We'll be leaving in the morning for the Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom Show in Yokohama again and i can't wait to step on that plane and catch up on some sleep before another amazing show.
Hang in there, we'll be back next week!
if you are in Japan, please stop by and say hi!
Been away from the computer (and phone mostly) for over a week now. Amy and i closed on our first home, and we had to do a few things before we moved in...which turned into a week of 12+ hour days with my dad who drove down from Salt Lake with a car full of tools!
The house was built in 1928 so it needed a few things. We replumbed the whole house in Pex to replace the old galvanized pipes, put in a tankless water heater, redid a bunch of gas lines, dug a trench to the garage to add 220v, hot and cold water, and a drain so we could put the washer and dryer out there, updated the main electrical panel, knocked a wall out in the kitchen to open it up, had to replace two floor joists from years of a leaky bathtub along with some other water damage in the wall, framed and plumbed a 1/2 bath...and a few other things i'm sure...plus moved out of our old house!
Couldn't have done it without my dad, the remodeler extraordinaire! Thanks a ton! My brother even came up on sunday to lay down some wiring and additional outlets.
There's still a good amount to do to finish the kitchen and 1/2 bath, but it's better already!
OK True Believers!!!! We are extending our blackfmafriday super weekend sale all the way through cyber Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because were ....
Remember enter TATONKA to get the 15% deal on parts and BLACKFMAFRIDAY to get the 25% deal on apparel
When I was visiting Larry Watson in the hospital, naturally we talked about paint. In the course of our talk, Larry punched me in the brain. Before I left he asked me "so when are you going to paint the "Split Dimension"? My brain was punched so naturally I had no answer but only questions. The Leader described it as one paint-job splitting to reveal another.
OK what?
So that is what i tried to intrepret here on this tank I painted for the Oil & Water show earlier this month. The flames split two identical panel layouts that are different in their own dimesion.
I'll post up some more pics soon, this one lifted from joyrides.
i may not have Crazy Gideons charisma or product, but we do have an awesome deal for those who are xmas shopping, hating life this weekend with the in-laws or crying because you realized Gilligan did not get off of the island.
We Are Chopping Down Prices!!!!!!!!!!!! 25% off all apparel and %15 off of parts (excluding ripple pipe and airbrushed dragonslayer tees-sorry)
enter the code BLACKFMAFRIDAY for Apparel discount in our store for the 25% discount on apparel and TATONKA for the 15% discount on parts. this deal is good from noon tommorrow until noon sunday-California Time baby!
orders over $100 will include a mystery prize!!!! just like the dum-dum lollipops covered in question marks!!! CAN YOU DIG IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????????
thanks to instagram, long time listener Mike in Virginia and I connected about some lead type from the good old letterpress system. He was cool enough to send in some type of our favroite letters. Thanks Mike!
While digging around I ran across these pictures from a small, local event we have here in the Seattle area that's called the Bonhead Enduro. Basically, a bunch of guys hop on their pre-75 bikes and go crash around on fire roads and in the woods for 1/2 a day. The year that I rode my '52 Triumph in the enduro, it was the oldest machine there, but as you can see from the trophy plaquard, bikes have attended that are way, way older. 20's, 30's, etc. Some folks come out on choppers, some on dirt bikes, and some on whatever they have that's old. Note missing tire on fish scale tank'd Honda. The bike's owner completed the ride in the top 5 and he did it animal style, with a flat tire and flying low the whole way.
I'll try to remember to post the event flyer when it's sent out. Definitely a fun and unique event.
My Brother was in town last week and wanted to see a little live music. After peeling through the local weirdo paper and looking around online, we didn't run across much of anything worth venturing out to see. This was on Monday.
While out for a beer on Tuesday night down in old Ballard - my drink your face off maritime neighborhood - we walked past the Tractor Tavern, a local bar that features alternative country and blues acts. There staring back at us from the window flyer was something that caught my eye:
The Brother and I agreed to go check him out on Wednesday evening, and fuck man!
I've seen a thing or two, but I've never seen anything like what that man did for two hours. Dirty old delta blues, hellfire and brimstone rock and roll, tear-jerking ballads, outlaw country on coke, yodeling, and a few other types of music that I don't even know how to describe. Someone called him the white trash Robert Johnson, and that's quite simply as well as it can be said. He's the consumate story teller by way of music.
He beat the all-living bejeezuz out of that old Gibson guitar, nearly stomped a hole in the stage floor, somehow sang three parts simultaneously in a single song, laid down some Muddy Waters that was so ass-shakin' the floor almost broke free of its nails from the whole bar dancing, and left everything you could leave on that stage.
After a bit of reading, I understand why Biram can do what he does. The man plays nearly 250 shows per year, and that unto itself - completely outside of my half-cocked words - is reason enough to go see him practice his art.
Our friend Gen at Love Ear Art and the happiest guy in Japan just finished this paint job on this crazy panhead...can't wait to see it in Yokohama in a couple weeks!
Anthony put up a little supersuckers at the beginning of the week, so i thought i would end the work week for you with possibly my favorite (hard to pick...) Supersuckers songs...
We have a small batch of our TOP Quality FMA Ripple Pipefor sale! Ours has been perfected and doled out in SMALL quantities for about 7 years now by our very particular friend that makes it for us. While there are some alternatives these days (don't even be fooled for that 2 1/4" Pep Boys crap!), this is the most authentic and proportioned ripple pipe out there and MADE IN THE USA! It WILL stand up against all the rest.
Available in short and long pieces in weld-on and bolt-on applications all in 1 3/4-inch diameter mild steel.
