Article By: Xavier Muriel
Originally Published In The February 2015 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine
Well fellow gear heads another year has come to an end and man what a year it was! Over 250 shows in support of our last record “Confessions” and the EP “F**K”. We played all over the world and I have so many great memories to file away in my “remember when” folder. I’ve had the distinguished honor of hanging with and learning from some of the best builders in the biz today. I’ve got to spend more time in my garage these past few months since I can’t remember when and it’s been a blast. I’ve tackled completely disassembling a five speed tranny, hand polishing it and rebuilding it…which is something I’ve never done before. I had a lot of help from friends and manuals. I must say it was an awesome learning experience to see the transformation right in front of me. Now I’m sure that there are those who would say “no big deal” but if you’ve ever set your mind to doing something and accomplished it you know the satisfaction I’m talking about.
That leads me to my point of doing it yourself, my Father always used to say to me even at a very young age “ learn to do it yourself so you don’t have to pay someone and then pass it along” As a person who has an undying passion for all that is Harley, it gives me a great sense of pride when I put a bike up on my lift and set out to fix whatever is wrong and actually fix it. I’ve lost a whole week at a time fixing, tuning or just tinkering on a bike. I guess you could say it’s my therapy and to those of you who read this and smile you know what I’m talking about because you feel the same way! There is something almost ZEN about a person working on a machine that makes you forget about the outside world and all the chaos that it holds. The smell of oil and gas that makes other people cringe, we embrace without a question. Forgoing food because we don’t want to stop the progress we are making. We want to get it done so we can hear and feel the end result putting down the road. I applaud all of my brothers and sisters who choose to educate themselves about their machines.
So the next time you shine up those parts remember that at some time before it looked like that there was someone coated in black gunk and sore hands to make it look like good!!! I’ve acquired the basic parts (all these I got while my touring) to start my next shovel project, as the year passes and while I’m not on the road I’ll be working on it and including pics of its progress. I’ve always believed it’s not how much money you spend on it but it’s the idea that if well executed will result in a very cool sled. My patience has taught me that the right thing always comes along!
I finally got a Keith, my guitar player, in my garage for a few hours to work on pulling his ‘37 out of the frame for some repairs. I must say it was a good time, no music or biz talk, just two buds getting greasy and listening to Led Zeppelin while we worked. It’s something we rarely get to do and it makes for a great day. After all isn’t that part of what we dig about bikes is to help out someone when they need it, I’m sure we’ve been helped out from time to time! Until next time my friends, safe and happy riding.
