This is my dream.
It's a quest, marked with all of my wildest, most ambitious ideas.
Impossible pursuits that I've had in my head for decades.
It's living on the road, always on the roam,
endless searching.
I'm a vagabond, a dirtbag.
I'm a roamer,
hungry for inspiration wherever it presents itself,
training my eye to see the world through the lens of individuals
who have inspired me greatly.
Legends, mentors and friends.
Their obsession is the story and their art is the gift.
This is On The Roam.
For as long as I can remember,
I've always been drawn to old bikes from the twenties and thirties.
Since the moment I heard my first bike and I rode on one,
I was like: "That was freedom."
The way that I feel when I'm on the bike and I'm focused
and I really sink into my machine and I love it,
and you get in tune with it.
I wanna do that with the bikes that are broken, bring 'em back to life.
Most of museums are private collections, never to ride again,
just to appreciate as a thing in the past,
and I love that, but I wanna ride it.
I've been searching for builders to revive these machines
that have been sitting for a century.
I wanna see these bikes rumble and come alive,
and I wanna ride them like they're meant to be ridden.
This all started in Maggie Valley,
where there's one of the most prestigious collections of rare bikes,
Wheels Through Time.
I see what you're saying,
where you just look at that cabinet and go: "Alright, I'm overwhelmed."
You can just spend so much time and you can see it
and you don't actually see it yet.
Matt Walksler is now the owner of Wheels Through Time
and he has such a wealth of knowledge about bikes.
I'm lucky to call him a friend and learn everything that I can from him.
I grew up riding dirt bikes as a kid
and just always had kind of a need for speed
and that thrill that you get from going fast can't be replicated.
When I walk through Wheels Through Time,
the amount of inspiration that comes from these hundred year-old bikes
is just surreal.
Man. Do you guys see this ?
In my opinion, it's the Holy Grail to me.
I love this one.
- This a 1930 ? - 1930.
That's number nine and the one in front of it's number ten.
- They were consecutively numbered. - Nine and ten.
- How many are in the world ? - I think they made 20 of 'em.
And there might be ten of them left. It's hard to know.
Ten of these left in the whole world.
I think most of the things that I really love
happened in the twenties and thirties,
whether it was board track racing and these hill climbs and...
I never got to experience any of that,
and generally I'm too big of a guy to ride on any of those bikes anyway.
The DAH was built by Harley-Davidson
strictly for the purpose of racing and climbing hills.
It was and still is an incredibly powerful bike.
The factory made a certain amount and a lot of them get scrapped.
I think there's probably like eight of them left in the world.
A lot of people have never even heard of this.
I mean, this is so specialized.
Guys like us, we couldn't even buy this back then.
But still, why has this not even been duplicated or replicated ?
Is that because the people who had 8-Valves or who had JDHs
they patterned it all out so they could replicate those because...
You know what I mean ? How do you go about doing that ?
- It's a huge cost. - Yeah, a huge cost.
No one would voluntarily take that apart, to go make the motor.
Yeah, and if you got one, you don't want to let somebody copy it.
Because if you do,
then what there was only four of, now there's five of.
In order to pull this design off, you've gotta buy de-age,
you'd have to take it apart, pretty much 3D cast everything.
So, while visiting Maggie Valley,
I realized I wanted to recreate one of these de-aged bikes
and then race 'em.
I brought my friends Nick Toscano and Brian Charles,
two amazing humans, two amazing bike builders.
I mean, at first, when Jay asked if we could do it,
I think we both said yes thinking that it wasn't really ever gonna happen,
and then all of a sudden we're like: "Oh, shit. We have to do this."
Nick and Brian's passion and knowledge of bikes is so unique
and I've been looking for a project to do with them for a long time.
I think it would be so much fun to be able to take something and...
These are sacred. You wanna keep 'em.
Maybe start 'em up every once and a while, but I wanna ride 'em.
I wanna make it like a group of homies that just get to go ride these things.
I just love the idea of bringing that type of event back,
but we needed the blueprint,
a bike we could reproduce part-for-part,
and that led me to Jeff Decker.
Well, even before Jason told me what he wanted to do,
he wanted some motorcycles that I wanted
and I didn't know why he wanted them and I told him they weren't for sale.
I thought he was crazy. I thought, you know:
"Yeah, I know you got a lot of money, but that's not happening."
