Consider this!

So many of you have sent me messages asking me about Sturgis.  Questions ranging from where are you working, will you be working, where are you staying, are you hosting the Downtown Spoke again, what is going on with all the rumors I've heard and so many more.  In this post, I will try to answer as many of these questions as I possibly can for all of you. 

First and foremost, the questions of will you be working, where will you be working and where are you staying I can answer with one simple answer; THE ONE AND ONLY, WORLD FAMOUS BROKEN SPOKE SALOON CAMPGROUND County Line!  Once again, I have been welcomed back as part of the Broken Spoke Family and I will be the host of the 2011 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally at the Spoke.  Right now, many of you are probably scratching your head thinking, but you work downtown and Jay Allen is the host of the Campground, what gives with that?  WE ARE SWITCHING IT UP!  Jay will host the downtown Spoke and I will host the Campground for the 71st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

To answer the questions about all the rumors that Jay is no longer with the Broken Spoke or no longer part of the Broken Spoke, nothing on earth COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!  Jay Allen is now and will always be part owner of the Broken Spoke Saloon.  Jay built the brand in to the amazing business that it has become today, why would he ever leave that?  I've seen so many posts and gotten messages like Screw the Spoke, we are supporting Jay!  This makes the least sense of any statements that I have ever heard!  If you say you are supporting Jay Allen, then support the Broken Spoke, it is just that simple, Jay is still an owner there.  If you boycott the Spoke, then you are in fact, boycotting Jay.  Does this make any sense to you yet?  Let me put it this way.  There is a relationship between Jay and his other partners in the Broken Spoke Saloon and like any other relationship, emotions can run heavy when you are very passionate and care about that relationship more than most anything on earth!  I liken it to a couple that has been happily married for many years.  Some times in that relationship, you need a break, just that simple.  If you don't step back and step away for a brief period, you can ruin that relationship.  Like a husband and wife love each other, sometimes they can't stand being around each other.  They have ridden all of the ups and downs together for a long time and rather than throw the relationship away by making harsh decisions in heated moments, the couple decides that a break or "trial separation" may be needed.  They don't do this to end the relationship, they do it to save the relationship.  When you have a bit of distance between you, you realize just how very much you each mean to the other and you realize that although there are good times and bad, the good far outweigh the bad.  You realize that you love your other half more than you could ever imagine and come to the conclusion that neither of you can live without the other!  Separation makes the heart grow fonder and in this case, I believe it to be exactly what will happen.  EVERYONE NEEDS A BREAK EVERY NOW AND AGAIN, it is just that simple.  As relationships grow, you find that there are things that you just can't stand about your partner and there are just things about your partner that you learn that you could and would never want to live without.  You realize later that had you not stepped back and taken that much needed break, that relationship with the person, or in this case, with the "place" that you love with all of your heart and soul would have ended.  As far as I am concerned, JAY ALLEN IS THE BROKEN SPOKE and I am honored to be part of the family there.

This year at the Broken Spoke County Line, we are bringing it back to basics.  Old School biker party and camping.  We are making this event as it should be, about all of you, our extended Broken Spoke family!  It seems that over the last few years, every major company has come in to Sturgis and booked bigger and bigger bands and attractions, in my opinion, taking away from what Sturgis really is and that is about getting together to RIDE AND PARTY with dear friends that you have known forever or dear friends that you have just met and will know FOREVER!  The Spoke is going back to the way things use to be and making the event about YOU and not about us!  Go out for a ride and come back HOME to the Broken Spoke Saloon where you are always welcome.  We have so much planned for you guys this year that you won't have to go any place else.  So save yourself the DUI's and plant your ass at the Spoke and party your collective asses off with us.  The area around Sturgis has some of the most beautiful riding in America and you won't want to miss out on any of that and when that ride is over, come back, jump in the BIGGEST BIKER POOL ON EARTH and relax and get some rest because come sun down, we are going to show you the best party in Sturgis! 

Many have asked about how Jay feels that I am coming in and hosting the Broken Spoke Campground?  Let me assure you of this, Jay is my friend and I would never have taken this gig without his complete and total blessing and I HAVE THAT AND THEN SOME!  As a matter of fact, Jay was a big part in me getting the gig at the Spoke and I will be eternally grateful.  Come out and support the Broken Spoke and our friend, mine and yours, a guy who has done so much for our lifestyle, Mr. Jay Allen and don't forget to go downtown and visit Jay at the original Broken Spoke on Lazelle Street and tell em that your friend Jack Shit sent you!  You don't even have to worry about riding down and getting busted, you can take the SPOKE TO SPOKE SHUTTLE that runs from County Line directly to Downtown and drops you off right at the door of the Spoke!

