Artday

I'm on vacation, enjoy some stolen pics.

Roots

This photo says so much.

Check out more of our friend Andy's golden oldies here.

Imperial House

Killing it again!

These lids below are for sale, hit up Shawn.

He's also got a new blog going here so you can keep up on latest work and whatnot.

Randoms

While going through the pictures on my camera phone, I uncovered these gems from the V-Twin show in February. Enjoy.


Tyler's baby could not take her eyes off of me, seriously.


The cute bar girl was serving up delicious 32s at the Bro Down.


The tradeshow life was a little too much for BFJosh and he had to power down at the hotel bar for a bit.

My personal favorite.

Hank and Cool Beans Chris keepin' it real prior to the Greco Roman Championship.

2010 Liberator Show

FOB Paul DeJong sends greetings from his home in Aarle-Rixtel. The most famous chopper festival in The Netherlands is about 10 blocks from our friend's shop, so Paul has never misses it. Here's a recap and some photos from the first motorcycle adventure of 2010 in Holland:



Why going to the "Liberator" show for the 29th time when everything is the same? Well, first because it's only half mile away from home, first ride of the year after a very cold winter, and bikes, beers and bitches.

This winter was very cold so Maat of Blanko Loco Custums and I didn't touch our bikes for months, and had only one week to make them ready for the show. Maat had some electical problems and his SR500 was hard to start, but he solved it and rode his bike without drivers license and no motorcycle experience to my shop. It took him 45 minutes to clear the 4-mile ride! He didn't find 2nd gear and rode four miles in first gear, blocking cars and bicycles.

My XL1000 Ironhead had a hard time to start and oil was coming out of the breather but after some minutes it was ready for the first run in 2010, only half mile long but we both were happy to make it to this years "Liberator" run.

We parked our bikes and were going straight to the bar for some cold ones. With bikes over $ 50,000 parking next to us we thought it was over with people checking our bikes, but we were wrong. They checked our bikes more than the bling-bling chrome "custom" machines and pictures were taken by lots of people. Of course that made us smile. They didn't have a bike contest, but Maat's bike was the unofficial winner.

Of course we will go to the 30th "Liberator show" next year but we hope the guys from the club are making it more exciting and make a big change in the set up. If not, Maat and I will organise a show by ourselves in 2012, and it's not gonna be named after a 75 years old motorcycle.

Vantastic Monday

Nothing beats Slim and his van. America, hell yeah!

Speaking of vans, hey SLC gang, check this unit out.

Pantastic Sunday

How lucky are you gonna be when you actually win this machine and ride home with the biggest shit-eatin' grin ever? You can't win if you don't spin, so get some tix over at the Born Free store.

New York Ninjas

Not like those sell out Ninjas in LA, man... Stay tuned.

The Philo

Man, I wanted to be this dude so bad when I was a kid. Or was that yesterday. Ol' Philo rules, and while I'll never be half the man he is I can ride to the event that's been named after him. Our buddies Murray and Gabe are putting on this shindig and it looks like another fine excuse to ride motorcycles to Nor Cal...

The Jules Journey

Our friend Jesse's wife Julie is battling cancer and some local riding buddies have gotten together and organized a benefit ride to Julian, CA, complete with dinner, fine wine and beer, all the good stuff. If you can go, or even if you can't, maybe you can donate a little to help out some fellow riders and all around good people in a time of need. Here's the details.

NORRA Mexican 1000

Last year we talked about racing this. Now it's a month away and we haven't done shit. I hope they keep doing it, because eventually we might be able to pull something off. It would be epic for sure. I'm gonna try and go down and at least spectate for part of it this year.

Check out the NORRA site. You can download course maps and see how much riding these guys are gonna get done on old machines. Respect.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

The Bad Idea

I got this old Chinese knock-off of a '38 Beemer last year from my friend Arto for a ridiculous price because it quit running, couldn't be registered and he knew my kids would get a kick out of it. It sat mocking me while other projects got in the way. I finally got sick of it this week and spent a little time chasing the wiring, found a problem, fixed it and fired it up! We tooled around the parking lot for a while and nothing fell off so we closed up shop and hit the road for a few miles. Rad! Now, on to the registration battle. I can't wait to race this thing at the Hell on Wheels Motorally coming up at the Lake Elsinore MX track. I've got some special paint in mind for this one...

Biltwell 500 Update

OK, here's the scoop. We've moved the event 12 miles farther south to Quatro Casas. This is a pretty well known surf spot, and there is a small hostel and skate bowl there. You can camp, have access to a crapper and shower for $15 per night per person. The camping is right on the bluff and we'll be having nightly bonfires with nude fireworks displays starting about tequila-thirty. There are even a couple beds in the hostel if you are one of the first few there and can grab one. I'd rather sleep on the cliff, so have at 'em.

