A Long Bike And A Lunch Ride

Larry and Ashley are finally back from Born Free and back at work in the shop. Saturday Ian was having a Birthday Party for his little girl so the guys with kids ended up at the McWain Center for the party. Since my kids are grown I made other plans so that I could keep my sanity. I got up early and met Mathew at Krispy Kreme to hook up with a guy about a "72 ironhead Mathew was thinking of buying. The bike turned out to be pretty nice and at a good price. Mathew decided to go with an Evo Sporty since his mechanical experience is limited, but I told the owner I'd post pics and info if he wanted. I guess I'll wait and see if I hear from him soon.

After checking out the bike we headed on over to Garco to see how the trip west turned out. On the way there in the middle of all these puffy clouds and blue skies of course Mathew and I found the only rain cell in the area and rode right through it getting pretty damned wet, but not for long. Once we got to the shop the rain caught up with us, but didn't last long and the bright blue skies came back and we were ready to go to lunch. The chopper Larry was building for Born Free is done of course so I was finally going to see this mythical beast roll on down the road....

THE Chopper, Mathew was taking pics at the same time I was. He's shaved his head to get in the right frame of mind to leave for Air Force Basic Training in a couple of months.

Off we went! It seems that the bike turns pretty well, it just needs a little more room to do it.

The details are where it's at. Check out how the pipes come up then lean in to follow the line of the sissy bar. Nice touch Larry!

Ashley seems comfortable, hard to believe after seeing how skinny her seat is. Check out Larry's beard, it was acting pretty crazy blowing around in the wind.

Over the shoulder shot of Mathew behind us at the stoplight. I'm getting better at taking these shots without having to look before I click. by the way Mathew is selling his CB750 to buy a Sportster. I'll have a more detailed post about it soon.

The happy couple....

I told you she was happy, I don't think she quit grinning the whole way.

I think the front wheel got to the restaurant 5 minutes before we did.

Today's lunch crew.

Ashley doing the braid for the return ride.

Look for the details, there are plenty of them there just waiting for you to discover them.

The other side of the bike. I made Larry swing over to the wrong side of the road so I could take this one.

I just liked this shot so I included it.

On the way back Larry ran out of gas so I went on to the shop to get some more. We put a bit in the bike and took off. We made it to the road in front of the shop before it ran out again. Turns out the float was stuck so the carb was pouring most of the gas out on the road. The joys of choppers and fancy polished carburetors.

We pushed the bike on into the shop so Larry can get it ready for the next ride.


Just an FYI, I have a million things going on right now so the postings will be kinda slow for a bit. I hope to get things steady soon and will resume the usual schedule.

Barber's Vintage Festival 2011 Was Great!

Once again The Vintage Fest was great. It was more crowded on Saturday than I have ever seen it. The swap meet was sold out and there was plenty of good deal to be had if you were looking for the right stuff. Apparently I wasn't since all I bought was a hat, a bubble shield, and too much over priced food. Ian scored big time, so did Bill. Larry and Spenser sold a decent amount of stuff and best of all Brother Roadside sent me a birthday present through a buddy of his since he couldn't make it himself (more on that later). I didn't get there until Saturday morning after these guys had scored all the cool stuff. Luckily I was looking for small stuff that I either need to buy new or won't be too bad to buy new since I couldn't find any of it there. I'll be posting pics I took while walking around so keep on coming back and enjoy the pics.

Crazy mini bike limo or something like that.

BEAUTIFUL Panhead.

Other side.

One of the many sweet Vincents to be seen.

Nice Indian Scout vertical twin.

Clean Triumph chopper. There seemed to be a lot of these this year.

Other side.

One of the few Shovelheads I saw that I really wish I had the money to buy.

More to come, see ya next time.

All Weekend In Nashvile And Only Saw Two Cool Bikes!

I'm sure there are a lot of cool bikes in Nashville, but they were all hiding from me. I saw a ton of stock bikes, but no killer chops. Here's some pics of the ones I did see.....

Not sure what the deal is on this one. It is a heritage style softail with a handshift and a sidecar. Not sure if it belongs to someone who needed the mods to ride or if it was just done to be cool. Either way it is an eye catching bike and I would love to know more about it.

Gotta love the Flying Tigers style shark mouth on the side car.

