12/30/09

year end wrap up


Well 2009 is just about over, we had fun, but it would have been a hell of alot more fun if it didn't rain all summer. The rain was so nasty and unpredictable I started carrying heavy duty fisherman style rain gear in a back pack every time I rode. There seemed to be alot of good shit going on this summer, every week there was a car/bike show, garage parties, backyard bbq, swapmeet, or a good band to catch, but heavy driving rain was almost a sure thing. On top of the weather I think someone put a voodoo curse on the butcher shop, the whole crew seemed to suffer physical or mechanical failure. Nick didn't ride his hard startin shovel much and rather tear around in his hot rod pickup, but we talked him into going to a big bike show that we disrupt every summer, after taking 2nd place he got pulled over for speeding, got written up for no license no reg and watched the bike get hauled away on a flatbed. Eddie couldn't understand why Nicks bike started so hard and bored one day figured he would work the bugs out, jumping down on the kicker it slipped past, he blew his knee out bad and was out of commission for weeks. Bryan blew the motor in the dirty girl (did you know that oil makes all the shiny expensive stuff in your motor last longer).Dennis bought one of those fancy evo powered bikes and after a month of brutal torture melted a hole in one of the pistons. For me and the trouble head it was a cat and mouse game all summer, run great one day, can't get it started the next, leave the house runnin good, 2 miles away it takes a shit and I limp it home on one cylinder! Adjust the pushrods, set the timing, new coil, plugs, wires, points, condenser, battery, cleaned the carb and changed the intake o-rings, just when I thought I had it a short ride would have me pissed off again. I had enough and let Henry at Rat Racing deal with it, he rechecked my work and finally found a bad lifter, the roller would stay true for a while keeping the valve adjustment then get goofy making the motor run all over the place. Stupid problem simple solution and I was pulling my hair out with this one. Now its CJs turn, he wins because he broke his bike and his body. Leaving a party on one of the steepest hills in Fall River he glazed over the rear drum brake, with no front brake and a hand shift bike he had his hands full! Between parked cars over the curb and into the woods, he got pretty banged up, ruined both wheels and a cool little friscoed peanut tank. So there it is 2009 in a nut shell, despite the bumps along the way there where some killer times, Choppaheads vol. 3 party, Santoros 4th of july carnival, 1st annual Butcher Shop bbq, LB/HF party at Jims, Sin Alley Saints car show, a pile of other drunken rowdy times, and if you want to finish the year in style I'll see you at Elhazroks tomorrow !

12/25/09

Spoiler Alert!!



I cant hold back. Here is a pic of the wooden bike before Nick and I tore it down. Soon (i hope) we'll get the frame back all wood grained up.

It should be a lot crazier once we get the stuff back from the wood grainers and get the bike put back together. For now, use your imagination.

12/15/09

i need to get out here and work


well i haven't posted in a while so i went looking for a picture, this one is about a year old and i'm sorry to say not a whole lot has changed. my dads blue framed panhead is still not done, and I still haven't started last years "winter project", on a better note my rugrat has graduated from the three-wheeler to a dirt bike, my shovel looks totally different, and Eddies gold ironhead isn't sleeping over at my place anymore. winter is here, time to fire up the wood stove and hibernate in the garage

10/7/09

FREE FUCKING SHOW!!


It's at Club Hell. And it's free. And it's a Friday night. And we're opening for the Casualties. So you have no excuse. See you there.


9/22/09

Bryan's NEW plate!

So this thing is hot off the presses so to speak. If you can believe it, that was HAND PAINTED by his girl on cardboard. From 10ft away the damn thing looks real! Now if he gets pulled over with that thing, i'm sure he'll wind up in jail, making real licence plates for a while, but shit, that plate looks good! And it was cheaper than paying to register it. Watch the Choppahead DVD Vol3 to hear the whole story about his refusal to play by the rules.



And in other news, our newest apprentice Shawn (not the legitimate retarded guy) picked up this heap last week for $1000. I got it in the shop so i could rewire it, and take care of some little stuff. Look for it next summer, as i'm sure we'll be busy over the winter teaching him how to chop it. Point is, if you look hard enough, you can still find good deals on these Ironheads in rough shape. Who cares though, most of it is getting thrown out anyway.

And last but not least, I have been trying to keep the "wooden bike" under wraps, so thats why there have been so many sneaky obscure pics i have been putting up. I promise an indepth photo spread with topless chicks or something when it's all done. Anyway, this photo shows the Honda dirtbike kickstand from the 70's Nick and I put on the WRONG SIDE of the bike. It will be bitchin when the whole thing is done, because the bike will lean to the other side when it's lined up with other scooters. I had to put that handle thing on it because it's mounted so far back on the frame that you'd probably never be able to find it, especially hammered. So thats all for now, and like I been saying, we're really putting this thing together fast, so check back often.

9/8/09

what i have been doing in the shop

It seems like since the day we put it together, Nick has had problems with the tank on his Shovelhead. The tins leaked and ruined the paint job. Every tank we put on since has leaked. Right now it's sitting in the shop with a gay burgandy sportster tank on it.
For a long time now I have wanted to make a super narrow peanut tank. When i started making this one i figured i'd do it, just for practice. So that way if anyone asked us to make one, there would already be at least one under our belt. I started with a King Sportster tank and cut about 6 inches out of the middle. It ends up being about 2 1/2 maybe 3 inches narrower than a stock sporty tank. If you got one on your bike now, look down on it and imagine 3 inches missing from the middle. Point is it's small.
After Nick saw it he liked it and we figured we'd put it on his shovel.
Maybe this week i'll get around to making the bottom. we're going to use "hidden" mounts for the bottom. What I think is rad about this is that with a narrow-glide front end the tank is literally hidden when looking at it dead on. It's narrower than the fork tubes on the old sportster front ends!
So i'm stoked to actually see it done and on the bike.



