When it comes to the Greasy Dozen Builder Collective, you never know what you'll see. The range of makes, models, and even styles is so broad, when selecting builders each year we look for things you don't always see and DJ Snyder's submission was exactly that! DJ submitted a 2006 Katana into our chopper category and as soon as we saw his submission we were sold. Reading that line you might be scratching your head and thinking a Katana.. a chopper?.. how is this going to play out. We can assure you that DJ built an absolute beast of a chopper! We're used to seeing 60s, 70s and 80s platforms turned into choppers, so when we saw a 2006 sport bike submission with the plan to turn it into a chopper it really had us wanting to see the end result. We always question what will happen with the 90s/00's sport bikes, will they be used for custom platforms or will they die in a junk yard? DJ may have struck gold with this chopper build and we may start seeing more 90's and 00's choppers coming to light. Without further ado, let's dive into this interview and learn more about his build.
When it comes to the Greasy Dozen Builder Collective, you never know what you'll see. The range of makes, models, and even styles is so broad, when selecting builders each year we look for things you don't always see and Alex Krill's submission was exactly that! Alex submitted his Suzuki T500 into our tracker category and as soon as we saw his submission we were sold. The T500 isn't the most popular model from the 60s-70s, some may have never even heard of it, but believe it or not this was a 10 year production bike. Although they may not be the most popular model to build off of today, these bikes were commonly used in road race and flat track applications back in the 60s and 70s. With that being said, when we saw Alex was planning to build a street tracker we had to select him and see what he could do! Without further ado, let's dive into this interview and learn more about his build.
The Iron Invasion vintage moto and car show now in its 8th year has always taken place in northern Iowa in the heart of some great motorcycle and car history. We wanted to see what this fantastic show was all about and this year it took place at the famous Davenport, Iowa Mississippi Valley fairgrounds which extended the show even further adding dirt drags, mini bike racing an incredible swap meet and tons of room for Zak of Heavy Clothing and Matt of Rolling Heavy magazine to also do a seperate show indoors this year named the "Last Gasp" chopper and van invitational in one of the bigger buildings. We got a chance to speak with the shows founder and organizer John Wells about just how it has evolved over the years and the revelation that made him want to bring the motorcycle and car sub cultures together in the spirit of unified celebration. The gap certainly needed to be bridged and the spirit of the show aimed to do just that by the blending or "invading" of each of these subcultures and bringing them together into one show. So whether your ride of choice is an Econoline van, a vintage Honda or Harley Davidson or 3 ton Buick fastback the name of the game here is vintage, and no matter what your passion vintage is better!
The seventh running of the Indy Mad Max Run almost didn't happen this year due to the current situation with a certain pandemic bringing an actual grim apocalyptic tone to the current state of the world but the battle hardened moto warriors of the wasteland decided they wouldn't give up hope and instead rescheduled the event for the greatest day of the year, Halloween! Truly one of the only things that could make the event even better as the ride has usually been targeted for the spring as a way to kick off the riding season. While years past had Mad Max riders packed into the hundreds, the organizers decided to keep it safe and hosted the Halloween run as a more scaled down, mask friendly, social distanced event but still open to anyone who wanted to join in the fun.
The beautiful rolling hills of Southwestern Ohio have long since been one of our favorite riding destinations (as well as serving us a bit of scenery on our Greasy Dozen Run) but go even further south to Oregonia, Ohio and you will find the home of one of the most infamous hills in the country, The Devils Staircase. Powell Farm in Oregonia has been holding the Devils Staircase AMA professional hillclimb for a whopping 71 years now making it one of the longest running motorcycle events in the entire country. It also serves as the culmination of the AMA pro racing series and determines the series champion for that year. It has attracted the bravest and most talented riders from all over the country to throttle straight up this treacherous hill with dust covered fearless victory in their sights. While some other hillclimbs serve a straighter path the Devils Staircase earned its named due to its multiple levels of difficulty trying to quickly advance up each step of the "staircase" one careful move at a time. This often sends riders launching wildly through mid air trying to advance to the next step. A feat that only the most heroic and fearless riders in the country can attain with skill and precision.
