And no matter what they tell you about patience being a virtue, waiting a third of a year or more for that year’s catalog just sucks.

But here’s the deal: Kuryakyn’s 2012 catalogs will be here within days. That’s right, we said catalogs plural, because both our Harley and Metric books are coming out at the same time, in two-part harmony, and plenty early. In fact, they’re already off the presses  — yes, that would be hot off the presses — and they’re being shipped as you read this.

Sure, they’re always worth waiting for, but we took the wait out of the equation by getting an early start on this year’s catalogs. Each has about 260 beautiful pages and they contain about 4,000 part numbers.

What we’d like to do is show you what goes into creating one of our colorful catalogs. We sent a videographer out to witness the press check who in turn created the video you see below (it’s pretty fascinating stuff and the music ain’t shabby, either). Punch the connection below, crank up your volume and enjoy two and a half minutes of pure press run perfection.

That’s right, more than a dozen events — each one of them giving us yet another opportunity to strut our stuff before the motorcycle-riding public. And the irony here is that our bosses at Kuryakyn actually pay us to attend these rallies. Now that’s just a little slice of employment heaven is what that is. Paying us to do something we’d probably do for free.

Four-fifths of the fun in manning our various booths and displays is getting the chance to chat up our customers and fans. In fact, the new products we come up with each year are derived from conversations with our customers and we place a high value on customer feedback at the rallies. And of course it helps a lot that our parts practically sell themselves, and that we offer installations on most of our products when you buy them at one of the following events.

So check out this year’s calendar of events below and pick out the happenings you plan to attend this year. Make sure to drop by our display booths and pay us a visit. We’ll be the ones with big smiles on our faces.

MARCH

Daytona Bike Week

• March 8 – March 18 – Dayton International Speedway, Daytona, FL
• March 9 – March 17 – Destination Daytona, Ormond Beach, FL

APRIL

Laughlin River Run

• April 25 – 28 – Edgewater Hotel & Casino Parking Lot, Laughlin, NV

MAY

Thunder Beach

• May 3 – May 6 – Club La Vela, Panama City Beach, FL

Myrtle Beach Bike Week

• May 11 – May 20 – Barefoot Landing, North Myrtle Beach, SC

JUNE

Americade

• June 5 – June 9 – Tour Expo, Lake George, NY

Laconia Bike Week

• June 9 – June 17 – Laconia Harley-Davidson, Meredith, NH

J&P Cycles Open House

• June 23 – June 24 – J&P Cycles, Anamosa, IA

JULY

Wing Ding

• July 4 – July 7 – Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, IN

JULY/AUGUST

Sturgis / Black Hills Rally

• July 28 – August 11  – Black Hills Harley-Davidson, Rapid City, SD
• August 2 – August 11  – J&P Cycles, Sturgis, SD

SEPTEMBER

Delmarva Bike Week

• September 13 – September 16 – Arthur W. Perdue Stadium, Salisbury, MD

Reno Street Vibrations

• September 19 – September 23 – Victorian Square, Sparks, NV

OCTOBER

Thunder Beach 12th Annual Autumn Rally

• October 10 – October 14 – Club La Vela, Panama City Beach, FL

Biketoberfest

• October 17 – October 21 – Destination Daytona, Ormond Beach, FL
• October 18 – October 21 – Daytona International Speedway, Daytona, FL

NOVEMBER

Lone Star Rally

• November 1 – November 4 – Harbor Parking Lot 28 Pier No. 21, Galveston, TX

So it only makes sense that the best way to properly clean and oil your K&N filter is by using a K&N filter care kit.  This little package comes with everything you need to maintain your filter. The spray cleaner helps remove the dirt trapped in the cotton of the filter. And the kit contains oil so you can re-oil the filter after it’s been cleaned. Below is the step-by-step process — and pictures to boot! on how to properly clean and oil your K&N filter, using the process outlined on K&N’s own website.

Step 1. Apply Cleaner: Liberally spray the cleaner on the inside and outside of the filter.  Allow the oil to soak into the filter for about 10 minutes to loosen the dirt.  Whatever you do, don’t allow the cleaner to dry on the filter.

Step 2. Rinse Filter: After allowing the filter to soak in the cleaner, you can rinse the filter using cool low-pressure water. Allowing the water to flow from the clean side of the filter to the dirty will push the dirt out of the filter.