I know a little more about this one. I first saw it Saturday night out behind the restaurant where we ate dinner. I went back to check it out and when I was almost to the car I saw the guy that I knew had to be the owner. Turns out he was and he was pretty friendly.  I told him about the blog and about the Quad Cam Bastards, and I hope he finds his way to both. When I saw it that night it was stripped down and looking sweet. Sunday when I was out with the family I saw the bike again at Centennial Park and snapped some pics. The owner wasn't around so I could ask anymore questions. It seems he has the detachable sissy bar and a set of bags to make it easier to go riding with his sweetie or a friend. The bike itself is a pretty clean and simple set up. Custom pipes and gas tank as well as some very nice pinstriping work from a local artist. You can tell the bike is a daily rider and is being modified as time and funds allow. Keep it up dude and I hope you see your bike here.

Close up of the striping on the fender. The fender is chopped as it should be .

Nice work on the tank striping.

Overall view from the rear.

Loading Bikes For A Road Trip

It's that time of year when we load up our bikes and take off for days at a time. Some folks are old hands at this and some are doing it for the first time. I thought it would be cool to take pics of everyone's bike before we all left for the BMR (yes, I still have a ton of pics that I haven't posted from that trip). I picked the ones that I thought showed a good cross section of various packing styles. Check em out and get your own bike loaded up and go somewhere!

Spenser's bike was packed pretty lightly, but then again he cheated. His girlfriend was going with us and some of his stuff was tossed in her car. But then again, we all ended up with stuff in Holly's car before it was all over .

A.J. from Mississippi divided his stuff between the fender and handlebars. He did end up with almost all of it on the back before it was all over. His seat is low enough that stuff on the bars ended up blocking his view.

Ross, built this bad ass rack for his bike and he ended up with his and most of Bill's (see yesterdays post) stuff on his bike. I think we could have ALL piled our stuff on there, the rack was THAT damn good.

Ed actually packed a day or so ahead of time and road tested his stuff before the trip. Ed is the Bungee Master. Give him a few bungees and not only will your stuff be strapped on and secure, but it will be a work of art as well (see next pic).

See what I mean???? Not just simple hooks and bungees, but a true work of art.

Ian went pretty simple with his, it did end up as a nice backrest for him though.

This is how Larry started out on Dixie Wrecked. It was an OK job, but at our first stop Ed helped Larry repack it all and it became a work of art!

And finally, we have my bike loaded and ready. I took this pic before I left the house to meet everyone. With my stuff packed like this it was a perfect backrest and that combined with the ape hangers and heel rests on my pegs made for a VERY comfortable ride. I ended up not even squirming at all, even after a few hours of riding. If your bike is loaded right and your bars, seat and pegs are all in the right spots you can ride all day and still function when you get there.

Now get your ass out there and go somewhere!

And EVEN More Random BMR Pics....

Got a few more edited, I hope to get serious with the bike pics soon. I finally am figuring out how to deal with a folder containing 500 pics. Took a while to figure out how to organize. Professional photographers sure do need to be able to handle a lot of stuff. Maybe one day I'll figure it out and try to go pro.

QCB Rob giving a nut rub.

I call this one "Sleeping Angels" ;-) Spenser and Holly took a nap one day in their tent/hammock so I captured the moment for posterity.

Buttas' QCB logo on his gas tank. He polished the hell out of the tank, put a decal on it, scotchbrited it, removed the decal and the QCB logo shines on!

One of my favorite photographers (Colleen Swartz) riding her bike around the campground as she put it "doing her Queen of England wave".

Found this in the town of Etowah on a beer run. When's the last time you saw a Gran Torino STATION WAGON????

Random Camp pic.

Our local talent that came to the party with us. Of course they're all young enough to be my daughters, but they are all great people too ;-)

The legendary Bill sampling the moonshine and some guy named Marty. I think they said his name was roadkill, roadside...hell I don't know it was something like that ;-)

Once again, stay tuned there is more to come.....

Some Cool Bikes From BMR

There were some bad ass choppers for sure at BMR, here are a few of them. Still a ton more to edit and get uploaded so keep checking back.

Just a fun pic of the boys playing on a little XS400 out on the green.

Sportster that Mosely rode up on.

Nice Shovel

Who said a Twin Cam can't be made to look cool?

Grimey's Shovel, this bike looked NOTHING like this at the Roundup a few weeks ago.

J-Rod's sweet Shovel.

Some bikes from the Led Sled crew.

Stay Tuned more to come as I sort through them.