Next week: sparkly new Purple Peter Eater and Root Beer helmets and another batch of seat hinges too.

...to Long Beach that is. We'll be in the usual spot over by Wes on the North fence. Helmets and some deals on 7/8" bars, as well as a Buell front end and a few choice parts from our personal stashes. See you then.

This is pretty much in our backyard, so you locals who have been looking for something to do, strap some wood to the sissy bar and get your ass to Ramona. It's put on by solid people and we'll be there supporting them.

So, me and Mom have made two vinyl covers for the cut down stock seat pan on my '98 Sportster. They did the job fine but the vinyl just didn't hold up to the abuse. Getting a pro like Duane Ballard to cover a seat was completely off my radar since I'm such a cheap bastard. After tearing up the second seat, I figured it was time to do it right. Duane is probably best known for his intricate tooling on solo seats and bags used on real professional-built customs so I wasn't even sure he'd want to do some lowly sporty seat, but he was into it and I'm stoked! He used the pan I had cut down previously, but massaged my half-assed foam work into a symmetrical shape and covered it in soft calf-skin with white contrast stitching. Look Ma, no more wrinkles! Or cheesy staples. Proof that the DB can do just about anything. You can bet I'll be popping this sucker on the bike first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks, Duane!

*For those of you who have been asking, we are still working on a finished, bolt-on seat like this, but it'll be a while. We're developing a new hidden-hardware way to attach it and molding our own custom pan and foam so it's a long process.

Check out Michael from Upland, CA's '02 Triumph Bonneville. It's the first modern Bonne I've seen with a Biltwell Solo Seat and it looks pretty sweet.



Also, representing San Dog, our buddy Oscar finally sent some pics of his Shovelhead "La Malinche" he bought from Scotty up in Sacto last year. He won some trophy with it a couple weekends ago and won't quit rubbing it in Fredo's face. Probably won because of those sweet Biltwell exhaust tips and the custom 2-into-1 exhaust he built from the kit. Big O is our official riser-tester with those ridiculous apes of his. If we can get a set to hold those tight, they'll work great on sensible bars...

Thanks for the pics guys.

-Bill

Jeremy put our struts and solo seat on his sporty and along with some other changes really made a difference to his bike. Nice rear fender and light combo too.

Thanks for the pics Jeremy!

Local Leather guy Chip Purkey covered one of our pan and foam kits for a customers bike last week. Chip is a great guy and has years of experience if you can't tell from the pics. Thanks Chip!

Brooks Manbeck and friends make do in Big Bear.

Last night SD dogs Oscar and Fredo, Boozefighter Josh, Four Aces Wes and Jeff from the SFV camped out with Chris, Bill and I at the 33rd and possibly last El Camino Swap Meet & Motorcycle Show in Torrance, CA. Sales were brisk, and it was a watershed year for cool motorcycles. Jeff scrounged up a basketcase Knuckle project with original frame, decent cases, complete top end and four milk crates full of extra bits for a song, and the rest of us spent every dime we earned selling our old rusty shit for a new supply of old rusty shit. Word on the streets is Topping Events will be taking over the ECSM next year, so this great fall tradition might live on. Thanks to Oscar for bringing The Captain and to everyone else for visiting our booth.



When vintage parts and classic customs span the tarmac as far as the eye can see, you need a hook to attract customers. This was my favorite show stopper: a psychotic Siamese twin riding shotgun on a handsome miniature stallion. It reminded me of a husband-and-wife combo I saw on a 104th Anniversary™ H-D Electrocardioglide® on the 91 east last week.



Heikki Mikkola didn't make an appearance at the swap this weekend, but his motorcycle was there.



Where do you sit? I don't know, so please don't ask. Sit wrong, however, and you might end up with your scrotum in a velocity stack.



When the sun went down, Capt. Morgan waved his sword. That's Bill talking cigars with Oscar and Fredo.



