Andrew Gray Studio

Yesterday at Willow Springs, I watched my friend Andrew kick some serious ass on a Guzzi and a 160cc Honda. His last run on the Honda was cut short by a dead battery.... I've known Andrew Gray for quite a few years. Andrew is a furniture designer and finisher. About six or seven years ago, he opened the Andrew Gray Studio across the street from Glory. He's probably one of the best in Los Angeles.  He just moved his workshop to bigger facilities, and his old shop is where we're housing the new Glory Motor Works. Andrew has spent years doing really high end finishing and re-finishing projects, but I think that his real calling is designing furniture. If you're outfitting your new house bought with the bail -out checks for $1,000,000.00 that we all received from the federal government, give Andrew a call. We need to support artist who spend all of their money on motorcycles!!

American Denim

We're just finishing our new run of denim. We're making 1955's and Hill Climbers. I remember when e started making denim. I figured that it would be easy. We've certainly been through a lot of ulcers and even more money over the years, but it's been worth it. The original idea was to update the fit of 1940's and 50's jeans. I know no one believes me, but we really did use two different bikes when we made the pattern for the 1955's. Will Hoover (who is now making crap for Vans) Put up with some serious shit from me when we made our first run. Seeing as I had no idea how to make jeans, Will had to deal with my freak outs  when little things would go wrong.

After Will had had enough, we had Slappy take the reigns. I first met Slappy when I worked for Deluxe in the early 90's. I'm fairly certain that he's responsible for the big pants craze to hit skateboarding around the same time. He has a high threshold for my pretending I'm a fashion designer outbursts. Although, he wouldn't call me back once for six months because there was a mess downtown and he knew he'd beat me up if I had a wig out on him. We fixed that situation later on with some couples therapy. Anyway, if anyone tells you it's easy to make jeans, poke them in the eye. This new batch that we made was primarily done for Japan, so the details are better than we've ever done. Our jeans are the best.

Twenty-Three

I got a note today from Hans the German. Hans Sures and his lovely wife Elke Bock are responsible for the Glory book as well as many of the images that we use for catalogues and on the website. Like Sonny and Cher, only making images instead of good vibes.  They currently are a couple of Germans living in London, but I want them to come to the USA. Hans has done many of the Harley Europe catalogues as well as done work for many big time companies like Shelby Cobra and Land Rover; whoever the hell they are. Hans the German is the idea / layout man. Elke is the photo gal. She is a top notch portrait documenter, and is also no slouch at shooting bikes. They've combined their talents to start up a design house called Twenty- Three so if your on that side of the pond or this side. Hit them up for some work. The more work that they get from other people, the more "liberal" the payment terms get for Glory.

Coop Shirts

For years, people have asked me and Coop why we haven't done any "projects" together. Since we've teamed up with  The Flat Head Co. to sell our Glory stuff to Japan, I've been on the spot to come up plenty of new stuff. I'm cranking out tee designs made specially for Japan, and then it hit me that the Coop images would be great.  So me and Ruth picked some good designs and Cooper made a good Glory Utility logo. Off we go! The shirts are being made for the Japanese market primarily, but will also be available at the Glory shop and on the website. Coop is also gearing up for a big show in a few weeks at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. The new painting are killer!  The Coop / Glory shirts should be on our site very soon...

Blue Star

This morning I met up with Director Gary Chapman in downtown LA. I've known Gary for about as long as I've lived in LA. He was even around helping me build out Glory when we first moved in way back in 1999. Gary is one talented fellow when it comes to most thing having to do with art ( you should see his interpretive dancing). He also owns the '39 Chief that we used in Hell Ride as well as a few other oil spewing old heaps. A few years ago, Gary directed a great animated movie called Valiant. Animated Nazi Hawks and War hero Pigeons! If you haven't seen it, check it out.

We had breakfast at the Blue Star Restaurant . The Blue Star is a great place surrounded by LA's scrap yards and recycling centers. Rusty metal and aluminum shards everywhere! Our good friend Paul Greenstein (more about him later) cooks breakfast there every Saturday morning. It' a great spot and should really become a Saturday morning meeting spot for those of you who actually get to ride motorcycles for fun. The corn beef hash is killer!

Shop is getting close

Today we finally started moving some tools into the new shop.  The bikes are starting to pile up, so we're trying to at least start working before I'm finished with my pansy interior decorating. I still have to weld all of the shelving together, and hang all of the naked lady pictures, but at lest it can start knocking some work out. When it's all finished, we're going to have a BBQ / orgy  to get the shop started right. Probably sometime in May...

The wonderful world of fashion

Today was spent in the ass crack of California, pushing a Norton Commando from spot to spot for photos. It was the typical editorial shoot for a high end fashion magazine. Hot model chick done up in goofy "biker" clothes and the ever present "bad Boy" male model. It was total Zoolander.

To his defense, he took to riding the bike very well and he was a pretty nice guy. Of course, the bike kept fouling plugs. It was being dropped off to the shop to be re-jetted. I guess I should have done that before taking it on the photo shoot. We shot at Club Ed which I'm all too familiar with. I've done a few photo shoots there, and we spent a lot of time there while filming Hell Ride.  Lots of interesting characters creeping around there...  This could be the birthplace of meth labs. 

Ruby Belvedere

I walked into the shop the other day, and was handed the newest Ruby  helmet from Paris. This is the Belvedere and sports a clear flip up face shield. I've given it a few miles around town, and will give it the business of the LA freeways tonight. As expected, the finish quality is shockingly good. 

Hank seemed to like it, and that always count for a lot. He has been recruited by several massive marketing firms to provide suit wearing squares with a leg up on what the kids are digging. He's hip to your jive...

DiCe tees

                                                                                        photo: Dimitri Coste
A while back, I designed four t-shirts for our good friends at DiCe Magazine . For fall this year, We're releasing the 1st of the 4 in a series. These will be printed on our Glory shirts instead of those shitty blanks that the Limeys use.  1st will be the "knuckle duster" then the machine gun & the "clean works". If you're not familiar with the magazine, check it out. I pull up flash backs and repressed memories in the back in my "Dr. Glory" advice column. Fight the Power!

Sit on it!!

Here's the top secret new Glory tee. Forget Steve McQueen or Brando. The FONZ!!!

These will only be available for a limited time because we're making them for Japan.

New Service Shop almost done!

After 10 years, we've finally given in and are opening a bike shop. We'll service both vintage AND modern bikes. The location is in Silver Lake, and will keep somewhat "hidden". It will be by appointment only. Keep an eye on the Glory website for details.

New Glory Blog