POSTPONED!!!------------------First Ride of 2011!!!

SO the first ride has been postponed due to possible stormy weather, stay tuned for a date, should be later this month>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Josh from Utility Boardshop has put together a First Ride for kicking off 2011 which also ties in with Born-Free 3. Make your First Ride of the new year to Downtown Upland CA Jan.2nd from 10am to 4pm. Utility Boardshop will be selling the Born-Free 3 Knucklehead posters w/ free tickets in their retail store and everyone who buys one gets a FREE Born-Free/Utility/Vans limited run T shirt! These shirts are only available the day of the event. Cory Miller(legendary tattoo artist) has graciously offered to open up his art gallery & serve refreshments to all those who attend. His band Powerflex 5 will also be playing a free show.
What to expect... Bikes, Music, Art and Mike Stills is making a batch his famous pickled eggs to go with some cool beverages...what more do you need???

Xmas sale, spoil yourself

And buy this sweet sickle! Special Festivus pricing. CLICK HERE for more info. It has more twisted '70s part on it than you can shake a cocktail shaker muffler at (it has those too!). Will ship anywhere (sale pending)

Asphalt Gods book now available

Asphalt Gods is a book by our friend and Midway City phenomenon Gabe Griffin and is a wonderful pictorial of the Heathens MC of SoCal from back in the day. CLICK HERE to buy one, they are limited.

From Gabe about the project, he's also been workin on a film documentary about the Heathens...stay tuned.

"This is a project that has been on the top of my OCD list for the last three or four years. I started out playing music with lyrics from a 60's club members point of view and that turned into a three camera, two car shoot from California to South Dakota to interview the original members of the Venice and South Bay Heathens Motorcycle Family. Crazy. I couldn't believe I was going to actually do it while I was coordinating the camera crew and renting vehicles. If someone came to me and said "hey, I'm going to hang out with this motorcycle gang that I met. You want to bring a video camera and film it?" I would think that guy was crazy. Motorcycle clubs don't put up with that shit. Well, this group liked me enough to let me sit down with them and tell the story of the rise and fall of their club in the 70's and 80's. Hours and hours and hours of video footage, interviews, hundreds of vintage photos collected and too many crazy stories to tell in one sitting. That turned into the book that you see here. It turns out editing is extremely expensive and this movie is going to take a good chunk of time in the editing booth."

Born-Free 3 Newz you can Uze

Fret not if you missed out on the Born-Free Panhead this past year at Born-Free 2 you can take a swing at the Knucklehead we'll be handing over the title to at Born-Free 3 June 25th, 2011! That's right, a knucklehead, but not just any knucklehead---a Garage Company built knucklehead! Yoshi and his main man Kiyo are putting together a sweet knuckle to our specs that some lucky SOB will be taking home next year. CLICK HERE or the Born-Free 3 icon on the right side of the page to order your 3-color silk screened poster by our pals at Icon Screening (they do all our FMA gear!) along with your ticket to win the knucklehead. The bike is being built with most all original HD parts and accesories, not some slopped together POS full of import garbage! Get your ticket today!

Flamed

this Sweet Flathead was put together by Joe Dynamite and hit the scene for a minute. The tank blew me away and reminded me a bit of my own. I really wish I knew where my tank came from, but that I may never know. At least Joe will know if he looks below-straight up from an East Coast "garbage wagon" or "chicken box" circa 1969. that thing is as cool as it is loaded. Think about how happy these tanks are not to have died by over illumination, but to now live under the care of Masa from the VISE crew in Nagoya.

California Blue

After 12 years of searching i finally located a veiling gun. And then I got the best project imaginable to use it on. Shige, the big man at Moon, asked me to do another paintjob for him. This time it was to be on a period Triumph showbike. I told Shige that I would paint this as a tribute to the late Larry Watson, incorporating some of his pioneering techniques(well quite honestly just about every paintjob is a tribute to the Leader-the man started just about every paint trend out there before there was anything else) one a request by Shige for Lace and two the Veling panels. Then I added a little bit of Bill Carter flair to the signature(and Bill Carter grain to the pearl!). This paintjob was a lot of fun. Thank you for asking me to paint your bike Shige!!!!!!!!!!!

Ladies love the California Blue! On the left is the lovely Minako. She is quite talented. Dig her artwork here http://blog.zaq.ne.jp/minacolla Thank you for the great cupcakes Minako!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

California Blue with the Freak'n Four. Shige's favorite color is definetely blue!

Pinstriping at the show. This one was cut close due to a true comedy of errors.

Robt. Williams looking on in approval. He told me it was beautiful. Truly one of the all-time greatest compliments I have ever received.

