On January 12th 2014, the first NorCalCycleSwap was held at the West Wind Drive- In off the 50 freeway and Bradshaw road in Sacramento, CA. With 80 vendors and well over 1,000 spectators, the swap proved to be a good time for all that made the trek to the event. 

The fine folks at Loser Machine and Born-Free know how to throw a party! It's been awesome to watch their Annual BBQ grow and surpass the first Born-Free attendance. Friends from all over California and afar travel to Inglewood, CA, to help Mike Davis and Grant Peterson kick off Born-Free 6, enjoy a few frosty brews, and fill up on free BBQ cooked to perfection by Adrian Lopez, owner of Loser Machine. Loser Machine also offered free event t-shirts which where screen printed on the property. Most of the crowd took time to drool over the pristine 1952 HD Panhead Motor donated by Harley-Davidson. Many of the Born-Free sponsors contributed to the giveaways and the Panhead was won by Sam Villani, a fireman out of Baltimore. Well deserved, my friend! The event went from 12 to 6 and the ride-in bike show never stopped. As soon as one bike pulled out, another one was immediately taking its place. Big thanks to Yoshi and his wonderful staff at Garage Co. for opening their doors once again. If you ever visit Southern California, be sure visit Garage Co.. Your mind will be blown away with their fine collection of parts and memorabilia.

The black hole of cheap, poor quality, biker fashion that seemed to be a veritable sea of fluorescent doo rags, tribal skulls, and billet junk for the last 20 years is finally imploding on itself. Tradition and quality are making a comeback and I couldn’t be happier about it.

To the average chopper fan, Dunlop Customs may seem like just another fab shop building custom choppers in a sea of fab shops doing the same thing. However, when I met with the owner, Brock Dunlop, and saw his fab work firsthand, I was blown away. For such a young company with limited resources, his work sports some pretty serious talent. His custom designs are clean, preserving the bike’s original look and style. When it comes to attention to detail Brock leaves no stone unturned. Line-of-sight and isolated focus areas are clear and direct, simply highlighting the aesthetic reminiscent of the bike’s original appeal. This guy is a real deal representation of the growing AZ scene. He supports local development at a grassroots level by hosting regular events through his shop, bringing two-wheeled friends together to talk bikes and share laughs.  

Choppahead Kustom Cycles caters to the next generation by building affordable custom motorcycles and quality motorcycle parts

You know I'm almost as sick of hearing the word "hipster" as I was of looking at the "live to ride" junk in the 90's. Recently I found that I too had started to say this word a bunch. I found myself leveling this term at just about anyone that was under 30, that had a hint of fashion, was a new or Johnny come lately rider.

The Brooklyn Inviational has quickly risen to east coast motorcycle mecca status, and for a good reason. Our friend Harvard Matt was kind enough to nab some pics, both inside the show and on the curb outside.

The title of this wonderful seven-and-a-half-minute video comes from a defining moment in the story, where the intrepid motorcyclist states: "When you get up in the morning, you've only got to worry about three things..."

One year ago last Labor Day, Father-and-son Triumph fiends and O.G. ChopCult lurkers Tony and Andy Dunn moved their venerated Classic Cycles enterprise into bigger digs near its original Orange, Calfornia, home. For the uninitiated, Classic Cycles has risen to the pinnacle among SoCal-based British bike builders, resellers and hop-up experts in less than a decade. McGoo visited Tony on an average weekday to watch the elder Dunn and his clever crew work on a cavacade of choppers, bobbers, beaters and bona fide show bikes.

California's City by The Bay is the birthplace of the second oldest motorcycle club in America. The San Francisco Motorcycle Club was founded at Thor Motorcycles in 1904, a charter bested only by the Yonkers MC of New York in 1903. I'm not sure how many people in the SF crew that met me for breakfast at Lefty O'Doul's off Union Square know about the SFMC, but that didn't stop us from talking choppers in the heart of the most beautiful city in America.