Well, I guess you could say we have been off on some tangents, but someone once told me that tangents are the art of soulful conversation. The once unthinkable can suddenly become possible as a new path to our dreams illuminates itself while in the throws of a tangent. I have had many life-changing discoveries while off on a tangent—those kind where you say to yourself “Oh my, I never thought of that!”—when it occurs to you seemingly out of nowhere a new, different way to do the very thing you have been processing and analyzing for weeks.
But in good harmony with life, everything must be balanced and so as much as we see value in tangents, we also see value in getting back to the basics. And so here we are—back to the basics of travel-blogging. Fully in the swing of motorcycle season, we find ourselves going all sorts of places on our motorcycles and we have lots to tell.
This past weekend, we rode to Dallas with a palette of things in store for us. This was our first long ride together, so it was a milestone in that regard. First, we toured the American IronHorse factory in Ft. Worth. It was really a spectacle to see motorcycles being made and all the different phases they go thru. Amazingly, they have found a way to systematize the process of manufacturing custom motorcycles. That sounds a lil contradictory, but we witnessed it right before our eyes. If you have never heard of American IronHorse, they make custom choppers (the motorcycles with the long rake on the front). You can check out their website at www.americanironhorse.com. All of their process is currently what you might call build-on-demand. If they don’t have an order for a bike, they aren’t building it! The funnest part was seeing them paint the tanks with these really crazy paint jobs! But the paint isn’t the only thing that makes IronHorses custom, they also make their ownseats and have 9 different wheel options coupled with 3 different engine options. Suffice it to say, for two people that are motorcycle enthusiasts, seeing how they are made was really a treat! Maybe one day, we will have ourselves one of those eye-catching beauties.
And I guess sometimes I get carried away and put the cart before the horse, Before we went and toured the IronHorse factory, we rode some choppers before we even left Midland. That was a first for both of us and it made the tour of the factory much more interesting, I suppose, because we could put what we were looking at in the context of having just ridden some. It was an interesting experience, because so many people. us included, thought they would be really hard to maneuver. They were certainly different, so at first it is seemingly difficult, but it was not any different than the adjustment you go thru with any new bike. We just had to learn how to ride them! Really, it was a sort of myth-dispelling experience.
So back to our trip….we also went to the Dallas Guitar Show, courtesy of our good friend, Mark Pollock. It was really wild to see so many guitars all in one place. As we strolled the isles, the sounds of plucked and strummed strings reverberated everywhere. Indoor music, outdoor music, just everything imaginable in the way of guitars. Even a clinic by famous guitar maker, Paul Reed Smith.
And still more….we also had occasion to visit the Easy Riders V-Twin Bike Show Tour. To sum it up in one word—WOW! It was really an amazing spectacle. I’ve attached a few pics of some of Rick Fairless’ custom builds because his are some of the most outlandish, but there were many many many bikes there that are probably worthy of posting.
So that’s it for this weekend, but isn’t that enough?!? We were exhausted by the time we got home, but every ounce of our exhaustion was well worth the journey. This coming weekend we are headed to Llano for the 1st annual Hawgs-n-Hills rally—on the motorcycles, of course! So we will have more to tell next week. Stay tuned……