I LOVE putting these teaser pics of the wooden bike up. i don't want to spoil the suprise by putting up pictures of it half done. But close ups of specific parts are ok.
What you're looking at here is the chain tensioner. I realized now, after a couple momths for whatever reason, the bottom side of the chain would whip and rub the frame on my bike. This bike and mine have the same frame/hardtail sterup. My frame is just spraypainted, no big deal, but this one is going to be woodgrained.
So i rigged this up. When we're ready to put this together for the last time, nick and i will get a nice hard skateboard wheel with speed metal bearings or something.
we're actually haulin ass on this build now, so check back here often.

8/26/09

BBQ Bonanza Extravaganza

The Party was HUGE. Thanx for everyone who came and donated money, bought a raffle ticket, brought a cool bike, helped out or bought a t-shirt. Next year should be even bigger.




here is a shot of the party. there were more bikes and hot rods round the back too
Butcher Shop bikes lined up directly out front


Sean Foley was there striping. He paints all the shit you see on our bikes (and my car)


Truth's (from Choppahead) FL


Dennis' Ironhead. He's got a hot-rodded evo now too.
Santoro's tank paint. the other side has La Tigre on it.


Ryan's sporty Sportster


JoJo's Knuck.
Henry and Harry
Harry's Pan-Shovel. He did this himself YEARS before this shit was on TV.
Niggs knocking over Derek's bike
Derek wheelied all the way home


8/15/09

Zoomies, Railroad Tramps and fake Rumble Seats

Even though it was last week, here are the pics from the Milltown Ink show up in Palmer, MA.

This first one is Nick driving his truck there. Notice new Zoomie pipes. LOUD





Bryan thought it would be funny to ride the rails. he's a hobo.






This set shows how my Chevy doesn't have an actual rumble seat. IF your riding back there, hold on! Notice Nick's Section 8 Mimosa.







8/3/09

caught on film




i got a phone call saying there where a couple pictures of me and the wife on choppers rule dot com. turns out its us waiting in traffic to get through the front gate of the smoke out back in 2006. my tense stare? i had been riding hand shift for two days(this being day two), with the shittyest clutch pedal angle and pivot location, what ever no excuses i'm the dummy that set it up.but it was the longest weekend of unintended tire chirpin and bike stalling ever! i'm still running this shovel motor but everything else has been changed including that stupid shifter.
remember there are cameras everywhere!

7/23/09

Butcher Shop current build...

So this is it. The Top Secret shit we've all been working on past couple months. Yes, it's wood grain. Don't ask what the coat is or how it's done, I can honestly say I don't know. The whole bike will be done wood. Frame, tins, everything.
.
Those are the legs Louie shaved down. He did that with a hacksaw and sandpaper by the way. Lou has WAY more patience than me, Nick or Bryan.


This is some shit I made the past couple days. I made the seat bracket, fish mounted the stanchions, then made the posts, Nick and I decided to use those hitch pins to hold the springs down instead of plain old nuts and bolts.



My favorite part so far is that we're using a skinny front size rim in the rear.


Here is the before and after of those legs Louie shaved down.



Nick cut down the cam cover before we sent the motor out to get rebuilt. really dig the cut down look too now thats it's all back together. I sat there for a LONG damn time with scotch-brite to all the covers and rocker boxes on the motor to get that brushed look.




There you go, watch this blog over the next few months, maybe i'll leak some more shit from the lab.

7/22/09


By poking around some more, I found another pic of my new favorite bike. I just wish I had thought this up first.

7/17/09

I think i'm in love

I found this pic out there in the blogosphere somewhere. i think that it said these bikes were in Venice, Italy or something. Anyway, that flatty in the middle is about the boss-est thing i've ever seen. We've always hated on those mag wheels, but powder coat them white, add some BMX handle bars and knobby tires and instant GT Performer repli-racer. I wish i could find more pics of this bicycle. i mean motorcycle.

7/16/09

Sin Alley Saints Car Show in Norton, MA

So even though it was weeks ago, here are some pics from when we went ot the Sin Alley Saints car show up in Norton, MA. It was a good time, we hid beer in the back of Dennis' car and drank outside. There were some cool cars, but it ended up fucking raining, which is typical around here lately. All the Pics are by Lisa Gourley.


here's Lou and Nick's old man Scott leaving.


Nick's Model A pickup




That's CJ's dog Frisco, check out that red rocket.

This is Dennis' 54 Ford. Soon it'll have a 5.0 from a Mustang


In the front of Dennis' car is Christian's Triumph from Choppahead


These Butcher Shop stickers are everywhere now.


here's a good shot of my stupid ass getting soaked on the ride home.




And one more thing, we were all at the Whaling City Festival car/bike show in New Bedford last Sunday. Nick's Shovelhead took 2nd place in it's class. Then on the ride home he got pulled over for speeding. And his bike got towed.

6/23/09

pics from Choppahead DVD Vol3 release party

petes bike


lou's bike






the lineup

kyles tank
kyle's bike

kyle's bike

F.R.P.D.


eddie's bike

eddie's bike

dennis' bike

CJ's tank

lettering by Sean Foley


in front of Club Hell. All pics by Lisa Gourley