Tom's Ironhead Part 2

Needless to say, Tom is working frantically to get his chop done as a running but not yet completed bike by the Smokeout on June 25 - 26, here in North Carolina. His new custom gas tank is off being tig welded and here is the oil tank he has been working like a madman on. It matches the frame lines perfectly and looks damn good. Stoked to see how the whole bike is going to turn out. Shitload more work to go of course but if he can at least have a runner to get him through the summer, will be set to really finesse it this winter.

More of Tom's chop on Rusty Knuckles Flickr Page

Doin' It In Baja - Part 3 of 8

Ehinger Kraftrad - German Bike Builder

I was digging around for some imagery on a project I am working on and came across this photo of an old flathead in a frame with no wheels. I started to take in the story and the more compelling it became. Take a read through it and then go and check out Ehinger Kraftrad's blog and photos, its quite interesting to see how other folks across the world think when it comes to restoring and building motorcycles.

"In 1983, an elderly gentleman replied to a classified ad. It was the kind of ad that Uwe used to place in different Chilean papers these days: „Poor student looking for an old, defective motorbike to repair. The older the bike and the worse its shape - the better.“ The man said he owned an old, broken motorcycle, which had been dusting in his shed for ages. After the man had given a short description, Uwe knew that the trip to Bío Bío, a county south of Concepción, would be worth it.

The find was a 46 Harley Flathead UL (hard-tail frame, 73 cui, side valve engine with cast iron heads). By the saddle and the chrome parts it could easily be identified as the deluxe version. The Harley was still in its original condition and it had obviously been used as an everyday motorbike. Successful repairs and maintenance of US bikes used to be a matter of luck in Chile then, as the land is metric and old Harleys are imperial. Bad for a hobby wrench, but good for Uwe, as botched bikes or defects due to false repairs were very rare. One critical issue about finds like these are always the lower frame stringers. Bikes were often pulled across the yard without wheels on their stringers, so the downside is often ground flat and sometimes the tubes are even ground right through. But this bike was in excellent condition. After intensive bargaining, Uwe bought the Harley for just a few hundred dollars.

The 46 Flathead UL with 74 cui was a bread-and-butter Harley. These side-valves used to be cheaper than the Knuckleheads. Its over-head hanging valves entailed an adverse combustion chamber design. The U versions and the UL versions with a compression ratio of 5:1 had a rather poor engine performance, but due to this they were providing high robustness and durability. Today, Flatheads are much more expensive than Knuckleheads, which are now being copied and offered as replicas. Flats, however, are always originals.

When he restored the bike, Uwe upgraded the engine to the 80 cui ULH version. In addition to the bigger bore, the cast iron heads, as used with the U versions and the ULH versions, were replaced by aluminium ones. The H in ULH stands for high-compression. It’s a matter of discussion, though, if this is really high: Now 5,5:1 instead of 5:1 before. Except for the engine, Uwe has built up and restored this 46 Flathead all by himself. One and a half years later, he finally put it to the road in Hamburg, where he was using it for everyday motoring."

Ehinger Kraftrad

Cove Custom Cycles - Daytona, FL

If any of yall are in the Daytona area and in need of any custom or service work done to your bikes check out Cove Custom Cycles. My buddy Backpack Brett is a co-owner of the shop and just posted up some new pics of his latest build, a 71 Ironhead. Looking forward to seeing this bike on future runs. Solid looking build amigo!

Cove Custom Cycles Blog

Snake Venom - Wine & Moonshine

Not sure if any of you folks have ever had the chance to try any Snake Venom moonshine or wine that is generally homemade but its quite tasty. Dirty Dawes and I were able to sip on some back in Oakland, CA and its got quite an interesting flavor. The batch that we got to sample from was homemade with Vodka of some sorts and a 6 foot cobra. It was quite intimidating to look at the jar and know that cobra's venom was about to be poured down your throat with some smooth alcohol, but damn it all to hell, why not.

Apparently its a normal drink in a lot of parts of Southeast Asia and the snake is infused with wine, vodka or whiskeys and left to steep for months. The snake venom becomes denatured when interacting with the alcohol and cuts out the risk of its posion, well for the most part. Originally it was considered an aphrodisiac and a testament to health and vitality. I say give it a shot. After drinking it on several occasions at a downtown Vietnamese restaurant in Oakland 3, shots was enough for me and it definitely had a bite far different than most liquors...

Snake Venom in Liquor - more info

Wrench Works - Shop Sign

Life is all about who ya know. Quite proud to be able to help a friend out with a shop sign for the launch of his business. Josh over at Wrench Works has been wrenchin' for a long time and its evident in his builds. Not only does he build ground up customs he also does a lot of service work for local friends and clientele. His latest build will be at the Smokeout so check out his newest ride up close, as the details go on for days.

The new wrench works site will go live in a few weeks...

BeItTheMeans - Southern Rock

So you think ya got soul? Well, see if you can match what BeItTheMeans offers...

Be It The Means on Myspace

Hellbound Glory - Review on Sleazegrinder

We keep tellin' everyone we know about Hellbound Glory and its an honor for us to work with them. Great to see that the word is spreading and folks are realizing what real country is. Check out the latest review from Sleazegrinder of their latest album called "Old Highs, New Lows, available for sale in their store here:

Hellbound Glory on Shop Rusty Knuckles Dot Com

"I don’t need to tell you that, on the face of it (i.e. the radio, TV, the charts, etc.), there seems to very little real country music around anymore. The family-friendly arena rock that passes for popular C&W these days is arguably antithetical to the gritty realism of the human condition that’s supposed to be driving the form. But, as anyone who makes a habit of digging under the surface looking for good music knows, there’s plenty of real country treading the boards of the world’s honkytonks, made by artists who still get it.

Hellbound Glory is one of the flamekeepers. Hailing from the unglamorous town of Reno, Nevada, the hard-tonking quartet would probably give Nashville record execs nightmares. Old Highs and New Lows, the band’s second LP, is not a portrait of a band interested in being cuddly or getting a video on whatever CMT countdown show is running right now. Leader Leroy Virgil has no truck with the feel-good sentimentality and up-with-people homilies of Music City – not when he can write and sing about the pain, self-loathing and degradation (most of it the result of frequent visits by John Barleycorn) that hairless apes have a bigger talent for enduring than good vibes. Tunes like Too Broke to Overdose, Why Take the Pain (…when you can take pain pills) and Either Way We’re Fucked (which contains the memorable mash note Let’s close the door, turn out the lights and have a good hate fuck) may sound like filth for shock’s sake. While there’s certainly an element of humor there (as well there should be in good C&W), Virgil isn’t smirking when he sings – he’s simply reporting his characters’ low lives and attempts to escape same by chemical means in as unvarnished a manner as possible. The turns of phrase may crack a smile, but there’s nothing funny about the codependent plea of Be My Crutch, the unconvincing defiance of Hank Williams Records or the spiraling self-destruction of Slow Suicide.

The band backs up Virgil’s soulworn tales with the skill of top session cats (particularly guitarist Nick Swimley), the fire of punk rockers and the sensibilities of guys who’ve never heard a Billy Sherrill production, let alone anything from the 90s. It’s the perfect backdrop for Virgil’s bullshit-free narratives and outlaw outlook, the kind of country & western we need to wash away the stench of air freshener and new truck smell. Hellbound Glory ain’t in it for the corn or the CMAs, but for the songs and the truth. - Michael Toland"

Hellbound Glory review via Sleazegrinder

"I Sold Everything To Buy A Lamborghini And Drive Across The Country"

Found this article via neatorama and apparently it was posted through Jalopnik. The story is absolutely compelling and it goes to show that if you fuel your gypsy soul, anything is possible.

"Richard Jordan had everything he was told to want: cars, a new house, and a fiancee. Then his fiancee left him. So he sold everything, bought a Lamborghini Gallardo and set out across America. This is his amazing story. This is a love story, but not a conventional one. Sure, there's a woman. There always is. But it's when the woman split that the real romance began. This is the story of Richard Jordan, a man who lost love and then found it again in an exotic Italian sports car and the open American road. Jordan's journey would take him across the country and back again multiple times as he racked up nearly 100,000 miles on a car so expensive, most owners rarely drive at all.

Independence Day
It was early 2006 and Richard's version of the American Dream lay crumbling at his feet. After giving his girlfriend of five years a ring and a house in suburban North Texas — purchased with the proceeds from selling his metal fabrication business, his old house and a few of his cars — she left him. "I bought us the house and planned on moving in and, as soon as I did, she left," explains Richard. "So I got stuck in a house I didn't want, in an area I didn't want to be in... it was kind of emotionally traumatic. So I bought the car and wandered around."

It wasn't actually as easy as that. No one wanted to buy his new house so he was stuck with it. It took him months to sell the rest of his possessions. That, combined with the much of his life savings, he used to afford a $90,000 down payment on a Lamborghini Gallardo — one of the most expensive vehicles on the market.

The Gallardo is named for a famous Spanish bull and unleashes a massive 512 HP through its mid-mounted V10. Its sharp looks hint at the performance: 0-to-60 mph in just 4.0 seconds with a top speed of 195 mph for the model Jordan purchased. The price? A steep $180,000 at the time of purchase. After locating the right model and arranging the financing he picked up his black Lamborghini Gallardo Coupe from Lamborghini of Ohio. The date? July 4th, 2006.
Independence Day was an almost intentionally ironic choice, as he picked that day to separate from everything he'd created but now no longer wanted, including the house. "I'd become a prisoner to my house, to everything, to my fantasy of an American Dream or anything I could remotely call home."

