The Dime City “Four Hundred” – Cafe Racer TV

Sorry fellas, but as cool as this bike is, we had to hijack it straight from your site, haha!. This goes out to those mad men down at Dime City Cycles in Largo, FL. They have a great thing going and being able to link up with them is always a good time. Looking forward to the next rally on two wheels. Surely there will be guns, booze and more talk on all that is motorcycles and being a straight up mofo while sticking it to the corporate man, in the infamous words of Trent over at Biker Metric.

"At Dime City Cycles we like to start the week off right. Spark Plug Cereal, Motor-oil Coffee- you know, those sort of things. Along with any great breakfast though, one must have something look upon whilst crunching away on ceramic fuel poppers and cafe con sludge’. Maybe it’s a news paper, possibly a vintage moto magazine or for those of you tech savvy next-gen builders, maybe it’s some quality motorbike images.

For us, it tends to be the later…inspiration is key to starting ones day right, after-all.

And with that, we give you some introduction shots to the Dime City “Four Hundred” along with a personal review from Eric Bostrom as provided to us shortly after our track test to be featured in Season 2 of Cafe Racer TV.

And before any of you ask, “Why only close-ups?” we’ll remind you, that like any good lady, The Four Hundred leaves some to be revealed. Stay tuned to Bike EXIF for the Exclusive Release of images taken by Erick Runyon.

Bike Details (In Short:)

1975 Honda CB400F Super Sport
466 "Yoshi" Kit w/ Kibellwhite Valves & porting and polishing by: DCC
Four Bank CR Carburetor Kit
Modified MAC/DCC Four-into-one Tuned Exhaust System
Modified Stock/Chromoly Frame & Swingarm
Progressive Front and Rear Suspension
Combination CB750, 450, 400F Front-end w/ Dual Discs
Shouldered Aluminum Wheels wrapped with Metzler Rubber
Replica Ducati GP Front Fairing
Replica Ducato GP "Slimline" Fuel Tank
Dime City "Wasp" Tail-section (All pinstriping by: Liza)"

Eric Bostrom’s Review:

After riding the little cafe 400 Honda, I’m fairly certain this has to be one of the coolest motors ever built. The extra beans from the Yosh kit installed by the Dime City crew no doubt accentuated this sensation. But that’s exactly what this bike is to ride, a sensation. As if a 2-stroke and 4-stroke were morphed together, the high revving little engine screams to life as the tach approaches red-line. Keeping her in the power range keeps you on your toes but not so much so that your fighting to stay "on the pipe". The tune that follows is transcending, as if your twisting through the  Isle and Mike the Bike is racing right beside you. The infamous pitch of the inline Honda generates an image in your mind and a grin on your face. You can’t not fall in love with this bike.

Listen To These Bands - Black Spiders & Rival Sons

Music is the blood that fuels our thirst for the daily grind and what could be better than finding new bands to get stoked to listen to. This whole weekend has been one playlist and two bands that are just rockin' like no tomorrow. Give'em a listen and recognize the bravado and swagger as they both have it in spades and approach it such a different way.

Rival Sons come out swingin' with a Doors, Zeppelin and Motown kind of vibe, while the Black Spiders almost take a classic rock approach. Either way you shake it, these bands are smokin'.

Black Spiders

Rival Sons

Spotify To Rely On Facebook for U.S. Launch

We have been quite stoked to hear more about Spotify as its such a popular music service in Europe and will be a great competitor to Itunes. Apple fans we are, but at the end of the day, we care most about music and being able to get our bands out to the masses. If spotify can find middle ground with providing a subscription service along with vast amounts of streaming we are hoping it works. Really interested to see their "if you like..." sections and how they expand, as referrals are the name of the game. Ever notice how well this works within e-commerce sites? The data is there and its all about how things are grouped together so we have our fingers crossed on this one. Read more into the article below from Mashable.com about Spotify's plans to work heavily with Facebook.

From Mashable...

