Everyone who's toiled thanklessly for a self-righteous slave driver has heard the same old platitude. "Nine to five's when you work on your job. Before and after that's when you work on your career." If such bromides hold weight, Jason Craver's career as a motorcycle parts maker looks bright, indeed.

Wayne Ahlquist, the proprietor of Acme Choppers of New Hampshire, has witnessed the spectacle of excess that is Laconia Bike Week, so he has cultivated some very strong ideas about what constitutes a finely crafted custom motorcycle.

Pride for quality, craftsmanship and creativity runs deep among custom motorcycle fans in these United States. A thread that was started in the main forum a couple weeks ago continues to rise to the top with contact information about the best and brightest builders and fabricators on American soil.

February 2010 marked the tenth anniversary of Easyriders' V-Twin Expo. This business-to-business extravaganza seeks to stimulate commerce at both ends of the chopper trade by giving manufacturers, wholesalers, builders and retailers a one-stop shopping experience for all that is rad, righteous or ridiculous in today's custom market.

With race roots and manufacturing that go back to the 1960s, the people behind Joker Machine have lived and loved the high-performance motorcycle scene their entire lives. Since its founding in '69, the company everyone knows today has ebbed and flowed through the bike business under different banners, but high technology and performance have been core to its beliefs since day one.

A hustler with a camera and some gumption could chronicle the choppin' and bobbin' of a hundred badass bike builders at a motorcycle show like last year's David Mann Chopperfest. Unfortuantely, I'm neither sufficiently talented nor motivated for such diversions. God knows I try, but the siren song of corn dogs and garlic fries is always too alluring for me to resist. Damn this biker lifestyle!

Motorcycles move you. These move motorcycles. They're engines. Motors, engines, what's the difference? Technically speaking, engines expend fuel internally to generate motion, and motors consume external power to accomplish the same result.

Duane Ballard's addiction to all things kitschy, creepy and retro is well known among his close friends. The Rat Fink back piece. The Herman Munster armpit tattoo. Revell models. Star Trek trivia. The slivers of dead cow all over his mancave. Equal parts Henry Ford, Henry Rollins and John Henry, ODB is a crazy cat.

Simple plans are the best plans. Invite some friends, provide adequate bike parking, crack some beers and cook a few dogs, pretty simple. Love Cycles in Phoenix, AZ, saw an awesome collection of machines from all over the country converge on Saturday, January 16, and between brews and bullshitting we managed to document some of the bikes just for Chop Cult.

No individual or organization works harder to perpetuate the mythology of "the biker lifestyle" than Paisano Publications. This juggernaut's arsenal includes apparel, events-management, magazines and internet resources all working in synch to bring chrome-plated pomp to the masses.