Wet Turkey

The Turk sent me this pic to show me that the sun doesn't always shine in lower California. Right now 60 degrees and raining sounds like paradise. Thanks for the shot Turkey and hope to see you guys soon. Bike is killing it as always.

Thanks Nikki

Nikki hooked Bravetown up with some new gear for the long winter nights. Thanks Nikki and Petey misses you.

This...

...single image... of this El Camino - has haunted me for a long time. Oh, the things that I would do to this vehicle. I can't find one thing that I don't like about it other than I'm not drivin it.

Bakers Shaker comes home.

I was in the middle of gathering up all of my camera gear for a trip to california when my phone starts buzzing. My friend Danny is screaming at me about this Ironhead survivor bike that was on craigslist in Michigan. I was like yeah... whatever.. I don't need another piece of shit ironhead taking up my space..... I mean my dad's space. He insisted I look at it. So I did....my jaw hit my keyboard and my heart punched my monitor. I had to wake up at four in the morning to catch a plane to SoCal. I frantically schemed up some of ways to get my hands on it. So I called Bacon.... Together we had enough green to buy the thing but he had to deliver a Panhead to Cali and was leaving the next afternoon as well. He said don't worry we'll get it. So he did some wango dangoing and sealed the deal while I was above the Rockies eating my complimentary meal. Now that we where both in the midwest area and all the christmas bullshit was wrapped up we took a trip to Michigan today and picked up mister Baker's Shaker. It appeared on the cover of Street Chopper April 1979 with a Ron Finch Ironhead. It has tons of history but I will get to that in a latter post. So here she is as she sits now. Stay tuned.

Think like water

Ever since the cold snap Mitch and myself have been spending a whole lot of time in the Lodge and the one thing that shuts all Lodge activity down is Bob Ross, this dude blows my mind every mother loving time. The gurgle echoes from the coffee table and the arguing starts between the artist and the ass. I must say that Mitch is usually right but the one thing we've been noticing of late are the little life lessons that Bob likes to sneak in on you. Tonight he dropped a real bomb "think like water". Oh shit, are you kidding me Bob, you just changed my life forever. We could sit and talk this one over for hours, it related to everything and mostly riding. Thanks Bob for the wisdom and the visions.

Searching Sunsets........

.......... is just not the same in a cage.




My truck is about as worthless as a three legged cat try'n to burry a turd on a frozen pond right about now. She don't exceed 50 and has baloney skins for tires. She don't go but she don't stop either. I guess I should pull her in for some tender love and care.

P.S. Laugh it up Lisa..... while you and Duane ride your Honda motor cycles with cute paint jobs around a glistening lake and curvy mountain roads. There's not a cloud to be seen in your blue skis with temperatures that are not to hot and not to cold. I'm frozen in ice. Thanks for reminding me...... wish i was there.

Hasil "Haze" Adkins

Check out 1 and 3 if you have the time. Great stuff..... especially in part three when three mullet laiden women fight over Hasil in the bar.

FXR madness

Their coming from everywhere, don't miss the bus.

Miles between Us

In november I took a trip down to Southern Illinois to visit Rod at Stripped Down Cycles. He introduced me to a guy named Bock. Bock has a shit ton of British stuff packed in garages and barns from one end of the town to the other. Before I left we dug through some of his treasures. He pulled out this orange wassel tank that I fell in love with and planned on taking ques from it when I get around to painting my sickle. About a month later I run into Sean "wanna Party" out in Chino California and he is running the matching fender on his Triumph. It's crazy to think that these two pieces were most likely painted in the 60's or 70's run on a righteous bike then separated by thousands of miles and 40 years later I happen to know the two guys with each half.




Beezer Bock and his tank





Fender on Sean's Limey

The Dave Mann Chopperfest

Typically the plan is to ride straight up to Ventura for the Dave Mann Show after the Mooneyes Christmas Show and get loaded and tear apart the town. It was raining like a sum bitch so Wil and I decided to hit the highway in the morning. A good thing we did because the ride up couldn't have been any more beautiful. Once we got there it felt like we were only there for two minutes before everyone was heading out. I must have been having a great time..... sorry to all the people I didn't get a chance to talk to. The show was good and the Dave Mann prints were even better.











Some of the prints that were on display

Ready Freddy

Irish Rich

I got the chance to talk with Irish Rich for a while at the Mooneyes Show. It amazes me that a guy like Irish Rich would want to talk to a guy like me. It's unreal how stoked he is about motorcycles after all these years. He has seen the best of them come and go. While talking to him it seemed as if I cracked open his skull like a history book on choppers.... only it was the crazy shit that nobody talks about. I started sweating because I knew I was about the forget everything he was saying and I was going the fail the chopper test. I'm better with diagrams and pictures maybe I'll have him draw it out for me next time. Thanks Rich hope to see you again soon.

Check out his Blog Applied Machete for some history lessons

Mooneyes Christmas Show

It rained... rained some more... stopped for two seconds then rained again. I still had a good time and ran into a lot of great people. Thanks to those that let me crash their pop-ups

Rainshine

At least when it rains in california the sun still shines. Everybody seemed to be freaking out about the weather but it still seemed like paradise to me.



Wil and is El Camino

Garage Company

When I landed in LA it was raining. I had hoped to leave the snow for some warm sunshine but that wasn't the case upon arrival. I met up with Wil and hopped in his El Camino. We headed towards Garage Company to say hi to Kiyo. It was his day off but the guy lives, sleeps and breathes motorcycles so it's not uncommon to find him at work on a Monday when the shop is closed. Wil needed a cable made up for his pan so he Kiyo cooked him one up. Dean's pan was in the shop so Wil took the opportunity to tag his tank. Garage Company is owned by Yoshi. He was into racing back in the day and was picking up the coolest parts you could ever dream of before they were "cool". You'll walk out of Garage Company with a pair of blue balls because nothing is for sell. It's a dreamers paradise.

Marilyn Monroe

I have been infatuated with her for sometime now.

In the past few years I have found myself in California on a regular occurrence but I always avoid Holywood. In fact I saw the Holywood sign for the first time on this trip. Anyway... Wil and I met up with Bacon at Negotiable Tim's and we blasted up to Holywood. We found this wax figure of Marilyn. It freaked Bacon out. He kept asking if she was real.... he wouldn't walk up to it. We convinced him she wasn't real and he got a little more intimate with her.

Wishes....

... hope they came true for you.

Wheelies and Coppers

It was my last day of sunshine and warm ocean breezes. We woke up early and rode up to Cook's Corner then I met up with Big Scott to shoot his Panhead. After shooting the bike we headed over to his place so I could snap a few more shots. The sun was getting low and I still had to shoot Wil's Pan. As I was headed down the driveway we heard some bikes ripping through the neighborhood. As they rounded the corner to the street facing the house three dudes on Twin Cams popped up on their rear wheels riding wheelies all the way down to the driveway. In the mix of bikes was a bike mounted cop. He wasn't so happy with their display of motorcycle riding skill and began yelling through his PA at them. Of course he threw a bunch of smart ass power tripp'n words at them. "Let me see your registration"..... "get your hands out of your pockets!!!".... "sorry officer.. just getting my registration"...... "hury up!! I ain't got all fucking day!!!" I think he was just jealous that he couldn't ride a wheelie like them.

It was one of the raddest events I have ever witnessed! I couldn't stay and meet them because they were busy being written up tickets and the sun was setting but damn... that was sweet!

Hats off to you.......