Crazy Horse Flame Shop

Some Very Cool Flame Shoes

2011-11-25T11:51:00.001-08:00

Some of our favorite skull and fire favorite are now available on Keds shoes. We've opened up an online store. We have biker and hot rod birthday cards, mugs, shirts. Please go and check it out. And Feel free to give us any feedback. We want to have the products that people like, and we can't do that if you don't tell us what you think.Here is the link for our Store!
TheFlameShop

Adventures in Custom Paint

2011-11-25T11:29:00.000-08:00

2011 has been a very intense year for our shop. We got a great deal of paintwork done and out the door. but there was cery little time off. Very few weekends at the lake. One thing we did this year is custom paint Corvettes. We airbrushed real fire on Corvette and airbrushed flag graphics on another. The only thing better than working on Corvettes is working with the people that own them. My Corvette customers are some of the best people I know. But we've got some pretty incredible hot rod paint work lined up for 2012. Some very cool projects. If you have one, chekc our website and give us a call. We'll be happy to discuss your project.

Chekc out website www.crazyhorsepainting.com for more pictures on our latest work. Those pictures can be seen in the Hot Rod Callery. I've got many more pictures to post so check back. Thanks for reading Crazy Horse Flame Shop!

We love to Flame Hot Rods

2011-02-23T06:37:00.000-08:00

If I had to pick my absolute favorite thing to paint, it would be flames on cars and trucks. It is pure creativity. Even though I always do pre paint drawings for the customer in order to plan out the flames and fine tune them to the customer's desires, once I am airbrushing, the flames decide exactly where they're going to go. I just let the airbrush start working its magic and the flames start to dance across the surface of the car or truck. I just watch it happen. It always intregues me.

This T bucket was a pure example of that idea. Painting these flames for Paul Reeves was a pure joy. Paul's little shop down in Alabama was peaceful yet full of fun. Paul and his family were awesome hosts and their fun attitudes definitely affected my mood when painting these real fire flames.

Jerry Pigg was another customer who pretty much let me loose to create something very powerful. His rose colored street rod needed something to wake up the color. I tried out various kinds of flames and colors in the prepaint drawings and found that traditional hot rod flames gave the car the impact he wanted. He took home a First Place trophy in the first show he entered after the flames were done.

The goal of our custom paint is the make the hot rod, street rod, classic car or truck as impactful as possible. To make people walk across a parking lot to get a better look. And no other factor in a custom car or truck will have the kind of impact that custom paint will.

Is custom paint affordable? It sure is. We work with our customer's budget to try and get the most bang for their hard earned dollars. Give us your budget and we'll see what we can do for that budget. Email us at joann@crazyhorsepainting.com and see what we can do for your custom project.

We will be adding many more hot rod and street rod photos to the website. Including new photos of Lee Novakoff's '33. Lee has another very interesting project in the works and we look forward to working on it's artwork design.

We have some wicked cool projects coming up in the next few months, including a brutal cool Corvette with Lambo doors. And adding photos of another Corvette that we flamed with real fire. This vette belongs to a fireman.

Hell yes, Spring is in the House!

2011-02-19T05:18:00.000-08:00

Unless you are skiing your ass off, winter sucks. The cold zaps energy and creativity goes out the window. But the shop was busy and somehow work got done. I kept a good attitude about the cold for the most part but by the end of Jan, I had an insane yearning for warm weather. And my prayers were answered. Winter here in the South is over. No more frost in the morning. No more trying to keep the studio warm. We had some amazing projects we worked on over the last few months. We've been painting quite a few baggers over the last year and the past month was no exception. Painting a bagger is a whole lot different than simply painting a tank and two fenders. Think about it, the surface area of one saddlebag is bigger than the average tank. plus you have the lid. if you are painting murals or artwork, that's three artwork areas. Plus there's the insides of the parts which have to be carefully masked off. Add two saddlebags, two lids, and two sidecovers more than doubles the amount of work than painting just a tank and two fenders. Add a tour pack, tour pack lid, fairing and the amount of work as well as paint, has tripled.
We've become bagger painting experts here at Crazy Horse. So check out some of the paint jobs we did below. There's more to come. I feel renewed thanks to this incredible weather and the work is flowing. We've got some pretty interesting projects coming up, including a very cool Corvette and a very rare 69 Camaro SS RS.
Right now its time to let the dogs out, have a breakfast and then into my sweet little studio. I am digging this weather!!!!

This is a wicked cool paint job for a Marine. Check back as I will be posting pictures of the assembled bike. I can't wait to see this bike together.

This was a wild job. We had 5o hardhats to custom paint in 4 days. Ths shop was crazy. But we got the job done and delivered the project by the deadline.

The flying eye ball grill shell gets flamed. I'll be posting pictures of Bill's T bucket once he sends them to me.

2010 SEMA Pictures

2010-11-11T05:44:00.000-08:00

SEMA 2010 was pretty intense. It was 4 days of sensory overload for the anyone who digs cars. The show this year had something for everyone. We have a pretty intense week here at the Flame Shop. We're setting up this weekend at the CBA Bike Swap Meet at the Metrolina Expo just north of Charlotte, NC. Its one of the biggest bike swap meets in the South. So time is short this week. Next week, I'll be posting more pictures and more news about this years SEMA.

Gene Winfield painted this incredible Caddy from Austraila. It was in the PPG booth.