Step 3. Dry Filter: It’s most important that you make sure the filter is completely dry before you oil it. After rinsing the filter give it a good shake to remove any excess water. Then allow the filter to dry naturally. No microwave oven action and don’t use your wife’s or daughter’s hairdryer.

Step 4. Oil Filter: Once the filter is completely dry you can apply the oil. Spray the air filter oil evenly along the crown of each pleat, holding the nozzle about three inches away. Allow the oil to wick for about 20 minutes. Touch up any light spots. The filter should have an even red color all around.

By following these four simple steps, you’ll ensure that your K&N filter will be around as long as your bike.

Among the many things Mike brings to the plate is a racing career that’s pretty difficult to rival. He started out racing top gas with a street bike back in 1981 — a shovelhead that ran 7.32 at 184 mph! He became an American Motorcycle Racing Association (AMRA) national champion in the B Fuel division in 1989, and was the first man to ever run 190 mph in the quarter-mile. To be specific, Mike ran 199.68 mph in 7.04 seconds.

He says a lot of his racing success was due to his association with people who owned motorcycle shops and gave him parts, as well as friends who would kick in on gas and contribute racing fuel.

“I was working on less than a shoestring budget,” he recalls. “I made everything myself.”

He designed parts, and built, tuned and rode his own bikes. “It kept me broke,” Mike admits. He said that, “If you want to make a small fortune at racing, you start out with a large one.”

Today, Mike’s contributions to Kuryakyn’s performance parts are legendary. He lent his racing expertise to the development of our Wild Thing cams and our award-winning Perfect Storm upgrade, a system that has garnered a lot of industry kudos these past few years.

The Perfect Storm is the marriage of Kuryakyn’s air cleaners, Crusher exhaust and TTS Master Tune fuel-management system that pretty much guarantees to coax 12 to 14 additional horsepower as well as increased torque across the entire rpm range for most any Harley-Davidson engine.

“We went all out and it’s the best exhaust system on the market,” Mike says. “A lot of our parts are high performance, but they have to be street friends, too.”

In the accompanying YouTube video, Mike says his obsession for acceleration is what drove him to numerous wins on the racetrack. He describes it as the feeling of g-force, “pulling on you — forcing you back in the seat and trying to pull the handlebars out of your hands.”

Take a peek at this short video. We think you’ll enjoy it!

Editor’s Note: As title sponsor, we’re pretty proud to have been associated with Gerry “Sigs” Signorelli and the Kuryakyn Racing for a Wish Team this past year. We asked this top-notch rider to put down on paper some of his post-season thoughts and remembrances. These include some heartbreaking — and bike breaking — false starts, as well as some nice victories. Our team supports the Make-A-Wish Foundation while marketing the sponsors that support the team and charity’s cause. This year, we’re providing a $5,000 commitment to the foundation. With our help, Racing for a Wish runs a pair of bikes in the AMA Pro XR1200 class.

Here’s what our own “Sigs” Signorelli had to say about the 2011 season:

Gerry “Sigs” Signorelli

This was my first pro year, and it played out way differently that I imagined it would. I started the year optimistic about the chance to race in a national pro spec series, but the learning experiences that followed blew my mind.

I guess I should have been more prepared to deal with growing pains, especially considering it was my first year in the series. I had to learn new tracks, tame a new bike, and on top of that, the AMA Vance & Hines XR1200 Spec class asked that we race a very stock street bike not originally created for hardcore racetrack action.

Problems began when we picked up my race bike dangerously close to the AMA season opener at Daytona, leaving us little time to get the setup figured out with our new suspension sponsor, Racetech. I arrived at Daytona having never even climbed on the bike with the race kit and suspension installed. And, of course, we had no idea the bike’s geometric settings were all wrong and the bike would prove to be incredibly unstable.

On my first lap out at Daytona International Speedway, the bike repeatedly got itself into some very violent speed wobbles. I tried every trick in the book to settle it down. I was on the gas, on the gas harder, off the gas — all to no avail. I lost control of the beast my first time through the tri-oval and was high-sided across the start/finish line. The bike and I took a painful tumble, but I got up — pissed off — but OK. The bike, on the other hand, was less than OK. We scrambled to get it fixed in time to make the grid by race time, but we failed and headed home to prepare for the next round.

Even with the crash, Daytona was actually a successful trip. It gave me the chance to sit and chat with industry leader and Kuryakyn CEO Tom Rudd about his company coming on board as title sponsor. Tom is no stranger to success and has a passion for motorcycles, so I was elated with having such an impressive company join our efforts. In addition to making truly incredible accessories for street bikes, Kuryakyn is fully behind our road race team and the Make-A-Wish Foundation charity, which Racing for a Wish benefits. They also have a killer pro drag racing team.