For everyone who will be attending the rally, I can't wait to see you all!  There is no rally on earth like the Sturgis rally and we are all going to have a blast this year.  Even if you are staying at another campground or hotel, make sure you get your ass over to the Spoke and come say hello. 

Another question that I keep getting asked, "Jack", will I be able to pick up I know Jack Shit shirts at Sturgis again this year?  Yes you will!  I have an order that should be finished shortly and yes, I will be bringing shirts up to Sturgis, you can pick them right up at the Campground and yes, the money still goes to helping with the cost of Diane's MS meds and such!  Thank you all, I look forward to seeing each and every single one of you fine fuckers up at the BROKEN SPOKE SALOON!   

In the next few days, I will be posting event schedules and such to show you just what we have planned for you maniacs so keep an eye out for those.

Last year was my first time ever hosting at the Broken Spoke and when I arrived at the campground I immediately checked in with Jay Allen and asked him, "Jay, what do you expect from me"?  I figured I would have a 30 minute conversation with him about my duties there and so on.  That is not what happened at all.  His answer was five words!  JACK, TREAT EVERYONE LIKE FAMILY!  That was it!  Those were my duties and what Jay expected from me and that is just what I did and what I will continue to do this year!

The Circumcission of the Pickle Sickle!

As so many of you fine folks who actually ride those bad Murder Sickles you own know all well and good, sometimes you have to really get a good look at your machine before a big trip.  As you guys also know, that up until this FXRS came in to my life, my newest bike I owned was a 47' Knuck!  So you can imagine my surprise when I found all this new fangled shit on this "new" bike.  Well, this 19 year new bike!  When I came across this bike, the deal that I got on it was far too good to even consider letting it go to some one else, it just WAS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!  Unfortunately, the bike had sat outside for a year and who ever took this bike from stock, back in the day and "whored it up" cut a great many corners!  Some of those cuts could have been really dangerous.  In my experience and in my current physical condition, about 500 miles is the magic number for me to ride on that nearly 70 year old Rigid Bike!  This one however was made to just eat asphalt and shit it right back out!  So being in the business that I am in, you need to get around and to go on the road you need to be able to pack accordingly and when all you have is one tall sissy bar to tie shit to and handlebars to roll up a jacket, that just don't cut it.  So you have to have a bagger.  This Green Pickle Sickle is in the process of becoming just that.  But how do you turn an FXRS low rider convertible in to one?

With lots of tools!  Patience from your knowledgeable friends and a stack of parts!  It was on Bitch!  It was time to Circumcise the Pickle Sickle!

First and foremost you hook up with the most knowledgeable FXR guy I've ever known.  Mr. Keith Cole is that guy!  Then you call in some favors from friends and ask for help and then finally, "how the hell do I do this"....  Then you determine what is right and good and what is bad and must go.  That is what we began to do!  Start the chopping!  We were fully ready to torch, cut and weld to make this girl sexy and functional.  Here is how we got started!

As you guys know, one of the things you think about most with a new girl is "what's she hiding under that skirt?  Well I had to get a look and believe me, it was a big, long and thick skirt!  Because the bike began its life as an FXRS convertible, there are only one set of saddle bags on earth that fit the bike because of the angle of the rear shocks.  We had to remove the shocks, the fender, the struts, the rear pegs, the mid pegs and the forward controls the controls, the bars, front and rear pipes, tranny cover, cables and a shit ton of wiring  we found that we could not figure out for the life of us what it was and what it did, so we cut it all out?
The rear wheel is out of alignment, we snapped the plastic elbow off of the CV Carb and believe me that was a motherfucker to fix while the carb was still on the bike!  While riding in California near Palm springs I thought that the front end was just going to snap off or that I had two flats.  As it turns out, it was just horrible California Deathways, uhm, freeways!  So today I also drained and replaced the fork oil.  My God was that shit horrid looking.  I swear had I put it in two different containers to collect it, you would think it came from two different bikes, it was SO FUCKING BAD!  No matter what we did with changing the bars and risers, the clutch cable barely reached, 4 sets of bars and 4 sets of risers just to get it right!  That was about where we got to last night, here are a few pics from the tear down.

