The East Side

After the Brooklyn Invitational I was looking for something to do. Jeff, fatty and Rob weren't about to let me call it an early night so they pulled me into a cab and we crossed the Bridge to the East Side. These guys are no shortage of a great time in any environment let alone on the East Side of New York at 4 am. We hit a number of bars and they fed me whiskey all morning. I can't remember most of the night but I know it was good. I do remember that we couldn't get a cab to stop for us and when one finally did things got sticky because the cab driver could only speak Chinese and didn't know his way around New York. Rob spoke to him in Spanish and the cabby acted like he understood. Thankfully I took some mental notes on the way into Brooklyn and was able to point him in the right direction. Not sure how the rest faired but they probably not remember anyway.

It's always a great time running into these guys. wish it happened more often.

Cumm Shot + Shitty "S"

This Dude picked him a winner

Found this written on my hand the next afternoon. Probably some good advice.

Jesse.....Bacon.....Decker

A month ago Bacon Left my house with a truck load of motors to rebuild, an XR and switched out his Knuckle for another knuckle. He crossed the country at 45 mph in his 1965 pick-up packed to the grills. He already had his knuckle sold before riding it around Lake Michigan but that didn't stop him from running the thing 100+ while forcing cars right off the road. He can ride the shit out of a motorcycle but is a scary mother fucker behind a steering wheel. He was able to break in the new Knuckle on a little trip with Jesse and Decker on the Texas/Mexico border. Sounds like it was an amazing trip.

In the Valley Of Cherries

Family weekend

We took advantage of the weather and headed out to Josh's place to meet up with some of the Milwaukee boys for a blast in the country. After blowing leaves into empty fields and maple lined backroads we had a sangria soaked campfire followed by another day of the same. We hit the City skyline at dusk, put em away, started the trucks and headed for home.

8am shop breakfast

The Mile put a hurting on all the bikes this year and Ratchet covered himself and everybody behind him in 60 weight before turning around halfway to Josh's

Back at it

Lots of blue dreaming

Jr's piece of insanity


Fat Bob came by to say hey


Midwest Sunday

Jason Mitchell

I met Jason at the Brooklyn Invitational. He had just completed this 38 a day before the show. Check out what he's got going on over at DEATH SCEINCE

Locust Star

It's funny how certain music fits a season. There are groups or bands that you will listen to frequently at times and not so much at others. Like scent..... certain tones provoke memories connecting a band or a song to a particular place, time, mindset, feeling or perhaps a group of long forgotten friends. I suppose age has a lot to do with this. When fall rolls around I find myself losing my mind to Neurosis on many dark nights. It brings me back to my senior year of high school. I had a 1963 Ford Galaxie. My favorite thing to do was get lost on gravel roads at one in the morning with only the company of the moon. Autumn was always my favorite for night adventures..... windows down, cold air, a warm hoodie, a huge steering wheel and headphones because all I had was a AM radio with one speaker in the dash. I'd often turn off my headlights on clear nights..... a look in the rearview revealed a freight train of dust. Neurosis always brings me back to this place.





Brad has recently tuned me on to Steve Von Till's solo records. So different from Neurosis yet very much the same.

Keino Sasaki

While in Brooklyn I was fortunate enough to get to spend a great deal of time with Keino. It's refreshing to be in the presence of a mind like his. I'm draw to people that walk their own line and feel no need to fit into any class, group, club and gang of people. What he creates is truly original and created with pride.

Keino Cycles

Keino made this for Larry as a birthday gift..... It became Legend

I went with him to check out a new shop space.

Working out the bugs on Wes' Shovel

Updated

Next Friday, do it.

Free Live'n

I met Ali in Sturgis a few years ago.... back when the County Line was lawless. She was traveling with the White Knights and we had a blast tearing up our bikes on some dirt paths. I hadn't seen Ali since but she never failed to give me a hard time about being a pansy because all of my prior attempts to make it to New York were foiled. I gave her a ring on my way in.... she gave me a place to crash on the coach which was great because it was really close to every thing that was going on. She gave me the keys and I was free to go where ever I pleased. I don't know what my Brooklyn experience would have been without her.



