Saturday At The Bash....

was a great day. It started out too early (since I went to bed after 2) with me waking up at 7:30 wanting to ride with Butters over to "Wheels Through Time". I also wanted to see how our Canadian friend was doing. It turns out that it rained that morning, but the tree kept Justin dry. Also, by the time I got up he was back in his room asleep. It seems he got Butters to help him carry his mattress back to its proper home. With the rain the early morning departure was pushed back since no one really wanted to ride those curvy roads in the wet. We took the extra time to eat and wait for a few others to get up, this had us heading out around 9:00 or so. The ride over was incredible! We took 129 and a few other roads through Bryson City and Cherokee to finally ride down that big hill into Maggie Valley. Finally arriving at the promised land we parked our bikes and went in the museum. If you have never been there you are missing out! I have been to quite a few car and bike museums and none of them compare to this one. That's saying a lot since I live 30 minutes from Barber's. The difference is the atmosphere and the people at '"Wheels Through Time". Dale, his son Matt and all the other folks are beyond friendly here. I saw these guys go out of their way to help a couple of folks who had mechanical issues. One guy lost an axle nut and another had a flat tire. I saw Dale walk over to a museum bike and pull the rear axle nut off to help my friend and when we were touring the shop with Matt here comes Dale with another of our guys (from the second group to ride over) carrying his flat tire and a new tube. Dale set him up on the tire machine and let him do his thing. You just don't find that kind of care at most museums.

Anyway, back to the story. We hooked up with Matt inside the museum and he gave us the grand tour.I'm sure they treat just about everyone this way, but we sure felt special having Matt hang out with us and tell us stories behind bikes and start a bunch of bikes up for us. I'll do a separate post just on the museum itself next week and give you more details. Let's just say I took 499 pictures this weekend and at least half of them were at the museum. I'll be posting about this visit for awhile.

After leaving the museum we went down the road for some food at a pretty decent BBQ place, Sophia our waitress seemed to know some of the same people Butters does in Ashville, NC and she did a damn good job of dealing with our smelly asses. Our bellies full we left there, got gas and headed back. The ride back was even better than the ride out. We took 28 back and that is one fun road. It's like the Dragon without the super tight 180's. Very fun road that we really enjoyed riding down. Tune in tomorrow for the finale of this ride and some more pics.

The mountains in this area are beautiful! This was taken in Maggie Valley

Every chopper ride needs a lawn mower like this!

Matt starting the Thor race bike. The sound of these machines is just incredible.

Matt starting his latest race bike with the help of one of our Bastards. This is the bike Matt recently raced up in Ohio.

This hillclimber has been sitting on the dirt hill in the museum for 10 years. As part of their 30 bike in 30 days event they got it down and got it running the day we arrived. What a Beast!

One of only 3 1970 XR-750's jumped by Evel and it is in the museum. I don't know about you, but Evel Knievel is one of the biggest reasons I ever got into bikes.

Dale riding an original Knucklehead trike built for military use during WWII. It seems they made a few for the US Army and one for Canada. This is the Canadian prototype. All I did was ask Dale about it and he told me the story, then jumped on, pulled out and rode it around the parking lot. Ya gotta love being able to see them in action. 

Really old battery charger.

A badass 4 cam hillclimber that was started of course then Matt used it to sit on for our group pic before we left.

A bunch of Quad Cam Bastards and Matt on the Quad Cam hill climber.

We took up a little real estate in the parking lot.

Starting back towards the party.

Some of the easier parts of the ride back

Some more riding, once the roads got too curvy I was too busy riding to try and take pictures. 

Come back tomorrow for the next exciting episode.

Made It To The Bastard Bash! Friday Night Was a Blast!

So we rolled in Friday night after riding the Dragon to get to the Resort. After getting some food and starting to feel human again the fun started. We all hung out, talked trash, and generally had a good time. Some of us had a better time than others, it seems our friend from Canada had started the party early and was having a nice time with a bottle of Rum. It also seems that said bottle of Rum had the usual effect of causing Justin to crash. Too bad he crashed early and in an unlocked room ;-)

Hanging out, having fun at the Deal's Gap Resort. We took over that place and ruled it all weekend.

