Vincent party and Garage Sale! August 14th & 15th

FRIDAY AUGUST 14th

It's going to be a busy week getting ready for the weekend's events. It's been a while since we've done anything cool over at the shop, so I figure that we should make this one spectacular. 

I'm really excited about having "Big Sid" Biberman and his son Matthew here. Sid is one of the best Vincent tuners who's ever been, and matthew has just written a great book documenting their build of the "Vincati" (a Vincent twin motor in a Ducati chassis). So, from 3:00-7:00 on Friday the 14th, we'll have the Vincati in the shop and Big Sid and Matthew will be signing books.

It should be a really cool afternoon and definitely a once in a lifetime chance to see the bike. As the afternoon progresses, we will have the Southern California Norton Owners Club "Prince of Darkness" ride meet at the shop around 7:00 or so. That's always a fun little ride. They'll leave the shop and plow through Hollywood to Bob's Big Boy in Burbank. If you've never been to Bob's on a Friday night, it's a great time. They do a Classic car night on Fridays and although over run with old men, it really is a good time. OK, so after the good clean fun, it's off to the Big Foot Lodge. This is going to be a great party. We're teaming up with the tea bags from DicE Magazine for a night of booze soaked mayhem. There will be plenty of bike parking, cheap beer, and women of questionable moral character.  Can it get any better you ask?  YES. The evening will be DJ'd by legendary artist Coop! Holy Crap!

SATURDAY AUGUST 15th

On Saturday morning after we wake up from the party, it's our first annual Glory Garage Sale. We're clearing out all of the stuff from our store room as well as having a massive sale on the good stuff that's in the shop right now. It's not just the crap we can't sell, this is top of the line good stuff. Look for "you're killing me Larry" prices and remember CASH IS KING! We will be doing some heavy bargaining for greenbacks, but we're not really interested in helping the credit card companies make more money off of us all.  Fight the Power. The garage sale will start at 10:00, so get here early, the good stuff will go fast. What a weekend...

Shadow Drag Bike!

Last Saturday, I got a call from Steve Crocker telling me about a Black Shadow that was listed on Craig's List in Nevada. He was calling me to turn me onto the listing. After I explained that I didn't have enough money at the moment to buy lunch, it was decided that if the bike could be had, we would go in on it together with the purpose of restoring and selling. Steve had talked to the owner a bit, but it made more sense for me to take over the negotiations seeing as I speak fluent "white trash biker". After many hours on the phone, and the reaching of a price that would stop the contacting of the other guys wanting to buy it, a deal was struck. A few days later, I'm in my truck heading off to the Nevada desert with a big pile of cash. My wife was sure that I'd be in a shallow grave by noon, and kept phoning me to make sure I wasn't dead yet.  See, the bike has been holed up in a garage is partial disassembly since the early 1970's. It was owned by a guy who was a self described "Harley guy" and the poor Vincent was surrounded by Iron Sportster motors and shitty aftermarket HD parts for many years. He played it up like he wasn't really in love with the Vin, but I noticed that he head a photo of a restored Shadow in his wallet. Having sold my own Vincent hen times were tough, I understood his pain.

A few hours later, I'm on the road with a Shadow in the truck, and no gunshot wounds. Mission complete. The bike is spectacular. It's a verified matching #'s Shadow that was built in '54 and first registered in the states in '55. The history that I was given is that it came out of Roth's shop in the late 60's and made it's way to Las Vegas. This I will need to verify, so the hunt for info has begun. Luckily, "Big Sid" Biberman will be at Glory in a few weeks, and there are still a bunch of the old boys from the Roth crew still kicking around LA. I'm sure we'll have the history wrapped up in a week or two.

As expected, there are shit loads of mods. First, EVERYTHING has been chromed. It has two front heads with massive DelOrto's. The tank has been cut away to allow the velocity stack on the rear cylinder to jut out. It's got an 18" Boranni with a spool front hub and no brake. The rear is a 16' Boranni with no brake or sprocket(?). It's also been made "hard tail". It's missing lots of minor head parts like rocker arms and push rods. Let's just say it's going to be quite a re-build. My two favorite thing that the guy told me when I was picking it up was 1. "the crank looks like a god damned mirror and spins all day" 2. " I had a picture of some weird loking guy next to the bike with a monkey sitting on it". 

It's things like this that remind me to not complain about the everyday problems in life.... I'll be posting more info as it comes in, and trying to document the entire thing!

Venice Vintage MC rally

Yesterday, I went to the rally in Venice Beach put on by the Venice Vintage MC Club. I don't really know much about the club, but I do know that this was the second event like this that they've put on. The set up was this: meet at the site of the event, go for a ride up PCH to the Rock Store then back to Venice for BBQ, music and a bike "contest". Bobby from the Bigfoot Lodge had a beer tent to keep the riders "hydrated". It was in all a great day. I've got some nasty sunburn, and I think a couple of old guys fell over from Heat Stroke towards the end. I hope that these guys keep doing these things. And I guess that Glory needs to get a bit more involved. We will be having a massive event at the shop on August 14th with legendary Vincent tuner "Big Sid" Biberman and his son Matthew. That is going to be killer! look for more info on this and the Glory web site as we finish the details!