I'm green, so I had to ask Wes White what BSA stands for. He told me, "Broke Something Again." I love British humor…

We are selling all of our 7/8" handle bars left in stock and ending production on all 7/8" models. Check our "Where to Buy" section up top in the right hand corner and get ahold of Lick's or Four Aces to get a set while they last. Keystones are already gone so get one of the last pairs of our Aces, Friscos or Clubmans in 7/8".

*We are still making all our models in 1" and those are available too for regular MSRP through any of our dealers as well.

Who doesn't need a Precision Engineered Permanent Accessory?

I hate to wax nostalgic this early in the morning, but damn look how fun it can be to ride wheelies bare foot! Nowadays a company would be sued by the Nannys of America in a heartbeat for promoting something as blatantly life-threatening as that...

Today Chris and I shot old Mr. Potato Pan for the new Biltwell brochure.

What is it with all of the Sporties these days? I'll tell you what it is, there were about a bazillion of 'em made and lots of them ended up under wives and beginner riders who put more chrome trinkets on them than hard miles. So what this leaves is a glut of low-mileage, undervalued bikes on craigslist for people like us to poach and then make our own. Thanks, Mom! McGoo picked one up a year or two ago that some tweaker bought his old lady and she never got into riding it. Ten years old and under a thousand miles on the clock, a perfect donor. Sure it's no Knucklehead, but for the price and reliability it's a pretty hard to beat package. Add in a little aftermarket support like some good weld-on hard tails, Flyrite's Smokin' Gun frame or even some of our junk bolted on a stocker and you've got something worth riding.

Here's a couple pics of Frisco bars on Jason's '99 XL. In his own words; "The only mod I hade to make was to to file a little hole on the perch where the perch and the control housing meet. It took all of about 10 seconds to do." he didn't have to replace all the cables, wires, etc and kept his original controls. The Friscos line up nicely with the Narrow Glide legs, or try narrowing a pair like I did on my old Triumph.

We'll see you at my Alma Matter, El Camino College in Torrance on Saturday. We'll have the usual rusty junk, helmets, some smokin' deals on discontinued 7/8" bars, and anything else we can cram in the van.

I like this swap because there seems to be more old dudes with good stuff who don't go to Long Beach and lots more complete bikes for sale. Here's some pics from last year.

-Bill

I wanted to hate it. I loathe pretty much everything on TV, but I was a sucker for the Sopranos the first couple years and The Shield was good 'till I lost interest. Now I have a new night time Soap Opera. That's right, Sons of Anarchy on FX. There, I said it outloud. It's Todd from Iron Horse Magazine's fault, I blame him. It really has zero motorcycle culture and not a single interesting bike in three episodes but I always had a thing for Peg Bundy. I sure hope it doesn't make people who think they are tough because they bought a motorcycle think they are even tougher after watching it...

Shamefully yours,
Bill

Jarod Baas from Lancaster, Ohio sent these pics of our chrome Keystone bars on his bike. He scotch brited pretty much everything he said and it looks great! Thanks for the pics.

Wes White has lost his damn mind. Complete with tricep-warmers. Love it.

New ad on Knucklebuster Inc.

Finally got some time this morning to tear into the Sportster. Seems a few rough roads took their toll on the stock rubber isolator mounts for the oil bag and battery tray. This shorted out one wire that got caught under the tray and the vibration wasted the battery. A couple new mounts from McGoo's parts bin, a new battery, a nice bath, and it's back on the road. Also, got some cool new bars from Boylecomm to try out. They are real low and I narrowed them a little more. Kinda has that drag bike feel with more style than just a broomstick. The best news is that I tore the seat up a little bit so instead of doing another home-made job, it's going to Duane Ballard for a real seat cover. I've seen wallets, bags and a bunch of solo seats from DB, but never a seat like this so I'm pretty stoked to see what he cooks up. In the mean time I rode it around with no seat and after last week, it actually doesn't seem that bad...

