Joing us on an Edelweiss Bike Tour Across Italy with Calendar Kitten Sophie
in the FAST 2024 Caendar Yearbook.
World Premier! FAST 2024 through 2014 Digital Calendar Yearbooks
Go Behind the Scenes for the Making of the FastDates.com Calendars!
Click the pages below for a closeup preview inside the new FAST 2024 Calendar Yearbook availble now in
Members Corner and in both digital flip book and print coffee table book form on Amazon.com from the links below. You'll find a beautiful moto girl portfolio by out Italian photographer Simone de Raineri who's photos are featured in the new 2023 Gasoline Girls Calendar, and features on some of the incredidible Calendar Kittens and custo bikes in thr new 2023 Iron & Lace Calendar.
New FAST Calendar Digital and Print Yearbooks!
Go behind the scenes for the shooting of the FastDates Motorcycle PinUp Calendars from 2014 thru to 2024 with photographer
Jim Gianatsis and the Calendar Kittens. Each year's Calendar Yearbook features 124-pages of exciting photography and detailed stories featuring
the Calendars' custom and race bikes, and the beautiful centerfold Calendar Kittens posing with the bikes. Plus you'll see every page in the
Iron& Lace Custom Motorcycle PinUp and Garage Girls Calendars.
All the Flip Page Digital Editions are in FastDates.com Members Corner for One Low Price of $6.95!
Or Order the
PDF Downloads and Printed Hardcover Coffee Table Books at the Links Below
PDF Downloads $9.99 ea -and- High Quality 128-page 12x12-in Printed Coffee Table Yearbooks $224.95 ea
FAST 2024 Calendar Yearbook - PDF Download & Order Hard Cover Coffee Table Book
FAST 2023 Calendar Yearbook - PDF Download & Order Hard Cover Coffee Table Book
FAST 2022 Calendar Yearbook - PDF Download & Order Hard Cover Coffee Table Book
FAST 2021 Calendar Yearbook - PDF Download & Order Hard Cover Coffee Table Book
FAST 2020 Calendar Yearbook - PDF Download & Order Hard Cover Coffee Table Book
FAST 2019 Calendar Yearbook - PDF Download & Order Hard Cover Coffee Table Book
Did we forget anything? - Oh yes! The new FAST Calendar Yearbooks features every page in their year's Iron & Lace Custom Motorcycle PinUp and Garage Girls Calendars featuring the world's top custom bikes and the beautiful Calendar Kittens!
The Calendar Pages are also in the Members Corner Calendar Gallery
The FAST 2022 Calendar Yearbook features a revealing portfolio of a then young 19-year old Pameala Anderson who was featured in our first 1990 Mikuni Carburetor PinUp Calendar. Plus fratues on a coll custom Bar Hipper from Powerplant Chopers, and actor Steve McQueen's 1942 Indian Scout.
FAST 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014Did we forget anything? - Oh yes! The new FAST Calendar Yearbook Digital Editions features in high resolution every page in the new
Digital Calendar Book Annuals
We take you behind the scenes of the FastDates.com Calendars!
Go behind the scenes of the FastDates.com Calendar photo shoots at the SBK World Superbike races, the Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show & Concourse d' Elegance, and inside the FastDates.com Studio of famed photographer Jim Gianatsis. Meet the official SBK World Superbike Calendar Kittens who also serve as the official SBK podium and grid girls, the top factory riders of World Superbike, and America's top custom bike builders. You'll find detailed editorial photo features on the Calendars' top Custom and Race bikes, and on the Calendar Kittens.
Now in Members Corner! - Click to Access All the FAST Digital Calendar Book Annuals
The FAST 2019 Calendar Yearbook is also available in digital format
for downloading to your laptoc or electronic device at http://www.blurb.com/b/9311625
Also available on Amazon.com Kindle - FAST 2016 Motorcycle PinUp Calendar Digital Yearbook
Shooting the FastDates.com with Calendar Kitten Liz!
