The Power of the Riff 2011

Southern Lord will be holding another Power of the Riff festival this year.

Born Free 3 Part 1

Here are some pictures from Born Free 3. I arrived at the event a little past 10am. There were plenty of bikes already in the show area but not nearly as much as would be there in a few hours.

Fun Weekend

I had a pretty fun weekend. Lots of bikes, sun, booze and live music. Born Free 3 was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. Obviously, I didn't win the Knucklehead.
I was surprised at how many bikes were in the show area. I didn't get around to see the bikes in the other area.
Premonition 13 rocked; I was surprised more people didn't stick around to see them play. I'll definitely be picking up their album next month.
I took a fair amount of pictures but after a while I gave up. The show was overwhelming. It's funny that we see so many awesome bikes online but hardly ever see them on the street. I don't mean that people don't ride the bikes that they build/restore. It's just that with the internet, it's easy to forget that a very small percentage of people who ride, ride old and/or garage built bikes. That wasn't the case at Born Free. It was almost as if everyone on the planet had a Knuckle, Pan or Shovel!

Four Days And Counting Till Born Free 3

I'm definitely excited for this Saturday's Born Free event. I bought a couple of poster-ticket combos a month or so ago. I'm not holding my breath that I'll win the Knucklehead. While I'd love to win the bike (I'd REALLY love to own that bike) the reason I bought the posters-tickets was that I think it's important to support events like Born Free. I can only imagine how much effort goes into putting together an event of that size and scope. The idea behind Born Free is awesome. I'd love it if more events focused on amazing bikes and good times instead of focusing on selling chrome cup-holders.

I have a couple of friends flying in from France to attend Born Free. It's wild to think that people come from all over the world to see all the bikes at Born Free.

Last year there were so many cool bikes at Born Free that I had a hard time taking it all in. I felt like a kid when I'd go to Toys R Us and try to look through all the cool toys. After a while my eyes glazed over. This year should be a little better than last since the venue has (I think) plenty of areas to sit on the grass and relax.

Slab City Riot 3

artwork by Shelby

Just saw this artwork on the Biltwell blog. The past two Slab City Riots were great; I'm sure this year's event will be just as fun. This year, I'm definitely going to rent a room in Palm Springs. The ride home was brutal last year. Free whiskey can be a bad thing.

According to the Biltwell blog, this year's Slab City Riot will be a two day and night event. The first night (Friday, Nov. 4th) will be movie night and the next night (Saturday, Nov. 5th) will have live music. There will be another Coctagon battle royale!

15 Pounds of Ribs Deep Fried & Some Burgers On The Side

New Header Idea

Homer

For as I detest the doorways of Death, I detest that man, who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks forth another.

It's time to reread the Iliad. I'm currently rereading Tacitus. It's a shame that our society has deemed classical wisdom as passe. We've much to learn from Homer, Tacitus and others. It's one thing to scorn the building blocks of that which you despise and quite another to do so out of spite because you lack the ability to accomplish anything of worth.

Upcoming Fun

Don't miss out!

Metal Polishing

A while back, Kim Boyle wrote up a great "How-To" on metal polishing. That "How-To" lit a fire under my butt to get my Ironhead looking a little better than it currently does. I'm not a big fan of dirt, perhaps I inherited my father's OCD.
Here's some progress I've made on the pipes. They aren't done yet. A little more time with the nylon brushes and Nevr Dull and the pipes will look pretty good.

Before:




After but not done yet:



After using my drill on this project I now understand why plastic tools have their uses. My old Black&Decker gets really hot after constant usage.

Roller Derby

I finally went to my first roller derby match this past Friday. It was a lot of fun.
Yeah, the pictures are a bit blurry.