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November 2024 saw Arctic Cat announce layoffs and a production pause at its Thief River Falls ATV , UTV and Snowmobile facility in Minnesota . The company said at that stage that it planned to restart production in Q1 2025 and stressed that it is not shutting the plant down permanently . However , only a month later parent company Textron stated that " upon completion of limited production runs to satisfy consumer commitments , production of powersports products will be paused indefinitely in the first half of 2025 " with the owner looking for a buyer for its entire Arctic Cat subsidiary . This would likely also involve the St . Cloud Mn . facility . Hobbled by excess inventory , Arctic Cat sold to Textron for $ 247m in 2017 . In January 2025 Textron reported 2024 sales of $ 13.7bn and forecast $ 14.7bn for 2025 . Historically best known as a defence contractor , Providence , RI based Textron additionally owns brands such as Bell Helicopters , Cessna and Beechcraft .

The MRF reports that an important study has been released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ( IIHS ) regarding high-visibility clothing . According to the IIHS , " clothing that makes pedestrians stand out to human drivers may make them invisible to automated crash prevention systems ." Test dummies wearing clothing with features like reflective strips were invisible to technology designed to prevent crashes . While the tests were conducted using pedestrian test dummies , it ' s not hard to extrapolate what these findings might mean to motorcyclists . Some bikers choose to wear high-visibility clothing , in an attempt to make themselves more visible .

The 2025 Drag Specialties FatBook cover bike is a beautiful blend of two eras of performance – it taps into the current popular " bagger racing " trend but has design cues and custom touches that are drawn from a type of custom motorcycle design that was popular a few decades earlier . " The performance bagger style is really hot right now ," Cheeseman said . " But I am really a fan of the 90s Pro Street look and style – a little more sheet metal , the overall look of the bike dropped a little lower . I wanted that Pro Street look , but to improve on the performance aspect of it with parts we didn ' t have back then but are available now ." The build started with a stock 2023 Low Rider ST . Then Cheeseman and his crew took a look through the FatBook for parts that would result in a cool blend of those two styles . " There are so many good parts to choose from ," he said . " What it really came down to when making the choices was , does it real ly work for this build or not ?"

The first change was a Paul Yaffe " The Fix " rear fender kit . " That Yaffe fender is phenomenal ," Cheeseman said . " It just works so well at cleaning up the rear end of the bike . And the little details like the license plate frame already being Frenched into the fender , the no taillight look ," he said . To further clean up the rear lines of the bike , Cheeseman fabricated a new set of saddlebag mounts . " It drops the bags maybe an inch or so ," he said . " It brings the line down a little bit , tucks them in more , makes it look smoother and sleeker . And the mounts are fully adjustable ." The front end uses a modified Klock

Werks front fender . Cheeseman also fabricated custom fender brackets to get the ideal fit and flow of the fender line to match the Pro Street shape he wanted . The front suspension was upgraded using a Legend Suspensions 43 mm AXEO kit , and the rear suspension is now handled by a Legend Suspensions Air-A Mono kit . Braking power was upgraded with SlyFox 2-piece rotors at the front and rear . The front end also saw a set of Speed Merchant radial brake rotor caliper mounts paired with