Ground Zero 3.0

Go.

Merch Store is Open

We're going to be doing some house-cleaning on this site over the next couple weeks. Nothing major, just re-organizing some things, updating product information and adding some of the new parts. Hopefully it'll be even easier to browse around and check stuff out. One new feature that's already working is a web store for buying shirts, hoodies, hats, etc. It's up and operational, so if you need some new Biltwell threads here's where the newest stuff is and it's ready to ship: Online Apparel Store.

Road trippin

Bill, McGoo, Joel and i just got back from the Smokeout in North Carolina. What a fun trip! The people in NC and everyone that showed up was great. Thanks to the Lick's crew for being a part of the event with us, and Lowbrow Tyler for kicking ass! Events are about the people that take the time and go to them. I love getting to go to and be a part of events and hang out with people from other regions and experience parts of different scenes and riding in different parts of the country. The riding out there was beautiful and unlike anything here in CA. We stopped in OKC for a day and spent time with my family and friends and rode all over. Thanks to Dale, Dan and all the guys at Freedom for the quick flat repair on Bill's sporty. Freedom is definitely my favorite shop ever and is always a welcome site when I get to go back home. Here are a few pics from home in OK and riding around in NC.

-Chris


Moms


Ain't no BBQ like in the midwest!


Classic Style thats Joel


Bill "struttin" down the 40


reheating a burrito in the hot sun for breakfast

Happy Father's Day

Strut Your Stuff

So I popped a pair of our new struts on my Sportster tonight. Found out you might have to clearance the bottom boss, depending on where your axle is on the swingarm. I took each strut to the grinder for about 30 seconds and they bolted right up. You could do the same thing by adding a washer to the inside on top and bottom, it would space them out just far enough to clear the washers on the axle. I wanted them tight, so I just carved a little off and it's all underneath so you can't see it at all.



So, how's it ride? I gotta admit I've never really liked struts, but I've never ridden with them either, I had just judged by looks and philosophy. Seemed like the worst of both worlds - bad looks of a swingarm bike and harsh ride of a rigid. Well, shows what I know. As struts go, these have to be some of the best looking ever. And as far as riding, well, it changed everything. I've ridden rigids and swingarm bikes aplenty, but I've never been able to do a before and after comparison like you can with struts. I love the predictability of a rigid in the corners and the bouncing over rough stuff while you are on the throttle is hard to beat. I already had the lowest shocks possible on this bike, but the struts lowered it another inch or so, making the weight transfer shift rearward so it just feels like it's hooking up better and the front end feels lighter. Not a bad deal, no matter how you slice it.



I also added some cool new clear grips from Kutty at Hippy Killer Garage. Found out you can't safety wire those like soft grips. After a few miles, the wire cut right through 'em. Looks kinda cool anyway, so I'll run 'em like this. Also made a new throttle cable since the old one was fraying and with McGoo's special mods this prototype (notice Quick Steel keeping the stop-pin in) billet throttle snaps like a pro-prepped motocrosser. Snappy throttle and rigid ass end = more fun to blast around. Sometimes the simple mods are the best...

-Bill

Heading East with Beer!

We are heading to the Smokeout in North Carolina and if you are there come by and see if we have any beer. We will have some of our new prototype parts and be hanging with all our crew from the East Coast Invasion that came on the EDR with us this year! Lick's will be there with us selling parts and setting up East Coast Dealers as well so if you have a shop come talk to us!

Struts are in stock!!!

Thats right the long awaited struts are now here in stock and ready to ship to your front door for only $99 a set! Check out our Where To Buy section and order a set from one of our fine retailers.

These Struts were developed for sportsters but could be used on any bike that will accept 10” eye to eye struts with 1/2” bores for shock bolts/studs. They are finished with a super durable black electroplate finish.

You can install these yourself in about five minutes if you stop in the middle of the job to get another beer. Make sure you have enough clearance between your tire and fender/tailight wire, etc. Here is a pic of Bill's sporty with a set of them on. Man thats Tough!

The End is Near...

A couple of posts ago I was going on about how we should all ride motorcycles and lower our carbon footprint and have more fun at the same time, yada yada. Today, I'm at the cell-phone store getting raped and notice this mini-chopper in the parking lot. It had a license plate on it. I went about my business and then finally asked the ever-helpful rapist behind the counter if he knew the pilot of said machine. He kind of smirked and then nodded towards another employee like he had been through this conversation before. The guy he pointed out was about 5' 10" or so and a grown-ass man of about 30. I replied with something like "Wow, I thought maybe you guys had a cool midget working in the back or something, I had no idea a full-size dude would rock that thing". He said the guy was super proud of it. It's a 3/4 chopper, not a 1/2 so it can be registered for the street. Mr. 3/4 rides it about 50 miles round trip every day, most of it on the freeway and the return trip generally at night. I guess if anyone asks him about it he'll go into the whole story for about 20 minutes. Thankfully I didn't have the time for the extended version, but I did pick up that he snagged it off of Craig's List (of course) for $1500 and gets about 75mpg. Maybe he's laughing all the way to the bank, eh Mr. SuperDuty driver? I remember my dad surrendering to the gas crunch of the 70's by ditching the family wagon and getting a Chevette and turning his 3-speed Sears Special bicycle into a long-distance commuter, but man, a mini bike? A seriously hideous mini-bike? On the 15 Freeway? The world is obviously coming to an end, I just hope it's soon...

-Bill

Apocolypso

Our friend Alan Close out in Michigan rules. Check out these oil paintings he did recently for a charity raffle at the Detroit Autorama. He also printed up a cool coloring book that he sells through Tyler at Lowbrow Customs. They are supposed to be real neat, but I wouldn't know, he keeps selling them all instead of sending me one! Thanks, Al you are one talented dude, no matter the medium.

