Road 2 Smoke Out captures the experience of the original garage-built chopper rally and the culture of infamous biker magazine The Horse Backstreet Choppers. The story of real men and women who burn the midnight oil with wrenches in their hands and grease under their fingernails.
From Zack Coffman, producer of the award-winning biker movies Choppertown, Brittown, and the Harbortown Bobber and Greg “Edge” Scheuer, promoter of the Smoke Out Rally comes a new biker creation from One World Studios and the Horse Back Street Choppers.
Featuring: Amateur Chop Off, Drive-in Bike Show, Old School Drags, The Stampede, The Long Road, Minis, Bean’re, George-the-Painter, Jeff “Speed King” Cochran, Hammer, Englishman, Brew Bikes, Wet T-shirt Contest, Painted Ladies, and a host of chopper crazies!
Amazing original soundtrack by Cutthroat Shamrock, also featuring Rebel Son, Big House Pete, and Tony Noce.
Q&A with the filmmakers:
What is the Smoke Out?
Edge: The Smoke Out is a gathering of garage builders, music, racing… it’s the annual state of the union of the underground chopper culture.
Why make a documentary about it?
Edge: It’s a lot more interesting than the shit on television.
Zack: I heard about the Smoke Out from Kutty [Noteboom] during the filming of my first movie Choppertown: the Sinners back in ’04 and it was the event everyone aimed for in terms of seeing what all the real chopper builders were working on.
How did you end up collaborating with Zack at One World Studios? Why him?
Edge: Zack Coffman gets it. He watches and he listens and when he tells the story he gets it right.
Zack: I was really honored when Edge called me up and proposed the idea, The Smoke Out and The Horse are ground zero in terms of modern chopper culture. It was an amazing opportunity to get a chance to make a film about it! Choppertown wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for The Horse [magazine]. We saw Kutty’s first build in it and that led us to contact him and make the Sinners movie.
How was the experience working together on the film?
Edge: Fun. Really fun… but I never had to be shackled to a computer and locked in a room for 60 straight, 20 hour days days of editing. I ran around with beautiful girls, great bands and creative builders with insane, cool bikes.
Zack: Haha, and I didn’t have to be top dog at an event with 15,000 chopper maniacs, vendors, locals, cops, etc. I think I got the better deal.
Are you happy with the result?
Edge: Ecstatic. It tells the story of much more than one event. It tells the story of a subculture.
Zack: This was the most collaborative film I’ve ever worked on in terms of the bi-coastal nature; from day one everyone was so supportive and motivated. We had five different cameras floating around collecting footage from all over America! I can’t say enough about how hard everyone worked and I can’t wait to do another with this team.
What do you hope people take away from the movie?
Edge: Embrace and appreciate what we have right now in our sub-culture. This is an a fantastic time in history for garage builders and chopper jockeys. This movie allows us all to step back and take it all in and… then, we all go, “Wow, this is truly amazing.”
Zack: A little clip I stuck in after the credits pretty much sums it up for me. Two buddies are walking along, arm in arm, three sheets to the wind and when they’re asked about the Smoke Out, one of them gets this far off look in his eye and says, “It’s about Freedom man, Freedom. You’re free right here. You’re free right here…”
Trailer: