BMR Day 2

Time for the pics from Friday. I don't have many pictures of the craziness that went on at night since I don't like the way my camera takes pictures in that lighting. So enjoy the pics from the daylight.

Friday was a fun day, I went to breakfast with Nate and Andy then hooked up with Roadside Marty, Kim, Curt and Nicole for the rest of the day. Friday night got REALLY crazy, Roadside and I even joined the mosh pit and Roadside did a little stage diving. It was Curt's birthday and we did our best to make sure he had a good time. And by that I mean make sure he got puking drunk. We succeeded of course and in the process had a great time ourselves.

I woke up to John Dills starting his usual madness. It was fun to watch him in action.

Nate's knucklehead. Even sweet bikes like this need a roadside repair every once in a while.

The breakfast here was pretty good AND we were able to get cell phone reception so we could let the families know we were safe.

Chris Nowell (pronounced "Now Well" in case you didn't know!) and someone who's name I missed (like that's a surprise). Chris says he's a big fan of the blog, but he never comments so there is no proof ;-P

Roadside Marty and Kim on the Dyna T-sport. There are very few people I am comfortable with riding next to me and even fewer still I would be able to snap a picture of while riding next to me.

Alan was WIDE ASS OPEN all weekend. He fell on top of my tent Thursday night with me in it. He slept wrapped up in his tent Friday night because it collapsed and he couldn't be bothered to fix it and I have no idea where he slept Saturday night. I'm glad he had fun though, the man deserves it.

Bikes were riding around all the time and I tried to get pics when I could.

We walked down to the stream to get in and cool off. On the way a couple of folks pulled in and I was able to grab a few shots I like.

Another bike on the way in.

Riding past the unused big top toward the bar.

More pics to come, keep checking back there should still be a few good ones on the way.

BMR Day 1

Well another BMR has taken its place in history and I came home completely exhausted. I'm glad I had Monday to recover, because I was so tired I actually had an exhaustion hang over. I'll tell you what though, it was worth it. The venue this year wasn't the best, but most of the problems stemmed from the staff being used to the older bagger crowd getting off on "Born to be Wild" and not being used to this crowd preferring Slayer or Dead Kennedys instead.

As usual the people are what made this weekend so much fun. The ride up was great, the people I talked to all weekend were out of this world and the ride home ended up with me getting inside my own skull. But I'll get to all of that over the next few days as I post the pictures. I slacked off a little this year and only took 350 pics instead of the over 400 I took last year. I guess y'all will get over it.

Thursday morning I met up with the Haints crew at the Dojo since the guys from my side of town had family commitments or other reasons they couldn't go. That's what happens when dates change and holidays and the associated traditions are infringed upon. That's OK, it gave me a chance to ride with Pickett and Frank as well as the other guys. I don't get much of chance to hang with them because of kids and family stuff getting in the way. The ride up was pretty uneventful, just a nice ride down Hwy 11 until we got to Trenton, Georgia where Nick's coil died (good ol' Taiwan Ted stuff). We thought it was the points and tried to get it running for a little while, but then Nick decided to toss it in the truck and fix it when we got there. So off went again until we stopped at a cool little BBQ joint in Chattanooga for lunch that ended up being pretty damn good.

Our bellies full we took off again and covered a few miles of interstate then hit the good old back roads again. We ended up coming in from Ocoee and cutting across the mountain past last years event site. After stopping for gas at the cool little gas station in Reliance we rolled on across to the Tellico Plains Biker Rally campsite where we checked in, got settled in and commenced to hanging out with the other early arrivals.

Nick getting ready to leave the Dojo. Thanks for letting me tag along it was a fun ride!

Pickett on what used to be his Nightster.

Saw this dude on a VW trike pulling up to an intersection we were stopped at.

Rolling up Hwy 11.

Checking out Nicks slabside shovel in Trenton, Georgia. We thought it was the points, but it was determined later to the damn cheap V-twin coil.

Neat old Texaco station near Reliance, Tenn.

J-Rod from the BDAC was the first person I saw that I knew. He rode up solo and hung out with us until the rest of the idiots...... I mean our friends showed up.

Our bikes parked across from our tents.

One of the guys hanging out with Hugh and the crew from Hugh's Handbuilt. I wanted to get a bunch of shots later without the underwear, but he left before I could get around to it.

Darren rolling in telling me that I'm number one!


More pics to come, I'll also be doing a write up for 45dgree and will post about that when I finally get around to writing it and it gets posted.