I saw these two bikes at his house and they floored me.
They were like this mirror image of what I would wanna be if I was a bike
and I was very afraid to ask
because I didn't wanna insult him in his home.
I think overtime he kinda saw where my passion was
and he understood what I wanted to do.
I don't know what it is about the slant artist and hill climbing,
but it's always been the most romantic of all the racing for me.
Maybe it's the ugliest.
If you think of a Bull Rider, that's hill climbing.
People would come from all over to witness these events.
They were some of the most dangerous races that were happening back then.
There's nothing about the geometry that made them street-friendly, ever.
They weren't sold to the public. There were a dozen of these made.
There's a generation gap with a lot of people who ride
that you just don't get to see these board tracks
and there's such an older generation. I think Jeff always embraced it.
My dad was a car guy and I always got to learn
how, like, dirty and despicable and horrible motorcyclists were,
so that's what I dreamed of being, you know ?
Jeff's like an artist through and through.
He's just like a living... He does everything with art and passion.
I feel like I try to do that, but a little dirtier version of him.
I'm no athlete and certainly not a mechanic,
but there's something about that that I've always been drawn to.
And so, the way I could express myself was art.
I didn't have art galleries that ever supported me.
I had to go to swat meets and just trade my art for dirty motors.
I was Jack and the Beanstalk. I got never cash.
I got motorcycle parts
but I was clever enough to get the right motorcycle parts,
and then I could trade up.
I failed for 20 years and then realized I was doing pretty good as a failure.
Jeff's art just blows me away.
We share the same passion for hill climbs and DAHs,
and you can see that come through in his work.
I've had these things
and I put 'em on a shelf and let 'em gather dust
but I never imagined that they'd get dust on a hill climb.
The team he assembled to put 'em together,
it's really mind-boggling.
I don't think it's been captured since the 1930s,
and if you even look back to then, it was on some film camera
that was probably shot pretty poorly. That's all we had to go off of.
To be able to use my talents, my crew use their talents,
to be able to direct and shoot it in the way that I want to
and make people feel it and really be a part of it, that's it.
Just the thought of doing a period-accurate hill climb
with all original bikes and all of my friends together
is something I never thought was possible.
When you look at an old bike, it's had so much passion and love
and hard times and they've seen so much
and I just feel like I wanna hear 'em and...
I know I can't ride all of them, but I'm gonna try.
I've been lucky enough to be welcomed into the bike community
and introduced to some amazing craftsmen along the way.
There's just so many people that I've met that have opened their hearts
and you find at the root of it what kind of artists they really are,
and their stories.
And so, it's just so beautiful.
We raced quite a bit against each other and became friends.
You're probably the only guy I talk to, so.
I don't have time for anything.
It's just like talk to you and then talk to my wife. That's it.
Nick's funny. Nick's always like...
Nick kinda has like a Sopranos slash DeNiro face, like...
And he always kinda doesn't wanna say that he can do it.
"It's possible."
And Brian Charles like: "Yeah, we can do that. Yeah."
He's very positive. Brian Charles is, like, game.
Jason's great.
He's like energy. He's like a force of will.
Working with Jay, he's such a lovable guy
and he's got this awesome vision of, like, everything.
"Yeah. Fuck yeah, I wanna do that."
But then, like, you get home and you're like:
"Fuck. Why did I say that ? Shit. That's gonna be stressful."
His character and motivation helps you wanna make yourself better.
These guys, they need to make four of these bikes a year
but they're such a one off, and in a small space.
I wanna celebrate that. I wanna celebrate those artists
that are just doing it out of their back shop.
In my journey to create rare bikes to be ridden,
I was led to Mike Silvio, to build a never-before-seen 1936 bike.
- No way ! - Yeah...
- This is beautiful. This town is... - Get over here !
When I got to meet Silvio, he is hilarious, man.
He's so much fun, wealth of knowledge. I love him to death.
When I met Jay, I had an absolute blast
and met a guy who was overly passionate about antique bikes
and in love with him just like I was and we immediately hit it off.
Jason's been in and around the industry for a good while,
and his name's coming up left and right.
Holy moly. This place is beautiful.
He's built this museum.
He's wonderful at his craft and he's got a museum.
One day he might inspire me to have a museum.
- That's the original paint ? - That's original paint.
That's the bike that started it all for me.
When I was little, I always wanted to have a...