-Bill

It's on eBay and you should buy it and let me ride it!

We get questioned once in a while on why we don't sell helmets with pre-applied graphics. This is why. Look what the Blue Moon Kustoms guys did in a couple days with stock silver Biltwell lids! Support your local sprayer/line slinger!

Sweet truckers with a sewn-on patch, not just that cheesy iron-on crap.
Now available in the merch store!

Ground Zero Throwdown 3.0 from Biltwell Inc. on Vimeo.

Who said choppers can't ride a little dirt? This was fun. Please excuse my amateur video editing. Thanks to Josh for letting me ruin his camera mounting it to my bars for a while...

Join us and our friends Wes from Four Aces and Duane at DB Custom Leather at the Rumble in Ramona October 17-18, 2008. We'll be doling out random free crap at the Biltwell booth and selling helmets, parts and t-shirts to pay for gas and rent. The crew from Creature knows how to party, so the Rumble in Ramona should be a good time. Hey Holly—thanks for letting us pig off your jam. 

Get out and do stuff, support your local scene, ride and have fun! Here is a few of the upcoming events we are going to try to ride out too. Some close and some not too far and all worth doing.
Check back cause we will add more as we come across them.

El Camino Swap Sept. 20


In The Wind Sept. 21


Cycle Zombies Sept. 27


Long Beach Swap Sept 28, Oct. 26, Nov. 23, Dec. 7


Foundry Oct. 2-3


Oct. 17-18


DICE!!! Nov. 15

Chris.


Joel.


Erik.


Me.


Josh.

We called it the Wrong Way because it wasn't the most straightforward route. The idea was solid and it worked out great. We took as much of old Route 66 and other two-lane highways all the way to Lake Abiquiu, about 100 miles north of Albequerque, New Mexico. It was a little over 900 miles to get there, and less than 50 of that on highway 40. We hopped on the freeways for the ride back. Thanks to Joel to for planning the route out. Coach rode with us out to the lake and then headed south to El Paso to deliver the Sporty he was riding. Here's the basic breakdown:


Tuesday night, Temecula to Joshua Tree campground.


Wednesday, Joshua Tree to Flagstaff KOA campground.


Thursday, Flagstaff to some damn where on an Indian reservation. Camped in dirt lot next to gas station.


Friday, somewhere east of Crown Point to the Lake.


Saturday, Lake Abiquiu to Albuquerque.

Sunday, Albuquerque to Kingman.

Monday, Kingman to Home.

I have to say, my bike did remarkably well. The only thing that fell off on the first leg was a water bottle. On the way out of Albuquerque it started to cut out over rough surfaces on the freeway. A little inspection under an overpass revealed the battery box/oil tank mount was broken. We strapped it up with a ratchet tie-down and tightened up the loose wire on the positive side. A quick fix that got us down the road. Then in the hottest part of the day after changing Chris' tire out to that dirt bike 21" knobbie back in Blythe, the El Cheapo just shut off. A road-side inspection showed that power was getting to the coil and the ignition module. No way to test how much, but the headlight and tailight came on so I figured the battery was OK. (I later turned just the tailight on and the battery completely ran out of juice in about two minutes.) I pushed it across the I-10 at the request of Captian Obvious from the CHP ("not a good place or time of day to break down you know...") and called AAA. A new battery was about 60 miles in either direction (if I could find one on a Monday) and at the time I thought it was the ignition module giving out from the heat anyway. I made contact with AAA and Joel and Chris motored on down the road. I had some water, a couple cigars and a new issue of Cycle World and a little whisky left. I strung up the old poncho and made a hooch to get out of the sun. About an hour into this mini vacation the weather I had been watching on the western front moved in. Sweet! It was well over 100 out so some light rain cooled things down and the lightning was a great show. It also allowed me to drain water from the hood of the poncho and completely top off my water bottle. Survivor man on the damn freeway! What the hell is this world coming to when grown men are camping on the side of a major freeway for three hours and not a soul stops? I didn't really need anything, but I still expected a good samaritan or two. The light rain gave way to a rather wild downpour complete with enough wind to break one of the bungees and wreck my so far dry lean-to. I disassembled the rest of it, tied everything to my backpack so it wouldn't blow away and just sat it out wearing the poncho. A while later the AAA dude finally pulled up, we loaded that bike right as the trailing edge of the storm blew past. McGoo met me with the team van in Indio and I drove home looking like a drowned rat. Awesome good times! Thanks Trent for giving us such a good excuse to ride and to the guys I went with, thanks for the patience and your tenacity, this was not an easy ride by any standards but it sure was a great time.

