The Art of Moving Tattoos!

Have you ever imagined what an animated tattoo would look like? What if the black ink carved into your skin could suddenly materialize into a moving image? Well, say hello to Ink Mapping, Video Mapping on Tattoos. 

Muddy Roots Music Festival Is Featured In Rolling Stone

Muddy Roots Music Festival Is Featured In Rolling Stone

You can now believe Rolling Stone's latest article about the best music fests of 2016 or you can dive into the underground roots music scene with its epicenter festival of Muddy Roots every labor day weekend. We have only missed one year and that was the first and from the friends and folks that we see and hang with every year, it is hands down one of our favorites to be a part of.

Have You Checked Out The Lineup For The Nashville Boogie Yet?

Have You Checked Out The Lineup For The Nashville Boogie Yet?

Have You Checked Out The Lineup For The Nashville Boogie Yet? This is going to be one hell of a shindig and with the amount of bands lining up to make this a great time, you best bet it will be talked on for years to come.

International Bluegrass Music Association, World Of Bluegrass Is Truly A Great Event

Over the last few days we have been collecting our thoughts on all that transpired throughout the week at the International Bluegrass Music Association's conference here in Raleigh. This show is remarkable on many levels, stemming from the business conference with seminars on a plethora of topics relating to music industry sales, social media growth, promotions, etc, to the live show performances, along with the trade show aspect of the main exhibit hall, where we along with many other companies were set up. 

This was our second year, being part of the industry trade show during the IBMA's and it was quite the welcoming feeling to have music industry titans such as Nechville Banjo's and D'addario treat us as equals. We have a long way to go and a lot of new ideas upcoming for the 2016 show season and cannot wait to start the festival season once again, to showcase our great line of custom straps for banjos, guitars and mandolins.

Banjo Buck and Richard Bicknell, enjoying the good times at the IBMA's

Banjo Buck helping to make a custom strap for Richard who works with the IBMA's

Helping out a young mandolin player

Was great to have our home city of Raleigh, NC feature us on their twitter feed

West Virginia Motorcycle Run With The Southern Brothers

Quick stop in to Cum Park Plaza

Sometimes in life you get lucky to meet a group of folks that will turn into friends that you know you will have for the rest of your life. Only bad part about this though, is that most of us live quite a ways apart and only get to see one another on a few bike runs per year. On these runs, conversations start up and then get added to, lengthened and then christened with new elements every four to five months, when we all get the chance to meet up again. 

I can vouch for every single person on the run or that rides within our group from a personality level, riding skill and as a standup individual. If you can't make the cut on any of the these three elements, well then we sure as hell won't ask ya to join us on a run. These gatherings are meant to disappear into the wild for a couple of days and to be able to go drink from the well and come out whole again on the other side. These runs have helped us to achieve an absolute brotherhood and cannot wait for the next gathering in September. Damn proud to be one of the crew.

Hellbilly Music Fest For Hannah

Hellbilly Music Fest For Hannah

Get ready for a day of good music and a lot of fun for a good cause. We're having a benefit for Hannah Anderson and her family. This beautiful little 4 year old girl was just diagnosed with Leukemia. Let's do everything we can to help them out... and have just a little bit of fun at the same time. We're planning a noon start time and we'll go until there is no more fun to be had and no more money to be raised. 

Run What Ya Brung 2014

Shovelhead Chris rolling south, photo by Jimmy Lyon

Every fall a select group of us gather in the hills of western North Carolina and put down some miles and multiple cases of beer. It's a gathering of like minded folks that just want to ride and explore the hills while also catching up on conversations that were started a year earlier. 

Check out more photos from the run over on IBMOS

Damn stoked that all of us put down a lot of miles without a single breakdown this year and for those that put in close to and over 1000 miles on the run. Hats to off to Wes, Ryan and Tyke for logging in the hours and for Jimmy who rolled in from south Florida. True riders to say the least.

This was the fourth year of the run and next year, we already made plans to change it up significantly and move to my home turf of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia. The mountains are great but I have some new roads lined up along with some local folklore to indulge everyone in on that goes back centuries. Time to go camping in the cypress swamps and tread where many fear to go in the dark. Slaves to the Grave 2015.

