OK – this isn’t really going to tell you much about what the Kramer is like to ride and/or own, but I can’t help myself. I was on the fence for a while about what I would do with the Kramer from a cosmetic standpoint. That question answered itself when I was at Circuit of the Americas.
As I mentioned at the end of the last post, Aprilia brought two special guests to ride with us: Maverick Viñales and Miguel Oliveira. Near the end of the day I noticed an Aprilia owner had Maverick sign his bike, and I thought that was pretty cool. So I asked Maverick asked my buddy Shane (Chief Marketing Officer for the Piaggio Group, which owns Aprilia) if he would have Maverick sign my bike as well, and that was kindly arranged for me:
I immediately had a weird “buyer’s regret” of sorts. I obviously admire Viñales’ ability but I have no connection to the man. He has no idea who I am and I’m sure he couldn’t care less, and I had a moment of self-doubt as to why I had him sign my bike. I then decided that I was going to turn my white bike into a canvas for a different type of person to sign – friends in the motorcycling industry who have helped me grow and made my life better. And if I snag a famous signature or two from someone who doesn’t really know me along the way, then that’s fine as well. After Maverick signed the bike, I asked Shane to sign it because he’s one of my favorite people in the motorcycle industry. When Maverick signed my bike, he included his race number of 12. Shane joked that he didn’t have a race number so he signed my bike and then added his cell phone number.
So, let’s do a little tour of some of the other signatures on my bike:
The first person to sign the bike when it got back to Los Angeles was my business partner at Iconic, Adam Tromp:
Gard Hollinger from ARCH scopes out where he wants to sign:
He found a fun spot:
Yusaku Yoshimura (grandson of Hideo “Pops” Yoshimura and current president of Yoshimura R&D of America) finds his spot, then has a seat on the bike and regales us with a couple of stories about his grandfather:
Brook Henry of Vee Two Australia:
Another great Australian – Rennie Scaysbrook of Cycle News (and record holder at Pikes Peak)
Troy Siaahan from Motorcycle.com
Several of the folks involved with Kramer corporate have signed the bike as well – such as Jensen Beeler (formerly of Asphalt & Rubber), “Kramer Joe” (Joe Karvonen, the head of Kramer USA), and the man who created the company himself, Markus Krämer!
Mark Buche – Marketing Communications Manager at BMW of North America.
Irina from Lieto Factory – you should reach out to her if you need any custom design work done!
At the end of the last post I asked if anyone could guess who this signature belonged to:
Well, the answer was Ewan McGregor. After he signed the bike (he’s sold a few bikes with us at Iconic), I asked him what the “X” was about and he said, “it’s a kiss!”
He loves Baby Jack, too!
Nick LaCasse (formerly of the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Museum).
Daytona 200 winner Steve Rapp (now a pilot):
Max Biaggi was kind enough to humor me and he picked a prominent spot:
Nate Kern and Travis Wyman (did you see my recent post about Travis selling his MotoAmerica race bike?)
Kent Kunitsugu – the former Editor-in-Chief of Sport Rider and, I’m proud to announce, the new (as of a few months ago) General Manager at Iconic Motorbikes!
And of course, I have to end with the most important person in the world to me – my girlfriend of 17+ years, VyVy!
OK, back to regularly scheduled programming. The next track day? Laguna Seca – where Steve Rapp and I get excited about how light the Kramer is:
