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Born Free Texas Invited builder Cody Childress #433
Born Free Texas Invited builder Cody Childress #433
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About this episode
Cody Childress, an invited builder for Born Free Texas, shares insights into his ambitious FXR chopper project. The conversation dives into the evolution of motorcycle building, the challenges of integrating modern technology with classic designs, and the personal journey of craftsmanship. Cody reflects on his past experiences, the importance of community in the motorcycle world, and the significance of building bikes that resonate with personal passion. The episode is filled with anecdotes about the highs and lows of the building process, making it a relatable listen for anyone interested in custom motorcycles.
Topics:
fxr chopper
custom motorcycle building
modern technology
craftsmanship
community
personal journey
motorcycle culture
design challenges
born free texas
fabrication techniques
I took a short road trip to Abilene, Texas, to check out my good friend Cody Childress' new build for Born Free Texas 4! He is building an M8-powered, fuel-injected FXR Chopper that's a beast! Cody Childress is a veteran in the FXR community, an Old Chopper Dog, and honestly, one of the nicest and humblest people I know!
Cody's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/codychildress/
The Fast Life Garage Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@TheFastLifeGarage
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Yo, what's up, everyone, and welcome back to the Fast Life Podcast.
Today, I'm sitting down with invited builder for Born Free Texas 4, Cody Childress.
Now, he's building a completely, completely insane and sick FXR chopper.
All the bells and whistles you can think of on this bike, M8, big-ass M8 at that, with
fuel injection, all kinds of good stuff.
In this episode, we're talking all about it, and you're not going to want to miss it.
Also, please don't hesitate to check out our sponsors in the description below.
1,800 LAWTIGERS, if you or somebody you know has been in an accident, they will get you
taken care of and in the right direction.
Also, Arlen S motorcycles.
If you need to get some cool parts for your bike, I run all their stuff on mine.
I love it.
Cowboy Harley-Davidson has you dialed with brand-new motorcycles and used stuff
as well.
Also, don't forget about custom dynamics.
If you need to get your headlights or tail lights upgraded to see better or be seen while
you're stopping, they got you covered.
Also, RWD V-Twin, new to the list, if you need some suspension, some bearing, some
good parts, they got you covered.
Check them out.
Link in the description.
Now, let's get into this episode with Cody Childress.
Let's go.
Hey, guys.
You ready to let the dogs out?
Fast life, come on.
Fast life, come on.
You in line to get some spice in here.
I'm telling you.
It's hot.
No airflow.
Hey, we're out here doing the Lord's work.
We're out here talking motorcycles, sweating in some fab shops, and yeah, dude, this
thing is, it's, the bar keeps getting raised in FXR choppers, I think.
I don't know who's raising them, but I'm trying.
Well, you know, before we get too far into talking about the bike itself, like what, you
know, your background in building motorcycles, like, I know we talked about that a long time
ago, maybe the first podcast that we did together, which if I remember correctly, it was like
in a small little, somewhere weird, I feel like, because it was a long time ago before
I had a studio.
It was at the apartment that you were renting downtown, or not downtown, like north,
South Dallas.
Yep.
South Dallas.
It was a little apartment.
And so we were in like the conference room.
Yeah.
I was there.
It was that.
Damn.
It's been doing a long.
Yeah.
But, you know, like you're kind of from the chopper dogs, like arena world, and for
the people out there that might be new to the listening podcast and might not have
heard of that, that's that, that like website, that forum, that brought a lot of you
guys together across the country, but it also, I feel like it helped you all hone
your skills.
Sure.
So, yeah.
I mean, all those guys in the chopper dogs that were, I mean, there was a lot of guys
that didn't build or do anything in that arena.
And then when the chopper dogs started, that's when they all started like learning
how to weld or learning how to fab and learning, you know, picking up an English
wheel.
And I mean, it was all based on that, that era of, you know, people don't
like to hear it.
But I mean, Jesse kind of kicked off a certain era of motorcycles that we're
still seeing.
And, you know, I mean, it kind of made the whole it's cool to weld or cool
to make this and in the circle of guys just, I mean, like-minded guys that knew
how to do the stuff started getting on the page and started teaching other
people.
And I mean, a lot of us still, I mean, it's been 25 years, 26 years, a lot of
us are still friends and a lot of guys still in the motorcycle game.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, Brad Barnes, speed dealer yourself, Jason Holman with his
shop is a cycle, cycle stop and countless others.
And I think that like those, those of you that were, you know, in these forms
back then honing your skills.
I mean, a lot of still, I think now a lot of you guys have ownership in the
custom motorcycle industry to some degree or another, you know, like, like
these guys like Brad Barnes, you know, boost to Brad speed dealer, those
guys got a big hold on it.
I mean, they're doing well.
Like, I mean, you know, there's a lot of times I look back and wish
that I wish I would have continued on the path of staying in that industry
part of it and maybe would have done something different.
But having kids just it changed the direction I wanted to go.
And man, there's a lot of factors that got to come, come to the table
so that that becomes a reality.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And if you're, you know, if you're dabbling, not dabbling, but if you're
like doing motorcycles, but kind of one foot in, one foot out, then
you always see an escape.
Sure.
You know, I think.
And then when you're like, when you don't think there's another option,
you just got to do that role with the, you know, you got to find a
way to stay afloat and hit those waves of highs and lows.
You know what I mean?
And I was full time in the motorcycle business, open my first full time shop.
I got, I got in at 99 my first full time shop in like 03.
And then in 08 when things got the chopper, the gold rush or the chopper
crash, what I call it, the economy went to shit and I got scared
and had a young kid that was willing to buy me out, which is not
the worst decision I've made in life, but one of the not very
smart decisions that I made.
I should have just hung on and stuck it out.
And, but I mean, I am where I'm at.
And that's, that's just how it went.
So shit.
Since 08, I mean, we've had a few different waves of bike eras.
And it's hard to believe.
Cause when I think about 2015 and riding big wheels, I don't feel
like it was 10 years ago.
You know what I'm saying?
It doesn't feel like it.
Cause that's when matter of fact, that's the first time I met you
was 2015 at Sturgis at the Knuckle.
Yeah.
Saloon, you were with, you had your big wheel bagger and you were
with Daryl, Daryl, and his, he had the Panicking.
Yep.
That's still a cool.
That's big wheel.
That is the day that I should have never got away with it.
I have never been so drunk in Sturgis riding around.
I nowadays just seeing how, you know, I was just oblivious to like,
I couldn't believe it.
I was watching.
I was like, dude, I don't even know how this guy's going to make it.
We were at the Knuckle trashed.
Jumped on the bikes.
Daryl and I both, and I might be incriminating him in this.
So I'm sorry, Daryl, but we all asked the spearfish to go to a
urban bagger, American bagger party.
I was with y'all.
I went to the party with y'all and then y'all left me.
And so we're there and mind you at the time, I'm staying in
Hill City.
That's where my place is.
Oh, wow.
And I'm, I'm on the highway one eyeing it from spearfish
and I got to go all the way to Rapid City and then cut
south another 30-something miles to Hill City.
So like I said, I should have not gotten away with that.
And that was like, that was the last time I ever really drunk
anywhere in Sturgis and actually was on my bike since then.
I've always, and I don't, if I ride anywhere, I'll have maybe
one drink, two drinks max.
Just, yeah, I've been pulled over too many times, not
drinking that.
I know as soon as I drink, I'll get pulled over.
That's what I'm saying.
Like I get pulled over all the time out there and luckily
I've only gotten one ticket, but I don't know how the fuck
I got away with riding the way I was riding as belligerently drunk
as I was and I survived both, you know, physically and, you
know, financially by not getting pulled over by the cops.
Sure.
So, but yeah, that's, that's another time.
Right.
I remember the first time, like I feel like you, like I, I
really have to attribute a lot of your first FXR, the
first iteration of the orange FXR as kind of like my gateway
drug into FXRs, mainly because you customized it in a way that
was very, like in a way that I was already kind of used to not
saying that you big will baggered in FXR, but like in my
world of big will baggers, we were custom painting and all
the things that we would do on those bikes is kind of what
you did on, on the FXR minus the huge will just aesthetically.
It was, you know what I mean?
Sure.
Well, that was my goal like 2015.
I was at the FXR show.
Uh, I know Brad Barnes had won like People's Choice or I
think Frankie Vidal won something.
And, um, in my head, I was like, you know, I want to
build one of these.
So I started, had a couple of different versions that I went
through trying to get it right.
And then I was like, I want, I want to go more over the
top with it because everything is, everybody was using a lot
of black, everything was black.
Yeah.
And I was like, I want to do something different.
I wanted to do, mix it up like the orange wheels.
Everybody was like, don't do orange wheels.
Don't do the orange wheels.
Like, like, why not?
And they're like, nobody does orange wheels.
I'm like, oh, then I'm going to do a point.
Yeah.
So I mean, and I think that, I think that FXR, I mean, I
ended up changing it after that.
Um, but I think that FXR, not that I open any doors or
change the direction of, but I think that FXR set maybe not a
trend or it didn't raise the bar maybe.
I mean, I hate to even say that.
I think it opened the door, but I think you're right.
I think it did open the door for a little more, Hey, we can
do a little more with FXR than what we're doing.
And, and, and I think about that a lot because, you
know, Corey at main drive and I talk about this a lot,
like on more of the maybe philosophical level of the ever
flowing trends of motorcycles and how things kind of go.
And, you know, we both have been watching the growth and the
evolution of not just the M8 FXR, but also the chopper FXR,
which when I did mine, obviously I spent the entire time doing
it, paying homage to the ones that inspired me.
Sure.
Scott, uh, who had the Frisco FXR and then, you know, Al
Emerson that was currently building still to the state,
one of my favorite ones ever exists.
And so what I think that my FXR did was the same thing that
yours did for guys like me early on, is it opened the doors and
people's minds to it, took something that was kind of
underground and put enough of the right stuff on it to make
it more popular, kind of like the slipknot of like metal
music or something, you know what I mean?
So it's kind of like, that's what I feel like we did.
Not that we invented or did anything crazy like that.
I just feel like we made something that was kind of
underground, a little bit more palatable for someone that
doesn't have the deeper roots and, and connections to the
motorcycle industry.
And I mean, I think like there's been a lot of hate on FXR
choppers.
And I think people they think FXR and chopper don't go
together, but then you can go back to bagger and performance
bagger.
Like nobody thought performance bagger was going to be a big
thing.
And now you got bagger racing league and guys, those guys
are running like stupid GP Moto fast on, on modified baggers.
But I think the FXR chopper, I think is, I mean, I'm glad to
see it coming alive.
And I think you're right.
I think your bike opened the door for that.
Scott nine's bike.
I mean, that, that bike's been around for since 2012, a long
time.
And matter of fact, he, he helped with my, he's helped, he
made the tank for this bike just because I'm paying a
little homage to, to that bike, because that's the, the
error of chopper I grew up in was the West Coast chopper
error of choppers.
I mean, everybody kind of had their following and this
bike, this particular bike, I mean, I want it, you know,
I wanted to longer front end and I wanted some rake and I had
a lot of people say, don't put rake in it and keep it stock.
Don't stretch it.
Don't do this.
Don't do that.
And I kept changing it and, you know, ended up with a plan
and I don't know if you could call it a performance
chopper or, but you can definitely call it an FXR chopper.
Yeah, if, if I mean, the diehard chopper guys, it's
not a rigid frame.
So yeah, but I don't give a fuck about any of that.
I mean, when they asked me if I, you know, wanted
to build something and the more I thought about it and I was
like, I'm going to build what I want to build if everybody
likes it, grade, if they don't great, that's kind of been the
philosophy I followed for a lot of years.
So I just stuck to it.
So yeah, I feel like that's, that's one of the main
things that you, that I'm realizing in myself is that I
have to do the bike.
So I'm actually feeling like I'm interested in like, you
know what I mean?
Cause then it just becomes a job.
Like I'm just building this bike that I really don't want
to, but it's the cool thing to do or whatever the case
may be.
And I've had so many FXRs since my first one in 2017 where I
had like an idea, but I never got excited to do it.
And then the bike would turn into a frame and then part
it out or, you know, I just sell it as is or something
like that.
And so I've gotten to a point where when I, when I
recognize that feeling of excitement that I try to
capitalize and jump on it before it's, you know,
fleeting or gone or whatever.
Well, the last podcast you and I did was in 23.
Yeah.
And I talked about on your podcast about my dad and
him, my dad, my basically getting burnt out is what I
talked about.
And I was at a stage in my life that I was burned out.
It was just, I was trying to find something to get
excited about.
And I was doing the whiskey thing.
And I was kind of sort of getting back into the
motorcycle stuff and fab stuff.
And then February of 24, I end up in the hospital, go
through that whole deal.
And then I come out of that by the grace of God, really.
I mean, I'm lucky to be here.
And then I get healed up.
And about the time I get healed up, I get approached
about born free.
And that relit the fire for me.
Like it, I mean, I attributed to God's having
perfect timing for me.
I mean, like I look back and I'm like, I needed
something to give me a spark.
And I asked to do it.
I mean, it was like the timing, it couldn't have
been more perfect, like scared the shit out of me
because I didn't know if I was prepared.
And I still, it ain't done yet.
So we'll see, I mean.
There's always that fear.
But it did light the fire.
Like I'm, I'm working on some parts, working on
doing, I got a couple of little things I'm working
on trying to bring to market.
And I'm trying to get back more heavy into the
motorcycle industry and the fab side of it.
So I feel like I have, I mean, I'm gonna be 52
in about 20 days.
So I feel like maybe going through what I went
through in 24 is it, it, what's the right way to put it?
It, it put my life in perspective as far as I'm
not too old to still do some cool stuff.
Yeah.
I'm still not the most talented guy,
but I'm talented enough.
I can still do some cool stuff.
So I don't want it to go to waste.
So, and then I want my kids to see like, hey, you know,
I don't want them to watch me just burn out and
just stay at home and be dad.
Yeah.
Just mow the yard, you know, like, so this,
this hit at the perfect time.
Like I'm, I'm, I'm excited about it.
You know, I'm, I'm, I think it's, it's a,
it's a balance of seizing and opportunity,
but also like, and I've always said this,
you know, self motivating yourself to do things
when, when, when there's no like deadline or I think that
the, the idea of being a born free invited builder of any
kind of capacity or invited anything to any show,
it's not so much the, the, oh, I'm going to this.
It's more like, man, now someone has tasked me to do
something and I feel like I have to hold up my end of
the bargain.
So there's a lot of accountability that comes into
that opportunity through certain people.