Killer cool retro paint at the Iwata booth.

Beautiful real fire flames at the PPG Truck.

Digging the matte finish paint on this sweet Corvan.

Where else but SEMA will you see something like this rolling down the city streets? More pictures next week.

The Sweet Fall Season

2010-10-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, its a quickie post today.

1) Spent the morning doing a photo shoot on Dave Tuttle's 46 Ford. We did the woodgrain work on Dave's car, the dash and all the window trim. Many who see it, think its real wood. But no, its painted.

2) Getting ready for SEMA, plane tickets are paid for, plans are made. Gotta do some work on my buddy's Ron's 50 GMC truck while we are out there. Its a wild ride. But there is more work to do, a couple of hoods for our good friends at SATA Spray Equipment. They make the best paint guns, filtering systems, and their airbrushes rock. Using their equipment makes my jobs much easier.

3) Getting ready to try out House of Kolor's new Shimron 2. Its supposed to be the bomb, I'll find out this week.

4) It will be awesome to see all our Vegas friends, Ron, Robert, Joe and Mary, Ed and Leslie. We are so blessed to have such great friends. Plus Robert's La Mexicana Restaurant is wonderful. The SEMA Show is always a blast. And we get to see my stepson Josh and our grandbaby Preston.

5) Ok got to get my old butt on my mt bike and do about 8 miles. Trying to shed 10 lbs over the next 3 weeks.

A Flaming Good Time in Alabama.

2010-10-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

We just got back from painting flames on a '23 t bucket down in Alabama. The customer lives out in the country and has a nice little shop next to his house. It was one of the totally surreal yet wonderful experiences that make life worth living. And makes the work we do, so very worthwhile. Not every job we do is fun. Unexpected things pop up and you have to deal with it. That is the difference between an artist and a painter who is also an artist. A painter knows how to deal with paint problems. There is no way to have a career in painting, and not have dealt with the unlimited issues that come up.

But working on Paul Reeve's '23 was fun. Paul and his family are wonderful people and it was a pleasure to be around them.

The one problem? The squirrels. It was actually pretty funny, there are all these oak trees above Paul's shop and the squirrels sit up in the high branches and snack on the acorns. But they only take a few bites of each and then throw them away. There was a near constant pinging of the metal roof over the shop as the acorns would fall. You could not work in the driveway without getting nailed by a half eaten nut. We'd call out "incoming!" And then whack, a big acorn would hit. They landed everywhere, in the soda cups, in the paint mix cups, on the car.

But now we are home and getting ready for SEMA. Painting up a few things to display there. I'm looking very forward to working with House of Kolor's new Shimron 2 line of paints. Coast Airbrush Supply has been busy bottling up the new Shimrons and shipping them out to painters. I'll let ya'll know how it goes working with it. They say its the easiest to use custom paint ever. I guess I'll fnd out next week.

And I'm working on a major update to the website. We're launching two new gallery pages, one exclusively for hot rod paint and a page devoted to our Military themed paint jobs. And there will be a big overhall for the Customer Comment page. And new additions to the award and magazine article pages.

And finally the long awaited How To Section of the website will be launched.

I'll be posting here as the website updates are posted on the site. But for now, its Friday afternoon, I have to look over a flame job we finished and get it ready to ship out next week, then I'm working on a drawings for a customer in Idaho.

Tomorrow, I'm doing a photo shoot for American iron magazine featuring a wild, vintage dragbike at the Rockingham Dragway. Then its off to Chester, SC for an overnight campout with my 6 yr old godson. It will be his first Cub Scout campout.

Sunday we let the dogs run and its back to work creating beautiful and durable paint jobs!

Never a dull moment here at Crazy Horse Paint.

Back to the Blog

2010-09-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

When the shop is busy, I stay in the shop and work. Here's a quick rundown on my usual day. Up at 7am. Check emails and the weather. Maybe have a cup of tea. Black tea not that green stuff. Then I get dressed on workout gear and ride my mountain bike about 8 miles. The loop I ride goes through the countryside, lots of horse farms, cattle ranches and endless fields. Its just beautiful, plus it has alot of hills I have to climb.

Then its back home, wash up and change into work clothes. Have a quick breakfast and go into the shop about 8:30. I'll work till about 6 pm. then its back for another 8 miles on the bike, then play with my german shepherd and then back until the shop until 9pm.

Most weekends I work. Not as long of a day but I'll put in some hours. And then there's traveling for work and trade shows, car shows, cruise nights, anyway to promote the business.

Doesn't leave much time for blogging. That's why there haven't been many blog entries lately.

Plus there has been alot of work being done on the shop itself, trying to get ready for winter. Plus getting ready for SEMA. And of course Halloween stuff with my godsons. That is the biggest holiday around here what with the hayrides, the trip to the pumpkin patch, making jack o lanterns, baking seeds, making cookies and decorating. Christmas is a breeze compared to Halloween.

I take my work very seriously. I like for each paint job that come out of this shop to be incredible.

But things are slowing down a little, so I'm going to try and make more time for this blog. We have done alot of incredible work here this summer. Right now I have got to get in the shop. The big dog is yipping, he wants to play. But Mom has to work right now. Its a gray, windy day here in Waxhaw, but there still is a certain beauty listening to the wind in the tall trees.

Ok into the shop I go and be sure to check back for more updates soon.

