This is a tough one. About five years ago, I turned 65 and my old lady of 14 years split. We would sit in bed with our first cup of coffee and kick around what was happening in our lives and the world. That sunny morning, she told me she couldn’t stand how my keys jingled in my pocket and she would move down stairs into the old restaurant, which was part of the building. Of course, I would need to refurbish the place, because her kids had trashed it.
Then she went to meet her daughter and granddaughter at a local park. When she returned, she had obviously been crying. Her face was swollen and she cried some more. I told her she was nuts, but I had also tired of the relationship. I was notorious for moving on after about five years, but this time I had hung on, thinking this would be the last one.
I hired a guy and started to rework the restaurant. She sorta moved downstairs. Hell, I didn’t really know what she did. She had a boyfriend. I had to pull shit together and keep moving forward for everyone, including the building, her, her kids, Bikernet staff, advertisers and readers. I couldn’t drown myself in a bottle of whiskey and call it quits. That’s against to code of the West, although I considered it.
I had the Bonne Bell 45 flathead Bonneville project brewing, which she instigated by finding a 45 basket in Salt Lake. I flew out to pick it up with her oldest son to help with driving. We loaded it up and started to drive back in the snow. In Nevada, we stopped for the night. He got drunk and kicked out of the casino. He couldn’t get up the next morning and I should have left him, but I didn’t. He was useless on the trip back.
I had another Bonneville project brewing, the first Streamlined Trike. I was struggling to finish a book. I peeled to Milwaukee for the Ride-In show to help with judging. Every year in Sturgis, I tried to be involved or sponsor three events or venues, including Arlen Fatlands 2Wheelers shop on Main. He was one of the first bikers to buy a shop on Main Street in Sturgis 30 years ago.
I loved my life. I had stumbled onto an old hotel in Wilmington, which was partially gutted and set up just for me, like it was meant to be. Fortunately, she went along with it. Sin Wu and I worked tirelessly on one room after another. A couple of local, young riders helped with the process, Jeremiah Soto and “Tile man” James Conway.
I drank whiskey and pondered my next run to the SmokeOut, but what I really loved was working in the shop and roaming around the harbor. I was also involved in a community effort to build an accessible waterfront for the folks in Wilmington. Letting the city annex the town of Wilmington into the City of Los Angeles was the worst decision they ever made.
Regarding Sin Wu, I noticed her disillusionment. I gave her lots of freedom, but she complained, and I shifted her Bikernet role to part-time. Her kids lived here, but my grandkids weren’t allowed. She wanted to take over our mail order department and I allowed it, but she let it slide. We refurbished the one-bedroom apartment in the building which her brother, his wife and child occupied, but trashed.
After completely rebuilding the apartment, she wanted her son to live in it with his delightful girlfriend. But when he got drunk, he destroyed doors and had to go. What was it with her kids? We bought them cars and they wrecked them or got DUIs. Some lived down below in the area that once housed a restaurant. The kids punched holes in the doors and didn’t repair them or picked up after their pets.
It wasn’t a dark time after she left. Slowly I got the kids out. I enjoyed every day, trained and did whatever I wanted. I had the blues from time to time. I didn’t feel much like dating at 65 and didn’t have the time. I was lonely but devoted to changing my life for the better.
I’ve often told folks who break up that it’s not about the past, the blues or the loneliness. It’s about tomorrow and the future and what you make of it.
She started working at the Chowder Barge as a waitress and I refurbished a portion of the downstairs Harbor café so she had her own apartment. I had recently helped her buy a Mecury Mariner SUV, so she had new wheels.
Years before, she groused about me building bikes every year and wanted me to build her one. A builder in Houston wanted to work with us on a project, and I started to send him parts. Kent Weeks handled the construction and the paint. I supplied everything else, and I provided him with advertising on Bikernet for ten years.
He went to work and built the Root Beer Float, a very sharp bobber built around an Evo driveline, a rigid frame and a VL front end. It turned out to be an amazing bike, but she never rode it.
Ultimately, I helped her with a Sportster project I built around one of the first rubber-mounted Sportsters. She didn’t ride it much, either, and started talking about a Buell Blast. I never went there.
She was no longer a reliable book keeper, either. She promised to keep the accounting going until I found someone, but immediately the internet went down due to lack of payment, and the department of water and power cut the 440 lines to the building and I was forced to scramble. I found a reputable bookkeeper, straightened out the books and paid the bills on time. No problem.
I took over the mail order section of the site and started to work with Bob Kay and Jeff Najar on their leather line. It ultimately became the 5-Ball Racing Leather line and is now housed here. I started to do more repairs and projects around the building. I built the deck I had planned for 10 years.
It took me seven years, but I had a magnificent mural painted on the side of the building facing the port of Los Angeles. I worked with an old painting family to prep the building and a local tattoo artist from Pedro, Carlos Canales, and Jeremiah’s son, Evan, for the art. Ultimately we had the art clear-coated.
The Chowder Barge was built on an actual barge in the ‘40s. When I was a kid, my dad and his drunken buddies kept a small power boat near the Barge, and I came down for greasy fish and chips and to see his pards on their floating booze vessel. They had a blast, and then moved onto sailboats. We started sailing to Catalina once every couple of weeks. That was in the ‘80s.
I also visited Bob Bitchin, the publisher of Biker Magazine in the ‘90s. He sold Biker and Tattoo magazines to Joe Teresi, my boss and needed a job. I helped him put together a sailing magazine, which allowed him to sail around the world twice on the Lost Soul. I sailed on the Lost Soul many times, once through the Tahitian Islands and once through the Panama Canal. Otherwise, I took Mexico and Catalina Island trips with him and his lovely wife, Jody, on a regular basis. As a small partner in the business, I helped wherever I could.