"I'm Not Moby"
With one of the fastest cars in the world but nowhere to take it, Jordan just started driving. For more than a year he wandered from place to place, living in motels and making new friends. He'd cross the United States three times and make trips from Ohio to Colorado to Texas to North Carolina on just a night's rest.

"It was just a feeling that I didn't really have a home, there was no place to safely be but the Lambo. That was the one thing that felt like it worked for me." He visited the ghost towns and big cities and retraced childhood trips. As soon as he'd settle down somewhere he'd get the itch to move and pack up to drive somewhere else. It quickly became difficult to pay for the house in Dallas — his one remaining possession he couldn't shake — and still afford gas. He almost lost the house numerous times.

"I have a few hundred grand against me, I don't like debt, but I'm used to it," Richard says. "I've accumulated a lot and paid it back several times in my life." His wanderings yielded as much joy and humor as they did introspection and isolation, including a trip to strip club in Ohio where Richard, then 32, was mistaken for Moby by an a waitress who was convinced he was the musician because of his shaved head, glasses and fancy car. "This girl comes up and was a waitress and she's like 'You're Moby, aren't you?' and I said 'I'll be anyone you want me to be,' and she took it as 'I'm Moby.'"

Richard is not Moby, but he's also not completely against accepting free bottles of champagne when offered. "It was just ridiculous, the manager's like kissing my butt, I maybe spent $100 the whole night and it was just really, really silly and absurd." "It was just like The Blues Brothers!"
Driving across the country in a Lamborghini means occasionally driving above the speed limit. Richard's honest about his desire to go fast and has a drawer full of 53 tickets to prove it. But it wasn't speed, exactly, that landed him in the handcuffs of an Indiana State Trooper.

Though generally jumping from hotel room to hotel room, Richard did have family responsibilities like serving as the best man in his cousin's wedding. While en route to the wedding he was stopped for speeding but ran afoul of the Indiana State Police and suddenly found himself staring down the highway at a roadblock. Because his car's registration was one-day expired the troops were able to search the car and found a handgun.

"I don't travel without guns, I've been in too many situations so I always carry one or two guns with me," Richard says. "A car like that is an assault on the senses, and you could be in a decent area and just be barraged by people and you never knew who you're dealing with."
At first he didn't grasp the gravity of the situation — the police thought he was moving drugs — so his calm demeanor and jokes about hating the town he was in and a general Blues Brothers schtick didn't go over well. They kept him in the back of a squad car for four hours, eventually releasing him on his own recognizance when they realized they weren't able to drive the car on the back of a flatbed without his help. He eventually got the car back and the charges settled, but the whole endeavor cost him $25,000 in fines, travel, and legal fees.

91,807 Miles
Most people don't use their expensive cars as daily drivers exactly because they're so expensive. The highest mileage of any Lamborghini Gallardo for sale on eBay Motors is 38,835 for a 2004 model, but the majority of vehicles are below 10,000 miles. In his trips across the country Richard managed 91,807 miles. "I can't afford to buy something like that and drive it on the weekend," Richard explains. "The difference between being materialistic and not is when you use what you have." For him, it's a better value to drive it given the immediate drop in value for a used Lamborghini. It's even strange for him that others think otherwise. "No one is concerned with anything as long as Starbucks and the mall is open. It baffles me. It overwhelms me actually. You can have something that's as extreme as a Lamborghini — that's perfect in a sense — and it has no value once you use it."

All that driving does have a price and now the car has even less value. After all the hard driving and long miles, the timing chain stretched, crunching the valves and turning the car into an exotic and expensive paperweight. The car is now worth less than he owes on it and the bank refuses to grant him another loan. "For me, it's wasteful not to use it. That's anything. It doesn't matter if it's a fucking dishwasher," says Richard. "That's not really socially acceptable. It's not the way we're programmed... most people don't live like I do. I'd eat ramen noodles to pay for gasoline, just to avoid the monotony of being stuck in four walls." Considering the traumatic experience that led him to buy the car, its destruction doesn't seem to burden him too much.
"It worked everyday, it worked like it was supposed to, it never broke down," Richard assures me. "It exceeded all my expectations."

He's using his sudden lack of transportation not as the end of one journey but as the start of a new one, setting up a shop in Dallas where he plans to build custom motorcycles and superbikes. He has plans to repair the engine or swap in a new one once he can afford it, but for now it makes an interesting sculpture to show friends and prospective customers in the main room of his new office. Richard's also met a girl, but he's trying to take it one step at a time.
His Lamborghini may no longer run, but Richard doesn't regret the decisions he's made. He adopts a zen-like tone that clashes with his mohawk while explaining how lucky he was to be able to leave everything behind and experience something many fantasize about but almost no one has the balls to actually do.

"You're never going to live up to anyone's expectations, so you might as well live up to your own and for me that's to be as free as you can. And if money doesn't buy you freedom then it's useless." We couldn't agree more."

Doin It In Baja - Part 2 of 8