And of course there's certain people that get these
opportunities all the time in the squandering.
They don't do shit with it.
Right.
Recognizing it as an opportunity,
not just like what it might become,
but understanding what it's going to do to you,
the version of you that's going to be created during
that time, customizing, building,
putting your mind to use to figure out,
Oh, I don't like the way this vendor is.
I'm going to modify it as much work as all that
becomes, it's exhilarating.
No, you're right.
A hundred percent.
Like I needed the pressure.
Like I needed that deadline.
I needed like, you know, and like born free Texas,
like it was a huge thing for me.
I've never been invited to any type of build a bike
for this or show or whatever.
So, I mean, I was pumped.
Like, and I don't want to let those guys down.
I don't want to let you down.
I don't want to let myself down, you know?
And so I'm building as good a bike as I can build
for it, but without the deadline,
I think I would have probably just slowed down
and maybe got it finished, maybe not with the deadline.
And it's going to, it's going to make me,
it's going to make me finish it.
Yeah. With out of deadline, sometimes you can, you can,
I mean, those, those, uh, that energy or that, uh, that drive,
it kind of goes up and down, right?
One day you're, it's like sometimes the most energetic
you're about is when you're laying in bed
at two in the morning, looking at the ceiling going,
that's all I want to do is be at the shop right now.
You know?
It has been that way.
Like I've had so many nights of like laying in bed
and then three o'clock, I'm like, jump up, shower,
and then come here and work on it because I can't sleep
because I'm thinking about what I need to do
or what needs to be changed.
Or I come up with an idea and if I don't write it down
or go fix it right then, I may not do it.
So I mean, and then there's been days
I want to fucking light that motherfucker on fire.
Like I want to knock it off the lift
and burn it to the ground.
Yeah.
Well, to go back to your point about getting burned out
about this, I'll give you a little bit of my perspective
of the back end of building my gold bike.
The weirdest thing about it is that like,
if I'm building, if you're building it for yourself
it's kind of like, you know,
you're having all those hard conversations deciding it.
There's nobody else really to lay blame on.
You chose that color.
You chose that finish.
You chose all the things on the bike, right?
So there's a lot of like, I don't know if the word's anxiety
into that aspect of it, but there's like a built up,
like I have no out here.
It's all my responsibility, right?
If it's not cool.
But to me, like what happened on the back end of mine
is that the idea of like maybe opening the doors
to start building bikes for people,
I wanted to entertain that.
And every time I just even like notion
that when I would get a conversation about it,
I'm like, oh, that's how you get burned out
because now someone wants you to build a bike,
but their version of build a bike is,
hey, I already ordered all the parts for this bike.
I want this, this, this, and this,
and now you're just doing the work.
You're not even like, you have no creativity,
you have no say.
Yeah, and I'm, I have zero interest in that one.
And that's what a lot of bike building is these days.
It's hard to, it's hard.
I mean, I have three individual people right now
that are kind of talking to me about building a bike,
but once, as these conversations kind of keep going,
I'm realizing all I'm doing is painting it.
And then there's gonna be a box of parts that show up
that I gotta throw those bars on exhaust
and some other shit.
And at the end of the day, it's like,
I mean, I'm excited to paint it
because that's the creative part of it.
But like, to me, building a bike is,
you're gonna cut, modern bike or old bike doesn't matter.
You're gonna come and we're gonna sit across this table
before you spend any money.
And we're gonna kind of plan out
the direction of this bike.
And that's a fun fucking process.
It is a fun process.
It's way funner.
I try to tell people it's way more fun
than you ordering a fucking pipe while you're taking a shit.
Right.
And the gratification that lasts way longer
when you are part of this process
the way you're supposed to be.
They get excited when they make purchases, right?
But they're forgetting the other part of it.
It's the sitting back here
for an hour and a half just staring at something.
You know, it's that to me is the part.
I think some people with ordering parts,
I think they have it to where if they order parts
it makes them feel like they're part of the build process.
Yeah.
And I mean, I don't like that.
Like I don't, I would love to build bikes for people.
I would love for somebody to come and say,
hey, I want you to build me a bike.
But I want it to be on the level of,
hey, I want you to build me a bike.
This is kind of what I'm thinking in my head,
but go with what, you know,
because they're gonna see something I've done
and say, I like that.
So if you see something I did and you like it
but then you come to me and say,
let's build something 180 degrees
from what it is that you normally do.
Yeah.
I don't want to do that.
Like I don't, it's hard to.
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You don't wanna be an asshole
but it's like man this is just not really my cup of tea.
Yeah and I mean and I don't even think
it's being an asshole like I'm never an asshole about it
and it's not like anybody's knocking at my door
to have me build a bike.
Now that being said,
I've already had a couple people message me
about buying this bike and it's unfinished
and I said no I don't,
they were like well I wanna buy it right now
and I'm like I can't do it.
They're like well I wanna pick the colors
and I wanna do this and I'm like that's not,
I'm not doing that.
So I mean and today with the culture
of instant gratification it is like,
I mean you can't even get on Facebook or Instagram
or what TikTok or whatever without seeing
a million different things you can order right then.
So people that they like ordering their own stuff
you know and I mean it's hard for,
I remember going through the stages of having a shop
and being like I don't install customer furnished parts.
Yeah.
And you know there's still some shops that don't.
Your Harley dealerships won't
and I don't know why it's so taboo
for independent shops to say hey I don't,
unless you're bringing me something
that's a one off machined part
that you had specifically made for it then I get it
but even then you can't guarantee the fitment
if I'm not the one that's setting it up
and making it work you're just bringing me a box of parts
and then you hope they all fit.
Yeah and then you have to explain to them
why something doesn't work and now they think
that you're trying to get over on them
and you're playing this whole game
of like managing expectations
it's not part of the process of building bikes.
When I'm building something for myself
I'm only concerned with my expectations.
Not like okay well I gotta go find a way
to explain this situation to the customer
to let them know that it's gonna be this much more
or we gotta scrap it or his idea just isn't gonna work
or it doesn't look good.
You know it's just like those are a lot of fucking
hard conversations to have with someone
who's spending money and you're counting
on keeping them happy enough
to complete the project with you.
You know what I mean?
Yeah I do 100% you know and any more
I don't even know how if you asked me,
hey if you had this much money
and you wanted somebody to build you a bike
who would you call?
There's so many guys out there
building incredible stuff that I wouldn't even know.
I wouldn't even know who to call.
I mean there's so many guys doing such cool stuff
that I mean I would have a hard time saying
yeah I would love for this guy to build me a bike
or that guy to build me a bike
because you got OGs in the game
that are still building stuff that have been for 30 years.
It's hard not to say hey this is where I would go.
Yeah sometimes it'd be really nice
to have a motorcycle built by a certain person
for the collectability or the culture side of things.
I'm riding a Ron Sims bike that,
I was a Ron Sims fan.
When I was younger and I came across a deal
on a Ron Sims bike and I got it
and had some paintwork done, changed some stuff on it
and I mean I love that little bike.
Like it's just a little bike I can get on
and thrash around on and not be super worried about it
but it's, that bike's 20, 23 years old
and still in pretty good shape but you know
I mean there's so many guys I could name.
I mean that guys that I was influenced by,
I mean you can look at this bike
until I was heavily influenced by West Coast choppers.
I mean that's, you know, I think by the,
just the fender setup and the frame dimensions
and I mean that's where a lot of my influence came from.
A lot of people say oh West Coast chopper this or that
but that was my era of choppers.
That was the era of what I was watching.
Like you know my dad was a biker
but my dad built his own stuff
but he never taught me anything.
So I was learning through chopper dogs,
the internet, stuff that just pictures all the catalogs,
magazines, I mean that's kind of the era
of what I was learning.
Had it been another person or a different,
like there's some guys that are,
they don't want to build anything
if it doesn't look like a Billy Lane bike.
They love that Billy Lane style.
Everybody has something that they're drawn to
and you know, Jesse and I are not friends,
we're not enemies, we don't even know each other.
But I admire all of his work
and I'm heavily influenced by it
and people are, I'm not trying to copy him by any means
but I'm just influenced by that particular style.
Yeah but everybody's got an inspiration from somewhere
you know and that's, you know
I've said this on the podcast
that probably nausea him for people
but like we're all a product of our inspirations
and what we create is a version
of all those things melded together into us
and then the outcome is like a unique thing
but there's always gonna be design cues.
The same way music is, you know
there's bands that are influenced by multiple bands
and then they come together
and create some other sound
that's obviously got a pull from this band
and this band and this
and it's something new but it's so familiar.
Sure, you know.
No, 100%.
And there's certain things about like,
there's certain things about like design
that you really, you know
you're splitting hairs at some point
because something is really good.
So going too far away from that formula gets,
doesn't look good, right?
So like if a style like a classic, you know
West Coast CFL style like this right here
I mean, if you're into that
like you go too far off of that
now you're in a different genre of motorcycle.
Correct.
You know?
Correct.
You're more of a barber now.
Maybe you're more of Indian Larry
kind of skinny tire, you know, different look
but if that's a different look
so like I said, you're trying to design
and create and build off of like a parameter
in a sense not, I wouldn't say a box
but just like keeping it something
in the family of what you're aesthetically in.
Sure.
Well, I mean, you know
you're influenced by things that you see
when you're, whether it's your parents, your friends
whether you're an athlete, you play sports
I mean there's all the outside influences you get
and you take and you spend those all around your head
and then come up with your own version
of all those different influences
that create what it is as the end product.
Yeah.
You know, you have to take influence from somewhere
or, you know, anybody that says they just came up
with something out of just poof, I got it.
It's hard for me to believe.
I mean, I know there's guys that do that
that are way smarter than me
but for the most part in the motorcycle industry
everybody's looking at something someone else has done
and trying to figure out how to do it better
a little bit cooler or a modified version of it.
I mean, there's no
not that there's not original stuff
but I think a lot of it is just like
small incremental advances
and then over 25 years
it looks like a drastic change in things.
You know what I mean?
And I'm excited to see like I know there's lots of guys
like with your FXR chopper
there's other FXR choppers I know in the works.
I know the FXR tours got quite a few of them.
Yeah, yeah.
You know what I mean?
So I don't, I forget his first name
at the Polly Bacon Fingers
is what they call on Instagram.
That's a cool bike.
Like I like that bike a lot.
So Tucker Speeds doing one
and he's always does good work.
So I mean, I think you're gonna see some cool stuff.
So I may be out of my league
but I'm gonna give it hell.
So I think that the FXR chopper just kind of
you can't really buy them, right?
So I think that I think Corey and I touched on this
on the last podcast we were on.
I think a lot of people have gotten to this point
where in 23 ish, 24 for sure
how many people wanted to build another performance bagger?
They'd already done one or two, you know
there wasn't a huge resellable market in it
that like across the board.
And you know, you're gonna put to do one all out
you're gonna easily spend $80, $90,000
building one of these bikes out, right?
And so like I think for people, you know
building an FXR something, some other type of bike that's
you know, you can easily have $80, $90,000 in this as well
but the thing is that there's a scalable range
that you can still make it cool with 20 grand.
Sure, 100%. You can make it cooler with 25
or you can go all out and have 100 grand in an FXR.
And I think that it just like people
were just looking for something new to do
and I think that there's a challenge
that comes with putting an M8 into an FXR
and there's a challenge with doing a chopper style.
You're relying on your ability to cut, weld, create,
put together.
So it's like tasking something different
as opposed to like new finishes, new billet parts.
This is definitely the most challenging frame.
I didn't build the frame entirely from scratch
but about 85% of it is all new
but definitely the most challenging frame
I have had to do in 25 years.
I mean, the pivot mounts, the down tube,
changing the angles of the stuff I didn't like.
It has definitely been the most challenging bike
I've ever done.
What is the stretch on yours right now?
And how far up?
Backbone stretch, like forward, no clue.
Down tube stretch is 5.5 inches
and it's 5.5 inches over the stock length
of a factory FXR chassis.
And I mean, give it a say.
So basically you were still following
the down tube trajectory up
and so whatever that stretch would end up being
is kind of what you got with.
Well, so basically I put an FXR frame on this table
and measured from flat to bottom of the neck
on a factory chassis.
And then I set my jig up at five inches
exactly from the table above that height.
And then when I started, because I set the engine
and trans and the swing arm up, I fixtures those first.
So basically built the chassis around it.
And so I ended up raising another half inch
because I didn't want the backbone to come back down.
I wanted the backbone to follow parallel
with the rear head.
And so I had to give it another,
I think it was another, it may have been an inch.
I mean, I went from four and a half to five and a half.
I don't remember exactly, but it's got 38 degrees in it,
which is 100% based on a CFL chassis.
I mean, I took that, you know,
and I'm like everybody hates rake triple trees.
I say everybody, that's a broad term,
but I wanted to run rake triple trees.
And I've argued with countless people about
at 38 degrees running a rake triple tree
versus a standard triple tree.
Is it gonna make that much difference?
And for me, I want it to handle well.
I don't want it to be super heavy in the front end.
So what are you total rake with the trees and the neck?
I've got 38 degrees in the neck.
And then I'll have the trees are four degrees.
So 42 degrees, you know, it's a little longer
than I expected it to be.
I really was, I was wanting to run
about a four over front end.
And right now I'm at about six over
with the ride height that I want,
but that was a little miscalculation on my part.
Just basing, it was hard to base off like soft tail choppers
or rigid frame choppers having a little bit lower ride height
with the FXR.
I mean, I could have set it down a little bit lower,
but I've had to run such a short shock.
At that point, I'm like, is it still worth?
I mean, I don't, I think it was too low at that point.
So yeah, we got 38 degrees.
I want to say it's about five and a half up.
I actually brought it back.
I brought the down tube back.
I notched the down tube and brought it back closer
to the engine so that it would still follow
that front cylinder angle,
but also not be so fucking far away from me that,
I mean, I'm six foot and it's still,
it was still a little felt like
it was a little bit out there for me.
Now that I brought the down tube back
and short in the backbone, I mean,
I don't know what the backbone stretch is.
I mean, I-
Yeah, I think it's probably,
I mean, it's kind of like ends up being whatever, you know.
It just, it was the measurement that, I mean,
I cut it to whatever that length was
because I put the down tube in first
and then I put, I had the neck
and then I put the down tube in
and then the backbone was the last piece that I put in.
So just because I wanted,
once I got the engine where I wanted it,
I put the backbone in so that everything,
what I was trying to accomplish
from probably as much as anything was
looking like this chassis was built for an M8,
like not putting an M8 in a chassis
by modifying the chassis,
but basically building a chassis
that was designed for an M8 to go in it.