After the dumping in Daytona, I continued to crash the bike — more so in the following two months than I had in the previous two years. Turns out the bike’s frame, swingarm and forks were badly bent and twisted from the Daytona crash. We attempted to have this corrected with our frame guy while in Colorado, but he didn’t have the correct jig and we were on a time schedule. Then I was high-sided off my bike at three races — the Infineon, Road America and Barber.

Crashing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

These were painful crashes that made me wonder what I’d gotten myself into deciding on the XR1200 class. I started riding the bike in such a timid fashion in order to keep it upright that I wasn’t enjoying the thrill of racing. Seems if I breathed wrong on that thing, it would spark a violent bucking motion, weave and wobble, and then flick me into the air. The only good thing about it all was somehow I managed to avoid serious injury after hitting the deck hard, time and time again. Although I was frustrated, we were managing to gain quite a bit of exposure for Kuryakyn and all of our sponsors because the crash videos and photographs were getting thousands of views in news articles, YouTube and the Internet. Not a lot of solace in that!

We actually didn’t get the frame straightened until just before the Mid-Ohio round. I climbed on the bike and said to myself, “Oh yeah! This is what riding is supposed to be like.” With a well-behaved bike, we began making progress on setup and catching up to the other teams. I earned my first Top 10 pro finish at Mid-Ohio and we had renewed life.

Shortly thereafter, we were up for a double header at the Indy GP. I couldn’t believe we were going to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on a Harley-Davidson — the same weekend as legends like Valentino Rossi — and in front of more than 100,000 fans! We signed autographs, met hundreds of fans, and got some great TV coverage.

And we finally showed some great speed on the track, with AMA officials saying we were the ”most improved,” We qualified in 10th in a grid of more than 30 bikes with some great veteran riders. I was so excited about having a great bike under me that in the first race, I charged into the second turn on Lap One a little too aggressively, colliding with another racer. I crashed out and was left sitting on the side watching the great racing action as a spectator. But we were ready to go by Sunday afternoon, and  I got a good start, finding myself in the Top 10. The shift linkage broke in the second lap, and my inability to shift resulted in the rest of the field passing me by. I pulled in and the problem was taken care of, but by that time, Next year for sure!

Sigs at New Jersey Motorsports Park

We headed to the final round at the New Jersey Motorsports Park over the Labor Day Weekend, knowing that we were past due for a good weekend. And we got it, finishing the race in eighth place, which was a personal best. In addition, we chatted up our fans in the Northeast, and raised a bunch of money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. It was just what we needed to finish the year on a positive note and give us the momentum going into next year.

This year was a learning experience and I’m confident the 2012 series will result in some impressive results for our team. I’ve only been home a total of 19 days since January and I have to admit I enjoyed every minute of my time on the circuit! As we get ready for the 2012 season, I’m going to take advantage some of the best mountain biking in the world in Colorado, ride flat track, moto, and supermoto and make sure I’m in superb physical condition for Daytona come March. Try and make it out for a few races next year and stop by to see me. I should be fully healed by then!

Editor’s Note: For more information about Kuryakyn’s Racing for a Wish Team, visit at www.racingforawish.com.

So it was when we began producing a line of new parts carrying a rustic and antique pewter finish. This unique pewter finish is a great compliment to the satin engine cases found on the Fatboy Lo and the polished engine cases on the crossbones model, as well any bike with a blacked out theme.

At this point in the process, the new finish is only available on a select number of items, including kickstand covers, and a shift linkage with interchangeable medallions.

Creating a pewter piece like our Serpent shift linkage begins with one of our designers drawing specs of what the final piece is going to look like.

The drawing is then transformed into a clay model, and the clay model is then used to create a urethane model.  Throughout this process, the designer continues to drop by, making minor changes here and there, not only for aesthetics, but also for functionality.

Currently, we’ve got two kickstand covers that are available in the antique pewter finish. These include the Silhouette kickstand cover (Kuryakyn Part Number 1098) and the Raptor kickstand cover (Kuryakyn Part Number  1099). These unique parts add a little spice to a normally Plain Jane part on your motorcycle.

We’ve also just released our new Serpent shift linkage (Kuryakyn Part Number 1079), with the snake, bones and barbed wire theme serving as the perfect compliment to our unique and antique pewter finish.

