STURGIS 2023 – BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, NOT!
November 29, 2023
Unfrickinbelieveable! 43 years going to the Sturgis Rally, and I can never get enough. It keeps changing, and there’s always something new. And it’s not only the rally itself, but also our outlook, and it’s the many ways we choose to get there and back. It would seem most would…
TABER NASH’S “1157” AND A BALANCED LIFE
November 14, 2023
To understand “1157”, Taber Nash’s 88 CI custom Shovelhead, you must understand the builder, or at least how Taber’s roots are steeped in punk rock, BMX, and skateboard culture. It’s this attitude that he puts into all his custom builds and that he brought to the custom bike world when…
BLEW BAYOU – 20 YEARS IN THE MAKING
October 27, 2023
Text by Dan Rognsvoog – Photos by Michael Lichter Pre-internet sensations, pre-social media, 25 years ago, I built a turbo-charged Ironhead Sportster with parts I had scrounged for several years. The bike had a junkyard turbocharger on it. I did it all “by guess and by golly.” I didn’t have…
DAKOTA TOOMEY’S “DAY DREAMER” 72 TRIUMPH
October 14, 2023
When Dakota Toomey was 20, he came across an ad on Craig’s List for a “Triumph Chopper Project.” Dakota had been riding dirt bikes for years but was in the market for a road bike, so the ad got his attention. How it got that heading, he had no idea…
THRILL SEEKER – COVINGTON’S NEWEST AND COOLEST IS ALL PART OF THE CHASE
September 28, 2023
As with anyone who has been in business for nearly 30 years, Jerry Covington has endured a lot of challenges, but none of the obstacles could stop his passion for custom motorcycles. Thankfully, from the beginning, he’s had the support of his family. Kathleen, his wife of 33 years, has…
LACONIA MOTORCYCLE WEEK: CELEBRATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY
September 13, 2023
Laconia Motorcycle Week was ramping up to its recent 100th anniversary for years. It’s been discussed and written about as a historical moment in the motorcycle world, the first motorcycle rally to reach a centennial anniversary. (Definitely in America and worldwide when you consider the Isle of Mann was organized…
DREAMS DO BECOME REALITY: BRANDON KEENE’S “SHOWTIME” SHOVELHEAD
September 7, 2023
Brandon Keene dreamed of building motorcycles his whole life, but it wasn’t until 2010 that, while working his full-time job as a carpenter, he started customizing motorcycles on the side just for fun. In 2015, things started to change when his Dad offered him a 1967 Triumph to use as…
“TWIST-HER,” FROM A BOOK OF DREAMS
July 21, 2023
Some custom bike builders are better mechanics and engineers than artists with an understanding of style, shape, and form, while others are the other way around. Then there are builders like Steve Broyles, who is so good at both sides of this equation. Steve is a master mechanic and fabricator…
July 6, 2023
Justin McNeely has had fuel coursing through his veins since he started racing 4-wheel ATVs when he was five (he’s almost 40 now). These traits may have been genetic since, as a baby, Justin was going to races to watch his uncle drag race cars, and in the 1950s, way…
THE FRIENDS CHOPPER THROWDOWN: CAMARADERIE AT ITS BEST
June 28, 2023
So, what drives a group of guys spread out across the country, each extremely busy with work and family, to throw down a crazy amount of time, energy, and money, on the challenge of building a new custom bike just for the sake of it? The answer is simple…
PERIOD CORRECT – THE PAUL YAFFE DENNIS KIRK GIVE-AWAY FXLR
May 12, 2023
FXRs are on fire! We’ve all seen amazing custom creations built on this proven platform of the past. They are entered in performance and FXR bike shows all over the country. A plethora of parts and accessories are available to dress them up, as well as re-pop frames that will…
April 28, 2023
Paul Cox is well known as a bike builder, but he is much more to anyone who knows him personally. To me, he is a modern-day incarnation of a Renaissance man. Paul is an artist, and his Life is his art. He can flow effortlessly from building a custom bike…
LACONIA MEMORIES – A LOOKS BACK AT AMERICA’S OLDEST MOTORCYCLE RALLY
April 4, 2023
How many motorcycle rallies in America can boast of making it (or about to make it) to their 100th annual event? Let’s change that to which rally (singular), and the answer is simple, Laconia Motorcycle Week. That makes it the oldest motorcycle rally in the USA. Expand your search overseas,..
REMAKING A LEGEND – JEFF ZIELINSKI’S TWIN-CAM FXR
March 28, 2023
Many Harley riders maintain that the FXR was the best Harley-Davidson model ever. While there was some reluctance on the part of traditional Harley riders who felt it had too much of a “Metric” look when it was introduced in 1982, it continued to grow in popularity through its entire…
THE IRON HORSE SALOON – TAKE IT IN WITH ALL YOUR SENSES!
March 3, 2023
Like sap oozing out of some big old pine, character oozes out of every nook and cranny at the Iron Horse Saloon. And like a big old tree, it took many years to grow and develop this character. Most of us are familiar with the Iron Horse Saloon, in name…
February 17, 2023
Text – Blue Miller, Photos – Michael Lichter Blue Miller (Yes, Blue is her real name despite the pink hair!) is a guest writer for this installment of “Lichter Notes.” Born and raised in England, she still lives and works there when not writing about and traveling on Route 66…
THE LONE STAR RALLY. A HIDDEN TEXAS GEM (ONLY 400,000 KNOW ABOUT!)
January 25, 2023
With 400,000 people attending the annual Lone Star Rally in Galveston, Texas, the first week of November each year, it is the largest bike rally of any kind in Texas and presumably the largest 4-day motorcycle rally in the US. Its popularity can be attributed to three main factors: the…
FRED CUBA’S RED WHEEL SURVIVOR
January 6, 2023
Fred Cuba entered the bike world when he started racing in 1970, when he was just 15 years old. It didn’t matter whether it was a hill climb, flat track, or scrambles. You took your bike wherever you could race. To that end, Fred started going to Sturgis in 1973…
BORN-FREE TEXAS: BACK TO THE ROOTS
December 23, 2022
Two big forces came together to create a new event that had many of us buzzing in anticipation. Yellow Rose Canyon has staged several motorcycle events since Oliver Peck took the helm in 2021 (Check out my feature on the Southern Throwdown), and we’ve all been witness to the many…