Happy B-Day buddy

Our own artist at large, EZ, has a birthday today. Can't wait til he move back down south.

More Andy Anderson

Born-Free Update

Born-Free 2 is approaching faster than you think!
Here are a list of helpful links to those traveling from afar:

HERE is the google maps for Pacific Coast Cycles where we are having the show, http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS269US269&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=pacific+coast+cycles&fb=1&gl=us&hq=pacific+coast+cycles&hnear=West+Hollywood,+CA&cid=0,0,6254538600165293479&ei=4DJ0S5ysGsijlAfkj4TxCw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=4&ved=0CBkQnwIwAw

Here are the hotels close to the Pacific Coast Cycles:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS269US269&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=pacific+coast+cycles&fb=1&gl=us&hq=pacific+coast+cycles&hnear=West+Hollywood,+CA&cid=0,0,6254538600165293479&ei=4DJ0S5ysGsijlAfkj4TxCw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=4&ved=0CBkQnwIwAw
Here is where we are having the after party Alex’s Bar:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS269US269&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=pacific+coast+cycles&fb=1&gl=us&hq=pacific+coast+cycles&hnear=West+Hollywood,+CA&cid=0,0,6254538600165293479&ei=4DJ0S5ysGsijlAfkj4TxCw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=4&ved=0CBkQnwIwAw
Alex’s Bar website: http://www.alexsbar.com/

Here are hotels around Alex’s Bar:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS269US269&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=pacific+coast+cycles&fb=1&gl=us&hq=pacific+coast+cycles&hnear=West+Hollywood,+CA&cid=0,0,6254538600165293479&ei=4DJ0S5ysGsijlAfkj4TxCw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=4&ved=0CBkQnwIwAw
I would probably stay closer to the bar, the shop where we are having the show is in a real industrial area that’s better suited for day time hangin.

double take trip out

So recently i was in downtown Santa Ana just about done shooting Joe Dynamite's knuckle for the next issue of Street Chopper (out the begining of April) and this sharp dressed old dude rolls by on a bike. But not just any bike, it's got high bars, a sissy bar, lights, mirrors, and horns and a stereo on it to beat the band! he trips out on Joe's knuckle and i scamble to dislodge my camera from the tripod and snap a quick pic as i trip out on him.

Silverface Fender Bassman 100 head for sale

I have been playing this '70s Fender Bassman 100 head for about 4 years now and actually using it for bass. I was always the loudest in the band, it gets real fuzzy and sounds way cool. Billy Zoom from the band X went through it for me whn i got it and also did a few tricks to it, like adding a master volume that's a push pull, so you can drive the rest of the amp and still control the output. Billy has finished the custom 300 watt head he's been building for me and i don't have much use for the Bassman except as a back up. It'd be a killer guitar amp and like i said, it's a fun bass amp too. $450, i'd rather not ship it, but if you have to have it, let me know grant.peterson@sorc.com
these are the only pics i have of it now with yours truely rockin out, i'll take some close ups.

The old days...

These pics are from Street Chopper reader Andy Anderson of Anderson Studios. He had a few bikes in the mag back in the day, plus lots of great pics of their work.

Just in case you missed this one last night on SNL.

 Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

New stuff in the store!

We have a few new things in the WEBSTORE!

First we have two new Harpoon Kustom Paint shirts that we did to take with us to Japan. The first is a ringer T with Chopper Dave's famous diamond tank on it that actually has the same metalflake on it that Harpoon painted the tank with. Harpoon figured out how to screenprint with the same metalflake he paints with (just like our 3/4 metalflake helmet hoodie!). It is printed on a white ringer with chocolate neck and sleeve rings, just like the brown pinstriping on the tank. $20 each.






















Up next is another Harpoon Kustom Paint shirt with a cartoon of Harpoon rding his Panhead on it drawn by the famous Kustom Kulture artist, The Pizz. Simple black on white, $15 each.
























We also got a few copies of our friend and amazing photographer Adam Wright's latest instalment into his saught after Road Course series. inside you'll find great black and white images from Adam's Lieca of Keith Richards, Lucky, both JJ's, Scott Craig, the Atwater Playboy, Zipperneck, the old dude magnet himself-Dan Druff, Dustin H, Nelson Kanno, Harpoon, and even a shot of me making a rediculous face (Thanks Adam), and many more. $30 ea plus shipping while supplies last.



