Heavy Rebel Weekender 14 Was As Epic As Ever

The Mud Rasslin' was alive and well at Heavy Rebel 2014

If you want to know about a good time to be had every July 4th weekend, then look no further than attending the Heavy Rebel Weekender, in Winston-Salem, NC. Three days of great music, incredible people and one of the best ride in car and bike shows on the east coast. Events go on far and wide, but not much can compare to the level of hospitality that is presented by all the staff of the Millennium Center and especially Greg the owner along with festival guru's Dave Quick, Courtney Southern and Scott Allen. They make this event what it is and now five years in a row, we are damn proud to be solid supporters of it. 

Check out some of the bands below we got to check out along with some photos from the event. Would have enjoyed taking a bunch more photos, but duty called and our booth was busy all weekend. 

End Of The Season Party And Fundraiser For Mike Halloran

If you follow our site or have seen a few of projects of ours involving metal etching, there is one dude to thank. TWT Mike Halloran is that dude and is lucky to be alive after a horrific motorcycle wreck while he was on the Run For Your Life this past summer. If you are the eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and lower New York area, get out for a cool event and help support a great dude. Thanks to Lowside Magazine for helping to put on the event.

Get out and support TWT Mike after his horrific motorcycle wreck

Run What Ya Brung 3 Updates

Updates as of September 19, 2013:

Getting emails and calls from quite a few folks on the run. I added a map below as a link to Google maps which will be updated and also is wide open to the public for folks to add in other elements. Meadows of Dan, VA is where the Willville Bike Camp is and there is also another campground directly next store. The motorcycle camp is very limited other than just camping so if that doesn't suit ya, within the area and over towards Galax and Hillsville there are hotels. 

Right in Meadows of Dan there is a small restaurant, two country stores that have gas and beer, so basic provisions are close by. But then again, it's all remote so maybe do some planning ahead for Friday night, October 11th.

As far as riding on Saturday October 12th goes, we have quite a few options of damn great roads all over the south western Virginia mountains. I am checking road conditions as there is one moutain peak that is a dirt and gravel road close by the party location that has one of the best views in the entire area. It is not easy to get to as it's a maintained road for cell phone towers, but well worth the expedition. 

So dig, dive around and explore the map around the area. We will be just off the Blue Ridge parkway by Coal Creek Road for the party. Lots of great roads and areas to explore. 

Check the map

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Nothing can be quite as good as the crisp fall air and rollin' through the Blue Ridge Mountains. For our third annual Run What Ya Brung, we are opting to hit some new roads and to get a killer back yard party running full throttle. 

This is the rundown plain and simple. Friday night we will be rolling into the Willville Motorcycle Camp in Meadows of Dan, VA. Right up the street at the Floyd Country Store is a Friday night jam session of local musicians. The campsite offers cabins, bunk houses, camp sites along with showers and other facilities on site.

On Saturday we will be hitting some back roads and eventually ending up at a buddy of ours private property for a back yard jam session off the Blue Ridge Parkway, by Galax Virginia. The Jam Session will be with JB Beverley, Buck Thrailkill and Jake Cox for some good ol' Americana, Bluegrass and Real Country music. Camping will be allowed on site for free as long as everyone cleans up after themselves and is respectful of the property.

Anyone is welcome to roll in for the Saturday party if you want to enjoy the music, as it's all about a good time. Being that there is no charge for camping on Saturday as it's private property, it will be at minimum a $10 donation for the band fund. We will be posting a more info about the run shortly, but check your calendar, tune your ride and clear the dates. 

Run What Ya Brung 3 on Google Maps

To get in touch about the run, hit us up on Facebook

Run What Ya Brung 3, October 11th and 12th 2013, western Virginia mountains

Cold Beer and Burnouts At The Smokeout

There are a multitude of reasons to enjoy the Smokeout. Our favorite aspect is just to hang with friends we only get to see a few times a year and to talk shop about all things motorcycles and music. The Smokeout could do ten times better if they got a good variety of bands instead of the same stuff every year, but maybe that is what they enjoy. Was only able to stay for one night at this year's rally as too many projects required attention elsewhere and with the Buckeye Bash coming up, can't wait to roll with the bro's to Ohio in July and do it all over again.

