Cycle News

VOL. 48 ISSUE 8 APRIL 5, 2011 TV, it was the Little Rascals doing a skit where they were bouncing around in skeleton suits and they looked like puppets on a string. "And then that kind of made me think about the rulebook. I remember Dallas Baker. They made him put white shoulder pads on his leathers because his leathers were too dark for Ascot. There was a rule in the rulebook that said you couldn't wear solid black leathers. I don't think anybody ever did because of those rules. They made Baker put three stripes around his knee and his shoulders, so anyway I read the rulebook and it said contrasting colors. So I had this idea and went to Bates Leathers. It had to be legal, but it's going to get attention." Let's backup for a second. At the time the AMA had a real stick in its craw over black leathers. They were trying to improve the image of motorcyclists and black leathers were associated with motorcycle gangs and hooligans. So for a time leathers had to be predominantly white. Those rules were relaxed to allow other colors, but as Aldana pointed out, all black was out. So he certainly knew he was going to be bending some noses in the AMA camp. Technically he thought he'd be okay, at least by the letter of the rulebook, but he knew the racing establishment was not going to like it. Aldana went to a party store and found a paperhanging skeleton that was about his size. "I went to Bates and got my measurements. Then they asked me about how I wanted my number in the back, if I wanted it shaded in orange and that kind of stuff. And then they asked 'What do you want in the front?' I pulled out of the paper bag, the skeleton. It came out kind of like an accordion and I held it up and Bob Rudolph [owner of Bates] said, 'Naw!' And I said, 'Yeah, I want this on the front!' And Bob said, 'No way, David. Are you sure?' And I insisted that was what I wanted on the front." The first person to see the leathers, other than Aldana and the people who made them, was Kenny Roberts. And Roberts' reaction told Aldana he was on the right track. P115 "Kenny was living down in Orange County at the time and we were practicing at Saddleback Park," Aldana recalls. "And he had on his brand new Yamaha leathers. We were out there beating ourselves up on this TT track, it was almost like a motocross track and I was on my Harley. We were trying to get in shape for Houston. It was pretty warm and I had a set of coveralls over my leather suit. "We stopped and we were chatting and we took our helmets off and Kenny looks at me and says, 'Man, aren't you hot?' I said, "Yeah, I am, but I've got to keep it on. I'm breaking in my leathers, trying to get the elbows and the creases in the right places.' He said, 'You've got to be burning up. Let me see them.' And I said 'Nah, nah, it's something I'm saving for Houston." And he said, "Aw no, c'mon, let me see them, let me see them!' So I unzipped the front of my coveralls and I swear to God he almost fell off his motorcycle he was laughing so hard." At the AMA Grand National season opener in Houston they always did a riders' parade before the national anthem. Aldana still wasn't certain the reaction he'd get from the skeleton leathers so he made sure he was one of the last riders in line. "I figured if they didn't go over very good I wanted to be the first guy off the racetrack." When Aldana walked out the crowd at first fell silent. "I could see 30-40 thousand heads turn, I saw arms pointing and I thought, 'Aw, man. What have I done? What have I done?'" But then the crowd stood up and cheered. They loved Aldana already and now these crazyass leathers. It was perfect. The legend of David "Bones" Aldana was born and to this day when he races vintage meets his racing leathers have that same design. "That's what the fans came to see," Aldana laughs. "And I want to give them what they want." CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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