I had heard about these guys a while back but I just never gave them much of a listen. Then they pop into my radar through an interview or a posting else where and I was then officially hooked. The Cancer Bats have a brawny punk metal approach and just kick some serious ass. The song Lucifer's Rocking Chair caught my attention with its big meaty hook for a riff and gave me that warm feeling deep down just like southern metal does for the soul. Give the dudes a listen
Monday, August 31, 2009
Jay Berndt - Amazing Musician
At times I can be quite jaded about music. I have been going to shows non stop since I was a teenager and I know what I enjoy and what I don't. If its just a cover band or a boring live show I just can't get into it. Always on the constant search for new music I listen to online stations and check out myspace pages to see whats new and bangin'. So one night I decided to check out an old band I really enjoyed named Kilgore outta Providence, RI. The dudes voice just made it all for me. It stood out like no other band at the time and stuck with me for over 10 years. Took a bit of effort but I found their page and then went through the links, low and behold I found their singer's page with some alt country/americana projects he was working on. Well damn, he further cemented his hold over my taste in music for that evening because his tone matched perfectly the format he was playing in. I decided to email him and say just how much I dug the tunes. Almost a year later and we are still chatting just about every other day. Give Jay a listen as he is a musician for the ages. Its timeless and deserves to be heard by the masses, truly a rare gem in American music. He will hopefully putting out his new album this fall. Have a listen to some of his music on the Facebook page.
Jay Berndt - on Facebook
Jay Berndt - on Facebook
Our new patches just arrived!
For all the folks asking if we were ever going to make patches, well here is your answer. Each patch is 3.5 inches wide by 2.375 tall. They are the perfect size for your riding leathers or vests. The patches have black and off white stitching with a blood red background and an iron on backing. You can purchase them over in our store ShopRustyKnuckles.com
Friday, August 28, 2009
Home made go karts can't get much gnarlier than this
All I can say is damn!! Care to send over some photos so I can duplicate the build for my own personal race cart?
Slow Southern Steel - Movie Trailer
Finally a documentary about southern metal and a plethora of the bands that make up the great music we know and love here in the dirty south. Some call it sludge metal, some call it stoner rock, but whatever you want to call the vibe, its definitely home grown. With its roots in the seventies style'd Sabbath sound tempered by the high humidity and sludgy slow groove of southern rock whats not to love. From the clip there are excerpts from members of Pantera, Down, ASG, Corrosion of Conformity, EyeHateGod and many many more. Cannot wait to see this and have even more comradery with my southern brethren
Slow Southern Steel Movie Trailer #1
Slow Southern Steel Movie Trailer #1
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Lost & Found: 302 Engine Block - Part 1
About a year ago I was perusing through craigslist for parts, bikes, randomness, low and behold I found something that caught my attention. There was a posting for a guy clearing out a storage unit and he had a had a 302 small block motor for sale. It was fully functioning with all parts fully assembled for a hundred bucks. Listing noted that it had to be picked up immediately to get it for cheap. I thought what the hell, looks to be perfect for what I had in mind. Well what I had in mind was several hundred pounds of scrap metal to construct several tables with and various parts for projects down the road. The idea only got me excited as tearing down an engine is always fun anyway. I found several uses immediately and here are the results:
Welding table from the crankshaft
This was a beast to really get going, little had I thunk on the possibility of welding pipe to a cast piece. Well, my pal Jim down at the local welding shop debunked how to remedy the situation, so we slowly heated up the crankshaft to 800 degrees as a top base temperature then welding the 3/8 inch thick pipe to the top to make the base for the table top. This process of heating, welding beads and reheating went on for over 3 hours. After all was said and done just tap it with a wrench and hear it ring, its all once piece of steel now, sounds beautiful.
Piston Rod Pedals
I had been working on quite a few ideas for pedals on my new chop build. The bike is a cafe styled bike but with some modern approach to it, as I am not strict in my adherence to tradition. Numerous pedal concepts came up, but what I really wanted was comfort and thin pedals tend to tire my feet out for any decent period of ride time. Tried some flat pedals made out of square stock with some holes drilled out, but they just didn't feel right and I couldn't get the look I was after. Then I bought some aftermarket parts off of ebay and they looked to clean and perfect. I was in a design quandary for sure and needed something interesting. Hmmm, what about that big ol' box o' parts I had been saving up. I proceeded to pull out some valves, timing chain and low and behold I caught site of the pistons and rods. With my cutting wheel on my grinder fired up and a cold can of PBR a late night thinking session turned into an even later night of pedal fabrication. In the end all I needed to do was to measure to the size I needed, grind off part of the rod and drill a hole for the 4.5 inch long grade 8 bolts and I was off to the races. They are comfortable as hell and can't wait to put this bike on the road and really test them out.
Welding table from the crankshaft
This was a beast to really get going, little had I thunk on the possibility of welding pipe to a cast piece. Well, my pal Jim down at the local welding shop debunked how to remedy the situation, so we slowly heated up the crankshaft to 800 degrees as a top base temperature then welding the 3/8 inch thick pipe to the top to make the base for the table top. This process of heating, welding beads and reheating went on for over 3 hours. After all was said and done just tap it with a wrench and hear it ring, its all once piece of steel now, sounds beautiful.
Piston Rod Pedals
I had been working on quite a few ideas for pedals on my new chop build. The bike is a cafe styled bike but with some modern approach to it, as I am not strict in my adherence to tradition. Numerous pedal concepts came up, but what I really wanted was comfort and thin pedals tend to tire my feet out for any decent period of ride time. Tried some flat pedals made out of square stock with some holes drilled out, but they just didn't feel right and I couldn't get the look I was after. Then I bought some aftermarket parts off of ebay and they looked to clean and perfect. I was in a design quandary for sure and needed something interesting. Hmmm, what about that big ol' box o' parts I had been saving up. I proceeded to pull out some valves, timing chain and low and behold I caught site of the pistons and rods. With my cutting wheel on my grinder fired up and a cold can of PBR a late night thinking session turned into an even later night of pedal fabrication. In the end all I needed to do was to measure to the size I needed, grind off part of the rod and drill a hole for the 4.5 inch long grade 8 bolts and I was off to the races. They are comfortable as hell and can't wait to put this bike on the road and really test them out.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Lost & Found: Cop Bikes
Who would'a thunk? Walked into the welding shop at my local community college a few weeks ago and there sits two slightly used BMW police bikes. I felt rather dumb founded by the simple fact that it never registered in my mind to check out police auctions for used vehicles that are for sale for whatever reason and then clean them up for resale at a profit. Guessing someone picked them up for cheap as most of the electronics were picked clean as they can be sold easily on ebay.
But for the DIY guy, these bikes are perfect for stripping down and making into a great cruiser with a few simple add on's and cleaning up. Each had less than 30k miles and looked to be in great shape. Next auction, here I come!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Amazing!
There is a fine line between clever and stupid and in this case comfort, whats your opinion?