There are a little over 100 photos on the flickr page and I'm working on stitching some riding video together that shows Trent riding the Knuck in the woods.

What next?


The Hooch; before


After...

Here's a pic or two of Trent's '38 EL. He told me that he had about ten minutes worth of shakedown on it before he took the trip to Lake Abiquiu last Friday night. Even more incredulous is the trip back to Albequerque the next day included about 13 miles of dirt road and 100 or so miles of full-speed twisties and freeway running. The compact Knuck ran like a swiss watch the whole time and Trent didn't baby it on the dirt, that's for sure. The choice for the seat bracket on this trim little machine? You guessed it.

Here is some pics of a new Nightster with some of our Frisco handlebars on it. I am glad to see guys that are buying new bikes starting to do some customizing of their own. Bars are usually one of the first things to be changed to help make a bike your own along with exhaust and seats and struts. These are the beginnings and maybe the basics to learning more about your bike and teach you a little about not being scared to do things on your own and relying less on a shop. These are all things one can do in minutes to an afternoon and really change the look and feel of your bike.

Shane is a friend of ours over at Sucker Punch Sally's in AZ. He sent us pics today of his bike with our clubman handlebars on it and they look great and so does the bike. Thanks for the pics Shane!

Our good friend (and 3 time EDR runner) Keith rode out with us the first night of our road trip to Ground Zero and had to head back the next morning for work. We all camped in Joshua Tree the first night and Keith documented his part here on his website. For not being able to go on the trip Keith sure took full advantage of what time he could spare. Coolest thing I've seen in awhile, Thanks Keith!

Totally Rad trip! Joel as always looks at home on the road and someone you can count on for just about anything. Coffee anyone? Eric shows up and makes the trip that much better. Has his head on straight and gets it more than most for sure! I know he'll be doing everything he does for the right reasons, riding, tattooing and livin life! These trips are great for meeting new friends and Coach and Josh are those guys. Stand up guys that hopefully we will do plenty of rides with in the future. Josh's Triumph even won a trophy at the event! Everyone was throwing in a helping hand whenever needed and without any kind of a chase truck for 2000 miles these guys were willing to ride with some older and hand built bikes. We all made it home in one piece and I got a new tire. Don't worry it will be swapped out for a more road worthy model soon. Found it at dirt bike shop about 300 miles out yesterday and it was all they had and my tire was delaminating. Ground Zero was a blast as we knew it would be. Trent and Noel wouldn't throw down anything less and hanging out with them, George and Wendy, Gabe, and riding through some epic scenery and campgrounds was worth its weight in gold. Thanks!

-Chris

Electrical short resulting from a broken battery/oil tank mount. Some rough roads out there! Fixed in ten minutes, only to rear it's ugly head as a wasted battery about 150 miles from home... More on that later. Man, I have to get email set up on my iphone so I can blog photos of Chris working on his bike on the side of the road!

If you are ever in the area stop by this shop. This is just one of
many of there stashes of great stuff. This is one of those great shops
that has stuff in stock for you older model bikes.

On the way to lake Abiquique or something. Super Rad you feel like
your nowhere!

See ya at Ground Zero in Albuquerque NM