Back From the VTwin Expo

2010-02-10T06:16:00.000-08:00

Chris Callen, editor of Cycle Source does the Capt Morgan with Dave Nichols, editor of Easyriders and Vtwin.

Ahhhhh, if I could only tell the real story, what really happened there. I can say this, it was the wildest time I have ever had in Cincinnati. Despite the gloom and doom many in the press has been saying about the custom motorcycle industry and the fact that some great companies have closed down, there was this intensity in the air, a purely positive feeling.

Sure the VTwin Expo was smaller this year, but it did fill the main hall of the Duke Energy Convention Center. And I did not see many sad faces, instead people were smiling, talking, working. There were new products, in fact, there were alot of new products. There was this upbeat energy that you could feel.

It did not matter that it was freezing cold outside, we all had a great time. The Kris Krome/Tony Schumacher bike was amazing.

I still have to go though the pictures and then I'll post some and write more about the show. Check back this weekend for the pictures. Right now I gotta have some breakfast and get in the shop. It a sunny day here in the Carolinas.

First Place at the Easyriders Show!!!

2010-01-29T17:13:00.001-08:00

A crew member here at Crazy Horse has won a First Place at the Easyriders Show here in Charlotte. The Chopper Farm is the bike shop and fabrication facility for Crazy Horse and Jim Bortles is the man behind the incredible bikes that come out of it. Last year, Jim picked up a stock sportster for less than $2000.

He has turned it into a badassed little hardtail bobber and now it is a show winning bike. His little low buck sportster beat out a whole crop of big buck bikes to take home that First Place. Jim's creations can be seen on our Custom Bikes page. http://www.crazyhorsepainting.com/custombikes.shtml

The Chopper Farm offers many services for bikes. From service and repair to customizing stock bikes to full on custom bike builds. And you won't find a btter price on custom work. Call 704-771-6405 to talk with Jim.

And 3 of our bikes, bikes with our paint and Jim's fabrication are featured in the 2010 Karney Law Firm Custom Bike Calendar.

That's it for now, Its almost Febuary and here in the Carolinas that means winter is half over. We have a full schedule of work for Febuary into March in the paint shop. So we'll be putting in some long hours so when the warm weather comes, our customers will be riding.
Check back to the blog for pictures of Jim's evil sporty bobber, the before and after pictures.

Hope ya'll are keeping warm out there.

15 Degrees

2010-01-04T05:30:00.000-08:00

The thermometer is currently at 15 degrees here in old Waxhaw Creek. The forecast says it will get down to 10 next weekend. It might get to 35 today. Lovely weather for painting. Not! Our normal high is 50, the low is 30 for this time of year.

Long week of work ahead so this will be the only blog post this week. The shop is full of work and we have some amazing paint jobs for the months of January and Febuary.

Keep warm out there. Meanwhile I will be riding as I am still testing Harley's FXRG Riding Gear for Cycle Source magazine. Of course we would have to have to coldest winter in 30 years, the winter I choose to test riding gear.

Hoping for Merry Christmas For All!

2009-12-25T05:37:00.000-08:00

Its a cold rainy Christmas morning here in the Carolinas. If it were a bit colder, there'd be a foot of snow out there. But instead the wind chimes are singing as wind and rain pelts The Chopper Compound. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season. And hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year!

2009-12-16T07:18:00.001-08:00

The sun threatened to come out for a little while this morning. But no, the clouds are taking over once again. And it is colder than yesterday. I really shouldn't complain as I talked to my buddy Tony with SATA Spray Equipment up in Minnisota and it was 23 below zero there.
Today I'll be finishing up the paint sample for Tony Schumacher's bike and airbrushing real fire. The other half of the shop will be finishing up the prep work for the Constitution bike. That bike is going to be so cool. I like doing projects that make people think about things. I'll be posting updates about that project here as it gets worked on. Some very classic and timely words will be airbrushed on that bike.
So for now, I'll share a few cool pictures I've collected.

and here in the rain forest

2009-12-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

The weather dude said the Carolinas have gotten more rain in Dec so far than in all of Oct and Nov. After living here for over 14 years, I can say, I have never seen this many cloudy mucky days. Normally we have more sunshine than clouds.

This is worse than Seattle.

But we all keep working.

I still have a bunch of holiday shopping to do. I did make a cool decoration. All you a wine bottle, emptied and dry. A shirt strand of miniature lights, and some glittery garland. Stick the garland and lights in the bottle and plug in the lights. It looks so cool.

Meanwhile in the woods............

