The Ride To Wheels Through Time On Friday. (Pt1)

Friday a bunch of us took off and rode over to Maggie Valley to visit my favorite museum in the entire world. That's right once again we visited the Wheels Through Time Museum and once again it was a great time. We got together and took off from the Deals Gap Resort riding down Hwy28 otherwise known as the Moonshiner. This is a FUN road with enough speed, and a nice road at a more relaxed pace. For the museum ride we had some fun for sure, especially on the way back. I used EVERY bit of the  tread on my tires in those corners, scrapped the pipes and wore down the patch on my saddlebag. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The ride over there was fun, but getting there was even better....


Lining up to go.

Riding Hwy 28.

Lots of fun curves on this road.

The scenery is BEAUTIFUL in this area of the country. It's not a co-incidence that the two trips I take every year (BMR and the Bastard Bash) are to this area. 

Near Bryson City, I took this one over my shoulder and hoped that it would be OK. It actually worked really well I must say. 

 Once we got to the museum, Dale had us park all the bikes along the entrance sidewalk for a picture to put on the museum's facebook page. After that Matt rolled up on the Jack Pine racer and asked if I wanted a ride. Of course I said yes! I get on thinking we're just gonna putt around the area when all of a sudden I'm up in the air with a death grip on the handles I was holding. I guess Matt trusted me to be smart enough to know what to do when he took off. The crazy part was that he was HAND shifting gears with me up in the sidecar. Luckily Vin and Samuel got some pics of me riding.



Vin took this one, can you imagine holding my big ass up the air in that sidecar rig AND letting go of the bars to shift?

Samuel took this one and the next one.....

It's great to have friends who capture the cool moments for you.  Matt is a great guy and ALWAYS takes good care of us when we're there. I hope he gets to make it to BMR next year to just hang out.

The racer itself

Another view

Where I was kneeling for the ride. 

One of the other guys got to ride as well.  I don't think either of us quit grinning until the next day.

Some of you probably saw the American Pickers episode where they found this old belly tank racer. We finally got to see it in person and it is even cooler than I thought. It is one very well thought out and executed ride. Here's Dale showing us some details.

And of course since everything in the museum runs he had to zip around and show off for us. 

You can tell that he REALLY enjoys his work.

Artsy shot of Matt behind the racer.

Matt explaining some details about the beast.

Matt in the museum starting up an ACE for us to see and hear. Very cool bike and like most from that time the details and craftsmanship are unreal.

Even seen a shaft drive Harley tranny? Well you have now, it was made for a knucklehead powered three wheeler that was built for the military in WWII.

One of the first bikes Dale ever built, a kick ass old servicar chop that sits in the Chopper Graveyard.

Matt explaining about the old flexi-sidecar racers.

Showing us the original wheel that came with the sidecar.

That's it for today, by the time you read this I'll be on my way up to the other side of those same mountains for a family getaway and to celebrate my birthday. I'll finish this one up when I get back.

Random Fun at Bastard Bash 5

One of my favorite parts of the Bastard Bash is getting to hang out with great people. I only get to see most of them once a year and it is a blast trying to squeeze a whole years worth of visiting and hanging out into a few days. This has to be one of the most creative and skilled group of people I've had the good fortune to be a part of. I can't wait until next year to do it all over again. For now enjoy the random pics and stay tuned for more fun as I get the pics sorted and edited.


Where it all happens! They treat us great here and pretty much let us do our thing and don't give us a hard time. I guess it helps that for that weekend damn near every room in the place is rented by our folks.

Looking at the resort from across Hwy 129

Hanging out at night, doing what we chopper people do. Talking trash, swapping lies and enjoying adult beverages.

I'm sure they were comparing notes on their big wheels.

When we're not riding we try to get to know the new people and catch up with the ones we already know.

One is a French-Canadian and the other from Florida. Opposite ends of the road, but still great friends.

Even non-forum members show up and enjoy the fun. Nate, Andy and the rest of the crew came up from Alabama to take part in the craziness.

Just being artsy here.

When someone new would roll in we all gathered 'round to say hello and help 'em get settled in.

LTB looks amazed at what 007 was able to do with Rob's old rubbermount Sporty.

"So there I was trying to put the moves on her......"

Casey getting sucked into laying some paint on a bike.

"Oh man, how surprised was I when I felt her up?"

Boom Boom and Rezbomb grilling up Bambi and Bullwinkle.

Everyone waiting around for the vittles.

I told the girls that I was patient and would get a pic so they might as well give in ;-)

More hanging out.

Dimestore and his Wife made the journey up from one of our fine Southern Army bases.

Looking at Butters bike in the only safe way. Otherwise you may be blinded by its greatness.

3 amigos heading to dinner.

They're in awe of Vin's bike as they should be.

Sitting in the shade telling stories.

DJ and Fink talking about the crazy stuff they're doing to Rob's bike.

That's it for today. Check back for more!

Some Of My Favorite Paint From This Years Bash

Sorry I'm so slow posting lately it's been crazy at home and work (we moved work to a new building and I handled most of the move while the others guys kept the business running). One of the best things about the Bash is seeing the latest work in person that people bring to the party. We usually see pics of everything ahead of time, but seeing this stuff in person is really great. This year was no exception and today I'll show you some of the paint I really liked plus a pic of a goldwing that just didn't fit ;-)


This guy was in the room next Loaf and I Thursday night. He left Friday morning, but I HAD to take pictures of his bike. He seemed like a nice guy and probably rides the hell out of this, but it just looked so out of place around all those chopped Sportys.

This tank was all hand painted and blew me away. I'll let you look it over for yourself and drink in all the cool details. Casey knows his stuff and does great work.

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Other side. It's a combination of classic sign painting, pinstripe artistry and graffiti. I really dig it.

And of course it had to have a cam cover painted on it somewhere.

This is Fink's tank, he painted his fender to match. It was all done in his garage and the massive flake was just unreal!

I'd have lost my mind just trying to tape this one out. This paint was knocked out of the park!

One more view.

All the bikes lined up in front of our rooms. We pretty much had the whole place rented out, plus most of the camping too.

Another one by Casey. The face just blows me away!

A little more of the art to see. The other side was just bare metal.

Hollie painted her tank white and let us go crazy with sharpies. She figured if it came out cool she'd clear coat it and if it sucked she'd just repaint it. I think it looks cool.

More of it.

You can see the crappy little flaming skull I drew in this one.

Some serious artists had a go at this one.

I hope she clears it and at least hangs it on the wall even if she doesn't want it on her bike anymore.

That's it for today. I'm finally getting a handle on things again so I hope to post more stuff this week.