Go behind the scenes with newest Calendar Kitten Lizzie as she shoots with Jim Gianatsis for the new 2014 Fast Dates, Iron & Lace,
and Garage Girls Calendars with some cool custom bikes form Richard Pollock, Mule Motorcycles! Order the 2014 Calendars!
Shooting the FastDates.com Calendars with Jessica & Kelsey!
Go behind the scenes with Calendar Kittens Jessica and Kelsey as they shoot with Jim Gianatsis for the new 2015 Fast Dates,
Iron & Lace, and Garage Girls Calendars on a Vespa scooter!
FastDates.com Editorial Features, Stories & Motorcycle Tests
We're Back! Riding Edelweiss Motorcycle Tour - From Paris to Omaha, France
Versailles, France, August 2016 - How we spent our summer vacation! On the exciting Edelweiss Bike Travel 2016 Paris to Omaha Beach 10-day motorcycle tour across western France visiting the histroric battle sites of World War II where editor Jim Ginatsis father, B26 bomber pilot Capt. James Gianatsi played a pivital role in te D-say invasion and liberating France. We rode 2-up two-up with awesome FastDates.com SBK World Superbike Calendar Kitten Kaustin "Kaussie" Rose in a story for the FastDates.com Website. Our bike of choice would be the newly introduced BMW R 1000 XR Sport Tourer, based on the potent BMW R 1000 RR Superbike. For the Complete Story Click on the Photos or Check Out the Complete Story Here
Good Bye to the Fast Dates Superbike Calendar after 27 Years
In looking back over 27 years of the Fast Dates Calendars, there's been so many incredible bikes and models feaured to make it a truly iconic tribute to our beloved sport of motorccyle racing. The first 1991 FatsDates Calendar featured fyoung new Playboy Playmate and actress Pamela Anderson with Miguel duHammel's Yoshimura "Big Papa" 1100cc Formula Extreame Superbike. To American World Superbike Champion Colin Edwrds factory Honda RC51 World Superbike with Miss Great Britian Nicky Llane. To beautiful Czech WSBK podium Girl Petra Ruzickova with Eurene Lavertys, Cresent Suzuki on the cover of the 2016 calendar. Along the way I got to shot and feature teh MotoFP World Championship winning bikes of Doug Polen, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, Carly Fogarty, Troy Corser, Troy Bayliss, Jonthan Rea, Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner and others with beautiful movie actresses and TV stars like Jamie Pressly and Leaan Tweeden, Supermodels, Playboy Cover Girls and Centerfolds than even I can count.
More Women Riding Motorcycles Than Ever “Women continue to embrace motorcycling like never before,” said Sarah Schilke, national marketing manager of BMW Motorrad USA and chair of PowerLily, a group consisting of female motorcycle industry professionals. “Of the 9.2 million motorcycle owners, more of them are women than we’ve ever recorded. In fact, the number of female owners more than doubled from 2003 to 2014. “I’m excited to see the numbers prove the growth that I have been witnessing among women and motorcycling over the last decade," says Genevieve Schmitt, founder and editor of this online magazine. “Women Riders Now launched online 11 years ago to serve this growing — and influential — market of riders, and just as the number of women motorcyclists has grown, so has our readership. We have more women motorcycling events on our calendar than ever before, and our list of women's motorcycling clubs is the largest it has ever been." Among younger generations of owners, the percentage of women is even higher. Slightly more than 17 percent of Gen X owners (ages 36 to 50 now), and 17.6 percent of Gen Y owners (ages 18 to 35 now) are women. Among Boomer owners (ages 51 to 69), women make up 9 percent. Generation X is defined as those born after that of the Boomers, from the early 1960 to the mid 1970s. Generation Y is defined as those born in the 1980s and 1990s. And Boomers or "Baby Boomers" as the group is often called, are those born