even home schooled their lovely daughter on the scoot.  I discovered that a BMW’s shaft drive takes out most of the vibration you typically find in a chain or even a belt driven bike.  The old airhead (air cooled engines where the heads stick out the side so they call them airheads), models typically run about 55 horsepower and they get great gas mileage. While they only have 55 hp, they also can run speeds over 110 mph.  What more could I ask for?  Next history recap in few days!