English 102 Pre-Release

Two of our favorite all-around dudes, Wes & Tyler have just wrapped up the English 102 project and should have them in hand over the next couple days. You can pre order them at the Four Aces Cycle site or at Lowbrow Customs. This latest DVD covers some stuff not shown in 101;

Electrical: Understanding What You Have

Troubleshooting your Electrical System

How-To Wiring & Electrical Tips

Carburetors: Amal, Mikuni & JRC

Rebuilding Your Front End

Mixing & Matching Front End Parts

Rebuilding a Clutch Center

Cam Bushing Installation and Reaming

Sacred Aluminum

Walking down an alley yesterday with Jason from Sacred Steel and noticed we were in Offy-Land. Stoked to see this place firsthand.

Chopped Keys

Here's a peak at the Keystones I am going to toss on my sporty. I took about 2.75" off each side, installed an internal throttle w/billet grips and will be drilling for the internal wiring shortly.

Biltwell 500

It's coming, and we're hearing from lots of folks that I'm really stoked to hang out with again. I think the dirt road has scared off some of the less robust riders, which is perfect! The old saying in Baja is "Bad roads bring good people, and vis-versa." I'm going to do one more prerun just to make sure everything is locked on. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read the details about the event here: Biltwell 500. Basically it's a fend for yourself, baja surf/camp trip and anyone with the right attitude is invited. If you can't go, but want to support the run, buy a support shirt here.

Busy Summer in the Windy City

Ton Up Chicago.

Thanks, Mike!

Check this blasted chunk of aluminum done up by Mike at TattoedWhiteTrash. If you need a sign, hit him up!

Che Bella Donna!

Check this '73 Guzzi T3 California from our friend Francesco in Italy. The Diamond Solo Seat in white looks good, but not as good as all the chicks on his site!

NORRA 1000

NORRA 1000.

Good luck to Eddie Mulder, sadly the only Triumph on the starting line. An HD V-rod sidecar? That's not very vintage, but it sounds like enough of a disaster to make it challenging. Two days from now. Godspeed gents!

Revenge Run 2010

The first annual Revenge Run looks like it was a great time. Support your local grass roots events!

Vantastic Monday

Modern edition.

Paul's XL

Speaking of Holland, Paul's bike looks ready for the road after a hard winter. Lots of BMX and MX influence on this one. Paul, send some pics of your van! If you are in Holland, check him out at Paul's Boutique.

Douche o' The Week

Our friend Bart in Holland did a little interview with me for this week's "Workshop Wednesday" feature on www.fatbmx.com Bart and his brother Paul are good souls and have a lifelong love of things with two wheels. We were drinking with bart and a buddy of his in Vegas one year and his friend got pretty loaded. As the night wore on his English began to fade and the last thing he said before putting money into a candy machine that he thought was a cigarette machine was "Bartman, I am F-A-R-T, Drunk!" Thanks Bart, I'm honored to be on Fat.

The Story of AEE

Finally, a blog worth reading. Go HERE.

Wild cats and private planes!

Thanks to Blue Collar Moto Chris for the link.

Boneshakin'

Spindle sends these pics and witty banter from the UK. Zorst means exhaust to us cheeky yanks!

A few pics of my bikes, with Biltwell parts of course. Novice, the orange bike, was built last year and just check them bars, cut three inch of the ends to get them super narrow, just how us "Manc's" like them to be. Pimper, still a work in progress, all the fab work is done, she's striped down now ready for the expensive stuff, just dig the zorst, there's a Biltwell kit in there somewhere, two sections off a shove zorst nicked of Bobbyl, and two random slashed off cuts stolen from Benny's zorst stash. Happy days.

In it to Win it...

I gots mine. You gots yours? You really shouldn't bother 'cause I'm pretty much planning on winning this motorcycle. Go here and increase your chances. Buy a poster, get a free raffle ticket.

Dual Tracker, Anyone?

I've been thinking about a street tracker built out of a cheap and durable old dual sport forever. This dude did it and it's on CL in Riverside right now. You could spend $2500 on a lot of things that are way less fun.

Keystones

Love this pic sent in by Richard Dunn. Keystones on his '75 Ironhead.

The Big Deuce

I've been on a WW2 bender lately, reading a couple books in a row on the Pacific campaign. Even subscribed to HBO temporarily for the "Pacific" series that is on Sunday nights. I hate television but am a sucker for ten hour war epics and this one is no let down. Last week I saw a link on facebook to this photo collection and was stoked to find so many amazing images. Being an old Marine Corps tanker, it gets me pumped to see the tank pics especially. This is the ultimate marriage of death-dealing and machinery. The airplanes are easy to love, but tanks are just so much more filthy and a team effort at all times. Mobility, Shock, Firepower - forever. No wonder these guys came back and felt like cutting up motorcycles and raising hell.

Revenge Run

Looks like a good weekend comin' up!

