7/31/07

One Size Fits Most? How is that Possible?

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Today Chris, Bill and I had lunch with Courtney, the esteemed editor of "Street Choppers" magazine, at a tasty sushi joint in Corona, CA. Courtney brought some recent issues of his aforementioned ascendent periodical, plus more ubiquitous titles like "Hot Bike" and "Baggers" magazine. Needless to say, we were impressed. Since joining forces with "Hot Bike" editor Ernie Lopez, both titles have taken a star turn in terms of variety, creativity and breadth of knowledge and perspective. Courtney was very flattering in his praise for our efforts with Biltwell products, and showed his appreciation by featuring our seat pan and seat bracket in the new products section of this month's "Hot Bike" magazine. Ernie and some co-workers and friends joined us on last spring's EDR, and his account of the adventure can be seen in this month's "Street Choppers." Thanks to both gentlemen for their continued faith and generous support.

To help us illustrate the One Size Fits Most capability of our popular Biltwell helmet, Courtney agreed to model a root beer brown unit on his generously proportioned cranium. As you can see, the flexible Biltwell helmet fits Courtney like his favorite beanie. We asked Court if he could ride 5 or 6 hours in our helmet without discomfort, and he enthusiastically said, "Hell yes!"

Who are we to argue with a man with a size 8 grape?

7/27/07

Biltwell Signs By Kevin Baas!!!!



Kevin Bass known to most as "Teach" did these signs for us recently and they just came in today. We are stoked they are so Bitchin! For more info on Kevin and his projects and parts/signs check out
http://www.baasmetalcraft.com
and for info on his class check out
http://www.kennedychopperclass.com
Thanks Kevin and your Class!!!

7/24/07

PinStripes by MAS!!!




So we had a few and I mean few helmets in that I sent out the other day and Mitch already pinstriped his and we thought it looked Great! Mitch is a Rad painter and did the tank on my bike like 2 years ago now and I still love it. Great job Mitch expect some business from us soon!!! You can see more of his stuff at the pinhead lounge.

Rich Phillips Newest Creation



Here is some pics of Rich's newest bike. He used our exhaust kit on it and they look Great! Watch for it in an upcoming issue of DICE! Also check out his site Biker Saddles and see some of his leather tooling its Rad!

7/20/07

Mike's Shovel




A good friend of ours Mike from Southern Grease Pit got one of our seat mounts for his bike. His bike sort of speaks for itself. One of my favorites for sure! Here are some pics he sent us. Thanks Mike!

7/19/07

Seat Final Samples!








Ok here are the final seat samples done. I am stoked on these! They will come in Black or White Vinyl in either the classic Diamond or Tuck and Roll style. They won't be here for awhile as always, probably late Fall. Production should be soon as the pans and foam are almost done. You will be able to get either a covered seat or just the pan and foam so you can do your own thing. The foam as you can see is molded to fit the pan and contours with a varied thickness from 15-25mm. A plain Leather version will also be available but we are still working on the covers for those so that will be Christmas time.

Drunken Stupor in a Padded Room!


Well Wes at FOUR ACES got our first few helmets to sell. The rest will show up in about 20-30 days. So move quick and be the first on your block to get one.

"I have NINE BILTWELL Helmets to sell. They were an advanced shipment that accidently got sent to me. There are only nine helmets. The rest of the helmets will be here in August. Sorry not enough to fill the "painter's special" right now.

These are sold FIRST COME FIRST SERVED. You must e-mail and get clearance to PAYPAL me or you can call the shop and put it on your Credit Card. (818) 834-1060. These will go FAST so I do not want any misunderstandings with payments.

$114 FLAKES
$75 for solid colors

I have:

(1) Black Helmet
(1) Green Flake Helmet
(2) Blue Flake helmet
(2) Red Flake helmets
(2) Silver helmets
(1) Gold Flake Helmet.


Remember these are novelty NON-DOT helmets that should only be worn unless you are protecting your noggin from a drunken stupor in a padded room. And Fucking-A proud of it."

Paul's XL



Our good friend from across the pond Paul at Paul's Boutique sent us an update on his XL Sporty bike he has been building. Looks Great Paul and the seat will be there hopefully soon.

"Here an update again, not a lot happened but some changes were made:

- Sportster gas tank with high flow petcock, "Half" Frisco, mounted on top of the
backbonewith a piece of Universal Solex handlebars.
- Seat, still waiting for the Biltwell seat so I cut the original seat and made it a
bit shorter and more comfortable than the diamond Alu plate that killed my back for some weeks.
- New front inner tube, cause I managed to make a hole in it while putting it on the rim.

Things to do:

- Exhaust, seat, seatmounts, jiffy, paint (or no paint), forward controlls etc etc.

We will keep you informed about the project, tips & tricks are welcome but not needed with
wrench guys like Philip & New kid on the block Boyd.....

Later"

7/14/07

Friscos????





I got an idea this weekend and cut up some of the Frisco bars to make a weird set of narrow pullback sort of rabbit style bars to try. I have loved all the japanese chopper styles I have seen and they have a great influence on stuff I tend to do. These in my mind definitely show that. Never satisfied and always thinking of the next change we'll see how long I keep these on. Actually I already have another set I am going to try but these looked kinda fun so I thought I'd post them. See ya on the 21 Run!!!

7/11/07

Keystones on Cory's





A friend of mine Cory is getting into bikes and just got this 2007 Night Train. He mentioned some of our bars and since most of the guys putting our bars on thier bikes are older garage style customs I thought it would be cool to see them on a new bike. A few guys on newer bikes have shown interest in doing this but when they find out its not just a bolt on and go thing they usually fade away. Cody at Caspers Friendly Cycle put them on for Cory and did all the wiring work involved on newer style bikes and here they are. Thanks for the pics Cory!