Like, I mean, I've raised the engine up,
changed how the front mounts work.
You know, it, the engine sits up a little higher,
got some ground clearance there.
You know, once you get to this stage of it,
you can look back and go,
man, I think I maybe I should have changed that
or I think I should have done this better,
but being with time constraints,
it's probably a good thing.
Cause if not, I would just probably
forever be changing things.
Like, so I'm at a point now,
I'm like, I've got to get past the hack
and make this a little bit better.
And I got to move forward.
It's like my wife said, she goes,
you're never gonna fucking finish it
if you don't stop changing things, you know?
But like the rear fender,
I posted on Instagram the rear fender,
would it have worked?
Yes.
Did it look good?
I don't know.
I just couldn't let it go.
So that's what, I mean, I've got,
in that rear fender,
remaking that rear fender, shaping it in the hole.
I mean, I got probably 40 or 50 hours
into just that fender right now.
You know, and I'm not quite done with it.
I've got another few hours to get it right.
I mean, I know that sounds people are gonna go,
there's no way you have 40 or 50 hours in a fender.
Probably not real hand time just on it,
but by the time you, you know,
plan a shit, I mean, hammer and dolly it,
like finish it, the measurements,
like there's so much fucking work into that rear fender.
Nobody will probably ever know, but me,
you know, like tapering it from,
it's eight and three quarter in the front.
And then it's seven, three quarter at the rear,
getting that taper right, getting it right on both sides.
And I mean, I'm the only one
that'll probably really know that it's there
other than, you know, you're seeing it.
But I mean, it just flows better now.
I mean, with the tank and everything.
So I've got to make some fender strip modifications,
but I hated the bike at first.
I didn't like it at all,
but as things started coming together
and it starts to turn into a roller
and you start looking at with the tank and the fenders
and then I've kind of fell in love with it.
I mean, like then it even sparked more motivation
for me to work like, you know,
cause I work a full-time job during the day
and then I come do this at night
and then I play hooky from work when I can.
You know, so I mean, my days are,
sometimes it's three in the morning until eight
and then I go to my day job and then I come back here at five
and then from five to two or three in the morning
and it's just, you know, like I'm fucking tired,
but I'm excited.
So, you know, and I'm more down to crunch time now.
I got about Tuesday, I need to be,
I need to have all the fab work done
by the like Monday or Tuesday,
like the first needs to be, you know, the day for me.
I mean, and I'm still waiting on,
I mean, I've had several,
several problems like if it could have went wrong,
it probably did during this.
I mean, I'm not naming any names of any companies,
but man, there's some motherfuckers out there
that are so hard to do business with, it's incredible.
But there's also some companies that have been,
I gotta give boosted Brad a shout out, man.
If I call him and say, hey, I'm looking for one of these,
we're looking for one of these, man.
I mean, it's, it's, I've priced and shipped
same day almost like it's his customer services
on it, second to none, man.
And that's a huge thing for, you know,
I've taken, there's people that have been like,
oh, you're using a lot of boosted Brad stuff.
I'm like, it's available.
It looks good.
And he ships it and he's your friend.
Yeah. And he's a good, he's a good motherfucker.
Like he's just a good dude.
Like, you know, and, and I mean,
there's people are like, oh, you bought this
and you bought that.
I'm like, yeah, I did.
I have bought a lot of parts,
but I've also built almost an entire chassis,
you know, making fenders.
I think people forget that sometimes.
You know, like you, I'm not gonna,
I can't make my own wheels.
Like I don't have the ability.
Like, so yeah, I got to buy wheels.
Now I designed them and had them cut.
So they're, they're one off.
Like, but I wanted to make my own exhaust.
I don't have enough time.
There's just not a fucking train, man.
Every day, 20 times a day.
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Yeah, I mean, you know, people say, you know,
they're, yeah, well, I mean, anybody can go buy this
or anybody can buy that.
I mean, yeah, yeah, I can go buy stuff,
but I mean, you don't have to modify everything,
but not everything is just a bolt-on part, you know,
and everybody thinks that it's a bolt-on part,
but, you know, sometimes it doesn't just bolt-on.
So, you know, I've been through two different front ends
and hell, by the time this bike's done,
I'll have enough pieces I can build another bike.
So, I mean.
I've been the same boat with the FXR just finished.
Yeah. Yeah.
A lot of shit, I mean, when you're,
when you start running into that deadline,
you know, as I was getting closer to Sturgis,
it was more like, I don't want to take a chance.
So I'm going to order three different versions of this
just to get it here, like three different brake lines
and three different fittings.
And, you know, you can go around that wall right there
and look on that counter.
And I mean, I have been so undecisive
that, like I say, I literally, you know,
I used a 2019 driveline to mock all this up
and it was out of an electric glide.
So I've got a complete 2019 electric glide
that is all going to be put back together.
And I really, I think I have enough parts
that I'm going to build this, this bike,
I'm calling it the Texas rattlesnake is what I'm calling it.
And just because it's got the diamond pattern on it
and Brad's risers are called diamond backs.
So I kind of, I made, you know,
the wheels were kind of designed after that theme,
the swing arm struts.
I've got a few other pieces kind of have a diamond thing.
So, and being this Texas,
I'm just calling it the Texas rattlesnake,
but my goal is I'm going to build a bagger
that's kind of the twin version to this chopper.
So I can have a chopper and a bagger that are
not identical, but close.
Like it's, but like, I mean, I'll say,
I want to, I want to run these,
these bolts for my rotor,
but I might want to run these,
but these are pretty cool too.
So then you end up, you order three,
and then you're like, fuck, I don't need three.
Did you get a lot of those new Arlen S bolts?
How are they?
I haven't seen them in person.
Fucking beautiful, man.
They are.
Yeah, like as soon as he came out with that,
I was like, I'm going to buy them.
Cause I was looking at,
I was buying some titanium stuff
through race tech titanium,
but it's mostly metric.
But so I was trying to find metric standard,
make it all kind of go together.
And then when Arlen,
when they came out with all that titanium stuff,
I was like, fuck, that's rad.
Cause I'm a big diamond engineering,
like the diamond 12 point stuff.
Yeah.
He's, he's gotten a little older.
Things have slowed down.
It's a little harder to get stuff,
but I'm a huge fan of his,
his, I mean, my,
I've got a box of 12 point over there,
but I wanted to mix it up a little bit.
And then now Trask,
Nick's just come out with all his full,
have you seen those new titanium kits he has?
Fuck dude.
They're like 12 point titanium.
And he makes them for everything.
Like, I mean, like damn near everything
on a touring bike, soft tail,
like you can get, I mean, all the, all the stuff.
So, so now I'm like, okay,
do I need to mix some of that in?
Or like you can just go, you can go crazy.
Like you can get so,
and that's what I'm guilty of is
I get so much in my head about,
I'll get so fixated on how one thing has to look
on Monday.
And then on Tuesday,
I'm completely changed my mind on,
because I put another part on it.
And I'm like, I got to tie those together.
So you can go, you can get wacko about it.
Like my, my,
I was going to name the bike chapter 11
because I figured it was going to put me
into bankrupt so you go home.
And my wife, she,
she's been on my ass a little bit about like,
I think you have enough shit.
So let's just go ahead and get the bike ready
and paint and finish it up.
Like no more bullshit.
So I was like, all right, cool.
So, but I'm excited about it.
Dude, I am, I'm, you know,
I know that you put my name in the hat for,
for Born Free.
I don't know if that's supposed to be
public knowledge or not,
but I'm, I appreciate you putting my name in the hat.
You know, I basically,
I just feel like a, you know,
given the opportunity to help out with brands
like Born Free on stuff like this.
I mean, one of the benefits of being able to go meet
and know so many people in the motorcycle industry
is that you also get to know their,
the integrity of the people.
And what Born Free wants is
they want people to come through.
They want them to do the job.
They want, they want everybody
that they invite to show up, right?
And I think that sometimes, you know,
people, you know, plans on January or February
don't always work out to,
to make it to where something's possible in October.
So regardless of someone's skills in building sometimes,
just people that have their life managed well enough
to come through on opportunities is an important thing.
Because if, if Born Free doesn't have builders
and sometimes they don't have a show, right?
Well, and this just, this has been a,
it's been a juggling act for me.
Just like learning about it.
And then I was like, all right, I've got some time.
And then I went through this phase of, oh shit,
what am I gonna build?
And then trying to make this work and this work.
And then like, okay, I need one of these.
I couldn't get it.
So I tried a different part, it wouldn't work.
So I'm scrambling.
And then my daughter's graduating high school.
Every weekend I've got a graduation party.
Both my kids play volleyball.
Every weekend I've got tournaments.
I've got athletics.
And then, you know, I'm my oldest moving out.
I'm like, I've got to spend time with her.
She's going off to college.
Like my life is fixing to change.
So two weeks ago I moved her to Lubbock to go to tech.
So I literally took a week off just to try to sort out
like how much different my life's gonna be
without her being in my house.
And it's a huge change for me, man.
Like I'll get emotional if I think about it for very long.
But, you know, it's not like,
oh, she's just going to school, she'll be back.
Like that was a, that was a life.
Like she's 18 and going off to school
and she's going to do her own thing.
And it set me back a little bit.
I was, I was, that didn't do very well
with dealing with her going off.
And I have a younger daughter who's full-time volleyball
at high school.
And then now she's going to be on this team in Fort Worth.
And we got to drive to Fort Worth twice a week
for practice.
And I mean, schedule is just busy.
So I'm, you know, I don't have a lot
of motorcycle help or a lot of people around me
that support.
I mean, I've got a lot of support,
but as far as helping work on the bike,
I got one dude, you met him earlier, Joe,
without his help, man, none of me getting this bike done
would be possible.
Like he's come in and been a huge help for me.
So, but the deadline is, it sounds like a long time.
Yeah.
Until you get to about where we are right now.
Yeah.
And then you're like, oh, fuck, you know,
because that's kind of where everybody
that I've talked to, and I haven't talked,
to be honest, I looked at the list of builders
and I was kind of like, oh, fuck, man,
there's some talented guys on there, like, you know,
but I haven't seen anything from anybody
other than a few people, like,
so either people are just getting their stuff done
and they're just going to bring fire to the game
or people are like, fuck it, and I'm not doing anything
or, and me and a couple other guys
that I've talked to were at the, oh, fuck,
I hope I finish it stage, you know?
So.
Yeah, I think that, you know, for mine,
so I was explaining to some friends,
I was like, well, I was actually telling Jason Ochoa
about this, who is also one of the main guys helping.
Yeah, he's the one that called me.
Curate all the builders and stuff for Born Free,
I was like, for those of us in the motorcycle industry,
like, that's our job, like, we had Sturgis first
and that's like, you kind of have to be a part of that.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
And so it's not that things weren't happening
on the job, on my build prior to that,
it's just that, until that's over,
it's hard to dedicate 100% of my time
because I have customer builds,
you know, the FXR I just did,
that I was trying to do for Sturgis,
it was kind of like a warm-up for me.
Okay.
You know, in a sense, like,
I hadn't really customized a bike like this
since I did the chopper two years ago.
Gotcha.
So my mind was like, you know what, man,
if I do this first, I'll get familiar with the feeling.
You know what I mean?
And I actually had that drive and the motivation
to do this FXR, so I was like, fuck it, let's do it.
And plus, I needed another bike
that my wife could ride on the back with me.
Right.
And I haven't had anything other than the chopper
for the last two years, so,
and then I'm about to build another chopper,
which is not gonna be something my wife
is gonna want to ride on.
So this FXR was kind of an opportunity
to put something together that we can enjoy,
but also we can sell it, and that's kind of the plan.
Sure.
It's not a bike I'm keeping.
I'm just trying to keep it long enough
to make some content and, you know,
get a little bit of joy out of it,
but I'm not doing any bike trips on it.
It's gonna stay low mileage,
try to working out all the little,
I don't have any kinks right now,
but I'm trying to put miles on it
to see if some are created
so that by the time I do get ready to sell it,
like it'll be a confident thing.
Yeah, I mean, you gotta shake it down, so.
Yeah, I know it's got Arlen S wheels on it.
Yeah.
Dude, I'm telling you, man,
I have a set of Nest wheels over there.
I don't know, I mean, they're products,
there's a lot of people
who give them shit about their products.
They're products are fucking nice, dude.
I haven't ordered anything from them.
I mean, it shows up on time.
It's nice, like it's packaged well,
like these are one-off wheels,
but those Nest wheels, I mean,
I ordered them out of drag.
They are so nice that I thought about swapping them out.
I mean, like they just make nice products, man.
I just mean, and I'm not sponsored by them.
They're not giving me anything.
I'm just, they have really nice stuff.
Well, they're just, they're a well-oiled machine.
They are a well-oiled machine.
Corey and the team do a, you know.
Well, their goal is to make,
they've really done a great job
making it easier for people who want to get a taste
of customizing their motorcycle
to where, you know, like we were talking about this earlier.
It's like a lot of brands don't,
like they make parts now for specific areas of bikes.
So, you know, like the area you grew up in
in this industry and the area I grew up in,
even when it was specific to that bike, it didn't fit.
You know?
No, 100%.
So nowadays most of that stuff is pretty, pretty well done.
You know, you get levers from Nest
or you get their mid-controls for the baggers.
Like the stuff goes on,
you can kind of do it yourself in the garage.
Yeah.
So it solves the problem and it's
Nice stuff.
It's like, it's custom, it's the next level of custom
without you having to deal with all the type of shit
you deal with whenever you're doing something like this.
You know, where you're modifying things to make work.
You're blending different.
You know, this is from a bagger,
but this is from an FXR.
This is from that.
And you're trying to bring all this stuff together.
It's not bolt on.
Right.
No, it's 100%.
I mean, that's what's nice about the Nest stuff
is you can bolt it on.
I mean, I've ordered some hubs from them and some wheels.
I mean, that just used everything for mock-up
and they all bolted on really well.
So these wheels were done by SMT.
Yeah.
And they did a fantastic job doing them.
It's just a long process, man,
from drawing it out to concept to getting it done.
And you know, just like, and I'm pretty patient,
but then, you know, like six months
and you're still waiting on something.
I just got these.
I got back from Sturgis and these were at my front door.
So yeah, it's good.
But yeah, well, it's tough for these.
Like I said, it's all tough.
And I get why some brand,
I understand fully why some brands
have longer wait times for certain things.
You know what I'm saying?
Sure, well, you have to.