Moto Melee

I'm finally back on the planet after the Moto Melee and the 4th of July holiday. What a great couple of weeks. It's making it very hard to get back into the daily grind of business as usual. The Melee was really fun this year. Loads of good bikes an a crew of people that I only see once a year, but wish it was more. It also makes me wonder why Los Angeles has such a shit motorcycle scene.  San Francisco is such a great mc town. I've been to some other good cities as well, but SF is the best. Maybe it's just the vibe of the city in general, but it seems like there's a whole community built around vintage bikes. You have to hand it to Harley Welch and Jeff Guzaitis for creating this thing. It really is my favorite thing to do. I look forward to it all year. As always, there were exploding bikes and drunken shenanigans, and that's what makes this thing so much fun. I try and explain it like this: the year I blew apart my Vincent gearbox on day 2, I still had an absolutely brilliant time. It's all part of the experience. This year on day 3, I awoke in Fort Bragg bright and early. As I opened the door to my second floor hotel room, I looked to my right to see the beautiful Northern California morning. I then looked to my left to see my Norton had been carried up a fight of stairs and perched on a second floor balcony by mysterious elves during the night. My first reaction was a broad smile. My second reaction was laughter. I know that this would upset many owners of vintage machines, but it just made me glad to be on this journey with people who after a few drinks would think that this was a good idea. Brilliant!  So as the real world makes it's way back in, and I go back to the frantic chasing of nickels and dimes, I can look at a cell phone shot of my trusty Norton perched high above a cheap motel parking lot and keep carrying on. All the while thinking about what I'll ride next year. So, to Harley, Jeff and Deb, thanks for that reminder that I need to try and enjoy this life every now and then, and providing the event to do it.

new janitor

Friday was the first day in over a year that I worked behind the counter at Glory. I've been busy doing bikes and getting the Glory Motor Works shop opened, but now I'm back at Glory two days a week. The funny thing was that I really enjoyed it. I forgot what it was like to be able to interact with the customers, and see the people's reaction to the stuff that we have in the shop. The shop was in serious need of some re-arranging, but there's lots of good gear in there. I also stuck a killer '47 Royal Enfield in the window.

I ripped the place apart and it's still not put back together.I also forgot about folding. Now that we have so much clothing, I realized that the folding can go on all day. I think that we need to hire a part time folder / duster preferably in a French maids outfit.

I'm looking forward to being in that place on Fridays and Saturdays for a while. I've kind of ignored that shop for a while, but now I'm back on it. When I got home, Kristina and I talked about all of the cool stuff that we've had in Glory over the years. I should really kick myself in the ass for not photographing it all better. Hard to believe it's been almost 10 years. I'm actually looking forward to the next 10...

The bikes are piling up...

We've been getting loads of bikes coming through the doors of the new Motor Works shop. Some good, some bad. I've forgotten what it was like to have to constantly turn out work everyday, and take in most projects and quick repair jobs. In a way it's no fun, but tit's certainly keeping me on my toes. I've got a great '48 Rapide going up on the lift that hasn't been run in over 10 years. The great thing about Vincents is that they are so god-damned bullet proof. About every other day I boot myself in the ass for selling my Comet. I've still got a nice line on a Comet motor that I want to stuff into my featherbed frame. I'm going to try and work out some horse trading to get that motor in my grubby mitts. The shop is still in the "set up" mode. I swear I'll finish it soon. If all goes well, today I'll buy all of the steel to finish making the shelving that sits over head high (well, my head) . That should clear up the floor and allow me to finish my interior decorating. Because as we all know, the most important part of setting up a bike shop is the interior decorating.

Japan Re-Cap

I'm back from Japan for a few days now, and back to the grind stone. The jet lag has faded and it's back to finishing some bikes at the Motor Works, and starting to make the next round of Glory gear. The Flat Head exhibition is always a real kick in the ass. I look at tall of the great stuff that these guys make, and it really makes me wonder what happened to the American clothing industry. It's kind of a shame that the best classic American style clothes are built by Japanese companies. It's even more of a shame that no one in the USA seems to give a shit that there are some companies that only produce their goods here.  In fact, I can't really figure out what we produce in the USA anymore. Starbucks? Shit rap music? Who knows?I'm no economist, nor do I pretend to be overly aware of trade policies, but as a normal guy with a small business, it just seems that the American manufacturing industry (or lack of) is a source of the countries problems. We have lost the idea of self sufficiency. Do you really need to buy vegetable from Mexico when there's a farm down the street? Clothing is a great example. The USA was the power house of making clothing not too long ago. If Americans bought more clothing made in America, it seems to me that the once booming apparel manufacturing industry would put a lot of people back to work. This should carry over to all industries.  These people have jobs / money to spend on goods. People without jobs have no money. People with no money do not spend money.  Simple right?Our industries, however, have to get off of their asses and produce good stuff (I'm talking to you Detroit & Milwaukee). The fact is that at our small level in the denim world, we're able to produce our gear in Los Angeles and still make a decent profit. We can't buy fucking mink coats or helicopters, but we can buy groceries and support our families. Do you think that this bank bailout money will actually open growth capital for small business? Not a fucking chance. All of those billions are staying in the banking system to be traded back and forth between the fuckers that almost collapsed the world. It's disgusting. The GREED of large corporations have literally  strangled us all....Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

Japan was great, and it looks like Glory will be reaching more and more shops in Japan. Hopefully next will be our own back yard...