It had been quite a while since we have visited Reno for Street Vibrations and when Mondo of Denver’s Choppers asked us to bring some of the Flat Broke Chops & Rods Bikes out for his show, American Heat during the rally, we loaded up and set the compassions for due west. This trip would be the old fashioned variety that we used to do all the time back in the day. Thirty six hours out, two days at the event and 36 hours back. Yeah, no rest for the wicked and all that aside, sometimes you just have to step up.
As we arrived at Street Vibrations onFriday morning, the organizers couldn’t be more gracious. They set us up with all the media primings and after we unloaded the bikes, set up the both and said our initial hellos, we hit the street running. Now this place has the very unique distinction to set itself apart from other rallies because of the historical significance of the area. Towns like Carson City and Virginia City that were so important in America’s westward expansion are reason enough to go. Still, the style of bikes is another difference. While many of these cats are into the Mexican Low Rider style custom, there is a thriving segment of the chopper culture present as well. Was saw some killer bikes from builders who hail through that region. Two examples were Jacob’s “Apache Dream” and Ron Simms’ little Knucklehead beer that was a rolling history lesson in early chopperdom. We shot both for features so keep an eye peeled in the mag for their full story.
Being a stone’s throw away, Paughco came out in full support of Mondo’s Show as did Charlie Brechtel with the “Golden Chopper” from the upcoming movie. You can see this in an issue of Cycle Source very son as well. Sugar Bear himself was on hand and gave us some free advice on cleaning out bikes. Well, actually it started with “Just don’t do it” and ended up with “If you are, use Lemmon pledge cause you don’t have to work so hard. All in all it was a killer weekend, we got to hang with some friends we never get enough time with Like Aaron Green, who I can say is working on a killer project we can’t wait to tell you about. In any event, I just wanted to give you guys a few quick words on what we were up to and thank everyone from Street Vibrations and Denver’s Choppers once more for such a great time. Look for the Street Vibrations report in an upcoming issue of Cycle Source.