Rest In Peace Rev

Sad news to hear that The Rev, a killer drummer from the band Avenged Sevenfold passed of natural causes the other night. No need to mourn, as the best way to remember someone is to keep the flame alive. Go out and get their albums or listen to'em online. They had a huge sound and hopefully will be able to find someone else that can keep that low end rumble booming. Check out two of their killer songs.

Avenged Sevenfold - New Music - More Music Videos

Cafe Racer TV Show - Dec 29 at 9:30pm

World Premiere of Cafe Racer, Tuesday, December 29 @ 9:30pm

Discovery HD Theater Network

What It Is? All your favorite custom cafe racer builders, interviews with veteran ton-up boys and rockers, a visit to Cafe Racer magazine HQ, rare historical film footage and more rockabilly music than a Gene Vincent reunion tour, all in stunning high-definition format.

Cafe Racer Mag

Triangle Auto & Cycle Repair - Logo

Have a look at the new logo we cooked up for our pal over at Triangle Auto & Cycle Repair. Great mechanic and solid dude.

GodSpeed 45/06 - Photo Collections

Found this great collection of photos from Godspeed4506.com. Had never heard of the site but found it through a section of links I was perusing while eating breakfast. The photos are fantastic and give great insight into the builders showcased. Check'em out!

Godspeed 45/06

Shop Class As Soulcraft - Matt Crawford

Heard about this book and was quite thrilled about a validating point of debate on the need to understand "soulcraft" in terms of manual labor. Yeah, I am partial due to the fact that the guy happens to be a motorcycle mechanic but, that was simply the hook that got me interested. Crawford's book speaks to folks in the mindset of understanding why pleasure and competence can be derived from repair and maintenance on machinery is becoming a lost art. His tone is from a practical standpoint, at some points completely academic, but is by no means trying to become overly sophisticated. I think that he is just trying to find a way to speak to how humbling it can be to fix a carb thats too lean, or any other aspect in which mechanical finesse is applied in order for a machine to run smoothly. Its a great book and easily fits onto the bookshelf right beside "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig

Matt Crawford - Shop Class As Soulcraft

Shockoe Moto - Richmond, VA

Sons Of Liberty - John Schaefer of Iced Earth

Heard about the new project John Schaefer from Iced Earth is working on called Sons Of Liberty and its quite interesting. For those not in the know of Iced Earth, they are one of the leading US power metal bands and damn do they deliver live. Sons of Liberty takes John's thoughts and ideals a step further and pushes the listener to wake up and quit listening to the crap we are fed by the media and those who "think" they are in power. Give it a listen and here is one of my favorite Iced Earth tracks as well.

Sons Of Liberty

Iced Earth - Myspace

Loud Trax - Music Store

For those that are big music fans, we just found out about a great site in Canada called Loud Trax. They offer digital downloads and are becoming a one stop shop for all that is metal, punk and alternative. The featured label pages are very informative along with their resourceful blog. Definitely a great stop for die hard music fans. Check'em out!

Loud Trax Blog

Loud Trax - Music Store

Geaux Saints

I am not a big sports fan by any means but when it comes to cheering for an underdog, yeah, the Saints have my attention. New Orleans is an amazing town and the lady and I are fortunate enough to visit often as her mom was born and raised in good ol' NoLa. Its a place of the haves and have nots. The culture makes it hard to believe you are even in the United States and that is a great thing. Whether it be the seafood, the open air bars or the lively atmosphere that inhabits most of the city, NoLa, we are excited to see you once again in a few days, Geaux Saints!

Saints Are The Soul Of America's City

Holy Rollin' Hellfires - Hamilton R.I.P.

For any of those folks familiar with Billy Velvet of Crank County Daredevils, earlier band the Holy Rollin' Hellfires, sad news, their drummer Hamilton died at 37 years young. Sad day for family and friends, so I say relive the energy of the Holy Rollin' Hellfires to remember his life. Next time you see us at a show, m...ention the Holy Rollin' Hellfires and the first beer is on me.

Holy Rollin' Hellfires - Myspace

Icon Motorsports

Just found some behind the scenes videos created for photoshoots by Icon Motorsports. Have always liked their vibe and the products they put out. The few pieces that I have are of great quality and definitely would dig getting one of their riding jackets at some point soon.

Icon Motorsports

1979 Honda cb650 Cafe Chopper Build On Flickr

Just posted the build photos from the Honda cb 650 onto our Flickr page.

Rusty Knuckles on Flickr

Thanks Bike EXIF For Featuring Our 1979 Honda CB650

Just wanted to say thanks to Bike EXIF editor Chris Hunter for featuring our 1979 Honda cb 650 Cafe Racer. We are honored!

