good dudes

It looks like the new Street Chopper is out (even though we don't even have them at the office!) i picked this one up at Fullerton HD last saturday. I had the pleasure of shoot Domenic and his 16-year old son Dylan for the cover and a 5-page feaute on Dylan's '65 Panhead which he started working on when he was 8! Now that the bike is on the road and he has a license to drive, he and his old man are racking up the miles and pulling in some trophies. the Pan won his class at the Grand National Roadster Show in January and just won at the Long Beach Autorama. Go Dylan!
THis issue also has another Denvers bike, Danny G's evo, the Foundry Pan, Garry Littlejohn and Jeff Wright intervies and more.

Look for the issue at: you local HD dealer, Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, Books A Million, Borders, Hastings, 7-Eleven, Safeway, Albertsons, Ralphs, Stater Bros., King Soopers, Target, Rite Aid, Safeway Canada, Hy Vee Food Stores, Presse Food & Drug, Smiths, Kroger, Winn-Dixie, Save Mart, CVS, Food Lion, Kmart, Ingels Markets, SuperValu, HE Butt Grocery, Schnuck Markets, Stop & Shop and Giant Eagle Stores.

keep on TRUCKIN

Grant and I have been hard at work here at FMA to bring you some cool new commodities. So, keep you ears on, grab yourself a seat cover or sleeper leaper and we'll be east bound and down.

back at it

been scambling since i got back from NY to catch up on everything and then some. the list grows...on that list is the 500-plus pics i took while there that i need to go through...we had a good time out on the right coast for the Invitational.

If this boston was a harley engine it would be this dual super B panhead!



The bobber god declassifies a full lobster with a 16 ouncer



 Dave, i thought you weren't gonna do this anymore?



perma smile chris and his shovel after 3000+ miles on the road



 

See you next week, no sleep til brooklyn. I left Harpoon in a trance of Morano Pearl and dust bunnies...



after a 29 year sleep this shovel soaks up some familiar Califonia sunshine. THe real-deal '70s SoCal survivor, barn-find, long bike. legit. molded frame, frisco mount tank, morano pearl laquer, pan/knuck trans, kick only, 12-over early glide, cheetah seat, bayonet sissy bar...etc...

Rock and Roll shows

Got a couple Beautiful Buzzards shows coming up in Orange COunty. Next Thursday at La Cave in Costa Mesa with Wulfbane and Sleeping Sea King, show is free come early we open.
The following tuesday the 27th we are at the Detroit Bar, free, come early.

killer bus

I didn't grow up in SoCal and wasn't a hippie either so i wasn't into vintage VW stuff, but i've always dug it when i see slammed bugs, buses, etc. THis guy was jammin down the 91 the other day on my way home and it was on the ground!




Also, i have to appologize to those that have order stuff recently. we are running a little behind, but everything will go out tomorrow for sure! Hang tight and we appriciate your biz!

Making the world go around

We are proud to have a few fine folks distributing our parts and apparel! Adding to the list are Lowbrow Customs (Ohio), Freak Out the Squares (Philly), and Rouge Speed Shop (canada), thanks dudes! Hopefully theyll all be partnerships that help us all out.

goin to NYC

So stoked to be going back to NYC again, love that place! Mike D, myself, and the Bobber god are flyin out this week for the Brooklyn Invitational. I think i walked about 400 miles last time we were there. Anyone got a bike i can ride out there?

Glorydays

Last sunday at the swap we got to rap with Junior from Glorydays outta Texas. A real nice guy with a sweet Shovelhead. He had a goodtime too, so much he's coming back for the next one.

Hot Rod 1979

"I'd be a mistake to turn me loose around root beer"

Slab City!

We are a proud sponsor of Biltwell's Slab City Riot. It's a good excuse to get out and ride, camp, hang out, etc. November 6th out by the Salton Sea, see you there!

weekend Waylon full of JD King

a while back JD hit me up for a new paintjob on his chopper. This is what i came up with in pearl blends. Grant built the kustom Hummer tank. Stay tuned for more buckaroos.

only natural

because where else are you gonna put em while on the road?


This was from hotel in Camerillo a couple of years ago (seeing as my bike is nowhere close to being like this anymore) when we went for the Primer Nationals. can't make it this year regretably but you all know already to go to the show, the open house at Dan's Old Gold Garage (we are a sponsor) and the Dice party.





