Wrightwood California

I was up there for the Chop Meet and as always when the sun goes down you know things are going to get a little out of hand....... especially when the Death Trap boys are in town. Wrightwood is just a small mountain resort town that doesn't see to many of our types roaming the streets. There are only four bars in this town and I believe we shut them all down within and hour and a half. They didn't just kick us out..... they turned out the lights and shut the show down. The first shut down simply because they couldn't serve the alcohol fast enough and people were starting to get a little rowdy.


"it was a jacket" Dean sharing a story about his friend fish fingers.


Passing out at the first bar is not exceptable.


It will not be tolerated.


Jake showed off his Three Wheeler riding skills

After the first bar shut down the agitated heard moved across the street.




about 15 minutes in everyone decided to throw their beers in the air.




I got really humid

That kid Eric really knows how to party!

Jake jumping off the bar........ giving Rico a boner


Rico expressing his love.



The lights quickly went out and we strolled over the the next bar.


Eric and I glazing into each others eyes

Cary wore is helmet for his own safty


Jake gett'n some from Candy Monroe....... oops I mean Candy Rocks. Candy went to jail shortly after this picture was taken!!! This girl really knows how to party! Jake check out this link...... you'll wish this never happened! http://www.candymonroe.com/tour/

Damn.... I forget this guy's name.... but I love him!


Eric had to much Candy.

After about fifteen minutes we were kicked out and headed the the next bar..... it was our last resort.

Josh hopped behind the bar and started serving us drinks



Damn....... I wish my name was Harpoon!

We only lasted about 10 minutes in this bar........ So we pissed on the town!






We even made it home early enough to get a good nights sleep. That's me rock'n a white vest!

Last weekend

I stayed at the lodge.



A little peak at what was going down.

Wanted: Chase Truck Drivers

Need chase truck drivers for a little run. Must be self made lovable looking females with miles of style, skinny upper arms and fanny packs full of fun. Can operate a vaporizer and will kiss you goodbye. Requires a mid to late seventies Ford flatbed. Send all applications and headshots to the Lodge.

Photo: Cristopher Kutner

Solitude

I've been here for to long. I need to be moving on. I need a change. Maybe I just need to hit the road again or maybe a bed in the city where there are at least more than one like minded persons to hold a face to face conversion with. Everything is changing.........good...... bad........... I'm inviting it.

Today I wanted to get away....... it was the most beautiful day until i pulled out the sickle. I decided to give the Locust a rest until I can get some of her wounds stitched up. I hopped on the ol' man's 69 FL. My first love...... the bike that tought me everything. I picked up a sandwich and headed for the hills. I danced with a black cloud for a while until I fell out of beat. She started chasing me then dumping her love on me with the kind of tear drops that would melt your face to the bone. She calmed down and I pondered in an empty field......

Know Your Limits

Heading to the job today I unfortunately witnessed a horrible scene. There is an exit off the expressway to downtown that has a long winding left that tightens up on you with a quckness and leads into a downhill 3/4 mile straight away which is typically a summertime destination for the lean and burn. Coming around the bend today I noticed a dozen or so cars on the shoulder with frantic passengers on cel phones, about 50 feet beyond is the aftermath of a horrible, horrible bike wreck. No cops or ambulances yet but one unfortunate man who clearly just lost his life. Everybody including his 2 riding companions looked absolutely lost for the right emotion. Those peoples lives will never be the same after what they witnessed today and that mans family will feel this for the rest of their lives. He wasn't wearing a helmet (which is a personal choice), but from what I saw it wouldn't have made a difference.

Seeing a dead body always takes your brain to a place of questioning everything before, during and after life. I personally crossed my heart and called Mitch to make sure he was cool cause I knew he was out riding. I guess my point is that it seemed pretty clear that this unfortunate man did not know the turn and maybe was trying to keep up or just felt he was a better rider. I don't know but I do know that I have gotten into some hairy situations for both of these reasons and learned my lesson with a rapidly beating heart and some scratched paint. So know your limits and remember that your riding for you, not to impress your pals or the strangers around you who really could care less about you. My thoughts and personal prayers go out to this strangers family and friends and I know that riding that bend will never feel the same again.

If I had a Dollar.........

.........for every time some one told me I was going to kill myself this weekend I'd be riding a Knucklehead not a silly Sportster.