Included is a skull medallion, but you have the option to add your own style from among a wide variety of medallion styles. These can also be used in other applications such as our Zombie levers, Hi-Five Mach 2 air cleaners, and mini-dagger pegs to truly complete your theme.

Tanya Droher, Kuryakyn Graphic Designer

When Tanya Droher joined Kuryakyn’s art department, she had no idea how popular the company was in the motorcycle parts industry. She was also surprised to discover how much fun it is to work here!

Meet our very own “designing woman:”

Kuryakyn: What do you do here at Kuryakyn?

Tanya Droher: I’m a graphic designer. What that entails is designing the catalog, brochures, signs, stickers, eflyers, packaging, posters and anything else used for marketing here at Kuryakyn.

Kuryakyn: What did you do prior to coming to work for Kuryakyn?

TD: Before coming to work at Kuryakyn I worked for the Boat Doctor in Bayport Marina for nine years. I washed yachts on the river, out in the sun all summer.

Kuryakyn: What attracted you to Kuryakyn?

TD: A job listing brought me here in the beginning, but I quickly realized that the people here are the best in the business and so much fun to work with. I love working for a company that is so well known in the motorcycle industry. It’s a boost when someone’s face lights up when I mention Kuryakyn. Usually it’s because they realize I have catalogs.

Kuryakyn: When you’re not working what do you do in your spare time?

TD: In my free time I love to run!  I also recently had a baby girl, so I spend any free time hanging out with that little peanut and watching my husband play baseball. I also love hanging out on the deck with friends and a good bottle of wine.

Kuryakyn: What’s your all time favorite motorcycle part or accessory?

TD: I don’t have a specific part that I can think of, but I love all the black parts. If or when we get a bike again, we will definitely be blacking it out!

Kuryakyn: If you could take a week or so off from work and ride anywhere in the world, where would you go and whom would you take with you?

TD: It’s always been on my Bucket List to travel to Australia, and I’d be taking Pete and Finley with me.

The Sound Off will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24, at Victorian Square in adjacent Sparks, Nev. It’s free to enter and open to anybody’s who thinks their tricked out custom bagger or trike is better than anybody else’s. And if they can prove it, they’ll walk away with more than $1,000 in prizes in any of the three main categories, and prizes worth more than $250 in any of the four subcategories.

And you don’t have to limit yourself to one category. If you can stand the pressure of having our panel of judges from Kuryakyn, Kicker and Ground Pounder carefully critique your ride at close quarters, then go ahead and enter a bunch of categories.

What are we looking for?

• Loudest Sound System: This category will be judged solely on the decibel level of the sound system.
• Best Quality Sound: Contestants will be asked to play music of their choice to determine the best overall quality of sound.
• Best Overall Bagger: This category will be judged by our panel of three judges, and will take into account the overall look of the bike. Judged on custom paint, wheels, chopped, dropped or as far away as possible from stock.

Sub-categories:

• Best Theme: Anything goes —This category will be judged by our panel of three judges to find the most unique theme bike around.
• Most Speakers: The bike with the most speakers wins. Should there be a tie, we’ll be measuring the overall speaker surface area to find a winner.
• Best Paint Job: Judged by our panel of three judges to determine the best custom paint job.
• People’s Choice: This is a unique category where spectators decide the winner by placing their votes at the event.

Street Vibrations Bagger Sound Off contest rules (PDF file) are available online. And don’t forget the Reno Street Vibrations show dates are Sept. 21 to 25. Our show trailers will be open for business from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 21 to 24, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept 25. Make a point to stop by.

Visit the Street Vibrations Bagger Sound Off registration page to sign up, or register on-site – at the Kuryakyn show trailer.

GMR owners Steve and Michelle Gougeon said they’d heard an awful lot about Kuryakyn’s brand of performance, especially our ability to build power into a V-twin bike in a cost-effective manner. But, truth be told, they’ve heard lots of folks in this industry talk about performance over the years, and few of them had a clue as to the true meaning of the word. They’ve tested countless bolt-on kits that claimed to be high performance, but ended up failing miserably.

So their purpose in installing our The Perfect Storm Kit on a customer’s bike was to see if Kuryakyn could measure up to the hype. They knew we could talk the talk, but could we walk the walk? And believe us when we say these folks at GMR know how performance compares to stock. Between them, they’ve powered up their own personal rides, including a ’78 Shovel, an ’09 Street Glide, and a Buell XB.