SOLD!!!!!!!!!
Last but not least, i found one XXL Born-Free shirt from the show last year. Brand new, all packaged up. Everything is in our webstore which you can visit by clicking HERE

New one for the bar

This is a new one I drew for my bar.

I've been slingin drinks in this place for over five years now & it's coming to an end soon.

The Lava will be greatly missed when I leave for LA- soooooo many good times!

stolen pic.....an old one, but the one & only place in seattle with a healthy palm tree in front. It's twice as big now....from all the beer I've fead it over the years.

A few from me

 

will be missed

few more pics

Got out in the disaster area also known as our garage last night to start cleaning up from the last two weeks of thrashing, fun.
This little spot in the garage was my own hell while trying to finish it.



It was good to see the shovel back home in its natuaral habitat (after i made room for it), even though it looked awefuly nice in the show.

My shovel is done...........almost

you have probably noticed that we haven't been here much this last week. Its for good reason, we've been in the garage!
I was busting ass trying to get my shovel done for the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona over the weekend. It was a long week with little sleep. Going to bed at 2, 3, 4 , 6am and getting up early to still do my day job. I had manyt monents of doubt, but thanks to the help of Harpoon, and the last minute saves by Jeff Leighton, Mike Davis, Jeff Holt, John Edwards, Tom Perron, and Chopper Dave, we got the bike to the show. It didn't run and there are a few things i need to iron out, but it still made it and looked the part whcih is all i could hope for. I didn't do it to try and win and with it not running i couldn't, but i can say i built a bike that was in the GNRS--which was the goal. I was building it anyway.
I'll put more pics up later, this is all i have for now. It's time to piece my life back together, clean up the garage and the house, catch up on orders, ship parts, and sell some more parts so i can pay rent, because the bike broke me!

With this version (hopefully the last) i just wanted to build a simple Man's bike. Not super flashy this or that, no wild and crazy stuff, just a bike that worked as a whole and will look good forever. I had Hugger Orange in mind for an Oakland Orange-ish feel and settled on '63 Studebaker omaha orange because everything else was too red. I had to keep poon from getting carried away with the brush and to just lay one line on each fender lip in plack as well as the simple line on each side of the tank.

The tank, fender and taillight all turned out how i had in mind, with the taillight probably being my favorite (i'll get finished pics soon!). I was nervous about joining the narrowed sporty tank set, but i think it looks right on the bike now. The pipes and the sissy bar were again thinks i wanted to be simple and a little different, but not for the sake of being different. I also went from 4- to 6-over tubes in the shaved early glide trees that are STOCK WIDTH! proper chopper early wideglides get no respect any more and thats a shame. so even with all the narrowness to the bike i'm leaving the frontent the way it is, i was planning on narrowing a set of trees, but not anymore.
hope you like it as much as i do, thanks to all my friends that chippied in, it wouldn't have happened without you. And thanks to the QP for hanging in there!

Hey Northwest!

ST. VALENTINES DAY MASSOCCURRENCE
We throws a pretty good dig, roll by, check it out.

this one has been goin since the 70's

Omaha

the water is rising

it stopped raining a few days ago, but the water is rising pretty fast as i try and get my shovel done by thursday before, let's say noon, so i can setup by 4pm at the roadster show....weird things like life, work, responsibility, sleep, etc, can really slow things down. the frame is back from powdercoat, most of the chrome is done, the tins have color on them, i just need to blast the jugs and heads, wait for the polishing to come back, and then put the whole bike together....if anyone is bored, come over and i'll put you to work!
We are also trying to get our booth ready for the show, which should be right across from my bike if all goes well.



I think all the orders have been packed (FINALLY! SORRY!) and will be headed out asap, thanks for being patient.


Also, i have a 35mm Ceriani front end with a 1" stem that is in decent shape that i NEED TO SELL ASAP!!!!! I had it sold and the deal fell through, the money is spent, $360 plus shipping. i think there are pics down the blog somewhere. email grant.peterson@sorc.com

A Word From Gabe Griffin

Gabe sent me an email last night with the first poster for his documentary on the Heathens MC which he is taking to Sundance and a picture of some of the Runaways. Thanks Gabe.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!3