-Bill

Another one from Duane Ballard

Here's another sweet job by Duane, this one obviously for Hot Bike magazine. Duane and family are moving out our way here soon and we'll be stoked to get to see more of them.

Time Travel, Jet lag & New Parts

This photo was taken a little over five hours ago at 9:15 p.m. Friday, June 6... or was it?

It's 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning in SoCal and I feel like I've been up for a thousand hours. When I look at everything we finished this week I think maybe I have.

Here's a random sampling of the last-minute stuff we wrapped up before taking the bus to the airport this evening:

Did somebody say "CNC-machined billet 6061 aluminum with hand-polished and chrome-plated finish?" That's what I thought. Chris and our friend Erik submitted SolidWorks drawings of this bar riser to our factory a couple months ago, and we saw the first raw CNC'ed samples last week. This morning the factory delivered the finished product dripping in the beautiful chrome plate you see here. Trust me when I tell you, these things are absolutely stunning. Expect to see them in person at the Smokeout East in two weeks.

Satin black electroplate continues to be the most popular finish in our handlebar array, but several customers and bike builders have asked us to do our 1-inch OD bars with stock-H-D dimples for hand controls. Your wish is our command. We've added dimples to our 1-inch Frisco, Keystone and Aces Bar for easy installation on any bike with stock H-D hand controls. 

Here's a detail of that dimple on the underside of the Frisco bars shown above.

Chris and I were so stoked when we received our last-minute chrome-plated samples, we busted out this makeshift studio with an old SNAFU BMX banner that was lying around. In case you are wondering, the factory that makes CNC-machined billet alloy goosenecks for BMX companies like FlyBikes and SNAFU also makes our new bar risers and billet alloy throttle.

The body of our new throttle fits 1-inch bars and is CNC machined from billet 6061 aluminum. It comes with a CNC'ed alloy throttle tube that works with all stock double and custom single cable applications. Chris designed a clever solution for cable fitment that involves a set of screw-in ferrules. These ferrules work with both 1/4-20 and 5/16-18 cable adjusters from a broad range of H-D model years, or you can do like we do and just make custom throttle cables yourself. The throttle body will be available in two finishes (C/P and black electroplate) and the throttle tube will be anodized for durability and smooth operation. Chris has spent many months dialing in the function and universality of this new Biltwell product, and when it's available in late summer we think it's going to leave everyone who sees it very impressed.

Blog o' the Year

Blogs are like buttholes these days, we've all got 'em and most of them stink. This one is my favorite: Nostalgia on Wheels. It's like reading a hundred great old bike mags but cutting out the bad jokes and floppy naturals and getting straight to the golden goodness, and insightful captions make it even better. If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to go get a 12-pack, you're gonna be here a while...

-Bill

Moving Forward...

Rouser's at it again, this time with an Iron Head and some of our forward controls...

¡ Viva España !

We got a nice surprise visit yesterday from our friend Luis and his girl from the Spain-based chopper magazine Custom Machines. We met Luis last year on the Gypsy Run in Brooklyn and he shot some pics of Chris' bike there. Of course he shot it again since it looks so different now. He even rolled my sporty out for a few shots. They'll be in town for the next month so if you bump into 'em treat them right!

-Bill

Creepy.

And not in a good way.

Sweet kill switch

Show yer tips...

Giant Cocks & Purple Helmets

If you like our metal flake colors, you'll love our new purple helmet:



One day after polishing our purple helmet we bumped into this enormous cock:



There's never a dull moment when we visit our factories. Here's some other cool stuff from day four on the Flower Island:



Lunch at Sun Moon Lake.

Tomorrow We're off to the CNC factory to wrap up technical and finish details on our alcohol-powered ignition cover and billet alloy throttle. We're also visiting the chiropractor for some much-needed acupuncture and back cracking... stay tuned for photos...

Damn Ams!

In about two weeks we'll be loading the team van with sparkly helmets and heading east to Horse Magazine's annual Smoke Out. None of us have ever been to the east event, but it's a legendary party so we gotta check it out. The Horse added a cool thing this year, the Amateur Chop Off. Check out these "ACO" bike pics poached from the Backtalk forum. Whoa! What kind of amateurs are these? The bikes look nuts and they're done two weeks ahead of schedule? WTF?! Good work guys!

Respect

The 555!



Number of wrecks: 4

Number of times bikes have seen the ground: 7

Number of fouled spark plugs: 26

Miles covered thus far: 2100

Times rags have sucked through carb/engine/exhaust: 1

# of engines split: 2

Max speed attained: 90

Police investigations involved in: 1

Hospital visits: 1

Number of women interested in us: 0

Choppertown / Brittown

Zack and Scott of One World Studios are on a whirlwind Summer Tour across Europe doing screenings of Brittown and Choppertown from Amsterdam to London, they will be trotting the globe and spreading the Meatball gospel. To show support for indy filmmakers and the people who dig their craft, Biltwell has donated a grip of helmets to be given out at raffle prizes at each showing. If you haven't seen the latest release from these guys, get it here: Brittown.

Thanks for letting us be a part of the party, guys.


Here's a pic of the winner last month in Vancouver B.C.

We get Kanji tattoos

that we think say fierce tiger dragon or have our birth signs but when an Asian person walks by and laughs maybe it reads different. Here is a shirt I just picked up at the street market and I'm not sure what they think it says but we couldn't say it any better!



-Chris

Sportster Struts and Lunch

We have been working on these for awhile and are pretty psyched. Black electro plated and bolt on in minutes to lower and change the look of your stock evo sporty! Should be in stock in 30 days!






Which came first I don't know but its lunch time!
-Chris