BOLT-ON pieces have a nice finished belled tip and feature built in clamping, so no ugly clamps needed. Short are about 13" overall length and long are about 17". These come SHOW CHROMED with hardware! (the bolt-on pieces are just headed to the chrome shop, so please expect 2-4 weeks for delivery. If you want them polished and unchromed please email grant@getchoppedout.com for a discount).
WELD-ON pieces come are mild steel and are fully polished ready for chrome plating once you weld them on your pipes. Short pieces are 11" and have a belled tip, long pieces are 17" and have a straight tip.
My wife and I went to check out The Rum Diaries this past weekend. Great and funny movie, and I highly recommend it.
In typical November fashion in Seattle, it was raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock, so the last thing I expected to see when we pulled into the parking garage was the bike you see here.
We parked a few stories below where the bike was and I didn't even need to tell my wife where I was off to 'for just a minute'. We got out of the car and she just said "I'll meet you upstairs, be quick."
If I could see one random vintage motorcycle in an even more random place each week for the rest of my days I would smile one more time per week than I already do, which is an awful lot to start with.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Tomato and Steph from Born-Free 2 on a couple of bikes built by Small City Cycles.
Music these days has gotten too tricky, too thought out and too...well, too much. Sometimes you just need some low-down, trashy rock and fucking roll and The Supersuckers never dissapoint when it comes to that.
Peg the volume on your computer machine and enjoy.
Thank you to those who served in our Military. The gentleman you see in the picture above, Anthony Sallazzo, is my Grandfather. He fought at Iwo Jima, and of the approximately 150 soldiers in his platoon, was one of six to make it out alive.
Thank you for the freedom I have today Grandpa. I do not take it for granted.
this saturday night. US versus THEM is hosting the Oil and Water art show. I am very excited to be part of the show especially with its awesome lineup. This is going to be SO GOOD. See you there.
I broke out the old veiling gun for my piece in the show. James from UVT took this cool shot the other night. Larry Watson gave me this idea a long time ago to shoot the veiling onto glass. The Leader always had the best ideas.
My friend Mike's Pan in a Knuckle frame. Great bike that's owned by a great guy. Simple, clean, and built with some pretty neat parts. The sissy bar on the machine is made of square rebar. When was the last time you saw square rebar? Me? Never.
I shot the picture in a wide-open field at a neat farm out in Snoqualmie, WA. The mountain in the back is Mt. Si. In addition to being pretty damn impressive visually, it's also a fun place to go climbing and trail running.
Spent the day getting Ron Burgundy back together...just pulled it off the lift, backed it out of the shop to let it warm up...i think i hurt it. The #3 cylinder was the worst from the head gasket let-go and the car sat for a little bit until i could get back to it...there was some funkiness on the cylinder wall that i just figured i'd see what happens...smokes a little out that side now...D'oh! maybe it will go away.........that and i suspect the O2 sensor is toast after going to antifreeze raging waters. Oh well, two day until Irwindale, if i can just make one good pass and get kicked out for being too fast without a cage!!
Go to your local grocery, liqueur, or book store and get a copy of the new issue of Car Craft...my turbo Mustang is on the cover doing some nice doughnut burnouts...good times.
Actually trying to get the car back together today after blowing a head gasket so we can go drag racing at Irwindale this Thursday...
Need a nice set of fenders for your hot rod? I found my dad a 1930 Model A Coupe that came with a nice set of fenders that were painted in black lacquer in 1977 and never put back on the car. Bolt em on and go! there is a little lacquer checking on the drivers front fender, would be awesome on an old hot rod... Complete set of fronts, rears, splash aprons, and running boards (still wrapped in newspaper from '77!).
email grant@getchoppedout.com if you are interested, located in Fullerton, California.
my blackberry takes such nice pictures...here are some randoms.
ran out of eggs...
At work: Ari Hennings CB350 race bike...yeah, he's fast on this thing. Ari works for Motorcyclist and his dad happens to be Todd Henning which will ring a bell if you are into fast old Hondas.
My shovel in the garage at home next to the '30 Model A coupe project i found for my dad...good combo.
Here is one of the headers i have been building for the '71 Dodge Demon for Car Craft. We are putting two 67mm Comp Turbos on the 5.7L Hemi i stuck in the car... The header is actually upside down in this photo, the collector goes up and then one of the turbos goes happily on top...Finished building and tacking them, gotta take em apart and weld em up, put them back together, install, make tubes to hang the frontend sheetmetal, plumb the cold side, exhaust, firewall...ooof. lots left.
As a proud transplant to Seattle, WA I spend a fair amount of time telling people what a great city this is. Part of that is my being a forced optimist and part of it is the truth, but I like it here.
That said, I miss home this time of year. Home is the Allegheny Mountains of NY, near Alfred and Saint Bonaventure Universties. Home is where I walked out of my backdoor as a sometimes angry kid, got on my dirtbike, and worked it all out. Home is my family's maple farm and restaurant, where there's space and peace and quiet; it's the house I grew up in, the trees I climbed and the crisp fall air and rainbow painted mountains. It's my kids running free in a field until they're out of breath, it's feeding the family's reindeer, it's sliding cars around corners on dirt roads just because you can, and shooting guns and knowing everyone, whether they're good, bad or somewhere in between.
We make high-quality mens & womens '60s & '70s style chopper shirts one at a time. Each original shirt from Freedom Machinery and Accessories are printed by hand in the US of A for you. We also make a small line of special parts for your bike like super short velocity stacks, bars, and gas caps and bungs.
We build and ride our own bikes, like many of you, and FMA is an extension of this passion. We're always working on new designs, Click HERE for our store.