"Spotify’s stateside launch seems imminent; the wildly popular European music service put up a landing page announcing its U.S. move earlier this week, and now new details are emerging about how it plans to make it in America.

All Things Digital has got its hands on a juicy collection of marketing materials that Spotify has been showing to potential advertisers. It seems the subscription service will be relying on Facebook and media buzz to attract users at launch, which is rumored to be later this month.

According to the slides All Things D obtained, Spotify claims that at launch “150 million Facebook users will start to see Spotify in their feeds. One click and they can have Spotify.”

There has been talk about Facebook and Spotify partnering on a streaming music service. But the language in these slides seems to suggest that the service aims to capitalize on good, old-fashioned Facebook integration to garner new users, as opposed to creating a Facebook-native service. Rather than spending money on advertising, Spotify plans to score new users via the copious amounts of press that its launch is sure to spawn. (Mashable will be covering it, naturally, along with every other tech and music outlet on the block.)

All in all, Spotify hopes to garner 50 million U.S. users in one year. As All Things D points out, this is a lofty goal considering Spotify just hit one million subscribers in Europe.

Spotify is also offering advertisers the chance to build music apps on their sites and Facebook Pages with help from its API, according to the slides."

Jon Ruby Photography Shoots Some Hot Ladies

The beauty about attending a lot of events throughout the year is being able to meet random folks and finding out what makes them tick. When we are in the booth or the bands are on stage people meander through and stop in to peruse the merch and music to find out what we are about as a whole. I truly enjoy the random diatribe and the cool folks we end up meeting. Its these types of conversations that lead to new projects, bands to check out and overall a sense of what the hell is shakin' with folks from all walks of life.

One of those interesting folks who happened to stop by our booth the other day was a photographer from Atlanta by the name of Jon Ruby. We kept his business card and looked him up and damn if he doesn't have an eye especially with the ladies. If you are in the ATL and looking for a photographer, give Jon a shout as he has some great work and an eye for detail.

Jon Ruby Photography

Heavy Rebel Weekender 2011

Every year that we have been attending the Heavy Rebel Weekender, which is for the last three years, it seems to be growing quite nicely. The car and bike show on Saturday has more attendees and more rides and on this past Saturday night, the main hall seemed to be more packed than in years past. This makes us quite proud as our booth is directly across from the main stage so we get to see all the action front and center. Unfortunately we then miss out on all the bands and burlesque that are also going on downstairs, unless we can run down and catch a few minutes of certain sets.

Another aspect we have been noticing more at shows are the amount of custom built metric bikes and this is a sign of the times. Not only is tough out there to be able to buy and customize bikes, but why spend so much money on a build when you can get a great run around town bike on the cheap and really put some creativity into it. We enjoy all things motorized and seeing some of the cool rides that showed up between cages and bikes was bad ass. I have seen enough retro 60's and 70's "period correct" rides to last a lifetime. What I dig seeing is just something different and innovative that shows skill and a testament to craftsmanship. Yes, this is asking a lot, but so does life so make it unique and make it your own regardless of trends.

We did one thing this year that could have gotten us into hot water but we timed it out and went for broke. While the mainstage was breaking down between sets, I noticed that there was consistently a 15 minute lull before the next sound check. I rounded up the posse and we set up a PA and got it all mic'd and soundchecked as the best we could and had impromptu shows in between the main stage bands. We made sure to not interfere with their sound checks so we wouldn't get shut down and the powers that be let it ride. Some of the sound levels could have been tidied up a bit better but Sammy is going to give me the run down on the PA and we will have it nailed for the next show hijacking. Look out Muddy Roots fest, we have quite a bit up our sleeve so be ready for late night shows with Hellbound Glory, Ronnie Hymes, Southbound Turnaround and quite a few more special guests stoked to play the secret "Rusty Knuckles Stage".