Brad's new mistress, sweet 1968 Shovelhead

When you arrive with cold beers people swarm ya

My sexy Dyna and I put a lot of miles together down the road

As soon as the silver festivus pole went up the ladies jumped at the chance to start stripping

Need to heat up your pipes, well do a burnout and turn them this orange

Dialing in the burnout through all the gears

While doing a good burnout a beer is required

With a freshly blown tire from the burnout pit we are greeted with a ton of smoke and a glorious salute.

Raleigh Eurobike 2013

Raleigh Eurobike 2013 looks to be a cool event this Saturday. Downtown Raleigh and great weather, what is not to like.

Find out more info on the event.

Run What Ya Brung = Damn Epic Time

There are a lot of ways we could describe a motorcycle run and or event such as the Run What Ya Brung, but in all reality, it is about the basics. The only advertising for the event, is posted on this blog or on our Facebook page. Word of mouth, from one friend to another is generally how the word gets out and that is the way it will always be. This is done for a very specific reason. Our goal is to keep the run low key and for the die hard individuals that keep their bikes mechanically sound. We invite anyone to join us and the door is always open. Just leave the attitudes else where and don't spoil the good times. How simple is that?

Huge shout out to the bands, Southbound Turnaround and J.P. Harris for a great show on Friday night. Many thanks to Dale and Matt over at Wheels Through Time for always welcoming us in and treating us great with stories for miles about all the rides they have to showcase. For all the fellas that showed up and put down some serious miles, that is what makes the run worth while. Cannot wait for our next gathering to swap more stories and drink some cold ones. Lastly, thanks to the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Camp for being such great folks and cookin' up some amazing grub. Their motorcycle camp is without a doubt an amazing place to disappear to for a few days, we highly recommend it for any season. And for you folks that don't camp, they have cabins.

Check out more photos over on our Facebook page

Rob checking out his leaky primary, figuring out a fix

Big decisions need to be made fast, just how much beer should we buy

Deputy Death Monkey kidney belt

Awesome run coins made by TWT Motorcycle Parts

Wes racked up 1109.9 miles, for the most on the run and won the wrench knife

Mad Dog Matt, hates drinking beer so he always goes straight for fruity drinks and liquor

Scotty P. of Southbound Turnaround and Mad Dog Matt

Southbound Turnaround was rockin' the hell out of the club

Rob has the fix for his leaky primary and loose bolts

Within an hour of getting to the campsite, two cases of beer and forty ouncers were already accounted for

Shaky Mike and Brad working on the brake line so it doesn't get severed by the chain

Shaky Mike's custom tool kit

Custom Wrench Knife put together for the run

Linking up with Probey Joe and Steven on the road, south of Charlotte

Run What Ya Brung After Party - October 6th, 2012

Damn is this bike run going to be a good time. We have a great club that is hosting the show with the Get Down in West Asheville, NC. Add in the great bands including Southband Turnaround, She Rides an the Go Devils.

Run What Ya Brung After Party at the Get Down in West Asheville, NC on October 6th 2012

Run What Ya Brung - October 5th and 6th 2012

We started a new run last fall as a sort of gathering for like minded folks, that wanted to put some miles down and disappear into the hills. What we thought would be just a weekend of riding turned into some debauchery, lasting memories of good times and one high quality bike run. The measure of this event is based up on the quality of those involved along with tuning your machines to be ready for the terrain.

Our ideal run involves quite a few clicks down the road, as 200 miles is just getting warmed up for us. On the map for Run What Ya Brung we didn't include any actual routes for the run, instead we focused on meeting points. Folks are planning on rolling in from far and wide so choose your routes according to the roads you want to roll on. These mountain roads are absolutely epic and especially in the fall.

For Friday October 5th we will be meeting up at the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Camp. If you are worried about missing the run, due to work, have no worries. Show up whenever you can, as a lot of us will be getting to the campsite before sunset. If ya want to roll with a pack, there will be an event page added to Facebook for everyone to link up.

Below is a map with most of the information and web links already put into it, so click away. There is no cost to the run upfront. The Blue Ridge Motorcycle Camp only requires reservations for those who want a cabin. The cabin's easily sleep two and potentially one on the floor if yall want to be pack them in. On saturday afternoon we will also be rolling over to Wheels Through Time to pay homage to the best damn motorcycle museum in the nation.