I mean, it's especially if you're going to do custom
or one-off or chrome.
Like you think, in my opinion,
like they're not going to send a set of wheels,
a lone set of wheels get chromed each time.
I mean, that's when you look at the,
like when you go to click on,
I want to get this wheel and it says,
all right, anodized this much chrome this much.
It's like $200 more.
It's like, hey, in real life,
if you take those anodized wheels
and then you say, I want to get these chromed,
you're going to spend $1,000 easily
getting them chrome somewhere.
So these brands, they have to make sure
that when they do take things to chrome,
they're taking enough chrome to offset the cost.
So you're not paying so much money
for one set of wheels to get chromed.
Oh, and I get the process a hundred percent.
And like sometimes I have to check myself and go,
hey, listen, you know,
they're not just making your wheels.
Yeah.
You know, they got a thousand other sets they got to make.
So you need to chill out and like, you know,
just be patient.
So, but being on a deadline,
sometimes it's hard to be patient.
So I mean.
It's got to do the due diligence
to be ahead of the curve.
And obviously, like you and I both,
we're ahead of the curve on our wheels.
I'm still waiting on mine.
There's another week or so of grace
before I have to get on their ass, you know what I'm saying?
But right now I'm stuck.
I can't move forward on my bike.
I can do a little shit, but I can't do,
I can't even get close to finishing the fabrication
because I need the rear wheel
and the tires to put the wheel in,
make spacers, align the wheel to align the drivetrain
to know where the fuck my rear fender is going to go.
There's not a bolt hole
that I just have to throw the fender in.
There's, there's tube and then there's a fender
that has nothing that everything's got to get made
that the connectivity from that fender
to that frame has to be made.
And I can't do that till, you know, that one part's done.
So yeah, I mean, that's the only thing that's scaring
me, but my deadline for my fab on the bike
is to be done with it by the 20th of September.
Okay.
Cause like I said with the
you'll be able to knock your pain out pretty quick
as you paint it.
That's my like, that'll be my holdup is just,
is I can't, I can paint the frame.
I just graphics are not, I'm not a graphics guy.
I mean, so getting it, getting it to paint
and then I may, may or may not Chrome paint the frame.
If I paint the frame, I might paint it myself
and let Brad paint the 10.
So it's going to be down to the wire,
especially with all the wiring
that's got to go into the fuel injection and you know,
it's all,
what kids you end up doing?
Like you're doing the NAMS thing.
I'm doing the NAMS kit.
Yeah. I like the NAMS product.
I looked at doing all full CAN bus.
And then the only reason I was going to do CAN bus
is because I was going to put cruise control on it.
Well, Harley discontinued cruise control
like that whole module setup, except for a few models.
So I thought the NAMS kit will be, it'll be cleaner.
I am doing like a, what do they call it?
Keyless start.
Okay.
Keyless start option on it.
So I mean, it'll be like, it's kind of, I think,
who did I hear say it was, it was John Snigert that said,
I really love old cool chopper shit,
but I really love technology.
And so this will be the first fuel injected bike
I've ever done.
So I've never done a fuel injected bike.
I've worked on them,
but as far as frame up doing fuel injection,
like putting the, you know, the fuel pump in that tank
and like trying to hide all the wiring
in the way I'm going to like,
I've got some work ahead of me to do that
because I can't handle all the wiring just being everywhere.
It's gonna be hard to hide all of it
because some of it's just necessary, you know, OT sensors.
Fuck man, they're just hard to fucking hide.
I mean, I have a plan for them,
but whether I can incorporate it in time
for born free, we'll see.
But I mean,
Yeah.
But we're, we're getting, the deadline is closed.
Like we're, I've got to have
that work for the most part is done.
I got to mount the tank.
I mocked it up kind of how I wanted it.
And then I was running a coastal,
I'm running a COSO D2 gauge.
So I got a gauge mount.
Well, the way the gauge mount worked
and where the tank was going to sit,
we're going to go together.
So I had to pivot, get a new gauge mount
and then figure out where it's going to go.
And then now I can reset the tank,
which is probably what I'll probably mount the tank
later on this evening.
Yeah.
Got to modify our front fender
and then really from there,
I think fab work on the sheet metal will be done.
Side covers probably not going to need any paintwork.
So I'm hoping, dude, I mean, I could say
I don't want to let any of those guys
from born free down or myself.
And but we're going to be down to, I mean, I don't know
like I don't know if it's frowned upon to bring it
in a trailer and roll it in or if I got to ride it.
It's going to be down to like the 15th and a half,
probably to get the motherfucker done.
Like it's, you know, like, I don't know.
That's kind of, you know, the one thing about my build
building customizing process that I don't like
and I really want to try to work on has to do
with the actual like physical labor
other than the fact that one thing that Corey did
that I'm in love with is that he would build the bike
like that and completely finish it.
Like uncoded, raw frame, raw tens, and then ride it.
Like wired, everything's ready to go, ride it, shake it down.
All right, well, that exhaust mount didn't work
or whatever, you know what I mean?
So that's my goal with this is to get it to a point
where it's started and it's running.
And I can ride it up and down the street
and then take it apart, do all my paint,
do all my coding.
And that way I know that everything's done
instead of like trying to put everything together
at the last minute and then the motor don't start
or there's something wrong with the motor.
So that's kind of my goal here is to change from
like just assuming that everything's gonna
fucking work at the end of the deal
and like be much more ahead of the curve
so that once things are going out for all these coatings
I'm already in a good spot of knowing.
And you're doing that with this born free bike?
Yeah.
Wow, fuck.
Yeah, that's not happening with mine.
Like it's gonna be the typical,
you know, when we go to start it for the first time
where we're hoping that it starts,
like that's how we're doing this one.
Like I would love to put one together with no paint
and ride it, shake it down, take it apart
and then redo it, but that's next level patience.
And I'm patient as fuck, but that level of patience is,
I could do that.
I could do it if I wasn't on a deadline
but being on the deadline, like I'm like.
Yeah.
There's just not enough.
I mean, I had a, like I was down almost a month
because the Sturgis had to get the other bike ready
for Sturgis and do some paint work.
And so I lost a month going through that
and the frame, this frame literally kicked my ass,
like moving the pivot mounts.
Well, it'll help make the bike what it is.
But man, it was a giant pain in the ass.
Like, you know.
And the subtle tweaks that like.
Nobody will notice them.
Yeah.
I can say it's one of those things
that not many people know,
I mean, they're moved forward
about an inch and quarter inch and a half,
just so that that M8 would,
I could stuff it in there
and make it look like it belonged.
But the frame did kick my ass.
Like at one point in time,
the only two things I had were the two triangles.
That was it.
And then we took off from there and,
you know, basically built it around the engine.
So I think it's going to work.
If I can get it together,
I think it's going to be a nice bike.
So it's coming along.
Like I said, I think it's bitching.
And, you know, I was, I was telling,
I was talking to a buddy yesterday.
I was like, man, you know, the motor,
the bike I'm building for Born Free.
I mean, it's really not even,
even close to a show bike.
It's, it's really just my first chopper I've ever built.
And I'm more, I'm more on the,
on the cusp of like,
I'm trying to ride it to San Francisco this year.
Like after Born Free.
And so, I don't know,
but I'm also like,
depending on how much time I have,
I'm going to see how much nicer I can jazz it up.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, but for me,
it's more of like the right of passage kind of build.
You know what I mean?
I made, we took a sporty tank last week and chopped it.
And I did some stuff.
I got to use the English wheel
for the first time ever in my life.
Really uncoordinated with that thing.
Oh yeah, it's just practice, practice, practice.
I mean, like, you know,
and I use the English wheel still some,
but I'll use a planishing hammer,
probably more than I do a wheel.
But I mean, how am I English wheel sitting over there?
The problem, I mean,
I see the point of it all, you know,
what I'm going to have to do is I,
I push further into like the fabrication stuff
is eliminate the thought that I can fix that with Bondo.
Right.
Well, that's like not rear fender.
I mean, I'm trying to get that thing so straight
that we don't have to have Bondo.
And y'all do the same with the front.
Like, I mean,
I know you're going to have a skim code or something,
but I'd like it to be smooth enough.
I could just put a little high bill primer on it,
make it good.
Make it good, yeah.
We're getting close.
I mean, it's like, say, it's just,
it's those hours, those long nights
and hearing that, you know,
between an English wheel and a planishing hammer rattling,
like, but we'll see.
I'm excited.
Like I said, I really am.
I'm excited that I got asked.
I'm excited about the bike.
I'm excited, you know, I mean,
probably won't be everybody's cup of tea.
I don't know if born free has a style.
You know, I mean, I think there's,
I think there's a style associated with it.
Well, maybe they're getting away from that.
The good thing about Texas is that Texas is so,
it's got the potential to be so much bigger,
scalable that the whole goal with Texas
is it to be everything, you know,
everything under the sun
when it comes to American V-Twin, you know what I mean?
I'm sure there's probably going to be
other stuff there too, but like,
I mean, they can do a lot there.
And I think that they just want it to be,
they just want people to enjoy it, you know,
having cool bikes and, you know,
I mean, the evolution of, like I was saying,
I think we were saying this earlier when I got here,
like Born Free Cali is like such a staple
and it's an amazing show
that if anybody goes to you, you got to experience it.
But Texas has the organization that Born Free brings,
which is very well-old machine,
but it's a completely different show and vibe, you know?
It's like, you can't say Texas and California are the same
in that regard.
They're two different things
with a lot of similar things going on at them,
but they have a different vibe.
Vibe is only, vibe is such a loose term.
Sure.
But, you know, when you go to California,
like, and you get a grass pass,
like once you, you know,
not to downplay it or talk shit about it or anything,
but like when you get a grass pass and you go to California,
like your bike can still be a quarter mile away,
to, you know, a mile away, right?
Not really a mile, but far away.
When you come to Texas, like your pass gets you in,
you can park your bike wherever the fuck you want.
You know what I mean?
If you decide I want to go to Born Free
and I just want to go put a hammock up
in the woods over there,
and I don't know, maybe I'll come out Sunday.
You can do that.
If you want to go there and hit the bar
and never leave the bar, you can do that.
You want to go there and set up your own little camp site,
party all weekend and never wear clothes.
We haven't seen that yet, but it's, you can do that.
So there's like, there's freedom in Texas
that you can kind of make it your own event.
You know, like you can make it,
your experience is less dependent
on how much they're giving you, like an itinerary,
and more to like, hey man, this is going on,
but you can do whatever the fuck you want to do here.
You know what I mean?
And that's why I love it.
And I think it's a good balance to what California is.
You know?
See, and I have no clue what to expect at all.
Like, I don't know anything about like bringing the bike,
setting up the bike.
Like, I don't, I mean what,
I don't even know anything about it other than,
hey, can you build a bike for Born Free Texas?
Sure, that's what I know.
I don't know anything else.
Like, I don't know if they put them,
like put you on a stand or you get like a display
or you have supposed to have a booth.
I don't know shit.
Like, I don't know anything.
Yeah, I think, basically, I think each builder
gets a vendor space down there, 10 by 10
or something like that.
And then you get a, I don't,
because it's open field grass and it's kind of a bowl,
you have, I don't know if they got to the point
where they're doing like pedestals or,
they don't even do that in California.
They just have it opened up and you can kind of like,
you want to do your shit straight low rider style
and have it on a, like a spinner, you can do that.
I'm sure, but you have to figure out
how to power that thing and all that shit.
So the grass pass, I watch,
I don't want it on a pedestal at all.
Like I was just parking in the grass is fine, but,
so Born Free California, like getting a grass pass,
that's like, is that a big deal?
Yeah, that's the point.
So yeah, cause you can ride in
and they only sell a certain amount of grass passes
because there's only so much space in that deal.
And dude, there's, there's a lot of people
that Born Free California.
It looks like it, man.
It's packed.
That's on my radar for 26.
That's, I want to do.
I mean, that's the thing is build this thing
and then take it to Born Free,
put it in the FXR show there
with the San Diego customs and those guys,
take it to Daytona.
I mean, I think that Chris Harry
has been doing some, an FXR related event down there.
And I think he did it for the first time this year.
Okay.
But I'm, I'm, I don't even know if I should say this
on here, like I'm trying to get the beginning stages
of trying to put on a legit FXR related event
in Texas or South.
Not, I'm not trying to own it or anything.
I'm trying to get people together
to put something together.
It's kind of, I wouldn't say out of respect,
maybe sanctioned by some of the other OGs
in the FXR world.
Just to kind of bring something, you know,
people do want to come and get the Texas flavor.
Like you do with the East Coast or West Coast Jam,
but keep me in mind.
I mean, I'd love to help be part of it.
That's kind of something I,
I mean, I'd like to do it with like people.
Like I don't want it to be a fast life thing.
I just want to do something to get people together.
So, you know, the FXR bug, like it's so crazy how
I mean, everybody has to think what they like,
but you know, like my buddy that was here earlier,
like he just, he does, he's like,
I just don't get it.
He's like, I don't understand the, the draw to it.
I got his little rigid frame back here
and he's a barber guy.
That's what he likes, you know, but the FXR thing is,
I mean, it's on fire pretty heavy.
And like I got another FXR frame over there
and I've got a couple in the front
and I want to do, I want to do another one for sure.
And I'm, I don't think it's going to slow down really.
I mean, with the soft tails coming around
the new soft tails from Harley,
I mean, you're seeing more of guys
customizing those and riding those.
And I've been working on trying to figure out
how to put a FXR chopper frame into production
with an M8 that you could basically take
all of your soft tail stuff
and transfer it directly over to an FXR chopper
and it'd be a mono shock and the whole deal,
but hopefully that traction will pick back up
after born free.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm just, I had to put it on hold
just for the amount of time, you know,
just trying to dedicate time to this and, you know,
cause laying out complete, a complete setup
for being able to transfer parts,
which would it be cost effective?
Probably not.
It would probably be a money loser,
but I don't think FXRs are going anywhere.
You know, I mean, I think they're here for a little while.
So.
Yeah, it's definitely, once again,
I just feel like a lot of people,
there's just a lot you can do that,
but there's a lot of different places you can take it.
You know what I mean?
You could leave it alone,
you could take it to a chopper.
You can, you can turn it into a pro street.
You can, I mean, sometimes just keep them on the road
is enough work, you know what I mean?
Well, and you look back, man,
like Arlenes, Dave Perowitz,
like a lot of OGs that were riding FXRs,
like when they first came out
and were making like diggers out of them,
the long, low pro streets, like.
I like that one that came out this year,
the Warbird.