Feature post on BikeEXIF

Rusty Knuckles custom cafe racer 1979 Honda CB650 featured on BikeExif

Vampire Eradication Kits

Being that we enjoy all things on the fringe, finding these Vampire Eradication Kits was quite thrilling. Personally, between Vampires and Zombies, I don't know which one is more over done. After seeing these kits and understanding how old they makes me realize just how vivid the salesmen must have been to make people believe that Vampires really existed. They were originally sold to wealthy Americans traveling to Eastern Europe. Each of these kits are priceless antiques bought up by the Ripley's Museums. These kits were created long before Bram Stoker made people quiver over the site of elongated upper incisors and blood lust.

RIP - Dimebag - Pantera Tribute

On this date, 5 years ago we lost a true metal god. Some asshole infected with life long ignorance blames Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott of breaking up Pantera and decides to go on a shooting rampage. In his homicidal rage he kills 4 innocent folks and is then later shot by a cop. To say it was a tragedy is simply not enough. The best thing we can do is to never let his legacy be forgotten. So with a black tooth grin, here is a double shot of the Jimi Hendrix of metal and his cohorts as we know them best.

Two Wheel Terrors II - Crank County Daredevils

Just got word from the fellas doing the Hot Rod Havoc and Two Wheel Terrors about including Crank County Daredevils in the new movie. We will have the dvd's available shortly in the Rusty Knuckles webstore so stay tuned for an update...

Wrench Works - Chop Update

Josh over at Wrench Works just got finished with most the major modifications for the rollin' chassis. He is now ready to get the bike fully assembled and work out any issues for fiittings and extraneous parts, lookin' good for sure. Hopefully he will have it done and ready for the Easy Rider's show in Charlotte in late January, but if not look for it in Daytona in early March.

Lost & Found - Bathroom Scrawl

Bathroom graffiti is a never ending amusement. It could be your local coffee shop or a dirty truck stop while on the road. I always glance around and read the writing on the wall. This here verbage was inked on the wall at Reggies Bar in Wilmington, NC. We were in town for a show there with the Crank County Daredevils and it truly fit the mood of the night.

ESAB Welding

Welding is a life long learning process. Anyone can throw down a few clean lines with a mig welder and have fun doing it, but knowledge of metalurgy is crucial to creating welds that work. There are a few great forums online between Miller, Hobart and Lincoln to really find the info you need but I just found another great resource within ESAB, that is far simpler to navigate. They have a "University" section on their page and if you click into the links there is very easy to find information on the tabbed sections about anything you might need from filler metals to Spray Arc Welding. The images below were found by doing a simple image search with google.

ESAB Welding University

Hellbound Glory - Monster Truck Shirt

We have had such a huge response to the monster truck hat that the decision was made to create a monster truck shirt. Worked through quite a few sketches but here is the final art. Will be in their webstore section within a few weeks.

Shop Hellbound Glory
Hellbound Glory on Myspace

Shop Rusty Knuckles Dot Com

It's been madness here in the Rusty Knuckles trenches, coding madness that is. Well, today is the day, the new site just launched and we are quite proud. For all the folks that helped out in a multitude of ways we say thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

The new site will be home base for all that we do and the folks that we work with. Take a few minutes and check out our merch line along with the bands we currently work with. See ya on the road.

Rusty Knuckles the official web portal

Wrench Works

After meeting at Cycle Source's Big Mountain Run earlier this year, my pal Josh and I became instant friends, amazing how some things work out in life. He pulls into the parking lot of the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, NC where we were camping, and idles up right beside my bike and we start chatting. Since that day we have never missed a beat and along the route we have hatched some plans about future bike builds along with a parts line. As Josh will quickly tell ya he is a wrench and loves nothing more than to make a perfectly functioning machine run even better. As things progress within Rusty Knuckles he will become the go to guy for tech tips on engine modifications and mechanical reliability. In this regard, we figured now would be a great time for a sneak peak into what we have been plotting on. The parts line is going to be called Wrench Works and our logo is being filed for trademark as we are that confident with the name. We have a littany of parts that should be ready for the Smokeout next summer. We aren't going to produce the simple things either, that's just too easy. Our parts are going to be focused on the human factor of comfort and tightening up the mechanical reliability, stay tuned.

Heavy Metal Gangs - Wadeye Australia

This is absolutely surreal to check out. A small Aboriginal community just south of Darwin, Australia that has gang problems amongst its twenty five hundred or so residents, which is fueled by their love of metal music. I knew of the Slaytanic army that we all become at Slayer shows but these folks have adopted the names into their own rite of passage. Whether it be the Judas Priests, The Slayer Mob or one of the many other band names written all over the local area. Truly makes you question what the early missionaries were trying to accomplish by bringing all the Aboriginals into one area.

