Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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riders' leathers for a lot of years. I did a lot of leathers for their test teams, too, but they would send me a purchase order for those. One thing I'd like to add is that when I made Corky's suit, he saw it and said, "Dee, you got to put a logo on there." I said I didn't know how to design a logo. He said, "Well, you know, there's ABC (Custom Leath- ers) and now there's D. Make it D's." And that's how "D-apostro- phe-s" became my logo. Did you ever make leath- ers for the Honda factory team when Ricky Graham and Bubba Shobert were the riders? Never did. Not that I wouldn't have, but they never approached me. But you made leathers for privateers riding Hondas? Oh, yes. Steve Morehead, Ronnie Jones, Tim Mertens and more. I also made Randy's and Doug Chandler's when they rode for Freddie Spencer's Honda team in 1985. Randy Goss is your son- in-law. Correct? My eldest daughter, Vicky, and Randy have been married for 43 years. Small world, isn't it! Kind of is, isn't it? Their daughter, Janice, is also married to a racer, NASCAR driver Aric Almirola, and they have a son and a daughter. And they met when Randy was a NASCAR crew chief on the Jack Roush truck team after he retired from motor- cycle racing? Yes, Janice would go to the races with Randy and got to know Aric there. Did you ever make one- piece road race leathers? I think in the beginning I made two sets, but I got so busy with dirt track orders that I didn't take any more orders. I never had a helper. I was doing everything myself, except cutting the letters and numbers, which my Vicky took on because she was so very, very good at it. She'd sit at the kitchen table with a razor blade for hours carefully making sure each letter or number was perfect. How old was she when she was slaving away for you in the kitchen? Well, she was probably a young teenager. Nowadays if she did that, you would probably be charged with child cruelty and endangerment. I know, I was a terrible mom! (laughing) Funny how a family working together now would be a criminal offense, isn't it? Since you made so many sets of leathers over the years, several your customers must not have been local. How did you manage the measuring situation? I'd say maybe three-quarters of all the suits I made were long-distance orders. So, I'd instruct the guys, or their wives or girlfriends, over the phone on how to measure themselves. Height and weight were the first items I needed. Did they drink beer? What size jeans did they wear? Did they wrestle? If they drank beer and told me their jeans waist size, I added two inches and shortened the length by two inches. And that would pretty much tell me everything I needed to know. Men are a real standard shape, and after about 10 minutes on the phone with a man, I could make a set of leath- ers that fit him perfectly. I guess I was blessed to be able to do that. I could never have done that with women. And thanks to Wanda and her magical pat- terns, I never had to alter a suit that I made. VOLUME 59 ISSUE 12 MARCH 22, 2022 P125 "If I get sick, really sick, and y d't think I'm g•ng to make it, just bring a XR Hley undneath the bedr‚m windƒ and rev it, then I'll make it thrgh. I l…e that snd."