between 1946 and 1964. More women ride a cruiser style motorcycle than any other style, according to the latest MIC survey. “It’s encouraging that we’re seeing more women among the riders who are entering the sport,” says Schilke. “Motorcycling is for anyone and that’s being recognized by younger generations and non-traditional customer segments.” The owner survey also revealed what type of bikes women prefer. Cruisers are the choice of 34 percent of female riders. Scooters rank a close second at 33 percent, followed by sportbikes at 10 percent. In the survey of approximately 48,000 American households, women were also asked to share their top three reasons for riding motorcycles. They responded, “fun and recreation,” followed by “sense of freedom,” and “enjoy outdoors/nature.” When it comes to purchasing a motorcycle, women rate “fuel economy” and “test rides” as the most important decision-making factors. The study revealed that female riders are safety conscious. While 60 percent of women took a motorcycle safety course, only 42 percent of men had any formal training. In some state's motorcycle safety training programs, women make up 30 percent of the student population, or nearly one-third of all students. "I'm often asked what I attribute to the growth of women motorcycle riders," says Schmitt. "Well, there are many industry factors I could elaborate that make motorcycling more attractive to women, but the universal reason why females are taking up motorcycling in record numbers is because of what I call the copycat effect. A woman sees another woman riding a motorcycle and says, 'If she can do it, so can I!'" Other key survey results: The MIC motorcycle owner survey is free to MIC members, but can be purchased by non-members for $12,500. The Motorcycle Industry Council exists to preserve, protect and promote motorcycling through government relations, communications and media relations, statistics and research, aftermarket programs, development of data communications standards, and activities surrounding technical and regulatory issues. As a not-for-profit national industry association, the MIC seeks to support motorcyclists by representing manufacturers, distributors, dealers and retailers of motorcycles, scooters, ATVs, ROVs, motorcycle/ATV/ROV parts, accessories and related goods and services, and members of allied trades such as insurance, finance and investment companies, media companies, and consultants. The MIC is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., with a government relations office in metropolitan Washington, D.C. First called the MIC in 1970, the organization has been in operation since 1914. Visit the MIC at mic.org.
Is A New Organizer for AMA Pro Roadracing Enough? Or Does America Need a New Type of Race Track & Promotor to Revive Professional Motorcycle Road Racing? The Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG) had the opportunity to do this with their enclosed tracks at Daytona Speedway and California Speedway, but they weren't willing to invest the money required to build a quality FIA / FIM approved infield road race courses inside their superspeedways like Indianapolis did, or revise their many road race courses like Watkins Glen to be FIA / FIM approved like the new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX. So the motorcycle roadrace and sport car fans stopped coming. The sport has pretty much died. In California, both Laguna Seca and Somona Raceway are part way there, but they they don't draw a big fan base any more because they lack a lot of the spectator amenities that are expected today, and full race viewing is still limited in many areas of the track. And Laguna Seca fans are subject to 2 days of traveling to the event, exorbitant hotel and restaurant costs in the area. A 4-day travel / race weekend to attend Laguna, Barber, Miller Motorsports, etc can easily cost $500 - $1,000.