2009-12-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

It was a very nice day here at the Compound. I started the smoker up first thing this morning. I got this Brinkman Smoker about 12 years ago and never used it. Today is the second time it has been used. Living in the Carolinas, there's no getting away from BBQ. They have these very intense BBQ competitions and these guys are very serious about it. They'll start the night before and cook all night.
Well 14 years of Carolina living has inspired me to try my hand at smoking BBQ. I had a Boston Butt soaking overnight in a tasty brine of water, white wine, soy sauce, Kosher salt, pepper, and fresh thyme. Got the smoker going good, added water soaked wood chips to the coals, slapped that roast on there and let it go all day. I had a mixture of water, white wine, marinade and more fresh thyme in the smoker's water pan.
It was a perfect day for cooking outside. Sunshine streaming through the woods, a light breeze to take the smoke away.
And there was more smoke in the studio as I airbrushed real fire flames. I'm using Artool's True Fire2 Shield's from Mike Lavalle and they totally rock. I loved his first set of True Fire Shields, and combine those with the newer ones...I'm getting great results. Pictures to be posted soon.
Off topic, there is a lost golden retriever dog in our neighborhood. Roxie was on vacation with her family in a park just down the street and got lost. Its created quite the search and we've even been looking. People all around the country are following this search online. Local folks have been checking the shelters, everyone is pitching in and there's been Roxie sightings. But so far no one can catch her. Now National Geographic is filming a documentary on the search for Roxie. They might be stopping in here Saturday to talk to us.
And Saturday is also the big holiday sale at a local Potter, Marshall Art. And I am taking Saturday afternoon off to bake cookies with my godsons. So Saturday looks to be a pretty hectic day here in the backwoods of Waxhaw.
Kris Krome has been hard at work on the Tony Schuacher bike, welding and welding. AndI'm getting some great ideas for the paint. You can see pictures of the build progress at www.facebook.com/KrisKrome

2009-12-08T13:09:00.000-08:00

Cold, rainy day here in Waxhaw. It feels like winter. Working in the warm shop. Tried out a technique for painting a parchment effect basecoat. I'm pretty happy with the results. The samples are almost ready to get sent out to the customer. I'll be taking photos throughout the paint precess, so they can put into a how to feature. There was realy only one product that made this effect possible. Water based automotive paint. I used Auto Air. It dries slower than solvent based and it easy to manipulate and mover around on the surface.
Lots of new products arriving in the shop. Having the right tools makes such a difference in how a particular technique is done. I think all the years I worked without a computer, no printer. Knowing the location and hours of every copy machine in a 30 minute drive from my studio. SATA hooked me up with quality spray guns in '04. Until then I sprayed with anything I had and many times, I paid dearly for it in wasted time and materials. I finally got a plotter in '05. And little by little my shop gets more goodies that make the job so much less of a hassle.
I know there are some shops that start out with a big budget for tools and such. But for most of us, it takes years, buying little by little, to collect the tools that make your workday more effective.
Ok back to work.

My Chopper is Famous!

2009-12-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

Well sort of. Actually it did appear on the Sept 2004 cover of Easyriders. But that was a long time ago and most of the time, I forget just how neat a bike it is. I mean, I love my chopper. But I don't treat it like some kind of priceless artifact.
It does not sit in the living room, pristine and spotless. It sits in the shed with a sheet over it. There is usually road grime on it. I'll take it out once a month and ride the snot out of it as it is a total blast. Last year I rode it 150 miles to the Smoke Out and rode it back in the rain. It has seen quite a few rain soaked miles and even a nightime hailstorm in the Black Hills. At the Sturgis Rally it is my only form of transportant there and I'll put around 1500 miles on it during Rally week. Aaron Stevenson took some pretty incredible photos of the bike during the Easyriders photoshoot. I used one for the cover of my first book.But that was over 5 years ago. I don't enter the bike in shows, in fact I only ever put it in one bike show, the 2004 Easyriders Show in Charlotte, where it went up against 158 other bikes in the Judged Class. I took home a second place, which was very good considering there were only 13 trophies. But every so often I get a surprize and a photo of the chopper will show up someplace. I was reading Cyril Huze's blog and saw a banner ad for Motorbooks. And wow, there was my bike.
There was time when I could not even dream of having a bike like this. And there it is, 100 feet from me, outside the door, sitting in a shed. Maybe I should display it in the house. Naw, too much trouble to take out and ride.

Adventures in Painting

2009-12-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

Its always an adventure in this line of work. That is, if you look at it the right way. Things are happening so fast here. We are working with some great companies this year, House of Kolor, SATA and Artool to name a few. These companies are coming out with some great new products and our shop is trying them out. I just unpacked some shields from Artool and I am so stoked to play with them. House of Kolor is hard at work on their new Shimron2 line of VOC Compliant paint and we'll be testing that too and posting how it is working here for us.My buddy Kris Krome is hard at work on the bike he's building for drag racing champ Tony Schumacher. He's under a welding helmet most hours of the day and I'll be seeing him in two week when I fly up to Flint for his big birthday party. My buddy Stogie, just got back from his 9 month long cross country m/c adventure and he'll be there too. I can't wait to hear his road stories.I updated the Links page on the www.crazyhorsepainting.com website. You can go there to check out the sites of the companies and people I talk about.
But today is another day of painting flames and paintwork in general. The sunshine has gone away for the weekend and there's talk of snow in the Carolinas.
Tonight I'm taking my 2 godsons to downtown Waxhaw, for pizza, christmas lights and hot chocolate. I'll try and take some pictures of the lights as it is absolutely wonderful.If you live near Charlotte, NC, please make time to visit Waxhaw to see the lights and enjoy our little antique town. We have some great restuarants, cafes, a kickass coffeehouse, and lots of cool little store full of crafts, antiques, jewelry, and neat stuff in general. These pictures posted are of Downtown Waxhaw.

Good day for Airbrushing.

