The Sporty TT

Here are some shots I took of the SportyTT at sunset the night before BornFree5.  People really dug the bike.  As I type the bike is on a truck on it's way out to Michael Lichter's Art of the Motorcycle - Ton Up event in Sturgis.  This year he's featuring Cafe Racer's and our bike is in good company - the show will feature bikes by Shinya, Willie G, Ray Drea, Roland Sands, Kim Boyle just to name a few. We're stoked!  When I laid out my vision of the bike to Ry before we started the build, we both knew it would probably turn out "ok"...as the build continued and my sketches and Ry's fabrication started really jelling we would both look at each other and giggle like little school girls as each part turned out better then we expected - we knew we were working on something special - at least to us.  The response to the bike has kind of confirmed our notions during the build that the bike stirs something up inside people. I can't thank my buddy and brother Ry enough for all he did.  Nothing I thought up did he balk at.  Every little change I made - and there were MANY - he rolled right along with never losing his patience.  I think his fab work and my ideas/sketches really began to inspire us both to make the bike better and better - the word Synergy comes to mind. Now that it's done I'm left with the need to build something else - like a junkie needs his fix.  Even though the bike is done this really feels like just the beginning...

Born Free 5 - PT2 - Chun House

After unloading and getting some food the first place my SO-CAL chaperons took me was to see the Chun House.  Basically a hideout for like-minded bike freaks like myself presided over by a gracious gear-head named Ryan ("3Gknuck" if you're an Instagramer) and his killer collection of survivor bikes and parts. After drooling over all the rare stuff Ryan has e massed over the years and watching a lot of riders pour in from all over the place for the BF5 week, we took a late night thrash to a ramon joint in Silver Lake (I think - the road and no sleep was catching up with me). This evening/night was a good indicator of how the next week was going to roll for me - Nirvanna with perfect weather.

Born Free 5 - PT1 - The Drive Out

Since I decided to take my new Sportster Ry and I just finished out west with me, it basically locked me into driving.  Of course I really wanted to ride out but I couldn't figure out a way to get both bikes out there at the same time while riding - hence the truck. The cool thing about driving is you can go straight through which is what I did thanks to a couple bottles of 5-hour energy and the stoke of wanting to GET THERE!  I always leave late at night which gets me out of most of the mid-west traffic - by sun up I'm usually deep into the corn fields of Indiana or even further west. The good scenery doesn't even start showing up until day 2 anyway.  My route was basically Route 66. If you've  have been watching the ZON for any length of time you probably know it's my preferred route and some of the pics might be identical to past pics from other trips - sorry.  I did stumble onto a lot of new stuff as well which was cool.  So two days and 2300 miles later I'm in Vencie beach - all fresh and ready to go.  Stay tuned...

WOW!!!

What a trip!!? It was EPIC. I have 2000 photos to prove it...let's get rolling.