Ya know, it’s been so hectic through the holidays that I have been neglecting some of the responsibilities at the ol Cycle Source here. No, not the big stuff but the little things that are usually just part of a day, like the Monday Morning Editorial. Well, not only is that the reason I sit here writing this on a Friday night right in the middle of deadline, but because I was hit with the reason we do this magazine as I wrote an article for the next issue.
It was during an interview with a man who came out to Galveston to put his bike in our show in the hopes that his hard work would get recognized. One of our other writers couldn’t get the time to do his interview and I grabbed it up and gave him a call. In his story he told me about his young son that helped him make key decisions on the build and had in effect been part of it from start to finish, including the name. He brought him to the show to get the full experience and that was where he met us and we asked if we could take some pictures for the magazine. He was blown away and mentioned to me that “It’s hard to get any recognition out there unless you catch a break, even the BIKERLIVE thing ended up being big name shops” and I immediately shot back in time when we started a little local newspaper rag to give credit to the average Joe and the work he is so proud of.
That magazine of course was Cycle Source and issue number one proudly featured my very own 1981 Shovelhead, eighteen years ago next month. I remembered that I too was looking for some recognition of my hard work and although my bike wasn’t a million dollar chopper I was damn proud of it. I’m not sure what I’m really getting at here accept for the fact that if you are new to Cycle Source and don’t always understand why this bike or that one makes it into the pages, well….. sit back and read the article that tells its story. Nine times out of ten we happened across another proud, unnoticed soul and are blessed with the means to give him some credit. And that’s the way it’s gonna stay as long as my names at the top of the masthead of this sonovabitch too!!!
As for the bike you can see pictures of it and the full story that is far better than my simple rant here depicts, in the March 2015 Issue that will be on newsstands early in February.