After all was said and done from the weekend we saw quite a few stand out sets from Jayke Orvis, James Hunnicutt, Southbound Turnaround, Ronnie Hymes, Octane Saints, Ten Foot Polecats and the swamp pounding sound of Confused Little Girls. Missed out on sets from the Dielectrics, The Defilers and God Damn Gallows but hopefully we can see all of them sooner than later.

Huge thanks to Mike Martin, Dave Quick and Courtney Southern for puttin' on one hell of a shindig year after year. See ya next year with a bigger booth, more bands and a few more rabbits up our sleeve.

Scotty P of Crank County Daredevils jammin' with his new outfit Southbound Turnaround

Reno Divorce - European Tour Part 2

With the photos coming out and updates from Tye, we know that the fellas are doing one thing for sure in Europe, they are killin' every stage possible. Lookin' forward to seeing them again stateside soon and hearing the tracks for the new album. They should be hittin' the studio later this summer and damn are these tracks going to be good.

Link to more photos on flickr with the US Bombs

Say It - Reno Divorce by RustyKnuckles

Jay Berndt Sings Waylon For Jessica - Update

It has been no secret that we have a great project brewing with Jay Berndt and it should receive quite a few accolades. Jay started this project pure and simple, as a gift. From that honest background and recording the songs in his Moto Destructo he was able to take the time and refine his ideas about giving the songs his own twist and sound. We think Shooter Jennings and Waylon fans world wide will be excited about this album.

What is equally amazing about this album is not that Jay simply smokes on the recording of the songs and gives them his own feel. Biggest thing though is that he doesn't stray too far from the path of the originals and still makes the lyrics resonate in an oh so damn warm and ready to played a million times again kind of way. We are proud to be working with Jay and have been a fan of his going on 14 years now.

This album will primarily be a downloadable version until this fall and available through Itunes, Amazon, etc. but for the fans that really want to dig into Jay Berndt's catalog, we have roughly 300 versions that will be available on cd and for FREE but only with the purchase of Sad Bastard Songs. Yep, you heard us right, FREE. Huge shout out to Michael Chevalier for once again doing some killer artwork for the cover. Later this fall we will be releasing the album world wide through our distributors. But for now, to get this amazing cd you will have to double down on Jay Berndt and become a convert like many already have. 

We are announcing this to get the word out, "Jay Berndt Sings Waylon for Jessica" will be available in a few weeks once the cds are ready to roll off the press.

Jay Berndt - Lonesome On'ry and Mean by RustyKnuckles

Hellbound Glory and Ronnie Hymes Featured on FREE Downloadable Comp From "Give Me My XXX"

Folks, do yourself a favor and go sign up at givememyxxx.com so you can download a bitchin' new FREE compilation supporting bands that put the outlaw in country music. Punk rock doesn't exist as its a fading memory of rebellion but where true DIY ethos and shit kickin' are getting done is in real country music. Shooter Jennings has given Hellbound Glory a lot of radio play over on the Outlaw Country channel via Sirius/XM satellite radio. Now we need to get more play from Jay Berndt, Ronnie Hymes, Joe Buck and one of our newest bands about to come on board with Rusty Knuckles, Southbound Turnaround, featuring Scotty from Crank County Daredevils. Please help to support a genre which has a hard time being heard on traditional FM Radio due to the corporate machine of NashVegas dictating radio play of stations nation wide.

GiveMeMyXXX.com and Black Country Rock are proud to present 'Southern Independent, Vol. 1' the first official XXX compilation, absolutely FREE. All you have to do is register an account with us and download the compressed archive file to your hard drive, and crank it up!"

