Trip to the States

Birmingham, Alabama, USA Dec 26, 2012-Jan 3,2013

April 28 Dixie Roundup Day

Kyle and Tyler from Lowbrow are the nicest guys you will ever meet.

This is not exactly a comprehensive account, but this is, in short, the day through my narrow window.  Wake up at 5:30 and go to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to take a standardized test with the intention of expanding my teaching certification....don't know if it worked.  Go home.  Get the Honda, ride it to the dojo where Justin Moon and I add a break cable to the 69er trumpet whose rear drum is operated by a right hand lever because thats the way it was when it was raced and it broke on me on the last trip... sketch.  Mean while, he pesters me with questions about changing a cable and I fix the carbs which have rattled a main jet loose, also on the last trip out of town!  All of this so he can ride the Triumph until it breaks around 6:30 and he has to coast it back down a mountain to where our friend Ryan will put it in his minivan.  Oh, but back to when we were working at the Dojo.

The triumph is running and we are preparing to leave when a rumble containing the shaky rattle of engaged open clutches coasts to a stop at the corner of 29th and 4th Ave.  I wave, thinking this group of vagabonds may be looking for a local garage and all ten or so of them turn the wrong way down a one way street and head towards me and the gate of the Dojo.  Only skilled riding spared the representatives of Lowbrow and Biltwell Inc., Walt and friends on they way to the gate.  They have ridden from all corners of the states to Birmingham for the local event, the Dixie Roundup.   We combined groups for the ride to the country.  Their bikes were amazing, but I didn't take a great deal of riding photos because I didn't want to scare my new riding companions with my kook riding antics.

Good times where had though I was negligent in taking photos at the event.  I will post a link as soon as i find someone who did.  Here it is: JT

Nick's bike

Killer ride.

Daily rider

Doug's Photos

Been trying to get my long time friend Doug Baulos to come by the Dojo for some time now.  He finally did!  Anyhow he took some pictures and sent them to me and to break up the monotony of my own pics and show what real artists do with there phones ....

Daytime pt 2

Birmingham Jam

Spencer at the Night Jam

Spencer is the man in the shadows behind a lot of brilliant metalwork that rolls out of Birmingham.  His personal bikes have always inspired me.  

Mid-cali-westerners Talk Funny

Buckle repair

pics by Dustin 

Double Trouble at the Dojo

These are the two things that have distracted me from writing the most lately.  I am ecstatic to pronounce the 69er ('69/'70 Triumph t120 retired from the flat track) and the Cheesy Rider ('71 CB500) road-going, both after long periods of mid-life retirement.  

The Bro-Jo

Smoking does this to your mouth.

Celebrate

It may not be as romantic as all of this, but I’m not sure that Steinbeck could have written better characters than my friends.  Not intended as an insult to Steinbeck (or my friends), his characters were brilliant, if not well educated and often had true insight.  Their combined antics  and since of loyalty create a force  that even fate seems to have little influence over.  Every moment is reason for celebration or quandary of some cosmic mystery.

A few of my friends have now combined efforts and funds into a building which can house our greatest shared passion.  Not unlike Danny’s house in Steinbeck’s, Tortilla Flat, it has quickly drawn a set of regulars into weekly revelry, creativity and production.   Duane referred to it as the Chopper Kai Dojo and it has struck a chord.  The "chopper" part being in slight jest as most of our chopping experience is limited, but then if you don't laugh a great deal your life might be boring which may be why jest is often high on the priority list.  Just under rent.
   The “Dojo” part of  the name has stuck.  If you have been lucky enough to see the brilliant 1984 americana art film, Karate Kid,  you know that “Dojo” is Japanese for a place of training or learning.  It’s a perfect name.  Our dojo is not a sanctuary, but a gritty collection rooms which is too small to house the amount of people working in it and it has propelled a heightened state of learning, productivity and community amongst us.  

A month before the we signed the lease a few of us helped Duane freshen up the top-end of his Shovel Head motor at Nick’s work shed.  At the end of the day he said, “We need to do this again soon.”  I assume he wasn’t referring to us repeating the work we just did to his engine, but acknowledging the combined since of utility and camaraderie we get from making things on wheels go.  No of us are experts, but every one of my friends is creative and willing to share his past experiences to keep his friend on the road.  

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