Me and the Poon had a good time layin down some Night Moves getting up there. i just remembered that i hyper extended my knee in the Harley dealer parking lot sunday morning, hurt more than i could imagine. I foolishly thought they might have a small circlip i needed that jumped ship on the road. the bandana-suited patrons that apparently hang out in the parking lot were already lookin at me funny for doing that crazy hopping motion thing to try and start my bike, then the knee thing happened and they were all glad to own their Roadkings.

doubled over

Man, i think i got some low grade food poisoning from the chicken Katsu at L&L Hawaiian on tuesday. Woke up yesterday with a terrible stomach ache and the back door trots.
Spent the day on the couch and the can. So Clyde and i watched a couple of flicks. one of them was The Hi-Riders by Greydon Clark fromn '77.

ladies love

the freak'n four

www.customcycle-moon.com/blog/

real frisco

2 Knuckles on lombard 1968

blasted velocity stacks

had a few people ask about an "as-cast" finish option on our velocity stacks. Since they aren't cast to begin with that's a tough one right off the bat, but i just tossed a couple for a SUPER E in the basting cabinet and roughed them up with some medium grit glass bead. They aren't real rough, but they do have a nice matte finish. I'll put them in the store, just look for the as-cast option if you want them.

Enrichener knobs back in stock

We got a big batch of enrichener knobs for S&S Super-E and Super-G carburators done with a nice FMA logo on them. They are going to polishing in the morning and we should have them ready to ship by the end of the week so i went ahead and put them back in the store. Remember when you pull the stock S&S air cleaner off your carb to say put a sweet FMA short velocity stack on you'll need something to actuate the enrichener. installation is a snap, they are $30 each plus shipping...click the store to the right or got to www.getchoppedout.com to order.

better buy your plane tickets

I still can't believe my bike has been invited to attend the Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom Show in Yokohama, Japan this December. If you haven't been, do yourself a favor and go! It changed my life last year...here's the final poster for this year hot off the press, thanks Shige!

speed-

eee shift pan shovel from Vegas. Poon, you need to put your speedy-shift on the Pan!

wow

so Ez and i were on the way to get some breakfast one moring and we see this:

Hats!

in case that summer sun is taking its toll on your dome we have hats in stock! We have more of the black and white hats with the raven and we just got a bunch of them on all black otto trucker hats for you fellas with the grubby hands...like me. order through the store at http://www.getchoppedout.com/

Wake the kids and phone the neighbors!

Born-Free 3 is upon us! More details to follow, check the BORN-FREE blog regularly for the nitty gritty. Did we mention someone will go home with a Garage Company-built knucklehead by the end of the day????

rippin off

Or inspiration, whatever. We all borrow ideas and mix them in our brains to come up with everything from bikes, songs, a snappy shirt, a haircut, anything creative.

after adding the knuckle back section to my shovel frame and looking at the $20 stainless spoked, star hubbed, 19-inch wheel from the swap and figuring out how the bike wanted to go back together i had to flush all the other ideas i had becasue it was taking a turn on it's own.

after many, many hours of staring at the bike and mocking stuff up, squinting eyes, etc, i finally was getting back on track, from that and borrowing a few things.

The bike always had a shaved early glide on it which i planned to narrow, but glad i never did. i liked the too broad for todays cool choppers frontend, esspecially the extended one on this panhead from easyriders cira early '70s.

That and Big Armond's (RIP) second version of his knuckle with the shovel top end (above left). whoa, of course the bike is legend, so i decided to rip off the paint, well, not totally, but close. I had been thinking about painting my '72 Chevy truck hugger orange for some time and those thoughts leaked into the plans for the shovel almost subconciously. then stumbling onto this feature of Armond's that i hadn't seen before (only seen the knuckle version at that point). Simple "oakland orange" was it, that and a little black pinstripe...i was too big of a woose to do the frame orange too like the other bike here.

Then while toying with simple yet a little different sissy bar ideas i found this little panhead feature thta had a small safety pin style sissy bar. Bingo! So i ripped it off to my liking. While i have ome original stuff in my bike it probably wouldn't have happened if i was set in motion by these things

Night moves

So after a little dinner for Harpoon's Bday the other night Jason Hampton and Mike Davis were on two wheels and gonna head over to the Avalon. Dunno why but i said I'll go with you, but i didn't ride and i didn't have a skid lid. Poon pulls a helmet out of his truck and i jumped on the back of Jason's shovel long bike for one of the cushest rides on a chopper i've ever had!

Here's Jason on the shovel solo




Here's what it looks like from the back of his bike going down 19th in Costa Mesa at night with a cruddy cell phone pic.



Here's Mike between crack ups at the sight of me packin double, no regrets!

Check it out!

All you east coasters hit this up! Its in the Carolininas October 15 & 16 and is a big ride, camping, and rock and roll!
Just so everyone knows they are really trying to get some dough for Lee Bender who just was diagnosed with MS.... Not only are they getting donations from entry fees but they are selling swag to anyone who wants it....... shirts are $15 with $5 going to Lee... hats are $10 with $3 going to Lee and raffle tickets $3 a piece or 2 for $5 with the whole nut going to Lee - there is a raffle both online and in person (2 raffles in all)......... Don't miss out.....

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