Motorcycle

It's been a bumpy ride for the custom motorcycle business as sales of pricey, blinged-out bikes skidded with the economy. But one bike scene is thriving, and that's been a boon for Ryca Motors in Whittier. The company sells build-it-yourself motorcycles that cost $3,600 to $7,500, or a fraction of the cost of souped-up custom bikes. Its CS-1 Cafe Racer is the creation of builders Ryan Rajewski and Casey Stevenson, who decided that if they were going to go to all the trouble of building a one-off, they might as well reproduce all the parts and offer them as a kit. The result is a motorcycle with all the style of a classic street racer at a far lower price.

A Canoga Park teen-ager died Saturday night after his motorcycle struck a pickup truck in Newhall, a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman said Sunday. The victim, identified by police as John E. Lappin, 17, was traveling east on California 126 near McBean Parkway about 7:50 p.m. when he failed to negotiate a curve and sideswiped the truck, Officer Diane Lowery said.

Anthony Carleo needed to ditch some "cranberries. " Fast. And this week, authorities said, he found an eager buyer. The man agreed to meet Carleo at the lavish Bellagio casino, where in early December a gunman had swiped $1.5 million in casino chips, including $25,000 chips known as cranberries, and sped off on a motorcycle. Las Vegas police say Carleo sold the man a $25,000 Bellagio chip that Carleo said had been stolen. The next night, court papers said, Carleo sold the man four more.

Two men were seriously injured when a motorcycle on Coast Highway in Newport Beach collided with a car turning out of a private driveway, police said. The motorcyclist, Adam T. Snyder, 20, of San Clemente, was listed in stable condition in Fountain Valley Regional Hospital with head injuries and fractured ribs. Sheridan Winkelman, 59, of San Clemente suffered chest injuries and was hospitalized in serious condition.

At Friday night's second round in the $40,000 National Championship Series for speedway motorcycles at Veteran Stadium in Long Beach, 24 of the participants will be trying to go the fastest. For the 25th, however, speed will rate second to distance. That man is Earnie Adams, a 30-year-old Tennessean who will attempt to beat the distance record for motorcycle jumping. The mark he is shooting for is 176 feet 4 1/2 inches set in 1981 by Gary Wells of Phoenix.

Jon Fitzgerald's documentary "The Highest Pass" ventures from Rishikesh in northern India up and up into the Himalayas to track six men and one woman - all Westerners - as they follow a 27-year-old yogi in a motorcycle caravan to the highest drivable road in the world. For the team, one of whom (narrator-writer Adam Schomer) has just learned how to ride a motorcycle in the weeks prior, the excursion seems a little more daring than usual since Anand Mehrotra, their handsome guide, has never made the pilgrimage himself.

Actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman knew they were putting their friendship to a strenuous test when they left London and began their motorcycle trek around the world in April. The pair's grueling odyssey is chronicled in "Long Way Round," a six-part limited series premiering Thursday on Bravo.

Years ago, David Heintzelman carried his deceased friend's ashes to a cemetery on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The friend's family told Heintzelman, funeral director of Heintzelman Funeral Home in Hellertown, Pa., that it was good to know their loved one had ridden on a Harley for one final time. An idea was born. In 2005, Heintzelman and his brother, Robert, both Harley enthusiasts, started Forever Remembered Hearse Co. The motorcycle hearse company featured a three-wheel Harley towing a converted cargo trailer.

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte West was indicted Tuesday on additional weapons and traffic charges stemming from his Sept. 17 arrest for speeding on a motorcycle and carrying multiple weapons. The eight-count indictment sheds no new light on why West, 26, was riding a motorcycle on the Capital Beltway in Prince George's County, Md., at 10 p.m. with two loaded handguns and a loaded shotgun. Prosecutors added an 8 1/2 -inch Bowie knife to the list of concealed weapons West was carrying.