World Superbike -The First 25 Years December 2012 - We all received the shocking Press Release back on September 2nd 2012 stating that the private equity firm of Bridgepoint, who already owned the MotoGP World Championship under DORNA, had just purchased the sports marketing firm InFront Sports & Media AG, who had themselves become the owners of the World Superbike Championship a few years earlier. The WSBK was then celebrating its 25th year of under the direction of brothers Maurizio and Paolo Flammini, who stepped in to save the fledgling production bike Championship started by ex-racer American Steve McLaughlin in 1987. FastDates.com Pit Board Editorial Editorials Report:State of the Motorcycle Market in America 2007 was the industry's last up year. Sales of motorcycles, ATVs and scooters reached about 1.5 million units. And according to MIC ststics there were in 2008, 13,300 retail outlets in the US split between authorized new vehicle dealers, and independent service and accessory outlet. According to the most recent MIC static, 2012 retail sales of motorcycles, ATVs and scooter were at 677,630 - a drop of about 54% from peak. At the same time the US dealer base dropped from an increased of 14,127 dealers in 2008 (still riding the crest of the wave) to 8,985 in 2012 - a decrease of 36% percent. The Medin Age of a new motorcycle buyers in America is now around 52 years old, and continues to grow about 1 year older per year, signifying no new riders are coming into the sport and the Amerian motorcycle market will end as the Baby Boomers die out. And unlike Europe and Asia where mototcycling is surviving and growing because of traditionally high fuel prices and crowded cities, in America we have become to attahed to our automobiles, so much so that motorcyles will never become a replacement for them. You'll always be able to buy and run and insure a cheap used car at a price lower than a nice used motorcycle. This is not to say Motorccyle Racing will not continue as a spectator sport, as evidenced by the popularity of Supercross at sold-out stadium events across America. But how many people actually buy and ride/race dirt/mx bikes any more? This middle class sport is disappearing with the American middle class as fewer people can afford a truck to haul their expensive dirt bike to a riding area or track, or own a house with a garage to store and work on them. To a lessor extent, the streetbike market is affected similarly. These days kids in high school have little interestor the money in own or drive a cool car, let alone a street bike. - Editor Devastating Motorcycle Industry Statistics - The Decline of Motorcycling in America! Those are two of the findings of J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. Motorcycle Competitive Information Study, which includes responses from close to 8,500 owners who purchased a new 2009 or 2010 model-year on-road or dual-sport motorcycle between September 2009 and May 2010.The study, now in its 13th year, measures owner satisfaction with new motorcycles by examining six major factors of the overall ownership experience: product, build quality, cost of ownership, sales, service and warranty. This is a devastating statistic for the world motorcycle industry, and America in particular. With the median age of motorcycle buyers (and hence riders) going up by 1 year of age, in each of the last 9 years. That essentially means no young new riders are coming into the sport, and sales are dropping at a devastating rate of 5-10% per year, no matter what the economy does to improve. If this trend continues, in just 10-20 years when the median rider age reaches 60-70 years old and riders die off/stopping buying motorcycles, there will be effectively no new motorcycles sold in America. New motorcycle sales in America have dropped some 70-30% among manufacturers in the last 3 years because of the economic collapse in America. Motorcycles are a luxury recreational toy for most Americans, not a transportation necessity as in Europe and Asia. So the American motorcycle market was probably hit harder than any other recreational sport in our country when the down turned economy caused people to stop spending on non -essential big ticket items. This new riders Median Age statistic report means that even if the U.S. economy improves 5-10% per year in the coming years, new motorcycle and product sales will never increase from where they have fallen today. We don't see that happening with TV shows like Stunt Rider on The Speed Channel serving as the only street bike role model for kids, and with the statistic that motorcyclists are 7-times more likely to killed in a road accident compared to automobile drivers. That and the fact many teens don't care about owning their own motorcycles or car any more, and working an after school job like we did as kids to help pay for them. Today's kids would rather stay home, and spend their time and what money they have on electronic gadgetry, games, cell phones and computers. If they need to get somewhere they can hitch a ride with friends or their parents. We have all helped to kill off the entry level motorcycle market. It's all our fault and the industry is coming down around us because of it. Not since the "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda" ad campaign of the 1960's has a motorcycle manufacturer really