Carroll Shelby Bike

February 8, 2007 Carroll Shelby International and Rucker Performance unveiled a limited production Shelby motorcycle at the Cincinnati V-Twin Expo last week. The high performance motorcycle was developed in partnership between the two companies and will be built by Rucker Performance. Sticking to his tried and true formula of brute horsepower in a lightweight frame, the powerhouse is a new S&S X-Wedge 128 c.i.d. engine with closed loop VFI fuel injection that churns out a healthy 150 bhp. Each Shelby motorcycle can be custom painted according to the owner’s personal tastes and includes a special edition logo. In addition, a complete line of Shelby merchandise including apparel, accessories and limited edition collector’s items will be available. Initial production of the Shelby will be a very limited edition run of 25 motorcycles that will be available for purchase by the third quarter of this year. Production of a second round of bikes will begin in the fall of 2007.

MOI the comeback

Me and the gang rode our bikes to Nuwaisib on Thursday evening, I was amazed to see police patrols every 5 KM or so, usually this area is lawless. Kuwait times reported that 117 drivers held in 3 hours: As many as 117 people were caught over speeding in just three hours on the King Fahd Motorway. Traffic men fixed a radar on the motorway near Al-Nuwaiseeb area from 4 pm to 7 pm on Friday and issued citations to 117 violators. A Kuwaiti youth has been detained for driving at a speed of 305 km/hour in his Porsche car. He was referred to the Traffic Court and his car has been impounded. Traffic men have started a campaign against reckless drivers and riders performing stunts with their motorbikes. This is a great action taken on behalf of MOI, as the number of death toll has been rising steadily on this motorway.

Kuwait Bike Show 2007

Today was a great riding day, we woke up at 7:30, warmed up the bikes and headed up on the 50 Highway to Subhan, exit on the 40 to Ahmadi down to Starbucks Hilton, Mocca and Latte for one hour, back up Fahaheel, my wife got the hang of her Night Train, 140 KM/H racing me up to Messila. We picked up the kids and headed to Sharq Water Front to attend the Bike Show organised by HD. A good turned out lots of competitors from Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi and of course Kuwait. Lunch with the gang then watched the award ceremony. Overall great week end.I will be posting the picture from the show in the upcoming days.

Harley UAE Responds

After posting my blog to HD-UAE email yesterday, I received a reply from them today. Fadibou will be contacting them to pursue the matter, will keep you posted.

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your feedback! I am sorry to hear about your experience with Mohammed Rizal Bin Rahmat and that behavior is definitely NOT what I would like to see from my staff. The necessary steps will be taken to avoid situations like this in the future however this still doesn’t change your opinion about my dealership.

Please sent me your contact details to discuss this matter or please ring me on my mobile number +97150xxxxxx

Best regards,
Marcel A. Bode
General Manager

Is Dubai Overated?

IMHO to a certain extent yes, sure they are expanding like crazy, with modern buildings sprouting up like mushrooms. Project concepts that would make any European country go to shame. We spend 5 days with Fadibou who’s residing in a town house in the springs, the townhouse was selling 3 years back for 650,000 DHS the going rate now is 2.4 million, for crying out loud that’s the price of a luxury 4 bedrooms house in Verdun area in Lebanon.

We went out walking in the springs area it’s like a ghost town at night, heading down to the local Spinneys , you see Europeans all over not a hint of Arabic flavor, the local Starbucks is crowded with British, I felt a loss of identity where am I?
Sure you got massive malls that can make you fit to a compete in a marathon, you have clubs and activities, however this comes at a price, a decent lifestyle in Dubai needs an income between 35,000 to 40,000 DHS. Toll will be applied for using SBZ road, next we will have taxes

Honestly speaking I would rather invest in Lebanon for real estate the only added value in Dubai is that you can recover your investment through rental. So my verdict on Dubai is limited to vacationing and not to exceed 5 days.

Arabian Tours 4X4

For the past nine years i have been travelling frequently to Dubai, this is the first time I get the chance to do it for pleasure and not for business. This time the family decided to try out Off-Roading spiced up with dune bashing. We contacted Arabian Tours and booked our seats online. They have an excellent follow up and provided details of the afternoon activities which included A) Desert Landscapes - (B) Dune Ride - (C) Camel Farm - (E) Sunset - (F) BBQ. Dinner - (G) Belly dancer (H) Henna painting - (I) Camel ride - (J) Water pipe. Not bad a bad deal at 240DHS per person and kids for 180DHS. The driver aka Scorpion showed up at our door at 3:30 Sharp impressive, and we drove to pick up a couple of passengers from Malaysia at the Shangrila Hotel. The first disappointment came with the car I expected a Landcruiser our ride was Ford Expedition which turned out to be OK in the dunes. The detination was Lahbab 60 KM out of Dubai in the direction of Hatta. The off roading was OK and the dune bashing was great, its quite obvious that the trip was too commercialised and targetted towards european that would like to experience a bit of the Arabian desert flaura and fauna. After the Dune bashing with multiple stops about 5 of them we headed towards the camp, camel ride was under 2 minutes, shisha was low quality tobacco and the food was 1 star. As for the belly dancer she was russian the tape cut off 4 times, entertainment was superficial, overall 2 stars, thats because the kids were happy with the dune bashing.

Harley UAE Arrogance or Ignorance

On my last post I promised to tell you about my HD experience, Fadibou contacted HD of UAe on the 15th of Jan, and inquired regarding their rental service. No problem Sir, during the week you can walk in and we will give you the bikes. Fadi checked again and gave them the dates and his CC number.

The day prior to our trip to Khorfakan someone from HD calls and says no bikes are available for rental. We headed down to the dealership and met with Mohammed Rizal Bin Rahmat Sales Rental Manager, nothing to congratulate HD on his poor customer management skills, the guy was right down arrogant, barely interested in our issue, the only thing he could tell us if we did not discuss the matter with him there is no matter to discuss and no bikes are available prior to April take it or leave it.

Harley UAE need to shape up and start taking cutomers seriously and should learn from HD Kuwait, not a word of appology was mentioned not a coffee offered, arrogance or ignorance or downright greed. Their shop shelves are empty of motorclothing,their customer service sucks, HD Dubai is below average and not a dealer I would recommend, to any serious HD rider.