Spaced Out

I'm glad to hear my from Rob is not dead, just spaced out. He recently made this motorcycle. Ready for Mexico, Rob?

Bring a Number Plate!

Hell on Wheels Moto Rally & Scramble complete with Beauty Pageant.

This looks real fun and we are stoked to be a part of it. I got two questions: Where's my helmet and what's the course record? BF Josh are going to thrash the bejeezus out of the side car bike on this as long as it can make it around the track. Got some race-prepping to do on that roach this week.

Meatball and his crew are also looking for contestants for the "Miss Hell on Wheels" pageant. Get out to Elsinore to check out some solid local So Cal talent. Talk your girl into entering, win some cash, etc. Details above.

Fill out this form and race your motorcycle just like real men used to do before everyone became a pussy.

Paint by Chicago Chris

Great Grapes! Check this new purple unit done up by Chicago Chris. Yep, that's the same cat who painted up the De Palma bike for Slim. Nice work coming out of the Windy City!

Born Again

Finally getting some momentum back on this project. Finished up a couple little bits and tore it down to the frame. Filling some old holes and getting it to powdercoating before the end of the week if all goes well. It's funny how non-kinetic all the parts become once they are all organized and separated. This was a living, breathing machine that I really enjoyed watching my friend Joel blast down Mexican highways on. Now it's a bunch of greasy bits in baggies. As long as I figure out what all that left over hardware was for, she'll live again, hopefully soon.

Sidecar Musings

So, the old Bad Idea sidecar bike has been officially registered as a 1976 Chang with our glorious state. This was the last hurdle with this bike, and now it's legal. It's not easy working with the DMV and CHP with this kind of oddity for sure. My secret weapon was Nancy at CARS in Temecula. Sure, it costs a few bucks but if you've got something with weird registration or title issues, the ladies at CARS get it done. The phone number there is 951-694-4331. I think they might be the last business in the country to not have a website. Ol' Officer Friendly at CHP was a weirdo but got the job done. I actually rode the beast to and from work today, which was the first time I've really put any miles on a bike and sidecar other than just around the block a few times. I've made some random observations about sidecar driving after today:

Everyone is in a hurry except me

Everyone stops really fast except me

Old people have the opposite of their usual reaction, they all smile

Taking BF Josh and Mike D. to lunch on it today was really gay, and all of us were strangely OK with that

Taking the kids to yogurt after dinner was even better

One of my dogs is too old to get in, the other too hyper to sit still long enough to ride

Willis will dig it

Wide bars make sense. Turning a bike rather than leaning it is odd, especially scary at about 45 mph

45 is the top speed, so far

I wouldn't take the best sidecar rig on the freeway

I need a mirror or we're all going to die

It's really practical to be able to haul so much crap to and from work so easily

Reverse gears rule

You can bring a drink on the road

Gear oil makes things shift better

Splitting lanes is hard

Being able to talk to your dog, kids, friends while riding is kinda fun

Two of you could be pretty drunk and still pull it off (that was Mike's epiphany)

Kinda nice to not have to put your feet down at lights

I'll probably never ride it more than 10 miles or so from the house

Texas Shovel for sale

I'm digging this swinger Shovel in Texas that is running our Low Drag bars. It's for sale. You can get the details here. You should buy it and save me a long trip!

Vantastic Monday

Our friend Tony showed up Friday with this early gem. Yes, those are original painted graphics. Nice find dude!

Hoedown Report

This was pretty early in the day. The whole place filled up later in the afternoon.

Hats off to Kutty, Lisa and everyone else who pitched in on the 2nd Annual Hippy Killer Hoedown. They picked a good location and everything seemed to run real smoothly. We just set up a little Chop Cult booth and passed out a few stickers, shot a few bikes and had a good time with friends instead of working like we usually do.

Our friends AJ and Todd from Lick's came in all the way from Massachusetts and had a good time. BF Josh and Rebecca ran the Lowbrow set up and were proudly hocking Biltwell parts along with a full selection of bungs, patches, cloth wires and all sorts of good stuff.

I was real interested to see our friend Dillon's band, The Creepy Creeps. By the time they came on most of the crowd had split, but the people who stayed got a great show. These dudes know how to get it on and I'm glad we stuck it out.

Tons of quality bikes from all over and plenty of cars which was real cool to have at the same event. I tooled around on the Bad Idea sidecar bike, giving a few rides and shuttling our kit back and forth to the truck. That stupid thing is too fun.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and hung out or said hello, and thanks to the Born Free guys for putting up with McGoo's stories.

The highlight of the day. This cat lost his shirt first and then his dignity when he almost ran into The Laura and Rebecca and dumped his bike. Nice work, dude! I think the girls made him nervous or something.

I heart Courtney's truck.

The car guys made a good showing for sure.

Lowbrow West had a dialed set up. Blue Moon Kustoms got Josh's tank done and FedEx'd just in time for the show.