7/9/07

S&M BMX Turns 20!

Our BMX buddy Chris "The Mad Dog" Moeller just emailed us a flyer to his company's 20th anniversary party.



The flyer says it all. If you have questions, go to www.sandmbikes.com and read their blog. I'm sure more info will be made available as we get closer to the date.

7/2/07

21 Run


The 21 Run happens on the 21st of the every month and is a fine excuse for us to ride to a different cool shop, hang out with friends new or old, and check out custom motorcycles. Most months the 21st will fall on a
weeknight and the run will consist of meeting up at a chosen shop say
Morelands, Ventura Motorworks, Chabott or Cro's garage. We'll hang out
there and hopefully see some cool bikes in the shop and that guys show
up on. When we're done loitering at the shop we'll take a short ride
to a local bar/restaraunt and have some food. It will always be on the
21st and the location will change everytime. I will post the
location and time to meet there at on the Biltwell website. This first
one happens to fall on a weekend and there is a great event to go to
so you may want to camp out or get a hotel. When we have a weekend to
do this on we may as well take advantage. I'll post some good
campgrounds or hotels whenever its a weekend deal. Here is the flyer
for the first one and consider this your invite. Come along solo or
bring anyone you want. Hope to see ya there.

Chris

6/25/07

Its Never Fun!


Well my great friend Jason got in an accident this weekend and is lucky but will always have reminders. He is alive and thats the good part. He shattered his right arm and now has plates and some missing bone. Some other bumps and bruises but alive and in pain. The bike is probably totalled but we'll have to wait and see. Its the part of riding no one likes to think about but a very real reality. If you ride and it hasn't happend to you yet it most likely will, and if you have friends that ride you probably know someone or have friends that have been in accidents and if your lucky they are still alive to tell the tale. I have been lucky and have friends that were/are and weren't. (Mark will live on forever!) We're glad your alive Jason and next beer is on us!

6/22/07

BMX Freestyle? Trials?

This has to be the coolest video out there! We come from the early BMX Freestyle generation and this guy put a throttle to use to find lines that were not possible otherwise.

6/19/07

Attention Custom Pinstripers and Helmet Painters:

Biltwell helmets are scheduled to arrive in our warehouse on or before August first. We're getting lots of requests from early shoppers about pinstriping and other custom treatments. That's not the business we're getting into, but it is a business lots of you already have a handle on.

If you like painting helmets, but can't get a line on wholesale pricing for small lots (6- and 12-packs) of decent helmets for your business, we're here to help.

For more information on the Biltwell helmet program, please email chris@biltwellinc.com. Tell us you're a painter and send us your mailing address. We'll send you a copy of our full-color helmet program, a price sheet and some free stickers.

Our goal is to find a couple dozen badass painters from coast to coast who want to sell their custom-painted Biltwell helmets at local swap meets and online (eBay stores, message boards, etc.)

Our business standards for this program are pretty simple:

1) be a painter
2) commit to our minimum buy-in (it's WAY less than you think)
3) sell your finished goods for fair market value

We're thinking $100-$140 for silver and black custom-pinstriped helmets, and $140-$180 for metal flake models.

If this deal takes off, everyone wins: riders, painters and yeah, us.

You see, we're just too damned small to fill the pipeline for cool-looking, affordable open face novelty helmets by ourselves.

We need your help, and we're willing to help you make some extra bread for your time.

Write or call if you have any questions. We're ready to rock.

Thanks for your patience and support.

6/12/07

Wes' shop FOUR ACES



I needed some parts from Wes and haven't made it by his new shop location yet so I went last thursday. If you get a chance to do this you should its a great place with just a little more room than his old shop I guess you could say. Ok maybe alot more room and everyone knows more room equals more stuff! His shop's location is Four Aces Cycle Supply 12734 Branford St # 16 Pacoima, Ca 91331 Shop phone (818) 997-8321 Cell phone (818) 472-7313 http://www.fouracescycle.com/

6/6/07

Brooks Manbeck's Sporty



Here's some shots of Brooks sporty he is running our clubmans on. You may have seen Brooks on one of the EDR's on his Motoguzzi. He is a great photographer as well www.brooksmanbeck.com. Brooks is a self contained riding anywhere anytime kinda guy. Last year Brooks and 2 other friends left LA at midnight just to have breakfast at the grand canyon and then turn around and come home before even thinking about sleep! This sporty is his current project but he is already riding the piss out of it.

6/4/07

Teach's Swap Meet Pan


The bike was mainly built by Kevin Bass known to most as "Teach". He called up and was looking for a set of our Keystone bars. We're honored they ended up on his Pan. He is the High School shop teacher that has gained national acclaim for what he is doing with his class in Bloomington Minnesota. The initial mock up was done by Kevin in his shop, then brought it into school to have the students help to make any needed modifications/parts, and then tear down for paint. "We did the final assembly while we were doing the other class bike and I used this to teach them a litle about the history of the v-twin and to appreciate the vintage iron."
For more info on the class their website is
http://www.kennedychopperclass.com
"Next year we will be doing another new custom build and my 1947 knucklehead as the vintage build.
Thanks
Kevin Baas"
http://www.baasmetalcraft.com

Eric Riech's Shovel



Eric sent us these pics of his bike with some Frisco bars on it. These bars are a little narrower than his old apes and will help Eric shoot down the sidewalks of Mexico a little easier. Good Luck!