Hey, what a wacked out week. Rumor has it that Easyriders is starting a Chopper mag. Half the staff of Hot Bike is under indictment, the publisher is gone and the editor on a hot seat. The PR guy at Custom Chrome left and now works for V-Twin magazine. And who knows what’s happening at the HORSE, I lost contact.
Next Week spills into the desert with the Laughlin River Run. Hopefully it ain’t raining. The American Rider staff is riding out. The Cruising Rider Editor is pissed at me ’cause I won’t customize a Kawasaki in one issue. Can’t win ’em all.
Here’s the news:
THE CRAZYHORSE CONNECTION–
It was lateDec and everything was going was going wrong and continued to get worse. Theplan was to have the bike ready for the Easyriders Bike Show here inCharlotte. Now every year, my customers take home trophies with their bikes.I’ve entered my sporty a few times, taking home zip. After 25 years in thebike painting business, would my own bike be radical enough to get one ofthose trophies? Not if it didn’t make it to the show. In mid Dec, I decidedto change the paint scheme from what had been decided upon. It was a lastminute thing. My husband wanted me to go with a very detailed flame job,that would take countless more hours. Did I have time? No. But like ahopeful fool, I forged ahead anyway, and dove onto the frame with tape andairbrush in hand.
The frame took a week to flame. I had to keep going backand reworking the design, then the clearcoat kept giving me grief. Thenfinally after getting a near perfect round of clear on it, I was buffing asmall bit of dust out of the seat area and buffed through the clear. I’dbeen done, finished, I’d even taken the frame hanging chains down from thebooth. I put down the shotgun and grabbed a box of Little Debbie’s snackcakes, ate the whole box, then sanded the frame, rehung it, and recleared itwith an absolutely flawless coat of clear. I was floored! Had something goneright? Was this a sign of things to come? Not a chance.
Christmas came andwent and the chrome hadn’t come in. Jim couldn’t install the motor andtranny without the specially made tranny plate which was at the chrome shop.His mood went from simple gloomy to downright homicidal. Meanwhile, I wasgrubbing through the sheetmetal flame paint, with the pace of a fat chickslogging through the swamp. The detail work on these flames was killing me.I had to have this paint job pop. This was the painter’s bike. It had to bespecial. I kept changing the flame layout, frantically trying to find theperfect symmetry of flame design. After each piece of sheetmetal wascomplete, I felt as whooped as if I had given birth, only this wasn’t anonly child being born, this was quintuplets.
Suddenly the show was only two weeks away. Chrome? Ha! Those fricking idiotshad more excuses than a bike painter. Jim was in the middle of makinganother tranny plate, when the box from the chrome shop arrived. It wasn’tonly a poorly done job, it was the worst chroming either one of us had everseen. They destroyed the tailight and lost the brake stay, sending to thewrong shop, who sent it back to the chrome shop, who then prompty lost it.
Jim quickly built a new taillight and brake stay, then stopped payment onthe check to the chrome shop. My buddy Ben Jordan powdercoated the tailightblack. Jim whacked the new brake stay with spray bomb black. The motor andtranny slipped into the frame and suddenly the bike was coming together. Wejust might make it. We had four days to finish.
Meanwhile, I was flaming awayon the tank when Jim burst into the studio. The primary wouldn’t go on.Something was wrong with the input shaft on the tranny. Jim knows nothingabout H-D trannys. He wasn’t about to pull it apart. The next day he wentinto work at the H-D dealer hoping they’d have the correct tranny in stock.He came home early with a big box and closed himself in the shop. I stayedaway, feeding him completed painted sheetmetal as I finished it. The frontfender went on the bike an hour before the bike left for the show.
My moodduring the show was completely foul. High $$ custom after high $$ customrolled into the show. My lowly gooseneck didn’t have a chance. KendallJohnson was there signing autographs on the Easyriders Bike Builder Tour,but took time out from his fans to spent some time consoling me, insistingthat the flames on my bike were the best he’d ever seen. He sure soundedsincere.