'Southern Independent, Vol. 1'

1. Road to Hattiesburg / Robert Earl Reed

2. Southern Family Anthem / Shooter Jennings

3. Introducing Drake Savage / Slackeye Slim

4. Carolina Sunshine / Dallas Moore featuring Jody Payne

5. City of Shame / Rachel Brooke

6. Skateland Baby / Jimbo Mathus

7. The Fall / Fifth On The Floor

8. Guilty Until Proven Innocent / Last False Hope

9. Road Bound / Bob Wayne

10. I'm Bitter / J.B. Beverley and Ronnie Hymes

11. Used To Be A Cop / Drive-By Truckers

12. Rusted Up Old Pickup Trucks / Hellbound Glory

Hellbound Glory and Jay Berndt Reviews Over At VTwin Biker Dot Com

One life lesson I learned from my folks is that life is all about who ya know, not what ya know. Constantly being on the road with bands and bikes allows me to meet folks far and wide and forever have stories to share over a beer. That is my kind of livin' and I truly enjoy meeting new folks and talkin' on the randomness, that can be life. Over this past weekend at the infamous Heavy Rebel Weekender, conversations went from talkin' on Knuckle and Pan motors with some great folks from southern Maryland, what makes outlaw country the only punk rock in our current existence, an old '51 Chevy truck we are going to be purchasing for a shop truck build from Mopar Rob and many many more conversations over cold PBR.

After a recent trip we did down to St. Petersburg, Florida for the big Dime City Cycles party I got to chat with Doug Barber, aka Qball on all sorts of topics. Qball was passin' along stories of biker gypsies, outlaw clubs, road side fixes, photography and livin' a true biker lifestyle that this gray beard in the makin' can without a doubt appreciate. After he clued me in on his music preferences I had two cd's just waiting for him to check out and enjoy. Glad to see he is diggin' them and posted them up for review.

Also, if you haven't heard or seen his photography book Livin The Life, we know of a great purchase you are about to make. Take it from us, this book is hands down an amazing collection of photos that bring to the light the greasy souls that are American bikers that live on the fringe.  Buy it today and help support one amazing photographer with years worth of stories and good times. Lookin' forward to seein' ya on the road sometime soon Qball.

Review of Hellbound Glory and Jay Berndt on VtwinBiker.com

"When your on the road there is always certain folks you look forward to seeing, and Rusty Knuckles is one of them. He is not only a talented graphic designer, he is also a genuinely stand up kind of guy. It’s no wonder he has such a talented crew of musicians under his label. The last time I saw him was in Florida, and was telling him how much I liked raw country and the new rock a Billy music. Mind you he has several bands he manages ranging from country through heavy metal, all of them with a twist, some mixing the best of country and heavy metal cranked up rock a Billy, blow the ink right of your skin music.

He gave me two disks and I said I’d do a review.

Hellbound Glory at first sounds like the honky-tonk music my daddy use to drink to. But the lyrics are of modern day’s trials and tribulations being numbed the same way daddy did. Actually not much seems to have changed. What makes the lyrics special is the rye sense of “Fuck It” humor that runs like a cold beer down your throat. I found myself laughing and crying at the same time while drinking heavily the whole time. Shit, I would have had this review done sooner, if it weren’t for the drinking. From the first note till the end, I felt right at home with this music. It’s a classic, and a new favorite. Better have plenty of cold beer and a dry bandanna.

Jay Berndt, “Sad Bastard Songs”. First off Jay Berndt has a commanding voice that would keep you listening regardless of the song. His music is all American Country and Western, and spans it all. The first cut “Sad Bastard Theme” radiates it’s Celtic heritage, while the rest of the CD high lights country blues, western, and country rock. The CD is a great mix of all that I like in Country & Western music, and Jay’s voice drove it all home."

- Doug Barber aka Qball 

Hank Williams Records by RustyKnuckles

Jay Berndt - Lonesome On'ry and Mean by RustyKnuckles

Rebellion Is In Our Blood

As Americans, rebellion is in our blood and it seems that many have forgotten how we as a country came to be and why we used to be respected in the world. In our current times, we lack the drive and motivation, as a whole and are consistently divided by politics driven towards financial greed. On a day such as fourth of July, step back and reflect on what made this country strong and realize we can still change and make things better once again. Thanks to all our troops that have served the country and offer their lives for the greater good and thanks to our founding fathers for being a rowdy bunch of hellraiser's who understood how to stick it to the man. Photo by Joe of Desktop Girls.