I made this little present(omiyage) for Shige before I knew what he intended on naming the bike. I nearly fell over when I saw the showcard with the name California Blue on it. Mochi took this photo on setup day. I really dig how the Larry Watson memorial card is in the frame. As if my hero was looking down in approval. Thank you Mochi.

click the link for more pics!!!!
http://www.customcycle-moon.com/2010/californiablue/califolniablue.html

RIPPLE PIPE

Cal-Modified Ripple Pipe available soon exclusively from Freedom Machinery & Accessories.

look close, no attention to detail spared to bring you the finest Ripple Pipe anywhere
From the golden age of kustom machinery
Larry Howards Glitter Cycle showbike from the early 1960's


Read all about it. Big news on the FMA product line front. We have been working with Richard Reyes at CAL MODIFIED for quite some time now to bring you what you have all been wanting. RIPPLE PIPE. The most authentic Ripple Pipe on the market to be sure. This is nothing new for Cal Modified. The folks at Cal Modified have spent years researching the original and developing their process for producing a superior product. Each section is handcrafted in the USA of the finest materials in Southern California and is not overpriced "pep boys flex tube". Our Cal Modified Ripple Pipes will be available in multiple lengths, for several applications in 2 levels of finish: slip-on or weld-on form to make your own pipes. Stay tuned for more product photos, availability and options-and as always kustom orders will still available. As you can see on the below 2 show winning Triumph's, Cal-Modifieds kustom applications have been around for quite some time now in limited availability, limited until now that is

Here is a Pre-Unit show bike built by 4Aces cycle http://www.fouracescycle.com/index.html equipped with an extended section of Ripple accented with bell tips. At the 2009 GNRS this bike took top honors in its class. Well deserved might I add, with chrome frame and sweet paintjob by the legendary Nick-O-Teen.

Stretch's pre-unit show bike at the 2009 GNRS. This seldom seen beautiful machine has kustom 4 inch sections of Ripple and is sporting a paintjob by yours truly. http://nostalgiaonwheels.blogspot.com/

GARAGE MAHAL Friday night!!!

Tune in tomorrow to see Grant in action on an episode of GARAGE MAHAL on the DIY Network at 5:30 (PST). Did I mention Bill Goldberg is the host of the show????

Click here for more info:

This post was brought to you by THE QP (and Clyde he was sleeping on my lap while typing).

toy run

this saturday, rain or shine we are going to have a good time. Some of my students are in 2 rocknroll blues bands and will be rockin out hard. If you cant make it, please take a new unwrapped toy or donation down to your local fire station for their sparks of love program.

See you there.

love ear art

the geese are themy favorite part
his sporty
Hajime, Gen, Godzilla, 24, Mochi
2 painters, 2 countries, 2 friends, too stoked
Last year after the show we saw this van roll down the streets of Yokohama and thought that it was the coolest thing ever and how we wished we could hang out with that guy. Well we got our wish this year. Gen operates Love Ear Art. Love Ear being the translation of Japanese slang for wife. This year the HRCS had a motorcycle paintjob competition of which Shige gave the great honor and extremely difficult task of picking the winner. After much deliberation I kept coming back to Gen's tank, for its shear beauty and complexivity that was just beyond me. There were a lot of amazing tanks out there for sure-check them out yourself

http://www.mooneyes.co.jp/hcs/10/report/html/fueltank.html

Gen is one of the most sincere psychedelic painters that I have met. truly an individual who lives his paintjobs.

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/loveear/

we're back

Poon, THe QP, and I are all back from a more than amazing time in Japan. It was non-stop adventure for sure. We were lucky to have a big group of our friends over in the far East with us and 8 of us stayed almost a week longer than normal. We jumped on the bullet train and headed west to amazing cities like Osaka, Nagoya, and Kyoto. Each day got more fun and unusual than the last and were filled with chu-hi, vending machines filled with boss coffee, sars masks, kamanohashi jokes, lugging bags across the country, "do you have chicken?", hand shakes, hugs, and seemingly communicating through laughter when language got in the way until we finally had to come back to so called real life. It was so nice not having a cell phone or computer for 8 days it's been hard to want to use either one now.
I was also able to celebrate my birthday there and was surprised in three cities with cake and good people, thank all of you!
i have 2400 pics to go through, plus the QP was shooting video, stay tuned. I'm sure many have seen the bikes from the show already on blogs from all over the globe...what a blast it was to ride my shovel there. THanks to Shige and the whole Moon staff, Goshu get well.

Linkert Velocity stack Update

Man oh man! Did i goof! When we got the Linkert Stacks ready i apparently didn't put them in the FMA online Store, d'oh! If you want one CLICK HERE!

Later Aligator

We are off to Japan in the morning and are more than excited to say the least. We are running around like chickens with our heads cut off at the moment. Obviously we won't be here to ship any new orders out, we return Decemember 11th and we'll resume then. If you are attending the Mooneyes Yokohama Hot Rod & Custom show, stop by and say hi!

If you want something to do Saturday December 11th and are in southern California, come see this show: