We'll have 'em next week...

Next week: sparkly new Purple Peter Eater and Root Beer helmets and another batch of seat hinges too.

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down

...to Long Beach that is. We'll be in the usual spot over by Wes on the North fence. Helmets and some deals on 7/8" bars, as well as a Buell front end and a few choice parts from our personal stashes. See you then.

Sold

SOLD. Thanks Roger, see you Sunday. Shocks are back on, you are going to be stoked!

Ready to Rumble?

This is pretty much in our backyard, so you locals who have been looking for something to do, strap some wood to the sissy bar and get your ass to Ramona. It's put on by solid people and we'll be there supporting them.

What a Difference a Pro Makes

So, me and Mom have made two vinyl covers for the cut down stock seat pan on my '98 Sportster. They did the job fine but the vinyl just didn't hold up to the abuse. Getting a pro like Duane Ballard to cover a seat was completely off my radar since I'm such a cheap bastard. After tearing up the second seat, I figured it was time to do it right. Duane is probably best known for his intricate tooling on solo seats and bags used on real professional-built customs so I wasn't even sure he'd want to do some lowly sporty seat, but he was into it and I'm stoked! He used the pan I had cut down previously, but massaged my half-assed foam work into a symmetrical shape and covered it in soft calf-skin with white contrast stitching. Look Ma, no more wrinkles! Or cheesy staples. Proof that the DB can do just about anything. You can bet I'll be popping this sucker on the bike first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks, Duane!

*For those of you who have been asking, we are still working on a finished, bolt-on seat like this, but it'll be a while. We're developing a new hidden-hardware way to attach it and molding our own custom pan and foam so it's a long process.

More customer bikes

Check out Michael from Upland, CA's '02 Triumph Bonneville. It's the first modern Bonne I've seen with a Biltwell Solo Seat and it looks pretty sweet.



Also, representing San Dog, our buddy Oscar finally sent some pics of his Shovelhead "La Malinche" he bought from Scotty up in Sacto last year. He won some trophy with it a couple weekends ago and won't quit rubbing it in Fredo's face. Probably won because of those sweet Biltwell exhaust tips and the custom 2-into-1 exhaust he built from the kit. Big O is our official riser-tester with those ridiculous apes of his. If we can get a set to hold those tight, they'll work great on sensible bars...

Thanks for the pics guys.

-Bill

Jeremy's Sportster

Jeremy put our struts and solo seat on his sporty and along with some other changes really made a difference to his bike. Nice rear fender and light combo too.

Thanks for the pics Jeremy!

Seat Pan

Local Leather guy Chip Purkey covered one of our pan and foam kits for a customers bike last week. Chip is a great guy and has years of experience if you can't tell from the pics. Thanks Chip!

BMW-powered Sporty?

Brooks Manbeck and friends make do in Big Bear.

33rd Annual El Camino Swap Meet: RIP?

Last night SD dogs Oscar and Fredo, Boozefighter Josh, Four Aces Wes and Jeff from the SFV camped out with Chris, Bill and I at the 33rd and possibly last El Camino Swap Meet & Motorcycle Show in Torrance, CA. Sales were brisk, and it was a watershed year for cool motorcycles. Jeff scrounged up a basketcase Knuckle project with original frame, decent cases, complete top end and four milk crates full of extra bits for a song, and the rest of us spent every dime we earned selling our old rusty shit for a new supply of old rusty shit. Word on the streets is Topping Events will be taking over the ECSM next year, so this great fall tradition might live on. Thanks to Oscar for bringing The Captain and to everyone else for visiting our booth.

Cathy is a crazy old bat who buzzed around in a souped-up baby buggy all day screaming, "Nobody wants to race me!" Only in LA.

The ECSM is unique in that it brings out cool motorcycles and the men who build them… 

See what I mean.

ECSM organizers don't play god when it comes to motorcycles. If it has two wheels, it (and you) are welcome aboard. This SL70's $3k price tag seemed higher than a giraffe's testicles, but it and the Trail 70 behind it are indicative of the kind of cool pit bikes and playthings you'll see in Torrance every September.

When vintage parts and classic customs span the tarmac as far as the eye can see, you need a hook to attract customers. This was my favorite show stopper: a psychotic Siamese twin riding shotgun on a handsome miniature stallion. It reminded me of a husband-and-wife combo I saw on a 104th Anniversary™ H-D Electrocardioglide® on the 91 east last week.



Heikki Mikkola didn't make an appearance at the swap this weekend, but his motorcycle was there.



Where do you sit? I don't know, so please don't ask. Sit wrong, however, and you might end up with your scrotum in a velocity stack.



When the sun went down, Capt. Morgan waved his sword. That's Bill talking cigars with Oscar and Fredo.



I'm green, so I had to ask Wes White what BSA stands for. He told me, "Broke Something Again." I love British humor…

7/8" Bars Blow Out Sale!!!!

We are selling all of our 7/8" handle bars left in stock and ending production on all 7/8" models. Check our "Where to Buy" section up top in the right hand corner and get ahold of Lick's or Four Aces to get a set while they last. Keystones are already gone so get one of the last pairs of our Aces, Friscos or Clubmans in 7/8".

*We are still making all our models in 1" and those are available too for regular MSRP through any of our dealers as well.

Wham-O!

Who doesn't need a Precision Engineered Permanent Accessory?

I hate to wax nostalgic this early in the morning, but damn look how fun it can be to ride wheelies bare foot! Nowadays a company would be sued by the Nannys of America in a heartbeat for promoting something as blatantly life-threatening as that...

