Japanese Buffet

HighSchool needed some CB 550 parts for a project he has, so we went to the only place they'd be readily available. It's been years since I stepped foot out there. Looks like I remembered, except for the cool old Dodge boogie van being eaten up by mother nature.

Friggin Heck Yea!

Have a great weekend!!

Pandemonium

Cool Pan chopper on TX Craigslist. I like that he has a pic of it at a show with the name plate below. Truly a cool bike someone will end up owning.

Bama Swap

Moon, HighSchool (Robby), Mike, and myself left Birmingham around 4:45 on Friday to head out to Section, AL. HighSchool slapped together his new version of his 750 over just a couple days and tagged along last minute, so we were expecting maybe some hang ups on the way out.. Trussville traffic sucks at 5:00, but after that hwy 11 opens up to a road that doesn't look like it belongs just a few miles north of Birmingham, it is really one of my favorite stretches of road to ride. Not long, we pulled off to track down Mike, his shovel had lost all tension in his clutch lever. We adjusted it at the hub and all good. Only a few more miles and he was signaling to me again... No clutch. We pulled off with just an hour or so of daylight left and found that he broke a woodruff key, hub was just falling off... Luckily JP was coming out later to Ricks swap anyway in his van, I talked him into getting my truck keys from my wife and passing through us. We hung with Mike until they arrived, and with it getting colder by the minute, we hauled ass the rest of the 76 miles we had left to go. riding through Fort Payne at 10:30, we saw all the drag cars leaving on trailers, indicating the racing was done for the night. But once we pulled in, said hello's to all of the standard bama swap crew we always see there, we warmed up and fizzled out to our sleeping quarters. The swap had some good stuff, and the weather shaped up to be clear and sunny. The ride back Saturday was a good one, just the three of us since Mike opted to repair his bike back in town. Highschool lost power about halfway home, but thankfully I still had a battery in my bike just for lights. I gifted it to him and let my Mag get me home. Sunburnt, and a little less money in my pocket, we had a good weekend. Moon rode his EXTREMELY nice panhead for the first time on a long journey and it handled it. Setup to go fast and straight. Till next time!

WWhhhhhoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week has been rough.... See ya on the other side!

Levon Helm

Never have I had a bigger influence on my life at the time. My friend Colby put on the Last Waltz one night around 2006 and I stayed glued to the screen. Never seeing "The Band" before, from there I dove DEEP. Such a group of characters. All had their own unique personality that contributed to the group, and all played multiple instruments and sang. Before the days of butt country and pretty faces getting handed pre written songs to try and sing and perform with emotion that never exist in the first place, The Band and others alike were creating and giving birth to real music that came from somewhere you cannot imitate with pyro affects and auto tune. Don't get me wrong, that stuff has it's place in today's world, but not with all american bad asses like Levon Helm on the stage. The material on these guys is plentiful, so I suggest you give it a listen, maybe watch some interviews. No "one hit singles", or "that one albulm". Everything they put out was great in my opinion. they even managed to sprinkle in on multiple big albums with other greats. Neil Young's "On the beach", yea they are in the background playing and singing. Anyways, give it a whirl, you wont be disappointing. Levon Helm passed away 6 years ago today, and is one of the only people I wept for whom I didn't even know personally. Although, My dad, myself, and my buddy Nick did manage to drive up to Woodstock / Saugerties New York one fall in 2010 and see him play at his home during one of his Midnight Rambles. Nick and myself were standing above on his balcony watching and noticed his early wood rimmed Gretch drum kit just casually stacked in the corner with cobwebs. The one so many pictures of him playing in the Pink House where The Band and Bob Dylan recorded the Basement Tapes and many others. I'll never forget shaking his hand and saying hello after the show. I could keep this up, but you get the idea. I'm a super fan of The Band, and hate that they are no more... Levon Helm May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012

Cell phones....

They ruin everything. Especially the old store front of what used to be a happening Harley Dealer in Seneca, PA.. Wish we could roll back the clock

BAMA Swap & Drag

Coolest little swap meet in Alabama. Come support Ricks event and try to score a couple goodies. See yall Saturday

Biker

Raymond Horne - "1952 Panhead I built around 1979. It was photographed the next year in Sturgis and made the Biker Lifestyle Magazine centerfold. Brother Benny painted the bike with Emron. My style of bike. Built many of these back in the day."

Photo says it all.

This photo rips raw emotion out of me. As we all get older, friends and loved ones drift apart. Whether they move away and lose contact, or life gets cut short and they are removed from us and enjoying the view from a higher realm. Photos have a way of talking sometimes, especially this one. I don't recall if this is from The Haints archives, or which blog it had been posted, but it's a good one to re - visit.

Larry and Matt locked up. Two great guys that were taken from us too soon. RIP compadre's..

Spring Break

Allison and I went down to PCB this weekend to visit my folks. The beach was infested with Salt Lyfers, so we stayed in town.

Stopped by Rob Jobs tree fort before leaving. Un Disclosed location

Start em young. My nephew is crazy about trucks, trying to turn him on to mopeds too.

Giddy Up

Left town early Thursday morning en route to Austin, TX. The drive was long, but leaving before the sun comes up always make a trip shorter for me. Met with Ryan and the others from Vice Grip at his house just before Lopez pulled up and hauled us off to Little Darlin for the pre pre party. With the significantly smaller crew of out of town friends this year, the ride Friday morning towards New Braunfels was very easy going. Myself being the only Alabamaian, Forrest and Brett from Denver, as well as a handful of new friends from CA, MO, and TX, all headed to "Salt Lick" which has an ancient smoker they slay BBQ on. Ate and relaxed a while, then rode the party over to Riley's which is a perfect bar in the hills that's been serving cold beer since 1933. We took turns embarrassing each other on the pool table, took hostage of the juke box, and drank some cold ones. from there, the campsite in New Braunfels was home for the next couple days. Show the next day was great, tons of new and old faces, with loads of amazing bikes. We split off and swam near camp to break up the extensive day since some of our bikes were stuck in the show for the entire day. After they gave away the raffle bike, we all hauled ass to camp and hung out till we simply couldn't anymore. Rather than rushing back to Austin and having to load my bike and then start the long trip home, I stayed and extra night with Lopez. We took our sweet ass time getting back to Austin, stopping to soak up the day at cool little stops here and there, BBQ'd at Lopez house and relaxed on our Easter Sunday, went to bed, and all went our separate ways home by morning. I hate we had so many missing faces this year, my crew of friends especially, but the solo trip was a little more intimate and relaxing for me. Happy to be home now, and happy I drove out to TX for this one. See ya next year!

Loaded Up. Truck was little lighter with just my bike. Made the trip a little easier this go around