I think I forget the shop that.
Corbin, Corbin produced the Warbird body kit.
It was an East Coast company that built the bike.
I think Jeremy Luckystrike painted it.
It was a blue one that was all nice.
Oh yeah, it's Jason Sousa,
Corey Sousa's brother at Faultline Customs built that bike.
And that's a Corbin Warbird kit.
It's a beautiful bike.
I spent, I tell you what, man,
Jason Sousa is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.
He's one of the smartest motorcycle guys.
Like, you know, his brother is,
Corey's, Corey builds great bikes
and they're crazy paint off the wall.
He's got all these really cool little ideas.
And then, you know, he's a little,
I don't wanna say flashy,
but he likes that craziness.
His brother, man, is just calm, super smart, low key.
And then I spent several days with him in Sturgis
and looked at that blue bike
and we just went over every aspect of it, man.
And it's done really, really well.
It's a beautiful, beautiful bike.
I can't think of the, he built it for a,
I think her name's Andrea or Andrea.
I can't think of her first name,
but he built it for her.
And it's, he's got a shop up East Coast
called Fault Line Customs, him and some other guys
and they did great work, man.
They're sleepers for sure.
So he's a talented, talented guy.
So, but they're supposedly a new,
that's a Warbird kit.
And supposedly, Corbin's coming out
with a new version of that Warbird kit.
And I don't know if it's for FXRs
or if it's gonna be for something different,
but I think there's a new version of that coming out.
Well, with the Softail platform,
kind of what Thrashen and Cruzy are trying to do right now,
building those in the choppers,
I think is gonna be, you're gonna probably see more of that.
Because like I said, I think the bug that's been created
off the back end of so many shops building performance
baggers over the last couple of years
is really wanting to get back into
actually physically making things,
cutting things, welding things, changing it
way farther than what you're gonna be able to bolt on
or whatever, you know what I mean?
And that's where I'm at.
This has excited me so much about the fab part of it,
that really like that's the stuff I think about
is making this or making that,
or like I don't wanna just bolt on everything anymore.
I wanna make, you know, I wanna do frames
and get back into doing some tanks and some fenders
and like I wanna make stuff for them.
So, you know what, if they start
building Softail choppers, I'm cool with that too.
It's all cyclical, right?
So we see big wheel baggers and performance baggers
and then you've got performance FXRs
then now we're getting into the FXR chopper
and then you may see some performance choppers
if that's a thing.
Like I know there's some shows going around
for the performance chopper show.
I think it's more of a buzzword than anything.
Not to downplay anything.
I just think it's a play.
We're so acclimated to the word performance
that when you throw it onto a chopper,
it's kind of, we get it.
All right, so it's a chopper,
but it has, it's kind of like a rest-o-mod.
You know what I mean?
So it's like a lot of newer.
It's like an LS swapped Camaro with good suspension
and fuel injection and good disc brakes and the whole,
you know what I mean?
So it's got a chopper aesthetic
with like technology of now, you know?
I mean, what's performance?
Is it braking?
Is it speed?
Is it cornering?
Is it handling?
Is it all of it?
I mean, what, you know, who defines?
If you ask me, it's T-bars.
Who defines performance though?
It's like who defines chopper?
Like everybody I guess gets to have their own definition
of what they wanna, you know, what they wanna call it.
Yeah, and trust me, whenever, you know,
Rini and I both, when we both did our bikes
for the first FXR tour, I mean, we had,
we had a very small amount of hate for it.
There was one dude that just like
wanted to make his whole career off of it,
but most of the people dug it, right?
Cause it looked cool.
It was like, it was a familiar thing,
but also unfamiliar in the same right, right?
But the world, like the,
I think the world gets triggered
when you use a word like chopper
and it doesn't fit the narrative
of what chopper is in their head.
Like whether that's-
But isn't that supposed to be the whole thing
about choppers like growing up?
Like if you, like my dad wrote a chopper
and he didn't wanna fit into anybody's fucking narrative.
He wanted to be, it was,
the chopper was against the grain
and not having a narrative.
Like, like, you know, it's kind of like that whole,
you do whatever you want with it.
I mean, wasn't that kind of the whole chopper mantra
for years?
Yeah, and I think that to that, not to that,
you know, anytime you take the verbiage of this world
and you apply it to like anything psychological,
like maybe a, to describe an era,
to describe a group of people
or whatever the case may be,
then that's when it gets kind of weird.
Cause I think a lot of people just wanna keep
the terminology based on the actual product
to describe the bike, right?
Sure.
But you know, there was a lot of people making choppers
in even like the early 2000s that were also swing arms.
Yeah, I was told at Sturgis this year
and I don't know, I didn't know the guy very well.
I mean, I kind of know who he is,
but I said something about FXR chopper
and he was no such thing.
I was like, what do you mean?
He's like, well, you can't have a chopper
that has a swing arm, I'm like, oh.
So what would you call this?
I'm calling it an FXR chopper.
I don't give a fuck what anybody else calls it.
Like, you know, like it's an FXR, right?
So that's what I would ask him is like,
well, what would you call this?
It's just a raked FXR, is that what I call it?
Or I mean like, so it's kind of like,
and I don't get off into that whole like,
I'm never gonna tell anybody fuck off
or go fuck yourself or, that's not really my mentality,
but at the same time, sometimes you're,
I feel like people just say things like,
I'm not a huge, like if you see me out in a crowd,
once you get to know me, I'll talk and be friendly,
but I'm a bystander majority of the time,
I'll just listen and I'll try to learn and take things in.
Like I'm just, and I feel like there's some guys that just,
like if you say something, they can't be like,
oh, that's cool, they have to say something.
They have to say, well, that's not it.
You can't have an FXR chopper, like you can't do that.
Are you just like performance bagger
when that whole deal started?
People are like, there's no such thing,
you can't have a performance bagger.
And now these motherfuckers are running fast.
And I get those race bikes are different,
but Steve Chamberlain, his baggers, man,
that's a riding motherfucker, dude.
I would call his bike's performance baggers.
I don't mean he'll out ride some sport bike guys
all day long, so I don't know.
I just, like the whole FXR chopper hate thing.
I don't know that they just don't like FXR choppers
or if it's just everybody's gonna hate on something.
Like everybody has to have that.
And that's one of the things
I just posted on Instagram about just being negative.
Like dude, if you build a bike and you like it,
I'm gonna be happy for you.
There's no need in me saying,
well, your bike sucks because of this
or that doesn't make sense
or you can't have a chopper because it has this
or like none of that.
I mean, that's not my business to tell you
what you think is cool
or what you can call your bike something.
Like I just don't want that negative energy.
I don't want to be around people that have that energy.
Like if you build something and you go,
hey, this is what it is.
I mean, hey, that's fucking rad, dude.
Yeah.
And if, you know, you don't have to.
At the end of the day, you're not gonna win anything.
There's no prize at being right on that.
No, I mean, even, it doesn't matter.
It's like my wife, she's like,
what are you gonna win something at Born Free?
I'm like, I don't think there's anything to win.
It's just the, for me, it was an honor to be invited.
Like that's a huge thing.
Like people don't understand it.
Like my people around me
that are not in the motorcycle industry.
Yeah.
They don't have a clue.
They're like, what are you doing?
It's weird.
Like they don't get it, but for me, it's fucking huge.
You know, so, I mean, I don't know.
I don't even know where I was going with that.
But just people's attitude.
Like I just want, and in the motorcycle industry
for some reason, and it's,
and it may be all industries,
but I see it in the motorcycle industry
because I'm involved in it.
Yeah.
The level of hate, instead of the level of wanting to see
the other shop do good, or the other business do good,
or the other parts companies do good.
Like we should all want,
I should want you to be super successful
with your podcast, your paint, your bike, whatever.
Like we should all want that for the next person
instead of always having the,
like my stuff has to be better than your stuff
and you didn't do this right.
And that's not right.
Like that whole mentality, man, at my age,
I mean, I'll be 52.
I'm over that.
I want you to do good.
I want the guy, Brad Barnes, I want Brad to do good.
I want Jason Harmon to do good.
I want Paul Yaffe to do good.
I mean, I want everybody that's out there
that's doing something to do well.
Like I just don't want to be that guy that's like,
I don't like that, I don't like that.
I don't, because that seems to be what,
you know, like you're at a bike show at Sturgis
and you can be standing beside somebody
and they're standing there looking at something
that somebody put hundreds of hours into creating something
they think is fantastic.
And then this guy's over here just talking shit about it.
Just for the sake of talking shit.
Yeah.
And he may not even know.
He may not know how many hours the guy did.
There may be something really cool on that bike
that nobody can see but the guy that built it.
But this guy's talking shit just for this
because it sounds cool to talk shit, maybe.
Like, and that's just not the space I want to be in,
man, I just like, if you don't like this bike,
I'm cool with it.
But you don't gotta hate on it.
Like, I'm not gonna walk up to somebody else's bike
and go, man, it's fucking terrible.
I can't even believe that guy did that.
Like, I mean.
I usually do it behind the back.
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean,
I'm not saying that we can't have an opinion.
Yeah, I mean, like, I want.
I'm not trying to put it out to the world.
Like, if you and I sit back and go,
hey man, what'd you think of homeboys bike?
And it's a private conversation
and we're just like maybe having a conversation
so I can understand where your head is at
is what you see.
I think that's constructive criticism.
100%.
Unless they ask for it, don't give it to them.
But I'm also not trying to spread that information.
Honest opinions and conversations are healthy.
Yeah.
But just being a bystander that talks shit
because maybe, and maybe jealousy.
Like there may be some jealousy involved
when you get a guy that talks a little bit of shit
because maybe he can't do that.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, I take it for granted
a little bit sometimes.
And like, you know, Jason Hollman's one of the guys
like, dude, he goes, you don't understand.
He goes, not everybody can do that frame.
He goes, you know, that was a tough frame to build.
Not, there's guys that can build circles around me.
He goes, but you got to remember,
there's also guys that could never get through that.
I've always said that, man, that like,
they're at the end of the day,
like it's talent plus vision
that makes something cool at the end.
And sometimes there's a lot of people
that have a lot of talent,
but they don't have a vision to apply the talent.
So sometimes, you know, and this is literally
being hypocritical of what we just talked about,
but I don't go on podcasts and be like,
you know whose bikes really suck?
This, this brand, this brand, this brand.
I don't do that.
And I don't even think I would say that,
that they suck.
I wouldn't even use that terminology,
but you know, if I'm talking to my buddy
and I'm like, man, did you see homeboys bike?
I don't know if I would have did that.
Oh, and I can't.
You know what I mean?
Like I'm just trying to be honest.
We all do that shit,
but I'm not going to go to a bike show
and be like, yo dude, you really missed it
on that one.
Oh, and dude, I see it happen, man.
I see bike shows after the bike shows over
and then you see people, they're so fucking mad
about that somebody wants something.
And I'm like, what is he mad about?
That's why I don't do the bike show.
I mean, I go to the FXR show in Sturgis
because of connecting with all the people that are there.
But getting, getting wrapped up into thinking
that my bike is like to allow someone else
to place value on something that I am in love with.
Like I don't want to do that, you know?
For me, like this bike, I love this bike.
It's going to be, it's going to be, it's fun doing it.
I'm excited about doing it.
But at the end of the day,
that bike brings me closer to the industry
and people in the industry
that I want to get to know in me, right?
So there's more to it than just that bike.
Like it's cool, but there's also
so many different facets around that
that not, not, not furthering my business at all
because I'm not, I'm not really trying to further
my motorcycle business right this second.
But it just, it opens doors and friendships
and relationships and, you know,
and it's also, there's a sense of pride.
Like, hey, you know, I was able to build that.
You know, a lot of people can't.
I mean, like you're airbrushing.
Fuck man.
You know how many people can't do that in this world?
I can't.
I only know by canning.
Well, I mean, but I sell myself short sometimes.
And I think a lot of people sell their self short.
And then you have the, you have the opposite of that.
You have guys that think they're the fucking best.
Or is the best there ever was.
And that they can't do anything wrong.
And, you know, I just,
it's a weird place to be in that.
And exactly what you're talking about
where you have to be confident enough
to sell the work that you're trying.
Like for me, I have to be confident enough
that when you decide to come with me with paint work
that I talk with enough confidence
that gives you confidence in me to do the job.
Right?
But if you're so like detrimental to your own skills,
God, I'm really not the best, blah, blah, blah.
You're like, well, fuck, who is the best?
Cause I'm about spending some big money here
and I want the best shit I can get.
Regardless of how humble you're trying to be right now.
Like at the end of the day, transactions are transactions,
but it's different when you,
if I was to make posts on Instagram saying
that I'm the best, you know what I mean?
Oh, well, you know what I mean?
So it's like, you got to sell yourself,
but you don't fucking,
you don't sell yourself to a note,
people that aren't asking me sold to, you know?
I need to get a little better at self-confidence.
Like I need to believe in myself a little more to where,
I mean, I know I can do things.
I just like, I don't ever want to pat myself on the back.
And, you know, maybe I should be a little more confident
in my work and feel like, hey, I am doing a good job.
And, you know.
But that's your own internal struggle.
That's not something you have to be vocally outward with.
It's sort of the concept of like, you know,
that saying like imposter syndrome, right?
Like where you feel like you're doing the thing that,
that you feel like, and you're actually succeeding at it,
but you don't feel like you should be,
or you don't feel like you're actually doing it.
You know, how do you work?
I'm gonna try to work it better.
And that's called imposter syndrome?
Imposter syndrome.
So where you feel like you're, you're doing,
like say you're building a bike, well, you did it,
but you still don't think that you're on that level
to do that, but you did it.
Okay.
So it's not a bad thing to have it.
It's like the opposite of being a psychopath or a sociopath.
You know what I'm saying?
All right.
So the other side of that is you going,
oh yeah, I know how to do all that shit, whatever.
What I've had to do recently is sometimes like,
and this is what I loved about doing,
starting to do these YouTube videos.
And it's gonna probably sound kind of arrogant
to say this, but like, I'll go back and watch
like some of the ones I did when we were building
the FXR, because it reminds me,
oh yes, I know how to do that.
I've done it before.
I can do this again, you know?
Cause in your head, sometimes like,
I'll just sit here and look at that, that bike.
How the fuck did I pull that off?
You know what I mean?
Like how the fuck could I do that?
I guess I've went through this a little bit
on this bike because I mean,
honestly, the last frame modifications I made
were like the last time, and when I say modifications,
I'm talking about rake and stretch
and like heavy modifications were probably 2010, 2011
is probably, that's probably how long it's been
since I really like have really dove into fabrication work.
