Duane Ballard Custom Leather

You should always have some Bam in your life!

Bam back in the day…………..

What a event! Wayne and I made the three hour trek to the Salton Sea for our second guy night at the Slab City Riot. The Biltwell guys know how to throw a party.I can say on this trip, Wayne seen things no man should ever see.

It is so cool to spend time with him. Looking forward to our next trip.

Photos by Wes D.

#1.) The AFT Girls

#2.) Me and the Girls

or………………….

#3.) My bodyguard, McGoo

You decide.

I will be doing the seat from McGoo’s “Spartan Killer.” You can follow his progress here.

Just got some shots of Colt Ford Bobber and the TEAM REALTREE Bike that I did the seats for. Big thanks to Brad Lux of Lux Custom Choppers for using my product.

It was great to walk into the House of Kolor display at SEMA and see the bike set up. Bones made sure that she was leaning to the left. She had a prime location and was a hit with the crowd.

The House of Kolor booth was awesome, from cars to bikes, pinball machine, water cooler, grill, a lot of skate decks and so much more. It was cool to see their products being used in so many avenues.

The staff is fantastic and easy to work with. I am looking forward to working with them next year.

Well if it wasn’t for McGoo this day wouldn’t of happened. My buddy Darin came out from Arizona so we could take his truck and McGoo’s trailer up to SEMA. Only to realize that the set up wouldn’t work. So McGoo stepped in and threw me his car keys. He saved my ass.

Wayne and I headed out Monday morning at 5 for Vegas to drop off the Pink Taco. Totally bummed that the 18 year old with the new badge wouldn’t let Wayne in to see the House of Kolor booth. They gave me five whole minutes to drop off the bike and be on my way.

Lisa asked Rollin to score us some photos as the booth was still being set up. What a class act, opened her email and there they are.

Bones Noteboom

Big thanks to McGoo, Brent , Gaby and Rollin for help me out.

A total 9.5 round trip spent with the boy. No a bad day at all.

Lisa, McGoo and I will be leaving at 5 tomorrow morning to run thru the SEMA show, I know a have meetings but am stoked to see everything.

This week has been absolutely nuts! I am really looking forward to the weekend, hopefully things pan out for SEMA, crossing fingers. Here are a few of the Denvers Choppers that were on display. Looking at them always make my shitty days better

Renato’s garage rules. I love old cars!

Next project with a sweet motor!

Can’t wait to see this one go down the road

Saturday was the 40th Anniversary party for Street Chopper Magazine which was held it at The Screaming Chicken in San Bernadino. An old forties gas station that was turned into a bar decades ago. Everyone I was riding with showed up at my house around 11 am. It was cool to ride up with Bill Bryant, McGoo, Laura, Alex Cardone, the Vegas crew, and Chris H. . The ride was awesome. No problems with any of the bikes and the Pink Taco handled it’s maiden voyage of any distance without any issues. The party went over great. It was nice seeing that many old Jap bikes in one place. There were some nice HD’s also but I can’t get over my fascination with SOHC Honda’s. Jeff did a fantastic job organizing the event. Lisa took  a lot of pictures at the show and on the ride and will be posting them here and a few other places I’m sure. Here is the first batch

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McGoo drove the Biltwell Inc van down to San Diego so we could partake in the Dice Magazine premier party. Dean and his band , The Black Tibetans played and they killed it. I am a huge fan of Danny G’s album collection and can’t wait for him to spin at one of our parties soon.

The best part of the night had to be when the Swazi Crew pulled in dressed in drag. It was quite a sight to see about twenty guys in some of the craziest outfits known to man. I would say Lisa was very fond of Brian’s get up but lost it on Mike Olsen. For a guy that hates to be in the limelight he was a shining granny. Thanks to Wes D. for the shot

or is it just me?

I will be heading up by 11 if you are looking for someone to ride up with. We are going to be pretty mellow as the Pink Taco hasn’t seen a lot of road yet. We are taking the 15 all the way down. Call me if you want to join in.

There is nothing better than working a full week, getting a few seats and tool bags out of the way, knowing that there is a finish line. My line always has something worthwhile at the end, from a ride with friends, a concert with Wayne, to a enjoyable Star Trek marathon. McGoo, Alex and myself headed up the Ortega Highway for a quick ride up to Hell’s Kitchen, home of the friendliest waitresses. Both McGoo and I were still getting the bikes dialed in so we didn’t want to go too far. Glad to report that the Taco ran great and McGoo 450 hauled ass. Alex’s carbs needed a little tweaking when we got home but all and all great ride.

Alex is telling me to wait as he brought Lisa brownies and hot chocolate to ease the pain of the Red Soxs losing

sad to report after the ride McGoo and I pack up the 450 in the trailer and on the way home , one of the straps let go and there is some damage to fix. Our goal is to have the bike ready for the Street Chopper 40th party next week, cross your fingers. We are searching for a alternator cover for the 1972 Honda Cb450, you know where we can find one?

It is a huge honor to have the folks at Mooneyes consider my work good enough to go to Japan. They stopped by to look at the Pink Taco and measured her up to see if she would fit in the shipping container. I have always heard and read about the show and to have a bike of mine in the event would of been mind blowing. I am sad to report that I would of had a bigger conflict on the home front as The Taco is to be at the SEMA show, in the House of Kolor booth, in Vegas this November. Another very cool event in itself. I would be been too late for the delivery of the bike for Japan. I hope that I can be apart of such a great event next year and wish all the guys a great time! Thanks to every one that threw my out to the Mooneyes crew, it means a lot!

Will called me last week and within a hour, I had the coolest bike show in front of my house. Josh Kurpius, famed photographer and friend, stopped by to take some shots of the Pink Taco. I had the opportunity to get my first bike shot by Josh in Daytona a few years back and the images are outstanding. If you haven’t seen the Locust, it is pretty bad ass.

Pretty cool that all of the engraving was done by Josh. I am impressed that he never took a class and nailed it.

Well I pulled into Vegas at 1 pm on Thursday, helped set up the booth at Las Vegas Bikefest , hooked up with Kutty and then headed down to show the gang at Dino Bar the bikes. It was great to see top builders like Greg Westbury, Jim Giuffra, El Pitts, Scott Long and Brian Fuller. Each of these guys have brought so much to the industry, yet they showed up to support Kutty and myself, it was too cool for words. The crowd was great and McGoo laid down a crisp hundred dollar bill to keep the PBR following for them. Thanks to James for pulling the whole thing off.

I was stoked to get the November issue of Cycle Source today, Lisa gets them early as she works for them. On page four is the new Spectro Oil Ad with me in it. Big thanks goes out to Chris Callen for putting this ad together for me. Also to Rollin and the Spectro Oil crew for allowing me to rock their product.The riding shot was done by my good buddy Courtney Halowell.

I just got the word from Steve Carr that his team at Lighting Rod Motorcycles took home the top award for their custom build at the Fall Thunder Beach Rally this past weekend. The other bikes also were winners, the Gold bobber won 1st place in its class, as well as a second place for the black and gold boardtracker, and the winner in the metric custom class was a bike on out team as well. Over all we won 5 awards and almost $3000 in cash and prizes. Glad I could be a part of this build.