If you’ve never been to Easyrider you have no excuse.  Seriously.  It’s not like Sturgis or  Daytona that might be half way across the country. It’s a traveling show that comes to you.  You and about 10 million other bikers. It goes to

Pamona, CA
Vancouver, WA
Sacramento, CA
Charlotte, NC
Memphis, TN
Dallas, TX
Columbus, OH

The closest one to the shop is Sacramento.  This year we brought our machine shop with us. 

Dave Bozzie does all of our machine work.  You may have heard of him, his bagger is putting out 130 HP and nearly set a record at the Bonneville Salt flat last year.  This year will be his year for sure.  Right now were putting together these Monster 124 Motors putting out 140HP to the rear wheel using his heads and cylinders. Check out the website for more info but we also have a mail in program where you can mail me your motor, I’ll build it and mail it back

We set up a booth and we bring some bikes to the show.

This year we brought 4 bikes with us. 

Unchained, a House of Color candy apple red hardtail. We started with a Santee chassis and some spoke wheels and we finished it off with a Steve Fernandes flame and skull paint job. 

The Purple Fire Breathing Dragon Chopper.  Aside from being a custom from the ground up chopper, the cool thing is its 100% powder coating.  There is no paint in this bike anywhere.  The frame is powder coated, the tins are powder coated, the graphics are powder coated and the whole thing has been ceramic powder coated in clear.  Throw in a Danny Gray custom seat, Ness fly-hi bars, Wire plus speedo/ tach combo and a completely hidden Legends air ride system

Super Chop, a sic custom on a Simms chopper chassis with a Patrick Billet Racing motor.  It has PM upper and lower controls with PM wheels and brakes. At only $26k I’m surprised I brought this beauty home.

Gifted, a little 67 Triumph bobber we put together with an eclectic group of parts that were mostly gifts from some of my supportive clients. ‘81 Sporty front end, ’94 Dyna front wheel, ’98 softail front brake and controls, ’02 Indian riders, Sporty rear wheel, shrunken head shifter, Hurst shifter kickstand, kitchen sink fuel petcock, all copper lines and lots of other little goodies.

This year, much like every other, there were some pretty amazing bikes that showed up.  The skill, craftsmanship and passion that went into building each of these machines were proudly displayed for your viewing pleasure.

One thing that is a lot different this year is the music. They’ve had some great bands play the Easyrider show.  The Fried Brothers played last year, the Charlie Brechtel Band the year before and a few others that have made it enjoyable while your peddling your wares and looking at bikes but this year was considerably different.  This year they took a band on tour with them and I’ve never seen one person have so much impact. Let’s go back, somebody discovered this band that is lead by this little girl, who is one of the most amazing singers you will ever hear. You don’t have to be a rocker, you don’t have to be into girl bands you just have to hear her.  This woman is absolutely fuckin’ incredible. Her name is Jasmine Cane. I’m not normally a big fan of cover bands because nothing beats an original but I’ve never seen any person take a song and put their own spin on it and make it even better.  I’m not talking about a couple of covers. She covered Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osborne, White Zombie, Tesla and it was absolutely fuckin’ incredible. She didn’t try to compete with her covers. 

It’s too hard to copy Ozzie in Crazy Train or for anyone to try and copy Robert Plant. So what does she do? She made it her own!  She fuckin sold it! It sounded like Led Zeppelin hired Janis Joplin as their new front man (so to speak) No I’m not saying they are a cover band.  I’m not saying that at all.  I’m saying the cover songs were out of this world! She actually has two CDs full of her own original music and they both ROCK!  Of course I bought um! I was mesmerized! If this little girl can get the right backing and the right funds behind her, holy shit fuck!  Ok, ok, I’m gonna make a huge statement right now,. I’m gonna say she’s going to be the next Janice Joplin. She is that fucking good. For any reason if your thinking you got it going on and you’ve been to Easyrider for your 13 year in a row and maybe your not make it this year,  you know what forget about it. Get on your bike, get to the run and if for no other reason then to check out this girl’s music, it is absolutely fuckin’ incredible.  Easyrider discovered that she is so incredible that they are going to take her to every single Easyrider tour stop this year. One band, every show.  It was like being at an incredible rock concert for the vendors. As a vendor your kinda pinned down to your booth and having that music the back ground loud and proud was just absolutely fuckin’ amazing. Check it out for yourself. Jasmine Cain. Yep, this could be love!

There were some huge featured builders in attendance as usual.  Nasi, Rucker, Carolina Customs, just to name a few. What I want to have you pay close attention to is the smaller builders that had some absolutely, top notch incredible bikes that you will to see to believe. A short list of those names are Scott Long of Central Coast Choppers, Kurt Taylor of Custom Design Studios, Jeff Nickells of Nickells Customs and JP of My Evil Twin Choppers.  

There was an amazing collection of bikes built in garages and shops, all built by people with the same passion for motorcycles that we have.
You’ll see some crazy bobbers, some crazy choppers, some crazy fabrication and some insane paint. Everyone with a bike in this show deserves some special props but I’ll only be able to cover a few with you here. 

Scott Long took 1st place in the specialty class with another of his amazing bobbers.

I was excited to take 2nd place in that same class with our ’67 Triumph bobber that we put together this past year.
Pauline gave it a name.  “Gifted” because of all the parts my customers gave me to add to the project.

Jeff Nickells took 1st in the radical class and 1st place in the pro class.  Jeff has taken first place in the radical class for the past three years in a row. And I’m not mistaken he has taken best in show for the past 2 years.  That’s a pretty fuckin’ incredible accomplishment and if you haven’t seen any of his bikes before than you need to crawl out from under a rock and check some of this shit out, it’s pretty fuckin’ hard to believe.

Kirk Taylor took the Best of Show Award for Blood on Blood.  A sweet little chopper he built this year.

When Easyrider comes to your neighborhood, go for the bikes, go for the builders, go for the music, go see the bikes you’ll be reading about in the magazines this year, go met the guys you’ll see on TV this year, but whatever you do,….. just go!

Links:

JP- My Evil Twin Choppers
www.myeviltwinchoppers.com
www.myspace.com/myeviltwinchoppers

Scott Long- Central Coast Cycles
www.centralcoastcycles.com
www.myspace.com/centralcoastcycles

Kirk Taylor- Custom Design Studios
www.customdesignstudios.com

Jeff Nickells- Nickells Customs
www.nickellscustoms.com

Jasmine Cain
www.jasminecain.com
www.myspace.com/jasminecain