Did he pay for that one?
DEALER SAYS SHAQ FAILED TO PONY UP FOR BIG BIKE
This is a bike designed with a Superman in mind, as evidenced by the nearly three dozen times the big S logo appears on it.
Superman in this case is basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal, who is being sued by the Daytona Harley-Davidson dealership that custom-built the motorcycle.
The dealership claims that the Los Angeles Lakers basketball star, who has a home in Orlando, reneged on a deal to pay $130,000 for the one-of-a-kind bike made to suit his 7-foot-1, 340-pound body and built according to his design requests.
"You can't just walk into a shop and get a king-sized bike," said Bruce Rossmeyer, owner of the dealership. "It took us a year and a half to build it, and every part on it was handmade."
Several attempts to reach O'Neal through the Lakers and through his agents in Woodland Hills, Calif., and Las Vegas were unsuccessful.
The bike costs less than what O'Neal, a former Orlando Magic player, reportedly makes by halftime during a single NBA game. An episode earlier this month, when O'Neal was suspended without pay for one game for using profanity on live TV, cost him nearly $295,000.
O'Neal seemed happy with the bike when Harley employees delivered it to his Isleworth home last September, Rossmeyer said.
However, the Daytona shop said it never got payment from him. Rossmeyer said he retrieved the bike, brought it back to Beach Street and hopes the courts will help him. A trial date on the Feb. 1 lawsuit is not set.
Rossmeyer said he had no reason to doubt that the former Orlando Magic center would pay for the bike after ordering it. O'Neal got his first riding lessons at the Daytona dealership, he said. One store employee remembered the lessons because Shaq on a normal-sized bike looked as odd as a normal-sized man on a mini bike.
And the supersized star had already bought one custom-made bike from the Daytona dealership, Rossmeyer said.
Tim Gabel, who helped build both bikes, said a motorcycle for such a big guy requires everything made bigger, longer and better able to withstand the weight. Employees testing out the bikes had to use stilts and temporary handlebar extensions to maneuver it.
The lawsuit claims that O'Neal asked for this second bike, a one-of-a-kind model that would be "out there" and would "blow everything else away."
The finishing touches include a Shaq plate and the Superman logo -- which O'Neal has tattooed on his arm -- painted, hand-engraved or built into the motorcycle 34 times, the same number as his Lakers uniform.
Rossmeyer would be willing to sell the bike to someone else, but he doesn't think he would find a buyer.
"Who could ride it?"
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