Richard rents surfboards, wetsuits, etc and will also be cooking some breakfast and dinners and selling beer for $1.50 a bottle, but I have a feeling that we will overwhelm him pretty quick, so be prepared to fend for yourself. Biltwell will be hosting a BBQ on Monday night, so you are covered for one meal.

The route is easy. The only hard part is winding your way through Ensenada if it's your first time. We are leaving from the Denny's in Carlsbad at 9:00AM. This will be efficient for people coming from Long Beach and the Born Free show the day before. There is only one highway that heads south, and as long as you turn right at km146, and then right when you hit the beach, it's nearly impossible to screw up. There is about ten miles of dirt riding to get to Quatros. It's just regular old washboard and you can make it on any bike. If you are scared, please don't come. Here's a super high tech map, plug it into your GPS.

No guns. No drugs.

Please read all the details here: www.biltwellinc.com/500

If you are a Chop Cult member and plan on going, please RSVP so we can get a rough head count. We're really looking forward to this. It won't be an EDR, but I guarantee it'll be plenty of fun.

Ride your motorcycle, yay!

R2S

From your friends at FOTS.

Vantastic Monday

A couple sent from our friend Duane Ballard.

Biltwell 500 Update (Kinda)

Expect a detailed update for the Biltwell 500 in a couple days. The winter storms washed out an important bridge last month so the location is getting changed. Plan B is going to be better anyway! Here's a couple teaser pics, I'll post up a map and all the info this week.

Jake the Snake Benefit

Help a brother out. We're donating this lid, painted up by Old School Helmets just for the raffle. Some of you might remember Jake as the Circle of Death winner from the last EDR. Or some of you may remember him as the heckler during the photoshoot at the Riot. In any case, the dude has been broke off for a long time now and could use some help, so pitch in if you can.

Sprung!

We really can't complain about the weather here at the southwestern tip of Riverside County. It's about the best riding weather year 'round you can ask for. But even here, spring is a welcome sight. We got dumped with rain this year by our standards, which leaves us with a bright green landscape to ride through right now. Wildflowers are going nuts, glasses are getting packed with bugs already but it'll only last a few weeks. Pretty soon it'll be brown again and as summer marches on it'll get stupid hot for a little while. So this is the primo time to get some riding in, even if it just taking the long way home from work.

This change in the weather has got me itching for a bigger ride in a bad way. We've got plenty of riding to do this year, some to events and some just for fun, but I'm looking for any excuse to get out on the highway for as long as possible and go somewhere, especially if it's somewhere new. The FXR is ready to go, and it's gonna get wrung out this year. We're planning on riding to the Twine Ball Run in Kansas, up to Copperopolis, CA for the DTMC party and a whole slew of local stuff (more on that later). Not to mention the always epic Gypsy Run 4, but time's not going to allow a cross-country ride for that one this year. We're going to fly out and borrow or rent bikes, but we're not going to miss it and our friends out there for the world. Coming up next month is a brand new run in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Revenge Run. Tim and the boys putting this on are seriously on point and it looks like it's gonna be one to remember. Mexico is calling, and the 500 should be a blast. In fact I'm going down in the morning to check on the road conditions since the dirt road to the beach was so swamped and muddy last month that we couldn't even make it all the way. I'll report back on what I find on Monday. Either way, we're going in June, it'll just be difficult or really difficult. Either way, it'll be an adventure of one sort or another. We are also working the logistics for a second lap on the Slab City Riot, so don't make any plans for the first weekend of November...

Get that bedroll ready and that bike prepped, there's some trippin' to do, no matter where you are or what you've got to ride.

Pruis Driving School

My sentiments exactly.

Does anything else think this is really Chris Callen from Cycle Source? I swear the voice sounds the same.

Pinstripers Charity Auction

We sent 3 lids out to Chicago Chris to custom paint for a charity auction a few weeks back. He was able to successfully raise $500 using the helmets and a skate deck he did. Here's a few pics of Chris, the event, and the lids.

Snow Domes

Redd from the Chop Shop of Texas and his family barged the slopes in December rocking their Biltwell lids. Nice work guys!

Speaking of the old Gen 1 metal flake novelty helmets, we only have a couple colors still in stock. We're blowing these out to make room for more Mega Flakes that are on the way, so now's your chance to snatch one up on the cheap. Blue, Gold or Purps.

Lowside Mag

What's half the size of a newsstand magazine with twice the soul and lots of East Coast flavor? You guessed it, Lowside. Published out of Baltimore, this quarterly mag promises good things to come. Good bikes, event stories, a hot rod or two, it's good stuff. This is the same publisher that brought you the book Living the Life and the great prints you can snatch up as well.