Like sheet metal, doing the frame, coping, you know,
like everything that I did on this bike,
which has been like this bike has helped me
in so many ways that have nothing to do
with the bike or Born Free,
like just as far as just getting back
into something I love,
not getting that talk about the burnout.
It's done so many things for me that,
you know, like I said, it hit at the perfect time.
Like it's, I want to do frames, I want to do sheet metal,
I want to do fab stuff, you know?
I don't want to just bolt on parts right now.
That's kind of-
Well, I think that when that stuff
was like much more prevalent in our industry,
as you go through the motions,
it becomes like, and it becomes more of a job
that I think a lot of the industry starts leaning into
well, we can damn near print parts now.
So let's print these parts and sell these parts.
So the idea of going and, you know,
blowing off the planishing hammer or the English wheel
or any of that stuff becomes foreign
because you can make more money
by just printing some more parts
and making a new, you know, a little adjustment here.
Here's the new version, 2.0, right?
And so there's not a lot of money
in going back over here to start hand-forming tanks
and fenders and stuff like that,
but the satisfaction, like the internal feeling
of doing that is something that can't be replaced
by a machine humming all night in the dark,
you know what I'm saying?
And it's not to say that, like,
all CNC machine-based companies are shit.
I'm just saying that there's something different
about your relationship to a motorcycle
when you see the fender that you bent,
that you formed, the tank that you made,
the frame that you cut and welded,
like it just changes your connection to it.
You know what I mean?
And it's hard to have, it's not easy.
You know, it's a lot of skills
and a lot of responsibility riding on those skills, you know?
You're not just, you're not just a, you know,
I almost want to cut that and move it over here
without any kind of like proper welding technique,
you know, fixtures, things like that,
and then ride it and be safe.
And you know, like these are also still
the things that kill a lot of people.
Yeah, yeah.
They don't kill them, but they,
I'm hoping this one doesn't come apart on the first bump.
I'm hoping I don't hit a bump and it just come apart, but.
But yeah, the imposter syndrome thing
is a very common thing.
I mean, sometimes, you know,
I think a lot of artists deal with that,
like people that are truly into the art that they make,
they're doing it because they're compelled to do it.
They have a feeling, I want to make this, I can do it,
but they're doing it for themselves, right?
And it's like the adulation or the compliments
that come from the outside in
that kind of help the confidence along the way
because you, I know I did,
you have to doubt yourself on certain aspects
of building a bike.
Oh.
Is my vision good?
Is my welling good?
Is this gonna work?
Is that gonna work?
Is, you know, you're gonna go through
those fucking ups and downs.
And when you finally, when you look at it,
you're like, fuck, I love this.
I think I'm ready to show somebody.
And then you put it on Instagram
and people love you like, fuck, thank God, man.
You know?
I went through that.
I mean, I did.
I didn't want to post any pictures
and the buddy of mine was like,
do just post some pictures of it.
Just post a few pictures of it, you know?
And so I did and, you know,
I think the response was,
I don't have a large Instagram following,
but the responses that I got were good.
So I mean, I guess, I guess it makes me happy.
Like, I mean, I appreciate it.
Yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
I think that's, I mean,
I mean, there's, we all want somebody to like our stuff.
Like that's, you say,
we want to be accepted in the tribe.
What are you thinking?
It's like, that's bullshit.
Cause I do care.
Like if somebody sees it and they don't like it,
I'm gonna be like, I wish they liked it.
But, you know, I just appreciate the people
that do like it more than, you know?
So, I mean, I want people to like it.
It's not the end of the day if they don't,
but it feels good if they do.
But it feels good if they do, yeah.
It justifies a lot in yourself and things like that.
But yeah, man, it's, it's, fuck man, you can.
I don't know, there's a lot of,
there's a lot of those like,
once again, psychological things
that go into these processes that I've, you know,
like I said, I haven't done anywhere near as many
bikes as you've built in your career,
like to this level and shit like that.
Like I've bolted on tons of things,
but you, I'm tapping into these feelings of doing bikes
that I've never had before.
And it's so intoxicating.
The hard part is figuring out how to do it and make money.
That is the hard part, that is the hard part.
And that's kind of why like, you know,
even though I'm not technically ready to start like
going out on my own and do my own full FXR chopper build
on my own without having Corey around
to kind of like guide me,
there is the goal is to get to that point.
And I don't know why, because I don't feel like
I'm going to get tasked to build a lot.
By the time I get good enough to do this on my own,
the fat will be gone.
That's how it always works.
That's how it works.
So speaking of fads and trends,
and I mean, it's your podcast,
but I'm just going to ask your opinion on.
So where, where as far as, I mean,
all the stuff that we do with these bikes
is all based because of Harley Davidson
and the between platform.
Where are they headed?
Where is Harley headed?
I think they were headed in a good direction.
I don't know what the fuck everybody's tripping on.
I think people forget we live in a capitalist environment
that the goal is to grow.
I mean, I don't like certain aspects of capitalism,
but I do like certain aspects of capitalism, right?
I wished that Harley wasn't so big
they needed to be a publicly traded company
so that they could be happy with profits
that are still considered profits
and not having to meet new metrics
that might not, you know,
might not be an ender of a business,
but it could make people want to sell out all their shares
or dump their stocks or whatever, right?
So I don't really know enough about the word.
I probably just said a bunch of stupid shit, but.
No, I just, I was in Sturgis
when they announced the new CEO
and around lots of industry guys
and the grumbling was heavy, you know?
Well, first thing, like on that,
you or I are not business of that scale builders, right?
And I don't know that, I mean,
what you want is kind of like what used to happen
with like Jesse James, he was consulting, right?
If a CEO comes in and they consult with aspects
of the industry to help guide it in certain ways,
I think that makes sense, right?
But to just, you know, we're kind of moving
past all those DEI policy kind of things
and that kind of politics, so where maybe we can get back
on a regularly scheduled programming
of just making products and focusing on creating a culture
that we can go use these products in.
So that's kind of the one thing that I think that people,
they look at the product so much
and the product is the only thing that's monetarily
like I make this, you give me money,
that's how this industry works.
Well, yes and no, the industry also works
because you're selling, like you don't have to,
you need lakes to sell boats, right?
You need roads to sell cars and motorcycles,
but for them to want to pick a motorcycle
that just goes up and down the street,
you need to have something connected to it
that people are connected with, culture, rallies,
events, things like hog chapters
are kind of like a dying demographic
that I don't know anybody young
that's actively seeking hog chapter membership
or involvement, so there's a lot of things
that need to reform if you will in within the dealer,
or not the dealer, but the corporate level,
but I would say that I think that most of,
I don't have a problem with anything they've been doing,
they've been more involved
in the custom motorcycle industry
for the past five or six years,
then I have ever seen in my entire life
20 plus years in the industry.
They have been involved, I mean there's,
I mean, yeah, they do a lot of shit that,
you know, like they'll make parts
or they'll try to avoid warranties,
that's a different part of the brand, right?
That's the part that like every company
is gonna have shit like that,
they're trying to make its most profits,
but then you got this other side where,
you know, like they're giving away
Harley-Davidson's to builders
so that they can showcase all the things
that are gonna avoid your warranty at Warnfree,
and then they work with a lot of like independent creators
and things like that.
So if I would say anything that I would think
they should probably diversify their partnerships
to not just be YouTube people,
to maybe balance it out with like shops, brands,
in other ways, so it's not just like
if you get a certain amount of YouTubers
and you're, you know, YouTube subscribers
and you kind of now have entered into the area
of potentially getting a bike.
Cause the problem that I see with that
is when you have YouTubers building bikes,
we're all at different levels of it, right?
But you can't, YouTube has a lot of influence
because there's so many people that follow it.
So you don't want people saying,
yeah, I'm a bike builder, blah, blah, blah,
and all they're doing is like this basic as shit
so it kind of like takes away the meaning
of what it means to be a bike builder,
to go through the motions,
to learn how to do these hard things,
to understand rake and trail,
to understand, you know, a lot more aspects
of customizing and building bikes
than just being like, we got all these new parts here,
we're gonna install it,
and then now we're also an invited builder
for this, that and the other.
I mean, there was a big disparity, not disparity,
there was a big difference between some of the builders
that were Harley born free builders this year,
like some of them were absolute fucking
monsters of builders, you know, Yeneve,
you know, Hawk Lashay, Heath Pinter,
dudes that like are on my Mount Rushmore
of like bike builders, of current era bike builders, right?
And then you didn't have some people on there.
Yeah, I saw that, yeah, I mean.
So it's, I get it, it's hard for Harley
to kind of navigate those waters, but, you know,
I think that they do enough stuff with YouTubers
that maybe keep the YouTubers that aren't bike builders
on just doing like what they do,
don't put them in the category of building bikes
with guys like that, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
Personally, what the fuck do I know?
I mean, I think there should be some diversity.
I mean, you know, I see where they're trying
to diversify a couple of different directions,
and I mean, I get it, but I wonder if they're consulting,
like I wonder if they're,
I wonder if their ears are open
and they're listening to industry guys or if they're...
I know FXR division has their,
I know that Saddleman, Heath Pinter has their ear.
I know that they do mess with some people
that I highly respect in this industry,
but I think that like, you also need to look
across the country, you know, and I think they do it
with like Jake Hines at Prism Supply
and his brother and things like that.
So like I said, I don't think there's a problem
with what they're doing.
I just think that people like to,
they'd like to give no matter what the decision is,
they want to give a lot of grief.
I'm gonna tell you like this, and this is unpopular,
there are a lot of people who are legends
in our industry who kind of need to sit down
and let the next generation start fucking
getting some of these opportunities.
Yeah, sure.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And I'm not trying to say that to be a dick
or anything like that,
because if you're still building cool shit,
then it doesn't fucking matter how old you are, period.
But if you're just there
and you're just like, you're not moving the needle.
But is there a demographic out there?
Is there a younger generation that's ready to pick up
the baton and do the stuff?
I mean, I know you guys out there doing it.
It's based on opportunity.
If there's no opportunity, then no one's gonna pursue it.
No, that's true.
That's true.
So if some dude comes in this industry
and busts their ass and does some cool shit,
but never gets, there's no invited builders,
there's no Harley, build a bike for our shit,
like then they're gonna lose interest,
they're gonna get a job doing something else.
They're gonna go find somewhere
where opportunity exists within it.
And so that's why it's important for the industry
as a whole to focus on continuing
to create culture and opportunity.
And yeah, like I'm glad that Born Free Mike and Grant
will ask a guy like me, hey, who do you know
that does some cool stuff that can do shit?
Cause then I can know all these people
that I sit down with on podcasts
and know that somebody could come through
and follow through with like building a bike.
The first FXR tour was like 90% dudes
that I was really close friends with,
you know what I'm saying?
And all of them showed up, you know what I mean?
So in that regard, like you wanna give people
an opportunity, I always use Renny as an example.
He wasn't getting opportunities
and like a lot of attention,
but I knew he was hungry and I knew
that he would fucking put everything he could
into whatever he was gonna do.
And he fucking did and it's turning out well for him.
Good, good.
So I'm glad to see that.
Opportunity is what creates growth in our shit.
So we gotta find more ways to create opportunity
to get more people to wanna customize bikes
and shit like that.
Yeah, I mean, I'm glad you had to scrape
the bottom of the barrel this time.
I mean, I'm glad my name got thrown in the hat.
So, you know, and I'm hoping it does create an opportunity.
I can't say that I don't care.
I mean, I hope it creates an opportunity
of some sort, what that looks like.
I don't know, but I hope it creates something.
Yeah.
The thing is like, it's a form of managing
your expectations, right?
So right now the expectation just should be
that I wanna build the coolest bike I can
and I don't wanna hinge my enjoyment
or fulfillment on somebody else liking it
or giving me an opportunity
or someone wanting to buy it, like build it for yourself,
right?
And then if you build it, and I think when you build it
with that kind of mentality, it's a very authentic build, right?
It's completely for you.
And it shines through the love you put into it.
And then opportunities will come and follow you
because they saw that heart you put into that bike.
Because think about it, man, there's probably not a lot
of soul in a lot of things that people do.
Not to say that their bikes aren't good,
but there's an ulterior motive of this things for sale
as soon as it's done.
I don't, you know, this is just the same thing
I've done five times, but a new colorway.
And hey, that's not me trying to talk shit about that,
but there's a difference between those builds
and someone that's sweat and fucking ground away
and designed and spent a year or two years
thinking of this bike and then finally getting
the chance to do it, like, there's just a difference, man.
Right.
You know, and maybe, I mean, that's 100% just my opinion
on it, but you know, I just think that there's something
more to building bikes than just, you know,
what's the coolest thing right now at Spaggers?
Who's got all the coolest parts?
Who's got this?
Who's the top painter?
So you assemble this fucking dream team of things
and you get, you know, not to downplay
any of the shops or any of the people involved,
but you get kind of a regurgitated, cyclical thing.
Gotcha.
You know, a lot of billet, a lot of, you know, pastels,
a lot of, a lot of, you know, things that
when you look at it at the end of the day,
it's like, man, like I could easily see this thing
sitting the way certain bikes of certain errors
sat after they weren't cool anymore.
You know.
Well, and I think you go through that
with a lot of stuff.
I mean, it's, you know, lots of big little baggers
that probably sitting, you know,
there's probably lots of old FXRs probably still sitting.
I mean, I think it's,
it's part of the nature of it, you know.
I mean, unfortunately I don't,
I have to sell everyone I build just to keep the ball rolling.
So I don't get to sit around and grow old.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's kind of like,
and I'm not trying to poke any kind of like fun
or though shade at that because it is,
that is the business, right?
To build something cool and then move on from it, you know,
but I mean, don't you kind of want to enjoy it a little bit?
You want to go ride it around a little bit?
You know.
I mean, be honest, I don't want to sell this bike.
I really don't.
I mean, it would have to be.
It'd have to be strong.
They'd have to come and be strong.
Yeah.
I mean, I want to sell it because I've got so much,
like this bike means so much to me
based on my 24 being so bad.
And then, you know, getting back into the fabrication
stuff and re honing some skills and trying to relearn all that.
And just, I mean, like I say, what it's done for me mentally,
like I don't plan on selling it anytime soon.
Like I said, there was moments I hated this bike
and I'll probably have some moments I hated again here
pretty soon, but overall I love it.
And I really don't want to part with it.
Like I've sold every bike.
I didn't want to sell my Orange FXR.
I had to sell it just because of COVID
and going through job stuff and house.