"You are going to ride that thing to the city"..........."you're gonna ride that thing on the interstate"......... "you shouldn't split lanes like that"....... "You can't ride 90 miles back home with your front tire flying apart like that"...... "Your rocker bushings are fucked"..... "It's raining to hard"........"your headlights aren't bright enough"....... "I can't see your tail light"...... "it's midnight and there are lots of drunks on the road, you can't ride home"....... "It's to foggy you shouldn't be riding that thing"...... "there are to many deer on that road"..... all fallowed be YOU ARE GONNA KILL YOURSELF. Damn........ My death wish is mine not yours........ But thanks for caring.

On friday I headed for the city in search of a good time. Not much was going on..... Slippery Pete was headed to St. Louis for a piece of pie, Brian was working and everyone else was in between........ Gett'n bikes sorted out for a long ride next weekend. Mitch and I blasted through the city..... something I've really missed. Riding with your best bro act'n a fool on two wheels. After getting off the interstate Mitch noticed that my front tire was delamming like a banana peel. So I globbed some rubber cement on it and taped'r up. Everyone advised against ride'n 90 miles on it to get back home. The next morning I wrapped some duct tape around it and rhode to Bobby and Kacy's place where they were having their annual 4th of July party. Bobby just picked up a 32 three window so we dicked around with that for a little while. Later we had Bottle Rocket wars and blew things up with 3/4 sticks of Dynomite as well as pop cans filled with gasoline. For some reason I was the nominated for the activation of these things. I blasted out at about midnight. All was well until I got to the black night of the country roads. I was having charging issues and by the time I got home I had no lights. There's is nothing like riding a long chop in the dead of a foggy night down some pot hole infested back roads with only the moon lighting your way....... Scary but fuck'n exhilarating. It wasn't bad until a car passed and your eyes had to adjust back to the darkness. I even made it through the village limits without getting pulled over.



Mitch and I ripping to the Shop.



Rob making his Pan a solid runner while Stephanie serenades him





Bucket-O-Bolts



Chain Tensioner bolt kept backing out on the interstate.



Mitch's rigged headlight




If you can't Duc it..... Fuck it.......


Alabama Black Chrome!



Bobby's new 32 three window. Ugly as sin but when he is done with it..... it will be a winner!



Bobby and Z fiddle'n with the carb


Almost traded my bike for this car.......


Bobby tacked the rocker nut that kept backing out into my spokes.


This morning I found some more delamination.

Comics

Since Mitch brought up comic books, I gotta know how this one didn't absolutely take off. Seriously, Big rigs in outer space. Like two of my favorite things.

The morning after.......

Mayhem and moonshine at the Big Mountain Run. Colleen caught me crawling out of my tent to take a squirt.



Photo by Colleen Swartz

Happy Failure

Been working 14 hour days for the last week or so and it's not gonna stop for another week. Still gotta wrap up the little shit on the pan but I am whooped by the end of the day. 4th of July weekend is shot and I'm starting to worry about riding next weekend.

Good: listening to pegboy on vinyl while all the neighborhood kids are blowing off m-80's and moon whistlers.
Bad: not knowing what you want to be when you grow up but knowing that what your doing is not it. Not that I'll ever be able to answer that question.

Anybody wanna pay me to ride my motorcycle and catch dinner from a river?

T-Oiseau

It was 1979. It was a hot, sweaty summer in Marksville, Louisiana. My parents had each remarried and my Pop was workin his ass off for Conoco in the Gulf (of Mexico)- 7 days on- 7 days off. When he would come home from off-shore we would hit car shows, drags in Baton Rouge, or little stops at Glen Mayeux's race shop in town or stop to gawk at any bad ass set a wheels that you saw in town. It was all about feeding that inquenchable desire to build and run your own set of wheels. He always had a dream to build a Hot Rod from the ground up.

Well that summer he went to a certain car show and saw that certain car, shot under the right light and that was all she wrote to get that fire started.





Pieces were picked up here and there.





A powerplant from a Corvette was found and gone through. My dad has been tearing down and rebuilding combustion engines since Christ was a Corporal. He's forgotten more about chevy engines than most will ever learn.



By January 1980, the motor was in the frame and ready for it's first fire. . The little garage shook to the core when T-Oiseau came alive that night.



By July 1980 we were tearing up Brouillette Road.

My Motor........

Before it went into my frame..........

First attempt at building a motor........First attempt at engraving.........first attempt at polishing............
I'm that type of person that is to impatient to read a how to or research something before I do it or even practice on a piece of scrap metal....... so I just grab a piece of the motor and start curving into it and fix my mistakes as I go. The engraving on this engine is the only metal I have ever carved into. I didn't like the finnish on the cases so i began polishing until my fingers started to bleed then polished some more until I saw the bone. Was it worth it???....... probably not.......









Bear Bull