No Frills speed shop: June 2011

“in the past i would avoid speaking
of the connection between skateboarding
and motorcycles. trying to convince people
of an idea about something they never experienced
can often times be a lost cause. elitist attitudes
from both groups will deny any connection
to protect their own bubbles.
Personally I’m not one of those people that get into
trends as they come along….the two main activities
I’ve been passionate about throughout
my life are skateboards
and motorcyles…. never in a band, never bmx’d,
didn’t get into raving, and when it seemed like all
skaters picked up a paint brush
and proclaimed themselves
artists… i passed on that too.
So it is a very strange
time in my life to see my loves converging.
The Harley ads with the metal flake helmets,
skate shoes
and flannels are too obvious…. and when
approached to be in
one of those commercials i opted out.
I don’t ride those
bikes… but most of all that’s HD’s view,
Not mine. Mine is what you see on these pages.
I want no
affiliation with their viewpoint.
Yes i could have used the
20k, but i have to sleep at night
and that is already
hard enough.

They’re are a lot of new people that are into
choppers. yes it’s true. Lots of them wear vans
and are labeled as skaters cause no one knows where
the hell they came from…
usually the dude has never
pushed a skateboard down
the block.

Like anything that is awesome
people will flock to it.
Some will pour heart and soul
into it… some will just
be there for the ride, some will
follow, some will lead,
and others will just cruise
and have a good time. It’s
fucked to say what is right
and what is wrong.

I’m not a biker… I’m a skater.
Luckily in the
last 10 years I’ve found choppers.
I dove in head first
because of one single night that
j’jessee let me ride
his friends panhead to watch
flat track races… the bike
caught on fire, i got sideways
on wet pavement in front
of the cops, and by they time
we made it back to jasons
house the $100 coat he let me
borrow was burnt with holes
and it pretty much looked like
i rode through an exploding
meth lab. It was one of
the best nights ever.
I had bugged jason a bunch
about car stuff and
could just about tell that
i had overstayed my welcome in
his world…. but around this
time i got a basket case.
It took 2 years in my garage
to build, but i did it on my own….
and that’s how it started.
It’s a different trip for all
of us and that’s what I like about it.

I hear younger dudes just getting into
choppers say things like
” I built this bike in my garage Bro!”
like it’s a hardcore statement or unique-
it just is what it is.
I did that too… so did a lot of us and
many who came before.
When i did it there was no jockey journal,
no message boards… there was not this network
like there is now. I’m glad there wasn’t because
for me it made it a more personal experience.
But these days I like knowing that there are
like minded comrades all over the world.
Whining about blogs, jockey journals,
message boards, magazines and the popularity
of choppers is just showing your age and your
insecurity. It’s like complaining about cell
phones, fuel injection, or the computer….
life moves on.

In the end i think it’s about freedom.
About exploring who you are and having a
vehicle to take you in that direction.
The skateboard and the chopper have provided
this for me. I’m grateful that both have
taken me around the world to learn and
to live. That is the connection for me.”
-Max-