I was in the middle of a house remodel
and just things got really shitty.
And like I say, had to sell it.
Probably didn't have to just make things easier.
So yeah, this is the one that I think, you know,
if it turns out how I think it will,
it's the one that I don't plan on part
with anytime real soon.
Yeah, I think that a good rule of thought is like,
hey, if you do know that one day you'll sell it,
just have, you know, like, hey, I have a number
and I'm gonna stick with that as long
unless I get to a point in life where I have to sell it,
kind of like you said about your Orange one, you know?
But, you know, my goal one, like I built that, you know,
with the complete intention of never selling it
because I've always wanted to have that one.
I mean, when you go to Nessa spot
or hell, even fucking, you know,
go see Oliver at the cut rate, all his bikes.
It's like, well, she sells bikes every once in a while,
but like, I want to be able to have something
that is like, that I'm okay with not getting rid of,
you know what I mean?
That I'm okay with like, I want this to be
in my brand's legacy or whatever the fuck you wanna call it.
And, you know, like, if somebody wants that bike,
I can make you one, you know?
I mean, and even playing that game of like,
well, I mean, if you were gonna sell it, how much?
I'm like, I'm not even gonna fucking play that game
because if I put a number in my head,
then I'm always gonna be looking at life when I get tough.
I'm like, well, there's 30 grand sitting over there.
I mean, I could build another one, you know?
And then that one's gone.
I've been there, you know?
I just gonna try not to do it with this one.
I mean, this is, I want to hold onto this one.
So it's just, I got a lot of,
it's got a lot of, I don't know
if sentimental is the right word,
but there's a lot, I got a lot of attachment to it.
So I just think the amount of work I've put into it.
And like I say, I mean, people are gonna go,
I don't look like that much work to me,
but if they don't want to work one into that chassis,
they would, they'd have some respect.
So, well, it's those subtle things that like,
that people can't put their finger on,
but it changes, you know, a lot of people don't think
about like the angle that some of the motors
sit into the chassis and they don't even consider
bringing the pivot blocks, you know,
forward on the bike to kind of create more distance
on the rear cylinders there.
You know what I'm saying?
Like there's a lot of those things that like,
just go out of sight out of mind.
And then when you, like, if you're gonna do that for somebody,
like, you know, well, I can do this,
but it's gonna add, you know,
a couple grand more on this.
Like, well, I'm not that interested in it.
It's cool, but it's not that cool.
Yeah, so that's how a lot of that stuff ends up being.
So, you know, it is what it is,
but I'm just stoked because I mean,
I think I was just really kind of a,
you know, seeing you at the SWAT meet this year
and then coming and hanging out with us
and knowing all the hardships you had last year
with your health and then, you know,
and then with them tasking me, you know,
asking me if I knew somebody here,
if I could help them out with like finding people.
Like, I was like, fuck dude.
I mean, can you do it?
I mean, do you have a bike in mind?
Like, cause I think this will be the fucking perfect
way to get you back into wanting to do this stuff.
No, it did for sure, like a hundred percent.
Like that was all, like I could say,
before I attributed that to the man upstairs,
like it just all lined up and, you know,
and at the time, you know, I had so much going on
and my wife's like, are you sure?
I was like, I think I can do it.
She's like, all right.
Like, you know, cause even though I'm healthy,
I'm back to about a hundred percent now, I think,
but, you know, there for a while,
I was still having a hard time moving around,
couldn't pick anything up,
still going through some struggles.
And, you know, fortunately,
I was able to get back to the grind,
but it definitely happened at a good time,
like a perfect time for me to be like, okay, yeah,
get back on the horse and see what you can do.
So, you know, and I'm not to prove anything
to anybody other than me.
Yeah.
You know, and I want my kids to, like my kids,
like I've been working a lot.
And so they're like, yeah, we don't see you very much,
but I'm also wanting them to see like,
if you do decide to do something,
you need to give it everything you can give it.
Yeah, a hundred percent, yeah.
So, I think they're watching, you know,
my 14-year-old, she don't give a shit.
She's like, whatever, motorcycles are stupid,
but my oldest daughter,
she's kind of been supportive of it, you know,
she thinks it's cool.
So, and my youngest one will probably come around,
she's just being 14, you don't like anything.
Yeah.
So, but I'm excited, like, to say, man,
I'm thankful for the opportunity
and just hope that I can get it done
and that somebody likes it.
Yeah.
So, are you doing this all under the Whoville?
I am, yeah, every so that.
It's back alive, like, I closed it for a while
and got rid of all my sales, tax, business type stuff,
but then decided to reopen it back right around Daytona
and just kind of, you know,
I could say I want to start manufacturing some parts,
working on a few things, working with a few people,
you know, trying to,
I still go to metal fab schools occasionally,
like, you know, there's a couple of schools
I like to hit to hone in some metal shaping skills.
I am going to go to a SOLIDWORKS class.
To learn some SOLIDWORKS.
Yeah, I'm going to start, probably November,
I'm going to start SOLIDWORKS training
and I'm actually going to try to get certified
in SOLIDWORKS and be able to draw a model
and all that sort of stuff.
And we'll see where that goes.
I don't know if it'll go anywhere,
but it's kind of one of those goals that I set.
Set, yeah, a goal that I set for myself.
So I want to try to get it done.
I mean, I love billet stuff.
I love sheet metal stuff.
I love using them both, like,
and so, you know, and I just, I want to be able to do,
even if I never make a part by doing it,
I set the goal, so I want to try to get through it now
and do it, so.
Well, that's a good skill to have.
Like all of it, you know,
whether it is billet, sheet metal, you know, tubing,
all these things can come together in a harmonious way.
And I think that as you add more tools
to your toolbox essentially, then it gives you the ability
to think of how you can mesh and blend all these different styles
of part making into one, you know what I mean?
Well, I've probably said it on the podcast before,
but I was a fashion design major at Texas Tech
and an architect major at Texas Tech.
I didn't finish.
I got to partying too hard,
but so now in the motorcycle industry,
this is the combination of architecture
and fashion design in a sense for me.
You know, I get to create art, if you will,
and my own style and there's some architecture involved
with it like, you know.
It was mad, dude.
Yeah, and like, I remodeled a house right around COVID
and I got to put some architecture into that,
but I also incorporated like the inside of my house
was full of steel beams that I welded up steel beams
because I wanted to incorporate the sheet metal
in the steel and that kind of an industrial sort of vibe.
So like motorcycling and fashion,
like people are always like custom, like, you know,
the word custom.
Like I try to live a, I would almost consider it
a custom lifestyle, like how I dress
or how my motorcycle looks or how my truck looks
or like I don't like stock stuff, you know?
And so going back to the solid works part of it,
like I've got some ideas.
I want to make some furniture, like some custom furniture
and like an industrial.
So I know there's people that do it, but in my head,
that's some stuff I want to do and, you know,
I think having solid works will help incorporate, you know,
because you can do like AutoCAD architecture
and that's because I still love architecture
and engineering and designing.
And I'm not great at math, but I mean,
I can navigate myself through it.
Motorcycling for me, like I say,
it was just kind of the, I didn't become an architect
and I didn't become a fashion design, you know,
I didn't create a clothing line,
but motorcycling was kind of that combination
of building something and creating art at the same time,
I guess, if that makes any sense.
Kind of a, you know, so sometimes I think
I love this part of it as much as I love
the writing part of it, you know?
And I need, at my age, I need to learn
or refine that love for writing.
Yeah.
You know, I just think with my kids at the ages
they were, I didn't ride for a while
because I wanted to be there for them.
And, you know, you always have that,
oh, well, something could happen,
but then almost died with,
had nothing to do with motorcycles.
So then I'm like, okay, let me back up
and put that all into perspective.
So, but.
Yeah, people, like the writing aspect
and being a part of that area of motorcycling.
I mean, almost every fabricator I know,
someone that's like doing exactly
what you're talking about,
like they do fall in love with this process
more so than the, maybe more so than the writing
because they're spending so much time here, you know?
But, I mean, think about it,
if you, once this is done, you pull off the lift
and now there's another one
and another Sturgis, another Daytona,
like you can easily find yourself in this, like this.
I got enough projects to last me until the day
they bury me.
Yeah.
I just don't have enough money.
Yeah.
I mean, I've got, there's frames laying around
and I've got motor stacked up there
car chassis, truck chassis, I mean, just.
I think that's kind of going back
with what we were talking about, you know,
a little bit alluding to before we got on the microphones
is just about like social media and content these days.
Like there's you showing the world this bike
through what you're building.
And then if you show the world the life you're living,
not on the bike, but with the bike
that creates a good example is like
that's all the information about the food.
You look at the bag, that's the nutrition,
but the front, the logo, that's the vibe.
Okay.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And so you're giving them all the nuts and bolts
and dimensions and all the aesthetic
that you're putting into it.
But when you go out and ride it
and you're getting shots
and you're doing all those kinds of things,
whether it's just like went to sweet water today
and there's a fucking goddamn propeller going in the air.
It's like it's a shot, right?
It's a photo.
That's why it becomes more relatable
to the everyday guy who's thinking
about that motorcycle and the aspect of like using it
versus like not everybody's got the eye
for it sitting on the lift.
And that's kind of with most of the media
kind of not really shining light
on the things the way that Jesse James did
with motorcycle mania and the biker build off stuff.
You think about all the car shows
and shit they do now.
It's mainly shenanigans.
It's more on the lines of what American chopper was
or the Richard Rawling thing.
Or they seem to be more interested in fucking somebody
over to get a cheaper deal on a car
than showing the process of building a car
and what goes into it.
So that instant gratification gets even amplified more
because now younger people watch that
and they don't see the blood, sweat and tears
that goes into building cool things.
They just see the, oh, that dude got that car
for way less.
And then a couple of boxes show up
and now it's done car
and now he's selling it for way more.
That's what I love to see the process
of how it all happens.
That's what I love to see.
The process of what makes it happen.
The final project, the final product is cool
but I'll like something more if I can see the process.
You know, like, I mean, bitching rides for example,
like I watched that show
because of those fab guys are so incredible
and people are like, oh, it's TV.
And I'm like, no, you go to SEMA
and you look at those cars that they've built
and they're, I don't know if there's a perfect car
but they're so fucking incredible.
Like you watch those guys do that work
and it's not just a, you know, it's not just TV.
I mean, that's real life.
Those fabricators are fucking unreal.
Like I like that show because of, I feel like it's,
I'm not saying there's not theatrics
because it's TV, but the work those guys are doing
is real work.
It's not bullshit work
and you don't have, like you say, the theatrics
and then boom, the car's done
and you never get to see any of the stuff, you know,
in between.
So yeah, that's why, yeah, I try to let people know.
I was like, hey man, just like,
if you go shoot some photos with your iPhone
and don't matter, just try to get some good shots of it.
Go, you know, do a story.
Oh, this was a bitchin' ride today.
Like those kind of things connect people to the bike.
Yeah, I need to learn how to do that.
Like I bought one of those little gimbal things
or whatever it's called,
Ho-Hem Dills Advice AI
that will follow me around the shop
and like I set it up and did some videos
and I watched the video and I'm like, oh fuck dude.
Yeah.
Don't put that on Facebook.
Don't put that on Instagram.
You look like an idiot, you know?
But then I think sometimes that's,
I find myself watching other people
in their shop doing the same shit.
And you're not really concerned
that you're not doing the same thing, yeah.
Well, and I'm like, well, that guy doesn't look
like an idiot.
Maybe I just think I look like an idiot.
Maybe I really don't, you know?
So.
Well, it's like they say, we're always self-conscious
about things that some people,
most people don't ever pay attention to.
Yeah, we tend to be more concerned
about everything we do
and most people don't even fucking,
they're not paying attention, right?
But with that being said,
you're still the one that has to sit there and edit it.
And so you're seeing yourself say that word incorrectly
a hundred times and you just gotta live with it.
You just gotta accept the fact, I fucked that up.
And if I take that out,
it changes the entire, I can't not take,
I just gotta be an idiot right now forever
on YouTube or a podcast or whatever.
And trust me, it's taken me a long time
to get comfortable in those spaces too.
And I'm still very uncomfortable.
Like right now when we get done with this
and we're doing this little video to walk around,
I'm not gonna change who I am,
but I'm gonna have to speak in a different way.
That way when I go to edit it,
I don't have to go, I'm not clipping.
So we are going to, you know what I mean?
Cause I keep fucking up things in between, right?
I wouldn't even know how to edit it.
Like I've tried to make videos and edit them, dude.
I can't even do a good reel on Instagram.
Like I get it so like,
it'll have music will be overlaid
and it'll be, you know, like,
I don't even understand it.
Like maybe it's my age and just not.
There's a art to it that once you kind of know the process
and it kind of will, it does get easier.
Does it?
And it also like, it kind of like,
it's like anything else.
You just need that one good weld to be like,
I want to keep doing this.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, and that's one thing that I mean,
I can learn, I can learn anything.
Exactly.
So I just need to sit down and dedicate,
but I keep thinking about it.
I'm like, if 52,
do I need to know how to make a reel?
And then I'm like, well, fuck yeah, man.
52 is not dead, you know?
And so I start looking at,
I think I went through with this thing
of being getting older.
Like, well, you're getting older.
Well, I think that when we get older too,
don't worry about that stuff.
And depending on the circles that we're in,
like if you're in a circles with lots of people
that create content, photos, videos,
then it becomes easier to be like,
you know what, I want to give this a try.
The same way, if you're hanging out
with a bunch of fucking fabricators and bike builders,
I'm gonna give that a try.
But the problem is sometimes when you don't
are not in that circle
and you want to go down that path,
there might be a social aspect to the dynamic
that you have that it might, you might feel awkward.
Like, look at Codio, they're trying to be an influencer.
I've heard that before.
Yeah, that's.
I've heard like, I think it'd be cool.
I really do.
I mean, like maybe I'm too old to be cool,
but I don't feel like I'm too old to be cool.
If you do it in some of the outfits that you wear,
that'd be sick.
That would be cool.
I kind of need to get back into that, man.
I used to really love that shit.
So now I just feel like I work, raise kids.
But this, like I say,
this is giving my, this is kind of relit my fire a little bit.
So like I say, I'm working on, sounds cliche,
but I'm working on a few parts.
And I'd like, I don't want to bring
a hundred parts to market.
I would just love to bring, you know,
and I know on this particular bike,
it's not really anything on this bike
that I can bring to market,
just because everything is.
So one off, yeah.
But, you know, I think I've got another stock FXR chassis.
I want to do some stuff too.