Behind The Scenes: VPD Studios

Today Chris and I shot old Mr. Potato Pan for the new Biltwell brochure.

Stew and Sheldon have chronicled all three EDR's in photos and video, and they've shot every hot chick that's ever graced a Biltwell ad, website or catalog.

Here Stew checks focus on Sayaka's eyeball. Trust me—his photo is way sharper than mine.

Our good friend Yuriko from Japan came to the studio with Sayaka to keep things honest, so we asked her to model some t-shirts and hats. We'll post some teasers from the beauty shoot next week. In November we'll tell you how to get your hands on a Biltwell mini poster for your garage.

Frisco Bars

What is it with all of the Sporties these days? I'll tell you what it is, there were about a bazillion of 'em made and lots of them ended up under wives and beginner riders who put more chrome trinkets on them than hard miles. So what this leaves is a glut of low-mileage, undervalued bikes on craigslist for people like us to poach and then make our own. Thanks, Mom! McGoo picked one up a year or two ago that some tweaker bought his old lady and she never got into riding it. Ten years old and under a thousand miles on the clock, a perfect donor. Sure it's no Knucklehead, but for the price and reliability it's a pretty hard to beat package. Add in a little aftermarket support like some good weld-on hard tails, Flyrite's Smokin' Gun frame or even some of our junk bolted on a stocker and you've got something worth riding.

Here's a couple pics of Frisco bars on Jason's '99 XL. In his own words; "The only mod I hade to make was to to file a little hole on the perch where the perch and the control housing meet. It took all of about 10 seconds to do." he didn't have to replace all the cables, wires, etc and kept his original controls. The Friscos line up nicely with the Narrow Glide legs, or try narrowing a pair like I did on my old Triumph.

ECC Swap

We'll see you at my Alma Matter, El Camino College in Torrance on Saturday. We'll have the usual rusty junk, helmets, some smokin' deals on discontinued 7/8" bars, and anything else we can cram in the van.

I like this swap because there seems to be more old dudes with good stuff who don't go to Long Beach and lots more complete bikes for sale. Here's some pics from last year.

-Bill

Confession Time...

I wanted to hate it. I loathe pretty much everything on TV, but I was a sucker for the Sopranos the first couple years and The Shield was good 'till I lost interest. Now I have a new night time Soap Opera. That's right, Sons of Anarchy on FX. There, I said it outloud. It's Todd from Iron Horse Magazine's fault, I blame him. It really has zero motorcycle culture and not a single interesting bike in three episodes but I always had a thing for Peg Bundy. I sure hope it doesn't make people who think they are tough because they bought a motorcycle think they are even tougher after watching it...

Shamefully yours,
Bill

Scotch Brite is your friend

Jarod Baas from Lancaster, Ohio sent these pics of our chrome Keystone bars on his bike. He scotch brited pretty much everything he said and it looks great! Thanks for the pics.

WTF?!

Wes White has lost his damn mind. Complete with tricep-warmers. Love it.

Vote!

New ad on Knucklebuster Inc.

El Cheapo Update

Finally got some time this morning to tear into the Sportster. Seems a few rough roads took their toll on the stock rubber isolator mounts for the oil bag and battery tray. This shorted out one wire that got caught under the tray and the vibration wasted the battery. A couple new mounts from McGoo's parts bin, a new battery, a nice bath, and it's back on the road. Also, got some cool new bars from Boylecomm to try out. They are real low and I narrowed them a little more. Kinda has that drag bike feel with more style than just a broomstick. The best news is that I tore the seat up a little bit so instead of doing another home-made job, it's going to Duane Ballard for a real seat cover. I've seen wallets, bags and a bunch of solo seats from DB, but never a seat like this so I'm pretty stoked to see what he cooks up. In the mean time I rode it around with no seat and after last week, it actually doesn't seem that bad...

-Bill

Snowflakes in Santa Ana?

It's on eBay and you should buy it and let me ride it!

Once in a Blue Moon...

We get questioned once in a while on why we don't sell helmets with pre-applied graphics. This is why. Look what the Blue Moon Kustoms guys did in a couple days with stock silver Biltwell lids! Support your local sprayer/line slinger!

Patch Hats are in...

Sweet truckers with a sewn-on patch, not just that cheesy iron-on crap.
Now available in the merch store!

Backroad Action!

Ground Zero Throwdown 3.0 from Biltwell Inc. on Vimeo.

Who said choppers can't ride a little dirt? This was fun. Please excuse my amateur video editing. Thanks to Josh for letting me ruin his camera mounting it to my bars for a while...

California Bike Week—October 24-26

Jay Leno's Love Ride terminates at the LA Fairgrounds this year at an event called California Bike Week. That's worth mentioning merely because CA Bike Week is only three days long. Whatever. We'll be there. So will DB Custom Leather, Hippy Killer Garage, and God only knows who else. If you like chrome and leather and denim and the Foo Fighters and fairground victuals, this is the place. Look for the Biltwell booth and ask for some free shit. We're going to CA Bike Week because it's in our own back yard, and because McGoo loves ZZ Top.

RUMBLE IN RAMONA

Join us and our friends Wes from Four Aces and Duane at DB Custom Leather at the Rumble in Ramona October 17-18, 2008. We'll be doling out random free crap at the Biltwell booth and selling helmets, parts and t-shirts to pay for gas and rent. The crew from Creature knows how to party, so the Rumble in Ramona should be a good time. Hey Holly—thanks for letting us pig off your jam. 

-- Animal Chin