My boss is a total prick so Im calling out of work.
Melvins on the headphones and it looks like Ill be doing this, this weekend.
Knuckle Shuffle – 3 days in the same clothes. Hobo baths at the gas station. Cold Beers and a complete lack of self respect.
Tags: baths, beer, blog, boss, chopper, chopper blog, clothes, cold, cold beers, gas station, headphones, hobo, knuckle shuffle, melvins, prick, self respect, weekend, work
Uncategorized | admin | May 31, 2012 6:07 pm | Comments Off on Knuckle Shuffle
Reinhart says I suck at posting stuff. He’s probably right. Screw it. I’m just busy right now man. Its summer. Im on the bike, camping, partying or working. That’s it. I’ll have time for typing when the snow falls again. In the mean time, visit my motorcycle classifieds. Put it to use. Its free and we get enough visitors that it should definitely be worth the effort. Dig it.
Tags: bike, blog, camp, camping, chopper, dig it, effort, man, mean time, motorcycle, motorcycle classifieds, party, partying, reinhart, screw, snow, summer, typing, visitors, work
Uncategorized | admin | August 23, 2011 6:00 am | Comments Off on I suck at posting stuff… I admit
Ran out to visit Jordan at Union Speed and Style yesterday. Turns out it was his Birthday. Happy birthday mother f*cker! Jordan is fitting me for a custom vest. Sh*t is gonna be tough! Denim w/ golden brown stitch, green/tan flannel liner, and a short pop collar. While I was there I thought it a good time to get him in for a little garage feature session. Union Speed is tucked back on River street in Monticello. A little off the beaten path but for what he’s doing, its probably a good thing. This dude is so busy, he’d probably loose his sh*t if he were in the twin cities (distractions day in and day out).
Jordan and I don’t get many chances to hang out with us both being knee deep in running our respective shops. That said, I did get to rock down to Iowa with him lat weekend. His little XS has got some serious balls. Not surprising… his bike didnt miss a beat once the entire trip. His spot was packed with projects. Jordan dabbles in all sorts of stuff. He’s turning out custom tanks, frames, leather and denim, seats, etc. Come to think of it… he’s a bit of a one stop shop.
Union Speed works pretty steadily throughout the year and they even manage to make all the stops on the vendor circuit. I’m not even really sure exactly how many people make up Union Speed but from the work load, they probably some kind of small army.
The Union Speed Crew are definitely a younger bunch but they’re also talented well beyond their years. If you need some fabrication, without having to deal with the grumpy old heads in the scene, these are the dudes to hook up with. They’ve got the skills and creativity to blow minds. Check em out. UnionSpeedandStyle.com
Tags: all sorts, army, balls, beaten, beaten path, blow minds, chopper blog, cker, creativity, crew, custom, custom tanks, denim, distractions, dudes, fabrication, flannel, frames, garage, good time, happy birthday, iowa, jordan, knee deep, leather, little, midwest, minesota, monticello, mother, pop, pretty, project, ralent, river street, rock, seats, shops, small, speed and style, style garage, trip, tucked, twin cities, vendor, vest, work, xs
Uncategorized | admin | June 16, 2011 11:56 am | Comments Off on Union Speed and Style – Garage Feature III
If you’re even remotely serious about building bikes in the Twin Cities or Midwest for that matter then you probably know Rick. He’s a wealth of knowledge and quite a unique character. When I asked if I could get some pics for the site he responded with “I dont give a shit whatcha do.” Believe it or not, he and I get along really well. All the local bike and car guys gravitate to him when it comes to heavy duty fabrication work. He’s an all around motor man with decades of experience and experimentation.
I’ve heard him referred to as Handsome Rick, Fabricator Rick and my personal favorite… “Pinky.” Rick is one fine fella. He’s professionally or semi-professionally raced just about everything with a motor at one point or another. New rules have been written because he knows how to exploit the unmentioned details. He told me a little story about 3-wheeler ice racing in the 80’s. He asked what the widest wheel base allowed was. They said something like 3 feet. He went home and built a trike axle so narrow and with such narrow tires that you could canter around a corner like an 2-wheeled enduro. They showed up a couple weekends in a row. Won 1st place in their amateur division on every race they attended. The next season they introduced a minimum wheel base and that was that.
Rick’s really a bit of a living legend when I start to really think about it. I’m pretty sure he’s never had a “regular job.” At one point in his life he was racing 48 weekends out of the year at different tracks across the US. The last time I visited, the founder of House of Kolors Paint, Jon Kosmoski happened to drop by with a front end for Rick to work up. On top of it all, he’s a really solitary guy.
He’s good shit and he’s probably one of the most interesting guys I’ve met since my move to the Midwest. Who better to start off our first ever Garage feature than the one-man garage master himself. I shared all kinds of oddball ideas with him and he always says to me, “if you can imagine it, I can make it.”
welcome to the chopper blog Garage Feature I. More to come.
Tags: 3, 3-wheeler, 80's, across us, amateur, axle, believe, bikes, building bikes, car guys, character, chopper blog, couple, decades, details, division, enduro, experience, experimantation, expolit, fabrication, fabricator rick, feet, fella, front end, garage, garage feature, god, gravitate, guy, handsome rick, heavy duty, house of kolors, imagine, interesting, job, jon kosmoski, knowledgem unique, legend, little story, living legend, local bike, make it, man, masterm oddball, midwest, motor, motor man, narrow, new rules, off, one-man, pics, pinky, point, professional, race, racing, regular, rick, season, semi-professional, serious, shit, solitary, start, top, tracks, trike, twin cities, weekends, well, whatcha, wheel base, wide, work, work up, year
Uncategorized | admin | January 31, 2011 6:00 am | Comments (1)
Was out on the East Coast for a while again. Swung by a few spots I haven’t visited in more than 7 years. Caught up with some old friends and officially lost touch with others. I guess you really do win some and lose some. Found this pic today and reminded me of Wilford and his boys back in DE. Wilford and his two sons ran a little bike shop from a padlocked garage behind the old train station. Good guys. Good work. Cash only.
Tags: 7 years, bike, bike shop, blog, cash only, chopper, chopper blog, de, east coast, friends, garage, good, good guys, guys, little, lose, lost, old, old friends, old train station, padlocked, shop, sons, swung, touch, train station, visited, wilford and sons, wilford cycles, win, work
Uncategorized | admin | November 28, 2010 8:41 pm | Comments Off on Shout out to Wilford and Sons