Ups & Downs
Ups & Downs
UP: To Fulmer helmets, for honoring the memory of those who served during the Vietnam War. Candy Sweet Thomas, Fulmer’s communications director, was just seven months old when her father, Larry Sweet, was killed by a Viet Cong sniper on September 14,1969, in Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam. As a tribute, Thomas designed “The Hero,” a flat-black, DOT-approved half-shell helmet adorned with elements of her father’s unit, F-Troop, 17th Calvary, 196 Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division. “This helmet is my way of telling my father that I love him and I won’t ever forget his or any other military person’s sacrifice to our country,” Thomas explained. A portion of the profits from sales of the helmet will be donated to the Vietnam Veterans of America.
DOWN: To American classic-bike buyers, for letting a national treasure be looted. Last March when an ex-Cal Rayborn Harley XRTT factory roadracer went on the block at the J. Wood auction in Daytona, it was Australian collector Tony Blaine who stepped up big time with a winning bid of $176,000 (including buyer's premium)-a record U.S. price for a consigned motorcycle. The bike, part of late Harley race team manager Dick O’Brien’s collection and probably the most authentic XRTT in existence, saw spirited bidding up to six figures. Rumor had it that Harley-Davidson wanted the bike for its new museum in Milwaukee. “Everybody else backed off at $100,000,” said auctioneer Jerry Wood, leaving two bidders to duke it out. When the hammer came down it was bye-bye USA, g’day Oz.