Since our fine Canadian friend gave us such a great opportunity we of course took advantage of it. We all got to sign his back, then of course we drew lewd pictures on his various exposed parts. He even ended up with a curly mustache and a monocle before we were done.

Our names preserved for posterity.

After we had our fun with the Sharpie we went back to partying outside. This year we also decided to do the raffle draw on Friday night so that some folks who had to leave on Saturday could get some cool swag too. There were some great prizes given out such as the Biltwell helmet I ended up with, the cool fullface helmet and a couple of riding jackets and pants from Icon and of course t-shirts from Lowbrow and other places including some shirts from the wonderful blog you're now reading.

Hanging out, having fun. The guy in the doorway was one of our too many casualties this weekend. We ended up with a total of 6 bikes going down over the weekend. Matt here was the worst of the bunch. He broke his collar bone and tore his knee up.

Of course after we got our prizes and did a little more drinking it was decided that our fine Canadian friend needed to come out and play with us. So....... some folks went in his room, picked up his mattress and carried him out to a picnic table under the "tree of shame". We had some more art class, took a lot more pictures including a group shot of us. If you want more details you need to build a badass Sportster and join the forum ;-)

Taking him out to join the party. I took pics right in his face with the flash and he NEVER woke up.

It was back to more fun and game as well as just enjoying the company of people we only get to see once a year. I love these people and can't wait to do all of this again. The rest of the night was pretty normal and the rest of us slowly drifted off to bed. The next morning was set up for a ride over to the "Wheels Through Time" museum. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.....

More hanging out.

Rob and the a bunch of others always get Room 1 and it becomes Bash HQ

Hollie even "planked" him and he didn't wake up!

Stay tuned for the rest of the weekend!

36 Hours To Make A 6 Hour Ride!

Yep, you read that right, we left Thursday morning to head out to the Bastard Bash at Deal's Gap Resort and didn't get there until late Friday. In between Thursday morning and Friday evening we had a lot of adventures as you'll see. Thursday started out great, I met Loaf at the McDonalds in Pelham, He had ridden up from Montgomery, AL already and his bike was running fine. Ed called me and said he would meet us in Attalla on the way up to Chattanooga. We proceeded to eat some breakfast and get on the road. The plan was to ride Hwy 11 to Chattanooga and then other roads from that point on.

Our bikes outside McDonalds before we left.

We got to Trussville and already Loaf needed to adjust his clutch. That done we headed out again and made it all the way to Ashville, AL at the same crossroads where David's bike broke on the way back from BMR. This corner is cursed because Loaf's clutch let go right there. Luckily it was an easy fix (damned Ironhead clutch ramps), but it took an hour.

The cursed intersection and the tree we worked under

Loaf's pretty new clutch and the scars left by the ironhead clutch ramp.

Back on the road we go until we met up with Chopper Ed and continued on our way. We stopped for lunch in Ft. Payne and when we were ready to leave my battery was low. I figured I must have had a loose wire or something so we push started the bike and took off. About 10 or 12 miles later I hear a couple of bangs and pops and the motor dies. I went ahead and just pulled over because I knew the battery was gone. I was HOPING it was just a screwed battery so I decided to call Michael Lewis since he owns Violent Choppers and has a shop there in Ft. Payne. Luckily he answered, said he had a battery and came to my rescue. We replaced the battery and decided to check the charging system and as we feared the stator was dead. We called around and no one had a stator not even Micheal's Dad Rick at Rick's Cycle Parts. If Rick doesn't have one NO one does. I called back down to Pelham and Heart of Dixie HD had one in stock, but that was a hundred miles away. SO we loaded up the bike and headed for Micheal's shop.

Outside the Jack's restaurant in Ft. Payne, AL where we had lunch
The are no pics of when I broke because I was scrambling to get stuff worked out. I'll have a post just about Violent Choppers later this week so you can see the pics I took there.