I wasn't really raised with my father, but wanting to build a bike,
build a car and a wrench on that.
I didn't have that opportunity growing up.
I think it's one of those things I always wanted to do.
Definitely building a bike was something huge to me,
and at 19 is when I saved up enough money and I bought my first Harley
and when you get old Harleys, you learn how to work on bikes,
and then you also get to meet a lot of friends
and it brings you into a community
and takes you around the world and meet more friends.
The antique motorcycle community is a small, close knit group of people,
and that's the best part,
is you're growing relationships with people that are like-minded,
that are curators, that are builders.
- Here it is. - I've never seen this.
I bought it and had it shipped straight to him.
So, pretty goddamn excited.
- Bro. - How's it look ?
My gosh. Look at that !
I've always worked with my hands.
I used to get in trouble when I was a kid for taking stuff apart.
I'd get a new toy
and I had to take it apart to figure out how it worked.
When I got involved with motorcycles, I wanted to know everything about it.
I get just as much satisfaction out of working on a bike
as I do riding the bike.
- Smells good out here. - So, how was the house ?
Me and Mike Wolfe are both from Iowa.
I've respected his art form and he has such a wealth of knowledge
and he perpetuates and keeps all the information from the old-timers.
Now, it sucks because there's a lot of people
that are just passing on with all these beautiful history and stories
and I think Mike is definitely that connection to it.
Holy shit. We all walked away.
The bikes are good. We're not. Bikes are good. Too much fun.
I get to spend time with these guys and they open up their homes
and you get to see what inspired them and inspired their styles
and ultimately it's just all these artists.
First time I'm gonna see this, Mike. I'm excited.
You've never seen a pink '36.
I've been asked to build a lot of bikes a lot different colors, man.
I've always wanted Pepto-Bismol.
That looks beautiful. I know you don't like it.
- No, I do like it. - Don't lie !
No, here's the thing. You...
If you've got a bunch of spare parts, would you be cool if I buy 'em off you
and we'll go make a '36 ? Hell yeah. Awesome.
Who's your builder ? Mike Silvio. Look it up.
My momma raised me on Elvis, right ? I have a '55 pink Cadillac
that I've had since I was early twenties.
I still have it. I've always wanted a '36 Knucklehead.
You have two. You have the original paint.
When Jason showed up and presented this opportunity to me,
I was floored. I was stoked.
I couldn't have been more excited because he's a great friend of mine.
I got a little nervous when he told me he wanted a pink '36.
I think out of all the '36's I have, I don't have an original frame.
This is the first...
This bike will be every single piece on this, thank you to Mr. Wolfe.
That was one of the first things that really stood out
when I first met Jason. Everything was pink.
His shoes, his clothes, his jackets, his key chain to his car.
He was the one, like: "Let's build this '36."
I wanna make it pink. It's my favorite color.
He's like: "Yeah." I'm like: "Are you cool with that ?"
And he's like: "Yeah. Let's do that."
I can imagine the people, they're gonna find this bike
and they're gonna look at it and they're like:
"Who the hell painted a '36 Knucklehead pink ?"
That is a original '36 Knucklehead speedometer.
That is the rarest part, right there. Yeah.
I've always wanted one of them.
Just being with my friends, too, and watching them do it,
there's a certain satisfaction you get out of using hands.
Silvio is a guy that people come to and say:
"I wanna do this, I wanna build that,"
and they'll usually hand him a transmission,
a carburetor or an engine,
or sometimes he's lucky and he gets a whole bike.
I can just imagine him going by 65 miles an hour
and somebody standing on the corner going,
that was like a tsunami of badassery.
This bike it's that ultimate moment where you're like:
"I can't believe I have an original. Every part on it it's original."
I love the idea of taking all these little pieces found by Mike Wolfe,
gathered from all over this beautiful country,
and then bringing them together with Silvio.
With Wolfe and Silvio, he's got a phenomenal place, dude.
This guy, he's a whiz, man. I love him.
I'll see you in six months,
and you better have my fucking shit done. You understand ?
Otherwise I'm gonna...
The idea of taking a very expensive 1930s bike,
disassemble it, scan it all, and then have to do all the castings
and basically build it from scratch, no one would buy a bike like that
and take it completely apart, but we did.
- How's it going ? - We got the motorcycle.
