Tennant Mountain

Used up my last roll of Kodak Portra 160nc a few weeks ago on this hike. That may be the last roll I'll ever shoot of that film, as Kodak decided to stop production on it.

Fool's Gold

My bike is finally coming together. I've got the motor completely finished, the 6" over forks built, and the frame is in the shop getting all the stuff done that I am clueless about: welding.  Tom Hyson is doing all the fab work for me here in Raleigh. He's got a rad little corner of a warehouse downtown that he's working out of, and I'm so stoked to see what he comes up with for the frame. The rear shock mounts have to be relocated to work with the old twisted rigid struts I decided to use, and the deep tunnel wassel tank I'm using (not pictured) was frisco'd back in the day but was sort of a hack job, so he's fixing that up too. Paint and wiring are next, then hopefully old "Fools Gold" will be ready to hit the road!

swingarm fever

Middle bike is by far one of my favorites.. why doesn't anybody build bikes like this anymore?

This land is our land

Finished up another

A few recent things I've painted

'66 xlch

My good buddy Ben got a 66' xlch the other day. It's crazy seeing all these old survivors people post up on forums around the internet, but it's even better when you find one yourself. It has all the neat little vintage bits, such as dual headlights, sweet corbin seat, AEE springer (possibly), and of course, the magneto. We just tinkered with it a bit the other night and rebuilt the carb, but it needs just a little bit more work to get it on the road. I can't wait to see it run!

Older pictures

Andrew's a badass dude and used to have this rad s-chassis.  I miss riding around in this thing during summers at home in the mountains. It was loud, low, and obnoxious as hell. But what was really cool about it was that it just had such a period correct feel.  If you roamed the streets in mid-90's japan, this is the kind of shit you'd see at little hole-in-the-wall tuner shops! I might add that it is birthday today, so happy birthday bud!

More from the Showclass Chopper Show!

Monte's bike, another awesome build I saw at the show in Winston Salem. 

Panheads Forever

Centennial Trading Co. in Winston Salem last weekend hosted a motorcycle show.  I'll have more photos up soon but I wanted to do a little "feature" on the Panhead that was at the show. This thing looked like it was uncovered in in some old barn, a relic left over from the late 60's, and is exactly what I like in a motorcycle.  It had all the right touches, and the highlight was hearing it roar to life after having multiple people try and kick start it. It was finally pushed up to the top of the hill in front of the shop and rolled, coughing and sputtering the whole way down, until someone sprinted out into the road to give him one last push which started the bike up. Fuck yeah!

Hurdy Gurdy Man.

 This is Walker. He is probably one of the most inspiring people I have ever met, no joke.  He lives in a small shack by the railroad tracks. I'm not sure the word "shack" does his home justice however.  Yes, it is a shack upon first glance.  Old rugs outside, a small "porch" and a tin roof. It sits in the back corner of an old abandoned concrete companies land, bang smack next to the railroad tracks.  I've seen this shack before, and always made sure to steer clear. The first thing you notice is a weight bench outside, and to be honest, I had no inclination to get beaten up by a semi-homeless group of body builders. So for that reason, I always stayed far away from the place when going downtown to take photos.

I had been trying shoot Jordan's Mustang for a while now, and this was the day I finally got to.  We met up and drove down to a spot I had been thinking of for the past few weeks. Consequently, this spot was the land that the shack was on.  Halfway into the shoot, this guy comes wondering out of the shack and toward us, Budweiser in hand. We gave each other "the look," you know, as in "should we get the fuck out of there or what?" This man comes up to us and we ask if it's cool that we're here. He says of course it is, and makes a remark about how it was nice to see old cars like the mustang still being driven around.  He then told us that it was his birthday. The mood instantly lightened as we wished him a happy birthday and ask if he'd like his picture taken with the Mustang, figuring that it would be a nice gesture to him. We told him to hop in, I give him a smoke and he posed by the car, loving every minute it. 

He then invited us into his house.  He told us how he came here from Florida, and of his past life involving some gnarly drug use and time in jail; 10 years to be exact.  When I stepped inside, I felt overwhelmed by what I saw.  Walker said that when he moved up here, he stayed in a homeless shelter for a while.  He told us how much he despised being there, surrounded by people who didn't want to try to make something of their lives, who sat and complained, but didn't do anything to better their situation.  So Walker up and left one day, found this dirt lot, and said to himself, "I'm gonna build me a lil' old house!" Well here it is, Walker has running water, a septic tank he dug himself, a dishwashing area outside, a separate room with a toilet, a bed, a fridge, and a damn fine porch in which he sits and listens to jazz as the sun sets.  

He gave us each a beer and we sat with him outside, jazz humming in the background, and listened to his stories. Boy he liked to talk. One that comes to mind was about him getting in a fight with a girlfriend at the time, hopping in his car, "drinking that grandaddy corn liquor" and driving all the way to Chicago, telling us how he "buried the needle." A cop chased him at his cars top speed of 130mph for quite some time until the state line and Walker pulled over.  He kept saying how he was clocked at going 130 when his speedo only had 120 on it, so he tried to get out of the ticket. I forget whether or not he actually did, but that's not important. The more we talked to him, the more I realized that Mr. Walker was full of wisdom. He had such a positive outlook on life, and had an uncanny ability to say things or tell stories that really hit home to me personally.  He talked about how he didn't let his difficulties get in the way of living life, and enjoying it.  He told us about how his time in jail was some of the worst in his life, but also about how much it made him think about life in general. He came out a completely different man, and has been completely clean ever since.  We promised to bring him some prints of the pictures we took of him, and said our goodbyes.  I can't really even figure out what more to say about him or what I learned, I just know that something inside changed after hangin' out with Walker for those few hours. Meeting someone with such a positive outlook is always inspiring, no matter what.  I plan on taking the prints back to walker next week and chatting with him some more.  Maybe I'll shoot some photos of him and the bike when it gets done.. haha

Randoms

I know I've been slackin' with the updates recently but here are a few photos from my travels the past few years. Some from the mountains of North Carolina, Wilmington, and Georgetown SC. Enjoy.

Scooter Scurvy

Sickles!

I've been building up a bike. It's a 79 xs650 and it's the first motorcycle I've ever ridden.  I've always liked the look of old choppers and figured I'd want to make mine into one. It wasn't until I actually dove headfirst into the world of choppers did I realize there were so many options and specific "period" styles. Panhad, knucklehead, what did all these terms mean?!?! Well here I am now, almost a year later, and not much closer on my own bike. What I have learned though, is a ton of basic maintenance and I sure have learned a lot about the history and culture behind custom motorycles.

While my bike is no Harley, I think I am going to use the above two bikes as inspiration. I've gone through several phases of which style I want to go for and I've landed on these two bikes, more specifically the lower picture of the Ironhead. This thing is probably the raddest swingarm chopper I've ever seen. Slightly extended forks, zero rake, lowered rigid struts on the rear, solo seat and p-pad, it's got it all. Perfect late 60's or early 70's chopper!

So with that, I should add that I'll be posting little bits of motorcycle stuff here and there on the blog. I'll be doing a lot more work on my own bike in the coming months so I'll try to keep the updates going on there. Thanks for reading. 

Dan Murphy

Older medium format shot of Dan Murphy at NC State, on the slick bench outside of the old C-store.  Good memories.

shredders

From a recent competition at Marsh Creek skatepark.  Some really good skating went down that day.