It was then decided that we could borrow the shop truck and take the bike back to B'ham to fix it. We left Loaf's bike at Violent Choppers and hit the road. Of course it was too late to get the parts that day so we went to my house, ate some pizza, drank a few beers and watched old Biker movies on Netflix. Next morning we were at HD to get the stuff and went on over to Garage Company Customs where Larry came through and let me borrow a lift and tools to do the work. Since I have never replaced a stator I drove Spenser and Mundy nuts with questions but we finally got it done, loaded in the truck and on  our way back to Ft. Payne.

Violent Choppers in Ft. Payne, AL, home of my rescuer Micheal.

Once there we dropped off the truck, picked up Loaf's bike and were back on the road. Since we were already behind we took the interstate and made good time except we ended up going up and around to come down the Dragon on the way in instead of from the South like we did last year. About 3 or 4 o'clock we headed down 129 and even got our pictures taken by one of the photo websites. Once we got there after our 36 hour 6 hour ride we find out that all kinds of stuff has been happening and our story isn't even that impressive anymore ;-) That's OK, we had a great time and I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

Our group photo around our passed out friend Justin from Canada Friday night.

I need to thank some GREAT people who made the story so far happen. Micheal from Violent Choppers is good people and knows what this lifestyle is all about. If he hadn't rescued me then let me borrow his truck this story would not be continuing. Larry and the guys at GarCo as usual came through for me and let me use all of their stuff. And Loaf, my new best riding partner and damn good friend. We went through a ton of crap and still had the time of our lives.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story......

Cullen's Shovel To Hold You Over Until I Get Back

Thought I'd set this up to post while I'm at the Bash and you're not. I'm having fun riding bikes and drinking beer with some great people while you're at home sitting in front of the computer. Get out and ride dammit!

The pics speak for themselves so enjoy the view and get to chopping and riding!

On My Way To The 4th Bastard Bash!

By the time you read this I should be at the meeting place and getting ready to roll out with Chopper Ed and Loaf from Montgomery. Some other folks are riding up on Friday, but we want to get there early and get the party rolling. It's not too late to come on over and play. We'll be at Deal's Gap Resort all weekend except for when we're not. We plan a fun ride to the Wheels Through Time Museum and of course a lot of fun riding through the hills. Catch ya when I get back!!

The flyer with all you need to know.

The bike I should be riding, but it's not finished yet.

The bike I am riding because it is the most faithful and best bike I've ever owned. My darling Bettie is taking me to the places I wanna go!

Zoom's Chopper

I met Zoom when I was working at the HD dealership a couple of years ago. He was a good customer and he's become a good friend. While I worked at HD Zoom was working on putting this bike together. With the help of Doc and another friend whose name I forgot to write down (imagine that, me not taking notes) this bike came together. It's been on the road for over a year and has become Zoom's most ridden bike. It was built right and is truly comfortable because of that. As you can see the bike was heavily influenced by the Capt. America bike, but has its own personality as well. Scope out the pics and enjoy the view....

Nice lean and mean custom machine. Zoom leaves the bag on the back so it can act as a backrest and is one of the reasons the bike is so comfortable.

All the controls and bars are positioned to be the most comfortable for Zoom. I got to ride the bike and I was very comfy, but I would have to move a few things to fit me right.

Hardtail frame, wide glide forks, mustang tank, classic sissybar. What's not to love?

Only a small classic HD logo on the tank, otherwise it's just pure black paint.

One of Ross's custom points covers of course. A few nicely placed brass pieces for the right accents.

I love upturned pipes, these brass ends do a nice job of finishing off the pipe without have to have some weird shape.

The Man and his Machine!

More From Saturday's Ride.

I had so many pics from Saturday that I liked I decided to go ahead and post some more. Hope ya like em.

Cullen and his fresh Shovel.

Larry taking off from our very fine repast (that means lunch was good).

Spenser blasting away. Those new fork legs are sweet, there are so many cool parts that he made I can't even point them all out to you.

Whitey again. It's good to see Whitey get out and ride with us. He's got one of those jobs that make Saturday fun hard to do between working some weekends and needing to spend time with the family some too. Every once in a while he gets to come hang out.

Ian pulling out into traffic.

Stuck at a stop light.

Bill kick-starting his beast, he just LOOKS like he's having a spastic fit. He's really bringing the monster to life.

I'll try to get a few posts queued up to post this week even after I leave for the Bash.