targeted the entry level / new rider market. And all of us in the Motorcycle Media our guilty of perpetuating this decline in new riders, because we only feature high end and middleweight motorcycles that only affluent older riders can afford to buy. When is the last time a U.S. Motorcycle Publication ran a cover feature story on motor scooters and practical 125cc street bikes that a high school/college kid could afford to buy? Never. The only way to turn this around is to sell affordably priced, financed, and insured entry level motorcycles and scooters to teen angers with their parent's blessing. Motorcycle and scooters that are as cheap and easy to purchase, insure and operate as $2,000 used car. Like many of you I was at the annual International Motorcycle Show, my local venue being in Long Beach Show, CA,this past month. I think I remember seeing about (5) twenty something year olds the day i was there. No one under 20 years. Mostly everyone was 35 years and older. Teen riders can no longer afford, or qualify to finance and insure a motorcycle in the pubic banking and insurance markets. The only solution I might suggest at this point is, the major motorcycle manufacturers and distributors in America must pool together to form their own banking institutions or credit unions, and their own insurance company to finance and insure the motorcycles they sell. If they can eliminate the profit margins earned by big banks and insurance companies and their stock holders, eliminate billion dollar marketing campaigns, the finance and insurance rates would come down for first time, young motorcycle buyers. And speaking of insurance companies - particularly those big names like GEIKO and Progressive Insurance that are targeting the motorcycle market. They're the ones sponsoring the Progressive Insurance International Motorcycle Show, the GEICO motorcycle racing team, and the only paid ads left to support our streetbike magazines like Cycle World and Motorcyclist. They are the ones running expensive non stop prime time TV ads on every station we watch at a cost of Millions of dollar a day, Billions of dollars a year! How much do you think those insurance agencies have to increase their insurance prices rate to pay for that adverting to reach us, the motorcyclists? Well friends and teens, the insurance rates of GEIKO and Progressive Insurance are about 1/3rd more than the insurance companies who don't advertise heavily or have independent agents to support. Low profit insurance agencies like AAA are where you need to go. Rates at AAA can be 50% less if you insure your motorcycle with your family's car and home policy. I also finance my motorcycle purchases on low interest rate Credit Union charge cards and Checks. That way you don't have to buy damage/loss/collision insurance for your bike if you can't afford it, since the credit card purchase is a cash loan that does gives you the title of the bike, not the bank or finance company which requires full replacement insurance. If I crash my bike I fix it myself for the cost of parts. Whereas the insurance company might write off downed bike a toal loss, uppring your rates even more. I have not had collission / loss insurance on any of my motorcycles, ever. These are two great ways to reduce motorcycle insurance costs most people don't think of. - Jim Gianatsis, Editor Update :State of the Motorcycle Market in America 2007 was the industry's last up year. Sales of motorcycles, ATVs and scooters reached about 1.5 million units. And according to MIC ststics there were in 2008, 13,300 retail outlets in the US split between authorized new vehicle dealers, and independent service and accessory outlet. According to the most recent MIC static, 2012 retail sales of motorcycles, ATVs and scooter were at 677,630 - a drop of about 54% from peak. At the same time the US dealer base dropped from an increased of 14,127 dealers in 2008 (still riding the crest of the wave) to 8,985 in 2012 - a decrease of 36% percent. The Medin Age of a new motorcycle buyers in America is now around 52 years old, and continues to grow about 1 year older per year, signifying no new riders are coming into the sport and the Amerian motorcycle market will end as the Baby Boomers die out. And unlike Europe and Asia where mototcycling is surviving and growing because of traditionally high fuel prices and crowded cities, in America we have become to attahed to our automobiles, so much so that motorcyles will never become a replacement for them. You'll always be able to buy and run and insure a cheap used car at a price lower than a nice used motorcycle. This is not to say Motorccyle Racing will not continue as a spectator sport, as evidenced by the popularity of Supercross at sold-out stadium events across America. But how many people actually buy and ride/race dirt/mx bikes any more? This middle class sport is disappearing with the American middle class as fewer people can afford a truck to haul their expensive dirt bike to a riding area or track, or own a house with a garage to store and work on them. To a lessor extent, the streetbike market is affected similarly. These days kids in high school have little interestor the money in own or drive a cool car, let alone a street bike. - Editor Amazon.com Top Brand Motorcycle Apparel & Parts
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