2009-12-02T05:17:00.000-08:00

After a few wonderful days of sunshine, the Carolinas is back to its regular schedule of rain and cloudy days. I'm sitting here, laptop perched on my lap, sipping a cup of tea on this damp cold day.
Last night was the last night of Sons of Anarchy until next season. We went all out, ordering pizza and wings. Yes that is all out around here. Its been turkey city for the past week. I can't believe the way they ended. Brutal cool and totally unexpected. Jax freaking on the dock as the boat pulls away and Gema on the lamb with Unser. Oh and it was brutal cool how that box truck pulled up to block the Mayans and it said, "Unser Moving and Storage."
The FXRG gear article and photos are safely in the capable hands of Chris Callen and on the way to the colorful pages of Cycle Source. We just got the new issue of Cycle Source and as usual, it kicks ass with wicked bikes features but the issue is an end of the year wrap up with their Top 10 of 2009, as in Top Builder, Top Bike, along that line. My vote for Woman of Year helped the lady I picked, win! Chris has built up an amazing magazine.

In fact there are only 2 magazines that come to the Chopper Farm and get read cover to cover. Garage magazine is one and that brutal cool mag deserves its one blog entry. But Cycle Source is the other. Chris has such a passion for what he does and it truly shows in the end result. Check out Chris and the gang at http://www.cyclesource.com

Late last night, I watched the season finale of Sons of Anarchy. It was an hour and half long and FX fit in 45 minutes of commercials. So I played on the computer during them and made banners. One for my photography work.

One for my buddy Kris.

One for my awesome friend Athena.

And one for me.

So today its back to painting fire. Lots of work in the shop and come very cool projects coming up. New stencils and shields from Artool arrived this week. And Mike Lavallee's Tru Fire 2 Shields will be getting a workout today. I can't wait to try them. Very soon there will be a new section of the Crazy Horse website that will be showing how tos as we go through projects. I'll also be doing a series of How tos for publication. More on that later.

Monday

2009-11-30T18:45:00.000-08:00

It wasn't a bad Monday. It was gray and cloudy. rain clouds threatened but I took the chopper out for a ride. I ride the sporty most of time as it has saddlebags and I can carry groceries or whatever I need to. I'll ride the sporty in the rain. But I fuss over the chopper and try not ride it in bad weather. Besides, cleaning spokes is not my idea of fun.

So with the chopper not getting ridden much, I tend to forget just how fun that bike is. I only spend the morning riding, and then came back to the studio to work. And just as I stepped on the porch, the first rain drops fell.

It was an interesting afternoon. Talked to Chris Callen of Cycle Source and bike builder Kris Krome. Chris C has some pretty neat stuff coming up in Cycle Source. His Indian Larry issue should be incredible. I can't wait to see it. They've been working pretty hard on it. I finished up my first round testing of HD's FXRG gear. I'll be writing up my thoughts on it and sending it into the magazine. Round two starts the next time I get on a bike. Which lately has been everyday.

Kris Krome is hard at work on the Tony Schumacher bike. I did a wicked photo shoot of him and his AMD bike while I was in Vegas. Kris is updating his website and using some of my pictures. Kris is a funny guy and I love talking to him. He always make me smile.
The great thing about the past week, is I have been riding so much. My friend Genevieve Schmitt of WomenRidersNow.com wrote a post on her website about how we should always find time or a way to work riding into our days, as it is the best stress reliever there is. I agree. We tend to get so busy in our lives, and have to rush here and there. But lately I have been using the sporty for most of that "here and there" stuff. Yesterday we did a short ride just over the South Carolina line, not even an hour of riding, just as the sun was setting. But it was a great way to end the weekend.

Scenes from Friday

2009-11-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

It did not get above 50 degrees yesterday. But we went riding. I'm getting ready to leave to ride to town. I need to get some holiday lights, cat food and cookies. I'll be riding the sportster. Its 30 degrees outside.

And in the shop today

2009-11-27T05:59:00.001-08:00

I like painting real fire. I don't to get to paint nearly enough of it. The job I am working on now is all real fire with wicked tomented faces in the flames. What is even cooler, is that I got to improve my flame style over the last few months. So it will be very interesting to see just how this looks after I am done.

And seeing all that custom paint in Vegas was very inspiring. I think this HD softail will be the best real fire I have ever done on a bike.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day yesterday. Lots of great food and we ate alot but did not overeat. Hopefully my friend Lindsey and her boyfriend Zack will be coming over for lunch or dinner today. There's lots of food here and we need help eating it.

Its a cold morning here in Waxhaw. It went down to 30 last night. This is significant as I will be testing out my new Harley Davidson FXRG riding gear today. Ihave to go into town to the Post Office and maybe take a ride to a friend's house. I'm testing the gear for Cycle Source Magazine. We're going to see just how good HD's line of heavy duty riding gear is. Is it all its cracked up to be? I get cold very easy on the bike. I'm always freezing. So I'm a great person to test out this gear that is designed for all kinds of weather, hot and cold. This will be a series of articles in Cycle Source over the winter, seeing how the gear works for me. I'll be riding all winter long, in all kinds of weather. Whereever I go, whatever I do, if I can do whatever chore I need to do and fit whatever on my sportster, I'll be riding and my truck will be parked. Rain, cold, sun. I've got about 150 miles on the gear so far, so I'm looking forward to putting on some more miles today.

I'll be turning in my first article next week.

From Zero to Drizzle

2009-11-23T06:24:00.000-08:00

What's happening here at Crazy Horse this week?