Ali and her man Dan. Tail gate pizza pic nic on the streets on Brooklyn.

A big thanks to both of you.

A Country Mile

Moving forth to capture what follows.

WWRED?

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WTFHW!

Autumn

We were working on a car in a friend's drive way. The wheels lie in rest on two strips of compact ground which straddled a strip of green grass. My nose dripped slightly in the cold air. It was when his wife emerged from the house with some hot apple cider and freshly baked corn bread that I realized it was now my favorite time of year.

The weather has been unreal around here lately. The air is crisp and dry, blue skies go forever, yellow leaves floating to the ground in the rays of a golden sun and the stars are in full attendance.

It seems that at about this time of year my bike is held together with a year of quick fixes but I ride it harder than I have ever ridden it before knowing what's lurking around the corner. It's almost like I want to break it because it's coming apart in a few months anyway.

I've been on the road since Sturgis. I haven't had the time to explore the lesser known backroads, gravels roads and dirt paths in my new region. I have found hardships on just about every trip out of the driveway but is suppose that's what makes things exciting..... flat tires...... Endos over railroad tracks.... Electrical shorts.... 250 foot gravel slides through stop signs.... Broken bolts..... bee stings.... Frantic deer encounters.... Blown up tail lights.... stuck valves.... I even got hit by a football.

I changed out my rear tire before the Country Mile because the previous was showing chords. This would be the fifth tire I put on the rear rim this year. I've been circulating through the junk tires at Bravetown to get me through the year. The newest is hard as a rock. So hard that I rode 40+ miles with zero air pressure and didn't even realize it. I'm lucky I didn't break the bead.

I thought I may have bent a valve.

Photo: Haley Murray

Last saturday everybody and their mother was out on a motorcycle. The only thing I could figure was that most of these people forgot to ride their bike all year and figured they had better get on and ride it a few miles before the snows flys. I ride everyday and I never see more than 3 bikes on the road on any given day... not counting the same 5 bikes that never leave their spot in front of the bar........ Although I really enjoyed passing heards of twin cams, V-rods and crotch rockets on a cobbled together Panshovel.

Mogwai

The mornings have become brisk again but the sun has not let us down in weeks. My mornings are filled with the usual gas station cup of coffee, marlboros and a lumber pile now covered in leaves. They fall on me all day long while the sawdust grabs onto every thread of me but it's beautiful really. The simple pleasures of a working mans day. I've been listening to lots of Mogwai before the day heats up, it reminds me of the falls of past and my memories are itched by the scents of seasons change.

As the day ends the tailgate goes up and the sun looks tired but it still treats you to one last skyline paradise as you tug the blue dream and put her in drive. I let the dream and Mogwai pick the route home today, took a really long time. I love Chicago, especially in the fall. Soon everybody will look pissed and the buildings will shiver with lit chimneys. I don't want to be cold, ever.

purpose built and so legit.

Your lightnin's all I need

My satisfaction grows

You make me feel at ease

You even make me glow

Don't cut the power on me

I'm feelin' low, so get me high

Stanley Came to Rocktown

Gentry Dayton

I witnessed a black shadow appear while attending the Brooklyn Invitational. There was so much going on in the mayhem of the show I never had a chance to introduce myself to this fellow in black. A day later I was hanging out at Keino's Shop and saw the same shadow resting in the corner. Turned out that Keino had built the 49 pan for a guy named Gentry and he was just breaking it in. I met up with Gentry on a fine afternoon then captured him and his black pan. I was out of my element. I typically shoot in open spaces but that kind of real estate is hard to come by in Brooklyn. Things were looking shitty because I found that buildings tend to block a setting sun.... I was using a new 80 dollar lens because the dust from sturgis destroyed my good one.. and I had no lighting. Finally the sun receded enough for the street lights to pop on.... This was my magical hour. Street lights and my truck lights were all I had. I was forced outside my box but it's my belief that good things became of it.