Oil Can from Easyriders magazine was more blunt, “Well why don’t ya go homeright now sour puss. Ya ain’t gonna win nuthin’.” He smiled as he walkedaway. So at the end of the night, I was floored when they called out my namefor Second Place Best Street Custom.
A month earlier I had been in Orlando at the NACE show. It’s a trade showfor Automotive refinishers. House of Kolor had me bring four bikes.I met some very cool people, like the folks from Sata Spray Gun. I tried outall kinds of new equipment and those new Sata guns are state of the art.Worth every penny. I hung out with Jon Kosmoski a few nights, and it was anawesome experience. He told me many of his painting adventures andnightmares. That guy has experienced damn near everything a painter canexperience. He told stories about painting, about people, about business,about it all. I learned more from hanging out with him those nights that Icould in a week of paint seminars. He writes a great painting book, but heshould do a non-fiction personal adventure book. I’d buy a copy. I lookforward to seeing him in Sturgis and soaking up more of his paintingbusiness wisdom.
Immediately after the bike show, I hopped on a plane and went up toMinnesota to check out Sata’s newest products and spray Createx Auto Airpaint. It was three days of painting all day and partying all night. The hightemp during the day was minus 12. You don’t even want to know what nighttimetemps were. Maybe that’s why those guys party so hard. Craig Kennedy, VicePres of Createx, and I would come rolling in at 2am every night, and Tonyfrom Sata would be there at 8:00 a.m. sharp to pick us up. It was hell, and I wasfinally rescued by the lovely Shari of Souix Falls, SD.
Her boyfriend, Kai,is one of the owners of Twisted Choppers. She spirited me away to SouixFalls where the air is freezing but the bikes are brutal hot. I spent sometime at Twisted Choppers shooting bikes and checking out their twistedcreations. Kai and Jason are two young guns who are fabricating some prettywild stuff. They are miles ahead of the usual chopper stuff you see outthere. I was especially impressed with their tank designs. I know whosemaking the tank on my next bike. All other chopper shops out there, lookout-these guys are unreal talented and their stuff is on the edge. I cameaway from that shop floored by the energy and ideas burning in that place.No wonder Billy Lane picked them to make the tank on his last Discoverybike.
I handled two Twisted Choppers bike shoots in a top secret location with a veryattractive model. The pictures came out great, we had a blast, got allgoofy, did crazy things, and I guess we had a little too much fun, cos wecan’t use some of the pictures. Of course they were some of the best ones. Ashitload more has happened and kept me slammed busy but I’ve yakked onenough here. Big announcements, cool paintwork, and strange adventures. Morenews from the Crazy Horse farm next week.
NEW BIKERNET REPORTER COMING–She is attending Brevard College to become a Journalist.She has been around for a long time.She use to work at the Harley shop in Parts and is a Damn Good Wrench.
If you think you might be interested I will have her submit some stuff for your approval.She’ll cover the Charleston, Heritage Rally this weekend.
–ROGUE
THE STEALTH REPORT–I cleaned my garage out this past week. Amazing the stuff you find that you forget you have! I decided to unload a lot of my old bike show trophies. Some were falling apart anyway and needed to be put out of their misery. I looked at the engraved plates on each of them and tried to remember where I was when I got them. Some I remembered, some I didn’t. I decided to trash can all of them. I have five awards I keep in my house that mean a lot to me and I would never part with them. One of them is a 3rd place award from an Easyrider bike show from 1996(1991 Springer Softail), A best of show award from Waugh Enterprises open house bike show in 1999, 204 bikes were entered in that show and it is near my hometown in Va. The award stands 4 feet high! A first place award from an Easyrider bike show in 2000 (my memorial rigid framed, jockey shift, bike in memory of my son Justin), this one always has a special place in my heart and always will. l have the famous five ball award from right here at Bikernet back when there was the cyber space bike show.