 We were afraid that we were going to have to cut, but upon removing the existing struts, we found all the holes that we needed were already in the frame.  What a time and work saver that turned out to be!  We had to remove the belt guard (permanently) because we relocated the rear shocks! 

 Brother Roadside, or Roadside Marty from Flat Broke Customs down in Florida was kind enough to donate these mother of all floorboards, the holy grail of fxr parts, mid control boards to my project.  I'll forever be grateful, thank you my friend.  You guys should check out Flat Broke too, Roadside puts out some sick scoots!

 In order to fit the Floor Boards to the bike and make them work, we had to first make the front exhaust pipe fit again.  So we heated that fucker up to glowing and took 3 whacks at it with the hammer.  We figured that would give us a good idea of what we needed to do.  Boy was I wrong about that!  3 whacks and it was the perfect fit!  So we cooled it down Arizona style by putting it in front of a portable swamp cooler and then test fit it.  IT FIT PERFECT!

 On the trip to Cali, the maiden voyage for the fxrs and I, I noticed a serious lack of power at the top end.  As you can see, the pipes were no where near being close to the same length.  I think that may have had something to do with the performance.  Like so many things from the 90's, they looked cool, it was form over function.  So Mr. Cole cut down an 11" piece of steel,

 We eyed it up, it looked right and he took it down to AZ True Wheel this morning and welded that bad boy up for me.  Now the pipes are nearly the same length and you can see all of the discoloring in the pipes and I love that shit!  We got a bunch of shit done today but we were at a dead stand still.  When you are making your own bagger, there are two things you need that you can't have missing.  Do you know what they are?  You guessed it, THE DAMN BAGS!  My buddy Milwaukee Mike was decent enough to pick up a bunch of fxrP parts for us a few months ago and he shipped some of it to me now to make this happen.  The box was delivered while we weren't there so we had to go and stalk the mail men down at the post office until they finally took it off the mail man's truck at 10 minutes to 5, as they were closing!  SCORE!  Now we were ready to get going.

 We had to get rid of the lovely Pickle's rear fender to mount the new shocks and re install the tail light and plate bracket.  Keith was kind enough to donate this fender to the project so Whiskey John spent the afternoon priming and painting it.  I'll always have a little of him in this bike to remember him by.  2 of his beard hairs fell off in to the wet paint and will be there for eternity!

 We got the frame rails for the cop bags all mocked up and began installing them.  This took some doing and another trip to the lowes for some more nuts and bolts!  But we were moving.  Tail light installed and re wired, with a quick connect for future removal.

 One down, one to go and then the rear rail, yes, the one every one always leaves off because it never, ever fits right.  Don't ask me how, but I got that fucker to fit right on the first shot! 

 The little woman was wondering where the hell her man had been for the last 3 days so even she came down to check on the project.  She was quite pleased.  She offered a hand here and there and even corrected me on a big mistake I was going to make!  THAT'S MY GIRL!

 We were doing so well, it was time for Brother Skoog who was installing a 3" Primo Belt Drive on to his fxr for Sturgis, to start cracking some beers.  I was so pleased with my progress that I too shared a beer with him and the lil woman!

Okay, I'm not being totally truthful there.  Let's just say it was time for Brother Skoog to open another beer and we will leave it with that!  It was ice cold and tasty for the record and it is really very rarely that I have beer at all, but this one was victorious and delightful!

With both bags on, we were really kicking ass.  All that is left to do is straighten out that rear wheel, tighten up some loose shit, put some washers where I forgot and install the lic. plate bracket and then she rolls off of the lift!  It was a lot of work but it was well worth it.  I look forward to installing the fixed fairing!

 Even the lil woman was pleased with the turnout!  Here she is sitting aside the bike that is going to carry her man and all his shit for about 3 thousand miles next month!  When I return home from Sturgis, this beautiful girl is going to carry both me and my beautiful girl on a much over due California trip for both of us!  I just want to thank;

Keith Cole
Ken Schmoldt
Roadside Marty
Milwaukee Mike
The boys from Foundry Moto
Diane of course
Whiskey John
Brother Adam (and you know why)
and anyone else that I am forgetting, hey, it's 3 am and I am really tired right now!

Till we see each other on the road, hopefully Sturgis,
Keep the wind in your face,
Tits in your back
and The Man off your ass.

Your happy friend,
Jack Shit