Al Farrow - Sculptor Extraordinaire

A good friend of mine back in San Francisco was working on a huge endeavor for grad school and ended up getting in touch with the sculptor Al Farrow as they were both represented by the same gallery. My friend Mike was creating a martial arts film festival based around John Woo's work, aptly titled "Dao Of The Gun." In order to fulfill his vision for the film fest he needed a few interesting props to help flesh out his designs. After a brief chat he was off to the studio of Al Farrow to look over his sculptures and to borrow a few pieces to work with. Needless to say Mike was blown away by what he saw in the studio and was lucky enough to carry a few pieces back with him. We were laughing quite hard at the fact that he was taking city buses and was carrying a bag full of guns back to his apartment. Take a look at the work of Al Farrow, the reliquaries carry a visual weight that can bring much into question. Whether or not the reliquaries are meant to be political, is entirely up to the viewer.

Al Farrow - Sculptor Extraordinaire

The Horse Smokeout 11 - June 25-26 2010

For all the true die hard bikers out there, this event in my mind is the equivalent of Mecca. What culminates each year in our great state of North Carolina into a weekend of balls to the wall full throttle biker mayhem is the Horse Magazine's annual Smokeout. You could go as a spectator and be happy people watching or go as a bad ass drag racing mofo and put your money where your mouth is and be absolutely elated. It honestly doesn't matter. If your passion involves two wheels, a bitchin' engine and details for days, this is the event to which your year should be made around. We will have a full booth at the show along with our new parts line coming out and better yet, good chances are that our southern sleaze brothers in Crank County Daredevils will be playing the party. So there you have it, no excuse not to roll into the dirty south and get rowdy with the rest of us heathans. See you in Rockingham with the rest of the Rusty Knuckles posse.

The Horse Backstreet Choppers Magazine

Brown Dog Welding - Unique Tig Weldin' Craftsman

Got a holler from my pal Dawes raving about a site I had to check out. I start digging through the pages and honestly I just lost the next 15 minutes to checking out the cool items Josh of Brown Dog Welding was cookin' up. Not only are the items unique and use found objects that any of us wrenches can take a likening to, there is a level of craftsmanship that puts his work into another realm. I am a details kind of guy and I just had to email him and get the skinny on how he puts things together. Sure enough, he tig welds everything and those time consuming details shine. Whether it be the consistent flow of the welds or the cleanliness of the materials used, I am truly a fan. My plan now is to hopefully get a couple of unique items created for Rusty Knuckles down the road. Check out his site, but be forewarned, you are going to be there for a while.

Brown Dog Welding

Year Of The Chopper Blogspot

Brown Dog Welding on Flickr

New Sketches For Merch

Been deep in illustration mode for the last couple of weeks getting a lot of merch ready for a few bands we work with. Crank County Daredevils are heading to Europe for the Southern Sleaze Invasion Tour and Hellbound Glory are on the road consistently selling out of merch, so here is a sneak peak of a few sketches we have been cookin' on. Also, we will be launching a huge new site in the next few weeks. Along with the site being the portal for all that is Rusty Knuckles it will also serve as the new launching pad for all the bands we are working with. The new roster of folks joining the family is bitchin' and we will make a formal announcement soon.

Shop Rusty Knuckles

Oil Rigs - Los Angeles, Urban Drilling

Oil of L.A. from VBS.tv

El Mirage, CA - Land Speed Racing with the Bean Bandits

What a great weekend of land speed racing out in the dusty high desert of El Mirage, California. We rolled into the desert a bit after dark on Friday night and were able to setup camp really close to the starting line. This allowed us to be close to all the action in the pits and for hanging out. Was damn cold the first night and my feet went numb even though I was still sleeping inside the caravan. First day of racing on Saturday proved to be a great day and there was even a tail wind to make the day that much better. The team consisted of Jake & Nicki Doomey, Lance Dawes, The Eagle and myself. Lance was driving all weekend and was able to post a respectable top speed of 106mph in the 1953 mainline. Track record for the production class is 130 mph so hopefully they will be able to break that record with a lot more tweaks and refinements to the car. Sunday turned out to be mostly a wash due to a headwind and it was just so damn dusty out there making for a much slower day for all racers. Have a look at all the photos on the flickr page. Now that the racing and show season is officially over its time I get started on the new Buell custom and make it ready for the first race at the Maxton Mile in Maxton, NC.

Rusty Knuckles on Flickr

Classic Car Salvage Yard - Wallace, California

Hangin out with some friends back in California and we have been on a road trip as usual. A while back they had spotted quite an amazing classic car salvage yard way up in Wallace, California so we just had to go and check it out as some miscellaneous parts were needed. The whole back lot was filled with Desotos, Thunderbirds, Coronets, Mercurys and so many other cars and trucks that I cannot even name as my classic car knowledge is quite limited. Posted quite a few more photos over on the flickr page so check'em out:

Rusty Knuckles on Flickr