This one means a lot too, it comes from my mentor, a guy I respect , Mr. Bandit himself! I usually don’t do bike shows anymore, but every once in awhile I get the itch. While I was in Daytona, this past bike week, my brother Gary and I visited the Convention center and Harley was having their Ride-In Bike Show. I thought about doing the show and at first I didn’t want to, but after a little arm twisting from Gary I decided to enter the show, besides the entry fee goes to MDA. I didn’t give it much thought as to winning an award, but when the winners were announced my name was called for an Honorable Mention , not bad for a bike 13 years old. Old Skeletor did it again!(1991 springer)
The beginnings of the Run For Breath “Best Of Show” trophy by Bandit.
While I am on the subject of bike shows, here is some news on the 6th Annual Run For Breath”In Memory Of Justin Pullin” bike show. Two new classes this year, a ladies only class and a V-Rod class.
There are a total of 35 awards! All are being built by bike builders. I am sure most you saw what my buddy Jose came up with, they are too cool! I got a call from Fabricator Kevin this past week and he told he was starting on his three awards. He said they will be delivered at THE HORSE SMOKE-OUT in June. Take the hint Mr. Bandit, delivered at THE SMOKE-OUT! Ladies start polishing those bikes and guys get those V-Rods ready, we listened to what you said last year because there was no V-Rod class, so here is you chance at one these cool one-off awards!
Well, I guess that about does it for this week! It is time to go for a ride!
Later!
–Mike (THE STEALTH)
OPEN LETTER TO ALL BIKERS– I was talking with a friend the other day and he reminded me of something that I had forgotten. He told me that as we grow older and more experienced that we are needed more then ever. Most of you know him as Rogue. I have known Rogue for more then 25 years. In all that time he has been around fighting the good fight while others, (like me) take holidays, retire from their obligations, or just plain hide their heads in the sand from what is going on in the lifestyle we have chosen for ourselves.
I was gently reminded that as we grow older our responsibilities mature rather then diminish. Unless we have left the lifestyle completely we are veterans that have a lot to share and give back to our community. He reminded me that my rights as a biker have been slowly eroding. Or worse yet, that much of the freedoms that I had imagined I would be or have been enjoying for myself these past three decades of riding have been simply illusions.
Many of us join A.B.A.T.E. with our good intentions intact. But lose those intentions when we find that there are more people who join for nothing more then the social aspect of the organization. Or perhaps we lose our respect for the members as we see how others who join– the ones who ride non-American built motorcycles are treated with less respect and tolerance then those with the high end American built motorcycles. Or perhaps we simply feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the work ahead of us and by the party atmosphere that seems to pervade the organization. What has this story to do with us today? The profiling is still going on. The legislations are still being proposed that allow for this kind of inspection, prejudice, and loss of our citizen rights. We still see our friends being slaughtered on our roadways without justice being brought to their families. All this and more simply because we choose to be riders of two wheeled motorized transportation rather then the accepted norm of four wheels or more.
Keep the issues in mind and don?t allow the rhetoric that surrounds it to engulf you. If you can?t devote an hour or more a month to this cause, then find a way that you can contribute more then money to the organization that supports your rights. If you have the time to attend a party sponsored by A.B.A.T.E. then you have the time to volunteer for some thankless job that needs to be done in order to make the party run without a hitch. Ask your committee members what you can do in order to help take some of the pressure off them. You may be asked to help with clean up or be a parking attendant but it is something that you can do and still be there to enjoy the event.
You can write letters that encourage others to take up the fight or that will be read by your state representative body about something that is happening at the state or local level regarding your rights. You can help to educate the public about biker safety issues. There are a myriad of things that you can do to improve your standard of biking and all it takes is imagination and creativity. Don?t have those qualities? Then ask your state and local reps what you can do; they will be able to suggest a number of things that will be of assistance to them.
–Marilyn Elmore Bragg
THE SILVER BULLET RETURNS– I spent the whole day today drinkin’ hot coffee and workin’ on “Silver Bullet”. Remember the ol’ girl? I still got it and now that I’m all moved in down here I’ve been doin’ this and that to it. Man, the Rats hole show in ’96! JESUS. Nancy was on Mtv recently. She’s the captain of a ROLLER DERBY team in Austin.
— Tim
The Conderosa
http://www.armageddontopfuel.com
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