First question - how the hell did it get to be "The Holiday Season" again so frickin soon? I mean, I love this time of year. I love the lights, the shopping, the food. I do not love how big my ass get sfrom the food. But whole holiday thing just comes faster and faster each year. Kind of makes it harder to enjoy. Maybe we should just do this whole thing every two years. But then the retailers would have fits.

The holiday thing comes up as this is a short work week for most everyone. But for the selfemployed? Here at the Compound will we be taking Thursday off and that's it. We'll be working this weekend. Our project this week is a real fire HD softail. This thing is going to be pretty evil. Check back next week for some pictures.

Its a drizzlely gray day here in the Carolinas. Which means its a great day for airbrushing. I'll be tucked away in our warm shop happily airbrushing away.

The teaser photo today is a from a photo shoot I did of a Zero Engineering bike out in Las Vegas. More news on that next month.

Ok, back to work.

SEMA Swag

2009-11-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

On Monday our boxes from Vegas arrived. One of the great things about going to trade shows is seeing just how much swag (freebees) you can pick up there. Now you don't want to get all piggy about it. How many keychains do you really need anyway? But usually at each show there is the choice swag such as seen in this picture. It would be hard to pick which piece of swag was the optimum at SEMA this year.

One of the coolest things was the chrome skull keychain that Scooo products was giving out. What does Scoo make? I have no idea, I just knew I wanted one of those killer skulls to hang in the shop.

Another choice swag was the chrome SATA Spraygun keychain. It looks so real. Very detailed. The choice thing to have if you re a custom painter or play one on tv. SATA also gave out very useful ice scrapers.

The hardest to get swag was actually the invite to the Coast Airbrush party. It was a super wicked Iwata airbrush keychain. It looked just like an actual Iwata airbrush. There were only 100 of those.

Then there's useful swag like the Grip Twists that the Grip Twist company contributed to the SBN Speed Networking Breakfast goodie bags. They are like these super heavy duty flexible twist ties.

Ebay Motors gave out useful swag. Red shop rags and funnels. Can't have too many of those.

One of my favorite swag items was the purple magnetic super duty clip from Mystik Lubricants. There are never enough clips for clipping chip bags closed. Lincoln Welders gave out these cool clippy magnets, I got a few of those.
Artool gave out this killer sweet stencil shield. Now that will come in very handy in our shop.

House of Kolor's best swag was their scarab logo pin.

And sure there all were all kinds of pens and markers that companies gave out. In fact we ended up with so much swag that we shipped it home as it would have made our bags weigh too much.

When we unpacked the 2 boxes, the swag score filled the kitchen table. Lifetime supply of pens, but not nearly enough super duty magnetic chip clips.

Pictures from SEMA

2009-11-17T19:57:00.000-08:00

The House of Kolor booth at SEMA. They had artists airbrush all kinds of items this year. There were the water coolers, trash cans, giant fishing lures, pinball machine. You could actually play pinball at the booth. In fact, the House of Kolor booth was probably the one of the most interesting booths at SEMA. It was definitely sensory overload. There were artists airbrushing, pinstriping, it was amazing. There was a charity silent auction, foot massage machines for tired SEMA feet. Then of course there were all the new HOK products, like their new Low VOC Shimron2. People could spray a test panel of the this new product. There were the new pearl colors. Famous artists and car builders like John Dagostino had autograph sessions there. Plus what was very cool were all the painters and builders who came by and hung out. Gene Winfield spent alot of time in the booth. Darryl Starbird was there. House of Kolor even had their first ever Induction for the House of Kolor Hall of Fame. It was a place that many people came back by every day.

Here's a teaser shot of Kris Krome's AMD winner. The full article will be appearing in Cycle Source.

On location at Mondo's shop, Denver's Choppers. Mondo was letting us us his shop to shoot the bike. Mondo has come out with this new wicked cool powdercoating. He can do nearly any color or effect including this very cool black chrome. Check out Denver's for more info.

Shooting Joe Gregory's wicked '66 Impala SS up at Red Rocks outside of Las Vegas. We had to get up at 5am to be there for sunrise shooting. More pictures on my website.

I even got to drive the Impala to the shoot. I was nervous driving this car, I went slow as hell and everyone was passing me.

Airbrushing at the SATA Spray Equipment booth.

Jon Kosmoski inducts Gene Winfield into the House of Kolor Hall of Fame.

David and I with super incredible airbrush artist AD Cook and pinstriping legend, Gary Jensen. AD is based in Vegas and you can see his art at http://www.adcook.com/.

Our friend Mitch from Jus Cus Custom came down from Canada to show off his wild spray gun tattoo. I'm so jealous. Maybe I should get one.

Criag Fraser airbrushed a panel of the Lucky 7 airplane bike we painted. HOK had artists doing panels and those panels will available on the HOK website. People can go and bid on them and the proceeds will go to the Kyle Petty Victory Junction Gang Camp.

Craig airbrushing the airplane bike.

There weren't that many prototype dream cars at SEMA this year. This caddy was one of the few.

These guys came down from Montana to show off their brutal John Deer powered rat rod. take a close look, this thing start with the crank you see on the side of it.

Jack Giachino airbrushed and striped at the SATA Spray Equipment booth. SATA debuted their new spray gun, the Foose gun, at the show. Chip displayed a truck at the booth and people lined up all over the place to get his autograph. of course I did not get a picture of Chip or his truck. SEMA was one big blur for me as I had to so much to do while I was there. Not much playtime.