I also took Sin Wu on several sailing adventures, but she was now out of the picture. I signed up for the sailing excursion to Greece. I flew to historic Athens, found my hotel and hooked up with the gang. We sailed about five Benneto sloops off the coast to several islands and it was amazing, nothing like the tropics. We returned after a week of traveling from island to island, got drunk in a pub drinking a Greek liquor and I missed my flight the next morning.
So, time flew past. I found a bookkeeper, Laura, who was amazing and came to the headquarters once a week. In short order, we got all the systems running properly. In the meantime, the new owner of the Barge, an old outlaw from back east who had done some time and was told never to return to Florida, moved into the area and found a rich girlfriend. They bought the barge from the longtime owners and put a lot of cash into fixing it up.
Sin Wu watched the progress, the management and the running of a restaurant. I can’t mention the biker’s name, but he had a blast running the Barge. He ran titty joints on the east coast and knew how to run a business. He could be a tough guy if it was needed, but he also knew construction.
Sin Wu’s daughter also went to work for the Barge and one son helped with the electrical. Their dad an old biker, took out his anger and disenchantment with the world on his kids and Sin. An angry bastard, his genes weren’t so hot either. All of her kids had attitude and substance issues. As the great enabler, Sin didn’t help. They lived a life on the edge of personal destruction, just like their dad who was shot twice, imprisoned numerous times and lived on disability.
The outlaw ran the Barge for a couple of years, but he wasn’t making money and constantly put more funds into the floating project. His patient girlfriend who ran a security products company with her brothers said it was time to pull the plug. He started to look around and found a potential buyer, but he was a Barge hang-around and would certainly run it into the ground.
The boss approached Sin. He knew she liked it, but she turned him down and so did her new boyfriend. “I can sell porno to a blind man,” the old outlaw said and tried again. “We’ll work something out.” Then he remembered the Root Beer float and approached me. “Does she own the bobber?” he asked.
“Sure she does,” I said and he approached her again. “How about it, if I take the Root Beer Float for the Chowder Barge.” Sin understood the weaknesses of the old floating restaurant and how to make it profitable. It was a deal she couldn’t refuse. She stepped up and has done a helluva job. It was featured on a recent Julia Roberts series “Home Coming” about abusing veterans.
This era of my life tested my confidence. I didn’t take up drinking heavily or hanging out in bars. I buckled down and improved the business, took on the 5-Ball Racing Apparel Line, struggled with our 45-inch 1940 flathead Bonneville project. I built two custom FXRs and gave one to my son, who was struggling with his demons, and I learned about Buddhism through a local welder, who lived on a boat and liked to street-race Ninjas.
My son and I were supposed to ride together to Sturgis in about 2011 or ’12, but I ended up riding mine to meet the Hamsters on their way to the Badlands, with Dr. Hamster. He ran into a front wheel bearing problem and we limped home that year.
Buddhism is a philosophy, and the Buddha was a man, not a god. He studied life from the rich side and the poor and came up with a code for happiness. He basically said that anyone can find Nirvana, anytime under any circumstances. In fact, the more you may be struggling or be without material bullshit, the easier it is to find Nirvana. It’s all about the mind and changing your mind. That led to the study of meditation. Like a workout for the brain. Both have been unbelievably inspiring and helpful.
Now we’re about to finish some improvements to my son’s FXR, except his son now owns it now. Maybe my grandson and I will ride to Sturgis this year. You never know. Bonneville is on the scene again and we need to finish the Salt Torpedo and make the run.
I’m one who doesn’t take projects lightly. After Sin left, I made a point to finish my next book, “World Run.” I finished the deck on the north side of the building and finished the mural on the south side of the headquarters. I finished renovating the entry and stairs to Jeremiah’s apartment. I made major improvement to the restaurant area downstairs and Jeremiah’s daughter and her pals moved in. They pay rent on time, like clockwork.
I ended up in a fight with the city over living in my building, which was the Catalina Hotel for years. When the city raised taxes to help the homeless, I was asked to leave my building. It took five months and $5000 to protect my home, but we got it done. My 4th wife, Alison, the magnificent redhead returned to my life, helped with the deck, the fight with the city and with my left hip replacement surgery. She returned to the fold just in time. Without batting an eye, she took weekly trips with me to visit my 94-year-old mom. That meant a lot.
Finally, I was inspired to write a screenplay after some meetings with a film maker who was trying to produce a film on the history of Harley Davidson. I came up with a storyline about board track racing, but he stuck with his, so I started to write the screenplay myself. As a story writer, screenplays felt awkward to write. I hit on it from time to time. I tried to learn anything I could about the process, which led me to a meeting with an old friend’s daughter, Liza Palmer, a very successful, young book writer. She told me to read and study a book, “Save the Cat,” about writing screenplays.
I read it and made notes and progress. Then just recently, after making changes to the Bikernet Internet business, I had some extra time. I devoted it to the screenplay and finished the first draft. I was proud of it and Liza offered to take a look. We’ll see next week. Recently, I sent all my books except “Outlaw Justice,” (it’s sold out) to the Clint Eastwood group for consideration. I found a link to the Malpaso Production company through a girl named Fish and took it. What the hell? You gotta go for it, when the opportunity arises.
Hell, this year the Port of Los Angeles promised to break ground on the Wilmington Waterfront. And this year we are destined to roll to Bonneville once more. With a growing team including Micah McCloskey, who ran his own shop for 40 years and is a long-running member of the Uglys. Kevin Kahl who worked for Bourgets, helped with the frame. We are making serious progress.
Remember, never give up or give in.