Needless for us to say, they were incredibly pleased with The Perfect Storm kit. In fact, they called the kit a “home run,” and that means a lot to us. The customer’s TC2 cam brought the torque in early and pulled way out in the rpm range, beating out several other “designer cams” that had prices of $400 or more.

What our system does is transform a weak and quiet stock motor into a powerful and efficient beast. It’s a combination of Kuryakyn’s high-flow air cleaner, dual head pipes, crusher mufflers and the TTS Master Tune engine management system. The result is an impressive overall power increase with more efficiency and less fuel consumption. It’s a win, win, win proposition.

Check out the video above to hear and see what GMR Performance thinks about The Perfect Storm from Kuryakyn.

Best of all, you don’t have to be an electrical engineer to install a complete audio system upgrade on your late model Harley-Davidson Touring bike.

With such a great selection of Kicker Audio products from which to choose, we have some exciting opportunities to upgrade your current Harley-Davidson audio system. We’re also proud to include the Kicker Amp (Kuryakyn Part No. 871) as the heart of our audio upgrade. This kicker amp enables you to continue to possess the functions of your current audio controls, only with increased clarity and volume. And even more important, this amp is optimized for use in late-model Harley-Davidsons, which means you know everything’s going to fit and work just right.

As with any new product, there are questions and concerns, which prompted us to create the following Q&A to address some common concerns and shed some light on some of the possible applications of the Kicker products.

What is the power output of the Kicker Amp (Kuryakyn Part No.  871)?

The Kicker Amp (Kuryakyn Part No. 871) has a maximum output of 46 watts per channel RMS at 2 ohms resistance and a total of four channels; Right Front, Left Front, Right Rear and Left Rear.

What is the advantage of using the Kicker Amp (Kuryakyn Part No.  871)?

The Kicker Amp allows for use of all stock controls and audio functions. It also includes a wiring harness for plug and play installation for up to four pairs of Kicker KPS5250 Speakers (Kuryakyn Part Nos. 874 & 875).

What is the resistance of the stock speakers?

Stock speakers on the 2006 and later models are 2 ohms.

What are ohms?

Ohms are a measurement of resistance to current flow. The lower the ohms or resistance per channel, the more power required to drive or power the channel.

Why is speaker selection and installation so critical?

When choosing speakers for use with the Kicker Amp (Kuryakyn Part No. 871), the maximum current flow output should be matched to 2 ohms total resistance per channel. That means that if the total circuit has 2 ohms resistance, you will achieve maximum performance or output from the amplifier. If you reduce the resistance of the channel to less than 2 ohms resistance, you can damage the amp by requiring more current flow than it can handle. This has the potential of shutting it down and not functioning at all. If the total resistance is greater than 2 ohms, there will be less output or current flow, resulting in lower performance.

• Optimal output with 2 ohms resistance per channel
• Great output with 4 ohms resistance per channel
• Good output with 6 ohms resistance per channel
• Poor output with 8 ohms resistance per channel
• Harmful output with less than 2 ohms resistance per channel

What is meant by Series versus Parallel speaker installation?

When speakers are installed in Series, their respective resistance or ohms are added together. This can be used with the Kicker Amp to ensure that the maximum output of 2 ohms per channel is not exceeded. When the speakers are installed in Parallel, the total circuit or channel resistance is decreased and current flow is increased. Care must be taken not to decrease total channel resistance to less than 2 ohms.  The formula looks like this:

Speaker 1 resistance X Speaker 2 resistance / Speaker 1 resistance + Speaker 2 = Total resistance

So when using a 4 ohm speaker and a 2 ohm speaker on the same channel installed in Parallel, the total resistance formula would look like this:

2 X 4 / 2 + 4 = 1.3 total ohms —— This is too low and will not work

For optimal output, you will want to use two 4 ohm speakers installed in Parallel for total channel resistance of two ohms:

4 X 4 / 4 + 4 = 2 total ohms

What does a Series circuit wiring diagram look like?

What does a Parallel circuit wiring diagram look like?

Why is the Kicker Amp required when using the Saddlebag or Fairing Lower speakers?

The Kicker Amp (Kuryakyn Part No. 871) kit contains all the wiring necessary for installing up to eight speakers in either Series or Parallel. We can’t be responsible for other amplifier specs or outputs. That’s because we can’t be certain of the sound quality when installed with other amplifiers. As a result, there’s the potential for possible damage from the unit being overpowered,  possible damage to the stock radio or poor sound quality if installed without an amplifier.