Cool painted transmission.

Fraser's Clipboard of Doom. This dude is so super organized and ran the artist end of the House of Kolor booth. He kept right on top of things, and it all ran like clockwork.

David and Mitch. Mitch is not high, he just kept blinking when I would take a picture. Notice the black banner in the background that says SCOO?

They were giving out these super cool chrome skull keychains, and unlike other booths than never bring enough cool giveaways, they had plenty. David and I searched all week for the Scooo booth and could not find it until Friday when I took this picture and saw the banner in the background.

Mike Lavallee's unreal fridge. Mile had a few wonderful things displayed at the HOK booth. Mike is just way too talented. He makes airbrushing look easy.

Gary Jensen with his panel that I did not win.

Me with the Lucky 7 bike. I need to get cooler shop shirts. The polo thing just ain't doing it for me.

Very sweet bobber at SEMA.

Kris at the Heavy Metal booth with his AMD winning triumph.

HOK pinstriped panel.

Probably the coolest truck parked in front of the convention center.

Vegas has a serious hot rod scene. This merc ( I think its a Merc) was part of a weekly hot rod gathering as my friend Robert's restaurant.

Where am I?

2009-11-16T11:13:00.000-08:00

You would think the job of a writer or editor at a motorcycle magazine, would be the ideal job. I remember when I used to read Rip's Run in Easyriders. I used to think Rip had the best job in the world. Ride around the country on a motorcycle, meet lots of great people, have adventures and get paid for it.
But is it really?
Having Joe (who is managaing editor at American Iron) staying here with us, was an eye opener. You would think the managing editor of the largest circulation m/c magazine in the world would be the best job there is. And in many ways it is. Joe gets to ride all kinds of bikes. Testing bikes for nearly every American m/c company. Trying out new riding gear. Everyone wants to be his friend and get favor with the magazine.
I've known Joe a long time. He is one of the funniest people I know, always making me laugh my ass off. Actually I have more fun with Joe than almost anyone else. His way off looking at the world and the people in it, is priceless. He has this lightning fast wit, and zaps people with it, so fast, they don't even know exactly what happened.

But it seems like Joe is on the road constantly. Home life? Sure, there is that, if you only want to be there half the time. And that's great, if you don't have too much of a life at home. Like what if you have kids, or pets or a spouse?
I had a chance to teach airbrush classes and make better $$ than I do in the shop. I turned it down. I like my mornings here at the house. Waking up and going to work. Work being a mere 15 steps from the back door. I like my routine, seeing the sun pass across the sky, the afternoon sunshine streaming through the hardwoods in the back. Spending weekends with my godsons, watching them grow.

It seems everything is a tradeoff. No easy way. No perfect life.

And those days I spent wishing I had Rip's life? Those were the years I lived on Connecticut River in a 200 yr old farmhouse. I'd wander the riverbanks, soaking up the essence of the day. And I wouldn't trade those priceless days on the river for anything. Of course at the time, no way did I see it that way. I wanted to be Rip, on the 2 wheeled road to adventure.

Maybe most of us are where we are supposed to be. Joe riding Indians in the Western Mts, sizing the the strengths and weakness of their motorcycles. Jim wandering around The Chopper Farm, dreaming up the next killer custom sportster build, David insulating the sporty shed, the bratty siamese cat lazing on the porch. The dog protecting the yard from rogue squirrels and me: doing drawings with Photoshop while the sunlight streams through the incredible fall colors of the backyard hardwoods, the doors to the studio open, the warm breeze drifting through.

2009-11-16T06:03:00.000-08:00

We had a great time with Joe Knezevic hanging at the Compound. We went over to the Chopper farm. And Joe liked the low rent hardtail sportsters Jimmy is building. Jim's latest went together for less than $5000. That included the cost of the 1999 1200 donor bike ($1500.)
It was a low key weekend here. And that is pretty easy as we live way out in the country and there ain't shit around here. If you're looking to relax and get away from it all, this is the place. Joe got in Saturday morning and somehow followed the lengthy, obscure directions to the Compound. "Follow the road for a few miles, and after it changes names, take a left turn at the old feed store that burned down last year." As Joe is from the NYC area, he is good at that kind of stuff.
Saturday we toured the Compound and went over to the Farm, then it was into town to check out the take out food. We settled on Mexican and managed to get out of town before the local gestapo arrested us for grand theft habanero sauce and sugar cookies.
We had the best intentions of actually doing something on Sunday. It was a beautiful, sunny warm Carolina day and the sporties called out from their shed. But as Joe had to ride 300 miles on Indians on Monday, he was not motivated to move from his spot on the couch.

This picture? The customers wanted it to look like pink marble with blood running back across it.
The CBA Swap Meet at the metrolina was kickass this year, BUT we did not go as that would have taken far too much effort for men. Ah, I only would have spent $$ I didn't need to spend.
But seriously, it meant alot that Joe enjoyed himself while he was here and this place makes it easy to relax.
What is it about a football game on tv that makes a man sleep? I look up from the computer and both David and Joe were both sleeping away as the Panthers played the Falcons. I think NASCAR races have the same effect.
We finally managed to get out of pajamas and into street clothes and went into Charlotte to watch a Checkers hockey game. We almost didn't get to the game as we first went to the wrong stadium, not knowing that the team had moved to the NBA arena in uptown Charlotte.
The arena looked like it has less than 1000 people in it. Kinda sad. The Checkers won 6 to 4. And David and I were on the "kiss cam." They pan around the arena looking for couples and they show on the jumbotron and you're supposed to kiss. Good thing David wasn't sitting next to Joe. Joe is a funny guy. He had us laughing all weekend with his stories.