Memorial Day

Remember that Memorial Day is not about us Vets who are still around, or even the ones who survived war and have passed on since. Memorial Day is for those Brothers and Sisters of mine who gave their life in service to our country. The rest of us Vets have Veterans Day. Keep Memorial Day for those who earned it.

Prepping For BMR And A Saturday Lunch Ride

I'll be heading out for the Big Mountain Run on Thursday so I needed to get some stuff done to the bike. I got the fluids changed last week and Saturday I changed the rear tire and repaired my saddlebag. Apparently I can lean a softail farther than I thought and I've worn a hole in my bag. I stopped by Tandy last week and picked up some leather and "chicago screws". When I get back I plan to repair my other bag (the first one I wore through) with a metal shoe, but for this trip I used leather to patch up this bag. All I'm really worried about is stuff falling out, the bags are not water proof anyway so this repair should be OK.

For a while now Loaf has been saying he wanted to come up and visit Larry's new shop and this weekend he finally made it. Basically all morning I worked on my bag a helped out whoever needed an extra hand since all of the jacks were being used. Loaf hung out with us and finally got to join in our fun time. Around lunch time we packed it up and headed off to get something to eat. We had some fine vittles at the local Jim & Nick's BBQ, met up with Roadside Marty then headed back to the shop where I eventually got my tire changed.

Once again I have a tire strapped on the bike looking kinda crazy, but getting what I needed done taken care of. (Thanks Larry for all the times you've helped me with this kinda stuff)

When I got there Spenser was painting some pieces for his bike.

The repair to the bag. It doesn't look like much, but even Ian agreed that it'll probably work.

Loaf dropped a glove on the way out of the driveway so we ended up behind the rest of them. Made for a cool pic though.

We finally caught up.

Loaf being Loaf and enjoying his sweet Ironhead.

He's a big ol' boy, but he looks at home on that bike.

Spenser getting a nice ride in on the shovel. This one is still for sale, see my previous post for details.

Sometimes I just point the camera and see what happens. Sometimes it looks pretty cool like this one. I had the camera zoomed in when I clicked the button and this is what I got.

This is what I was trying to get. Isn't that a handsome man?

Spenser hamming it up for the lens.

Making the turn onto Larry's road.

Spenser's Shovel Is For Sale!

My Boy is growing up. Spenser is having some truck issues as well as other life crap getting in his way and instead of whining he's do what needs to be done. Namely letting go of the most dependable shovelhead I have ever seen. It's not an easy decision for him, but he does have a plan to stay on two wheels so it's not the end of the world. If you're interested in the bike Stewy says he will sell it as is or in any of the configurations shown below.  I've been around this bike since Spenser bought it and I can promise that it is one hell of a bike and if I had the money I wouldn't be making this post. If you're interested give Stewy a holler and see if you can work out a deal spensert5@gmail.com.

Hand jamming down the highway!

Taking that curve.

The springer was just added, but can be swapped to the old shaved narrow glide if you want. (Not my pic)

My Favorite picture I've ever taken of this bike.

My favorite version. (Not my pic)

Look at all the handmade pieces, and everyone of them were handmade by one of the best fabricators I know. (Not my pic)

Beauty shot. (Not my pic)


This bike was even featured in Dice magazine. Check out the article and give Spenser a shout so that he can get his stuff squared away. (Not my pic)

Made Some Progress On The Flyrite

I came across a nice polished aluminum lower tree on ebay a few weeks ago that already had the stem pressed out so I bought it. The current lower tree is a wrinkle black piece and I've never liked it. Plus I needed to add the fork stops and why not go internal while I'm at it? So here is what I've done so far....

Cut the cast on stops off the tree.

Got the big chunks off

Working on grinding it all down. It's not perfect, but it's close enough for now. I'll use my dremel tool later to get it smooth, then I can get it polished again and looking shiny.

Drilling the new holes in the tree to mount the fork stop.

You can see here where I've cut away the fork lock tab.

Holes drilled, tapped and test fitted.

Got the stem pressed in. After this I realized I still needed to drill the mounting hole for the headlight. I got it done, but forgot to take pictures. I'll show you the finished product sometime later. Hopefully next Saturday I'll get the trees swapped out and change the rear tire on the Bad Boy as well as do a bolt check on it before leaving out for BMR. If you make it to BMR come find me and say hello. I'm bad with names, but pretty good with faces and I'd really like to meet the folks who actually like to read the stuff I post.