And, you know, I think there should be some cool parts
I could come to market with that.
So we'll see.
I mean, I'm going to make a go of it
and see what happens, you know?
I don't, if it's for more than anything,
other than just for the love of doing it,
that I'm fine with that too.
I mean, you know, like,
I don't know if I'm ready to jump back
into motorcycling full time is a career,
but I'm definitely ready to step up
from where I have been, you know?
Cause I took a break.
So I'm kind of ready to get back into,
this is kind of put me back in that groove of,
you know, maybe I could build a few more bikes
and make some parts and, you know,
kind of live that more of custom lifestyle
that I like to live and making things,
creating with my hands.
I mean, fucking hands are starting to hurt
and elbows hurt, knees hurt, hips hurt, but, you know.
You're gonna have to just be the cameraman
and tell everybody, this is what I'm doing here.
Well, actually my apprentice is doing the work, but.
If I could find an apprentice, I'd have one down here.
But man, there's, I'm literally on an island out here,
like in Abilene.
I mean, I love Abilene,
but man, trying to get anybody to do anything
and help and teach and like,
I've offered to teach kids welding for free and,
you know, the sheet metal,
what I know about sheet metal,
and I still have a lot to learn, man.
There's a little school in Cedar Park
that I used to go to.
Hammer Fab, Levi Green,
I don't know if you know Levi or not,
but. I've heard of Hammer Fab.
Hammer Fab, he's a, they build cars
and he's a sheet metal guru, man.
I've been to his school a couple of times.
I want to go back and,
but I mean, I've offered to teach just like,
kids that are in the high school here
that don't want to go to college
and want to do something different.
Like, I'll teach you how to weld,
teach you how to, you know,
TIG weld, whatever,
teach you how to shape some sheet metal
if you're interested in learning
and never, never get an offer
to like come hang out and learn it
and, you know, teach somebody something.
So, but I would love to,
I mean, I want to teach my kids
how to weld and do some stuff,
but they're not, they're not that interested in it.
Yeah.
Trust me, I got a 15 year old son
that I can't get him to want to care at all
about any of this and it sucks,
but it's like at the same time,
like I'm also trying to be a supportive dad
of whatever he's into.
Have to.
And, you know, like it would,
trust me, it'd be sick
to be able to just be like,
like what, you know,
my machinist just did
where he built the FXR for his son.
Yeah.
And they did it together
and they're going to ride to,
to Sturgis next year together.
That's awesome, man.
Like, bro, like that's,
that's like the,
not to compare and be like,
oh, I wish my son was like, yeah,
of course I wish my son was more into this shit,
but like, I still love my son.
Yeah.
I get my oldest daughter
for the first time.
Like I picked her up from school
on a, I bought a brand new road glide and
2017.
Was that the faring change?
What was the faring change
from 13?
2014?
2015.
Okay.
So I bought a 17 road glide.
17 was the first year that it made,
I believe.
Okay.
Then I didn't buy a 17.
It was the first year
for the new faring.
So, yeah.
Which would have been,
she was in like the
15 and third or fourth grade.
I literally lived a block
from the school.
So I pick her up on my road glide.
She comes out,
she's balling, crying,
like couldn't believe
that I had the audacity
to pick her up from school
on a motorcycle.
Just thought I ruined her
entire social career, right?
So take her home,
never gets on a motorcycle again.
She just,
I moved her to Lubbock
a couple of weeks ago
and she's like, hey,
next time I come home,
I'd really like you
to take me for a ride
on your motorcycle.
And I was like,
okay, I can do that.
I was like,
I bought helmets for you
and your sister.
So I'll gladly take you
for a ride.
She's like,
yeah, she's like,
you know, I was embarrassed
when you did it the first time,
but she was like,
cool.
So next time I come home,
I'm gonna go for a ride.
That's cool.
So I mean, it was,
it really made me feel good.
Like I was like,
okay, cool.
Like maybe,
you know,
she sees how much,
how much work I put into
trying to do this stuff.
So I think maybe she's like,
appreciates a little more
that she's over.
I think too they start to,
they start to realize like,
finding something you're
passionate about
is not as easy
for everybody as it seems.
Yeah.
I mean, that's one
of the biggest things you,
on YouTube is like,
how to find your thing,
what you're into,
hobbies, blah, blah, blah.
And it's like,
I mean,
yeah, it's huge,
like world where,
I mean,
I think for guys,
not as much for women,
it's a little bit more difficult.
Well, it's like my wife.
Like my wife,
like I always asked her like,
what she,
cause she didn't have a hobby.
She loves to work.
That's her thing.
She wants to go to work.
And she loves working.
And she loves being a mom,
but outside of that,
she's not like,
doesn't want to be an interior designer.
Doesn't want to create.
Doesn't want to paint.
Doesn't, she's just solely,
she's so happy to work
and raise kids.
That's what she loves.
And I know,
but I know other people out there
that they don't like their job.
They don't like to work.
They don't have a hobby.
They don't like,
and in my head, I'm like,
I can't imagine not having
like a hobby or a side hustle or,
like I can't imagine not having this.
Like my world,
I don't know what my world would look like.
I would be just at home
drinking Coors Light or something.
Maybe I don't know what the fuck
I'd be in Sports Center.
I guess, yeah.
I mean, and I, I mean,
that's the other thing.
Like my social media,
TV time, screen time.
I mean, I go to work
and then I come down here and work.
So other than me posting
a few little things on Instagram
when I, when I can,
like it's put me back like
head down working.
And, you know,
I heard somebody say one time like,
if things get tough,
put your head down and work.
Yeah.
If things are good,
put your head down and work.
Like if you just go to work
and it doesn't have to be physical work.
It can be whatever editing videos
doing your part.
Like just do what you,
if you continue to work at something,
what I don't,
what is it you have to do eight?
Was it 18 hours a month
or 18 minutes a day
or what there's some,
there's some random number.
Like if you do something every day
for you'll eventually become great
at doing that.
And I don't remember what the number is.
I read it, but, you know,
so that's one of the things like
I've been down here
not every day since I got invited.
But man, I've been down here
like I've got no heating air conditioning.
I got no restroom,
you know,
I got a fucking fridge now.
So I can at least keep drinks cold
without having to put bags of ice in it.
But I mean,
I've spent a lot of time down here.
I thought,
I just need to put a cot down here
and go to sleep.
But summertime it's too hot.
So yeah.
Yeah, there's definitely something to be said about that.
And when it comes to like
the people that are looking for like hobbies and stuff,
it's just,
I mean,
I always say that I have to think
whatever circles that I got privy to when I was younger
that opened my eyes to custom things.
Like it started in the car world
and then it morphed into the motorcycle world.
And then that opened up tons and tons of doors
and places that I could, you know, go explore, right?
But for those that like,
you know,
if you don't have that,
that kind of thing,
if you spend your whole life on a video game
and all your friends are not around,
who's to say you don't walk in your buddy's house
and his older brother's out there skateboarding?
And you're like, man, I want to try that.
Or his older brother's out there fucking welding up,
they're doing some mini truck shit.
And you're like, man, that's kind of fucking cool.
And like, I want to check that out or in a band.
Like the human interaction of shit is how we kind of get,
like we see it,
or at least for me,
the way I learned,
inspired is to see it and feel like,
man, I would like to try that.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I don't know.
Once you try it,
if you like it then you just keep trying.
I mean, I think that's what I still do.
I just keep trying every day.
Yeah.
I keep trying and I get a little bit better
and then I'll do something.
And even with this bike,
like I'll do something.
And then I'm like,
I can do better than that.
So then I throw it away
or I cut it up or I make a new one or,
I mean, I did it with that fender.
I've had that fender,
put longer sidewalls on it.
Didn't like how it's set.
So cut it apart,
redid the sidewalls.
Then I figured I didn't need to sit a little bit higher
because of the compression of the shock.
So I had to redo them.
So, I mean, I would say I've got so many hours
and not just that fender.
I keep talking about it,
but it's been kind of my nemesis
is just trying to get it right.
And I have that blessing and a curse to where you,
if it's not right,
you don't want to use it,
but then you can only,
you're going to spend so much time
that you'll never get it done.
Cause you, you know,
somebody told me one time there's perfect
and then there's perfectly acceptable.
And you've got to learn the difference.
Cause if you're looking for perfect,
you're just going to check water.
You're never going to get anywhere.
So that's kind of what, you know,
trying to, trying to make it as perfect as possible.
And, you know,
I think I got the rear fender dialed in
minus the deceit.
I've got to do the seat, the seat pan,
but I think we're,
I don't want to say we're on the home stretch,
but we're getting close, man.
Getting real close.
What's going to be wrapping it gets done.
So I'm going to get everything back from,
I've got some parts and pieces all across the country.
So I've got the,
I need, I need things to fall into place timing wise.
Like, you know,
my goal was to have the bike done by September 20th.
That was my goal.
That's not going to happen.
So that's cause the 20th is my birthday.
That's when I wanted to have it done by,
but so now we're shooting for,
shooting for like August 1st,
I mean, October 1st,
kind of in that timeframe, you know,
it's going to depend on paint.
And then I've got some drivetrain parts
that are being machined.
So yeah.
Well, Cody, it's going to be rad, man.
I'm, I'm super stoked for you.
I'm glad that you leaned into the project
because like I said, at the end of it,
you're going to have a sick ass bike.
That's going to be another one of those,
you know, classic Cody Childress.
You know what I mean?
I hope so.
I appreciate the invite.
Appreciate you driving out to Abilene to do this.
And I love being on your show, man.
I appreciate it's four over years, man.
It's my, you know, I don't get a lot of,
I don't get a lot of fame,
but this is my couple of hours of fame
every once in a while.
So.
I mean, I've been wanting to come out here
to Abilene more often.
I mean, it's like a town that it's out of sight,
out of mind.
You know what I mean?
And I don't mean that in a bad way.
It's a cool little city.
I mean, I can get everything I want
other than, you know,
I don't have the restaurants,
but if I want the big city life,
I just shoot two hours and Fort Worth Dallas.
And then, you know,
property is still pretty reasonable here.
Rent's pretty reasonable here still.
Like, just with this AI center coming up out here,
man, things are fixing to be,
they're gonna be bananas here for too long.
So, I mean.
Yeah, my wife and I,
we're always kind of like,
like we're, you know,
very implanted into Dallas and stuff there.
But every once in a while, man,
like I would rather live somewhere cheap
that I can enjoy the quality of life that I lived
and have to be somewhere where everything is
and pay the premium for it.
Because with more and more things,
like the way the world works now
as far as like most of our business is through the internet,
not so much the sign out front
and the cars passing by.
So it's, and for nowadays,
like if you want a cool custom paint job
or a bike build,
like this entire country's not that big
to be like, I'm not gonna take my bike
across the country to have something done.
You know, 20 years ago, fuck,
nobody's doing that shit.
No, no, no.
But now I'll get in my truck today
and I'll drive 20 hours
just to go get something done somewhere.
You remember the whole,
the flex used to be,
I'm having someone from California paint my bike.
Oh.
Yeah, I remember people talking about it.
I just never did it
because I was like, yeah, I can't afford it.
Like I had a local painter that was pretty good
here that was, I mean, for what I was doing,
but I've only two people that have ever painted
anything for me outside of Abilene
are you and Brad Barnes.
Everything else I had painted local.
Yeah.
And me and that guy got cross threaded
so they don't speak anymore,
but he moved off.
He's in Ohio or somewhere now, but...
Yeah, it was funny
because whenever I started getting flown out
to California to paint bikes like every month.
I remember you doing that.
I would be here and dudes would be like,
yeah, my bike's getting painted in California.
I'm like, there's a chance
I'm painting your bike in California, dude.
Like I'm right here, man.
I was so weird that that's the flex,
but I mean,
it's not something I hear anymore.
But back in the day it was, it seemed more like a flex,
but it's also like when the internet got,
when like Instagram and shit got bigger,
like painters got to be a lot more popular
because if you were a painter like on the old bike,
like, you know, if you were John the painter
or fucking hot dog or something like that back in the day,
then you kind of already had a reputation
in the motorcycle world.
You were Dave Parowitz or something like that.
But realistically, how the hell,
like there's never been a whole lot of
like promoting painters in the motorcycle industry
until social media came out.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, for sure.
A lot of shops didn't want to even tell anybody
who painted the bike because they wanted
to be able to sell that paint job to the customer
and they didn't want to go around.
Right, no, it's still that way in some instances
there are people don't want to tell you
where they're getting something done.
I mean, just even some parts like,
I had some, I saw some parts on a guy's bike.
I was like, those are cool.
Where'd you get those?
He's like, yeah.
That's the guy I know made him like,
you know, like, can I call the guy?
He's like, you didn't really want to do anything
for anybody else.
So I mean, I get it.
It's just, I've seen it happen with paint, parts,
all of it.
Yeah.
Meanwhile, the dude's like, hey man,
if you do this for me,
I'm gonna bring you 10 customers.
Yeah.
I've had a lot of bullshit before, so.
All right, Cody.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, let's do some other stuff now.
So all right, thank you for this.
And I'm sure you guys will see this
at Born Free Texas all shiny
and say some prayers.
This is starting.
So all right, it's gonna be there
whether it's rolled up in primer,
it's gonna be there.
So keep that under construction.
Well guys, I hope you enjoyed that.
I wanna thank Cody for taking the day off
and spending it with me,
showing me all the cool things he's got going on
in this bike build for Born Free Texas.
Speaking of Born Free Texas,
man, it's gonna be a good one.
We're gonna be kicking off that entire event
here in Dallas at Stroker's Dallas,
to be exact.
We're hosting the Born Free Texas for pre-party,
October 15th, Stroker's Dallas.
Gonna be a lot of cool stuff going on.
We're still working out all the details, giveaways,
whether there's gonna be a bike show or not.
A lot of good stuff happening.
On the 16th, which is a Thursday,
through the following Sunday,
is Born Free Texas out at the Yellow Rose.
And if you've been listening to this podcast,
you've been hearing me rave about this event
all year long, please guys, don't miss it.
You're going to enjoy this thing.
Try to put that on the calendar.
It's gonna be a great time.
Myself, Cody Childress, and many other friends of mine
are all building bikes this year for Born Free.
You got the FXR Tour coming together for Born Free.
So much good shit.
Check it out.
We'll be there.
We'll probably have some new t-shirts,
new hats, all that good stuff.
It's gonna be a good time.
Thank you for listening.
Please check out the sponsors.
Please support the podcast.
Link in description.
We'll see you on the next one.
Peace.
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