And now it is Monday and Joe is off to ride new Indian Motorcycles for next 2 days. He wants to do 500 miles today, but will be happy to make atleast 300. He's wearing the new nylon HD FXWG gear and its cold this morning. They'll probably be heading to the NC mountains, so hopefully the FXWG gear will do its job and keep him warm.
As for me, I'm warm and cozy in my old paint spattered HD sweats. I'm about to hit the studio and start working.
I'll try and post some pictures from SEMA in the next few days.
Oh and Rich Evans, custom car and bike builder from California, will be arriving here today.

Back to Reality

2009-11-14T07:06:00.000-08:00

I am back from Vegas and its a week since I wrote the first blog entry. I've been updating the website. I do the work myself and it takes time. Mike Lavallee's girlfriend, Nick was constantly working on their website while she was at SEMA. Every time I saw her, she had her face buried in her Ibook. Now I know why. But little by little I will be adding pictures of new work.
And there is alot of it since the site was last updated over 2 years ago. The main task of today is working with Photoshop on drawings. I have 3 drawings to get done. I was going to do them on the plane out to Vegas, but I realized, I really need to use my touch screen monitor to get the best out of these drawings and my Wacum Cintique does not fit in my carry on bag.

And later today, Joe from American Iron Magazine will be arriving here. He's here to check out the new paint shop and stop by the new Crazy Horse Chopper Farm. The Chopper Farm is a full service chopper shop does everything from oil changes, sheet metal fabrication, weld-on hardtails and full on custom bike builds. Go to the Custom Bikes page on my website for more info on the shop and what we offer. The new chopper in the photo is currently for sale $14,000. Email us for more info.
And next week, Joe will be road testing the new Indian Motorcycles for the magazine.

Las Vegas Tales

2009-11-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

(This blog entry was written last Saturday night, while I was in Las Vegas.) Does anything normal ever happen in Vegas during SEMA week? Or is it all just endless days and nights of adventure ? One twisted escapade blending into the next until you lose all track of time, and you find yourself asking people what day it is. For most, the week starts out on Monday, setting up the display booth, planning meetings, making lists of tasks : people you need to network with, the desired goals of those meetings, work related research to keep up with what’s current in the industry. It all starts out as serious business. Go forward, get the job done, task accomplished… next.
But somewhere around the middle of the week, the nights of little sleep in a town that truly comes fully alive after dark, takes a toll. Your body running on adrenaline, your mind only half cognizant. Go to dinner with clients or business associates or friends. You tell yourself, ‘After dinner, I’ll go to the room and check emails, then straight to bed to get up early for the show.’ But you’re not really all that tired and decide to make a quick stop by the Circle Bar at the Hard Rock. Just to have one drink and see whose hanging out. Be back at the room by midnight. Good plan. Then suddenly its 3 am and you have to get up at 6:30. By Friday afternoon you realize you haven’t even looked at those lists you made and SEMA will be officially over in less than an hour. Unless of course you are Craig Fraser and carry the Clipboard of Doom with all those lists neatly organized, tasks precisely checked off as they are accomplished. But I am not Craig Fraser. I am the opposite of Craig, making it up as I go along, flying by the seat of my pants and somehow against the laws of the universe, accomplishing the tasks on that forgotten list. An anomaly dependant on fate and luck.
So here I sit on a post SEMA Saturday night in Vegas, boyfriend sleeping peacefully next to me. I’m wide awake as the exhilaration of the week has not yet worn off. Too wired to sleep, too tired to do much of anything else.
Visions of the past week running through my head. Sitting at a table with Kris Krome, his dad telling wild stories. Running into Rich Evans crossing Paradise Rd. Chip Foose standing in front of the convention center, no crowds around him, just another guy looking around, trying to figure out where he needs to be.
We’re in the Earnhardt Suite at Casa Del Gregory, an expansive adobe house on the edge of the mountains west of Vegas. We arrived at 9pm to find a box of cookies and candies on the bed. The cookies were badly needed. What had been planned to be a morning interview today, turned into an all day debacle, complete with interview and 2 photo shoots. I felt guilty taking up so much of Kris Krome’s time, but when you get a great story, you have to run with it and get the most of out it. Sometimes you get one chance and to wait is to lose that chance. The opportunity to tell someone’s story. And when that story is as good as Kris’s, you grab on and don’t let go.
Trying to write about it makes me realize I need to reread some Hunter Thompson. Only the good doctor could truly capture the essence of such an experience. To depict it in words. But that’s how this whole week was.
SEMA is the best of the best. The best car and bike builders, the best painters, the best wrenches, all displaying their hard work. I was overwhelmed by the talent, the artistry at that show. I could go on and on. But I won’t. Not tonight anyway. Its 11 pm here. 2 AM back home in NC. But time doesn’t mean much right now. For those who attended SEMA, it will take several days at home to feel normal again.
So until I have enough displine to write another blog entry, it’s good night from a quiet spot on the edge of the desert. The lights of Vegas sparkling in the distance, a place where time is just another illusion.