As for Saturday night, we have reserved an entire house in West Asheville that is a Bed and Breakfast, part hostel, that easily accommodates around sixteen. Whoever wants in on this, get in touch asap as these spots will go fast. Just map out other hotels close by as we are working on a big parking lot roll in party to the spot for Saturday night. The Get Down in West Asheville will be rocked by The Go Devils, She Rides and Southbound Turnaround.

Need any more info, hit me up on Facebook. Let's Roll!

Run What Ya Brung, Oct. 5th & 6th 2012 - Western, North Carolina

View Run What Ya Brung - Oct. 5th & 6th 2012 in a larger map

A few photos from last year's Run What Ya Brung

One Eyed Willie was our patron saint

Rollin' into the after party in Black Mountain, NC

Wild Wil' Wes and a serious batch of Moonshine

Shakey Mike tends to get naked in random locations

Stopping into Wheels Through Time is always a must

Run What Ya Brung after party on Saturday Oct 6th at the Get Down in West Asheville, NC

See Yall At The Smokeout...

It's late June and if you are in the south east that can mean just about only one thing, yep its time to get on down to the Smokeout. The Horse Back Street Chopper continues to be a great read and the event is always one of those destinations in which we leave our calendar wide open for. Damn stoked to see the rest of the fellas from all over the state and more hombre's from Ohio to Bama and beyond. First rounds on us!

Get out to the Smokeout

Link to photos from last year's rally

The Horse Smokeout Rally #13 in Rockingham, NC

 

Van Halen Hates Brown M and M's Explained By David Lee Roth

The story about the infamous rider contract with Van Halen and David Lee Roth about brown M&M's is quite high larious. To get the tale told with eloquent sarcasm by the creator is even better. The devil is in the details, especially when it comes to show productions and this can make or break an event. I have seen many contracts that asked for hookers, cocaine, chocolate panties, deli trays to all known varieties of beverages, but without a doubt, mention the word M&M's and Van Halen is forever remembered.


Brown M&Ms from Van Halen on Vimeo.

The Green Lady Killers Playing Bar 107 Downtown Los Angeles

The femme fatales also known as the Green Lady Killers will be playing Bar 107 in downtown Los Angeles on December 15th. For our west coast brethren get out to the show if ya can. The event is for Frankie Loyale's 24th Birthday so its gonna be a killer bash. 

Green Lady Killers Poster for Los Angeles show on December 15th 2011

Venice Vintage Motorcycle Rally

The fine folks over in Venice, CA are having a killer rally and party on October 22nd, damn why couldn't it have been the weekend of Oct. 9th as we will be in town. Here is some quick info on what they consider "Vintage"

Q:  What do you consider “Vintage?”
A:  So technically speaking, it’s 20 yrs. or older.  However we consider vintage to be anything pre ’78.  It was around this time that bikes of most brands started to take on a more modern look.  As well, it was the last year Honda released a bike with a kick-start.  Having said that, we’re not snobs so don’t worry about it...unless it’s Wednesday.
   
Q:  Do I have to be a member to join the rides?
A:  Nope.  Hop on your vintage bike and come ride with us!

Q:  How do I join?
A:   The VVMC is a not an organization, it’s a club.  Even more, a small, tight group of like minded (and a bit crazy) friends.   Therefore, there are no dues or membership fees.  If you’re serious about joining the clan, here’s the simple law:

1. You MUST ride a vintage (pre ’78) bike.

2. Plan on riding with us and being active in the group for at least a year.  

Showing up on occasion doesn’t cut it.
1. You can’t be a major tool.


....it’s just that simple.


2011 Venice Vintage Motorcycle Rally - October 22nd

Morning Ride - 10 AM

AHRMA Vintage Racing Exhibit

Builders Garage

Vintage Judging

Raffle

Live Music

Beer + Rum Garden

Pinup Girl Contest - 5PM

Food * Drinks

Motorcycle Art

After Party - 6PM

Rumble Fest Coming To San Diego And Raleigh

Later this week we will be announcing one of our major headliners for the Rumble Fest. These new events are growing out of the Rumble in Ramona due to the demand of the fans asking for it to be open to the public. Rusty Knuckles Music will be crucial in establishing the musical elements to the showcases and once the headliners are announced we know its going to be a game changer. All ticketing will go on sale through etix.com around mid May.

We will keep the updates coming via this blog and rumblefest.blogspot.com The photo below should be a solid clue as to what we have cookin'.