- 1930 DAH. - That's pretty sweet.
Harley-Davidson. Super rare.
You gotta think, like, these bikes back then were handcrafted
and handmade with the entire force of the motor company
behind a small group of people.
Every single part of this for as much,
you might've worked on a hundred motorcycles before,
but this is such a challenge because nothing existed.
A digital representation of a part that can't be reproduced easily.
Getting that digital footprint or fingerprint in is always really smart.
So, we're gonna be able to copy these and even get the original cast
and marks and everything right down to the T.
As we're building these bikes, you run into little things
that don't quite add up or don't fit right.
Every little part was handmade, and I put something together.
This part doesn't fit. Alright. We'll get these scanned
and we'll have prints and then we'll go the foundry, make that.
We can be anywhere else on this, any other square,
but it's right here where we stand. This is it.
It's what we do. This is it. So, appreciate it.
As my wife said, I always say, if it's not sketchy, it ain't fun.
That's not how we live.
That's how we live.
I think having all these bikes together
and all these men who I call friends together
is actually, that's the accomplishment.
Building this world for my friends to capture this
and we can put together something that's amazing,
and that right there is, like, fun. Accomplished it.
I had this dream to be able to take all of my friends
that I've ever met in this community, bring them together,
and then race each other,
and what came out of it were the Roamers.
They're an incredible bike group
whose brotherhood and love for bikes runs deep,
and they have an unbelievable sense of camaraderie,
and when I met them, it was like being welcomed into a family.
I wanted to make my own little...
Just something for my buddies. Something special, so.
Brian Cannon.
You got medium.
There's a rebellious nature to the motorcycle community.
I'm just a fan, really, of it all.
We all have a deep-rooted love for bikes,
and I love the idea of building an event
where we could all share this passion together.
One of my favorite parts about the bike community
is how small it feels.
You meet one person and suddenly you have all these people
who share the same love as you do.
Through Matt Walksler, I met Buzz Kanter,
a legend in the bike community.
He published a lot of top motorcycle magazines,
and he has a deep knowledge of vintage bikes.
So, this is... Tell me a little bit about it.
It's an original paint, original 1927 Harley,
with under 800 original miles.
It's over 95 years-old,
and it's traveled less than 800 original miles.
It's a holy grail bike.
- You guys ready ? - I'm ready.
Dreams come true.
- Original everything. - Holy shit.
The 1927 JD is just unbelievable to look at.
It's hard to explain just how rare this bike is.
It's like looking at a time capsule from a hundred years ago.
Anyone who gets close to this bike and looks at it
can see the amazing paintwork, the craftsmanship,
that can be duplicated today but without the feel, without the soul.
I love things from the early 1900s in every way.
I think there was a whole different way of just things being built.
The first dirt bike that I had when I was 13,
I saved up enough money from cutting lawns
and bought my first dirt bike, and of course, didn't run,
so I had to take it apart, learn that way, put a new piston in.
So, like, right off the bat I was a mechanic.
Something I love is taking a museum piece like this
and not just staring at it but starting it.
To do that with a bike this rare is unheard of.
The bike was preserved so well it had vegetable oil in the tank
so it wouldn't rust out over time.
We fired it up and it just smoked up the entire shop.
How many races was this in ? How did they get the paint like that ?
There was the soul it holds and how much sweat and friction.
Just knowing that Nick brought that bike back to life with his son there,
experiencing his first ride, that was beautiful.
And that feeling,
that's what I'm chasing when I find an old bike.
I hear it !
It's coming in. It's in here.
You looked. You shit. Spoil it.
- You guys ready ? - Yeah.
- Alright. - Yes.
It's ready.
Holy shit !
Pizazz. I mean...
Look good !
Looking at the pink '36, I was blown away.
Talking all these pieces
and having Silvio put together my first stock '36,
and then to design it the way you want it.
To go from a wild idea to this finished bike,
then I get to rip it around with my friends on their '36s,
there's nothing better.
Alright. So, this is the first time I'm gonna see the DAH's.
A little surprise for me. It's been a long time coming.
Damn !
Bro...
I've built and seen so many beautiful bikes,
and this is the most amazing moment of seeing these bikes.
That's beautiful.
It's hard to believe that this all started from one idea,
of just seeing a DAH brought back to life.
But now, standing in front of them and being able to ride them
is an absolute privilege.
It's pretty amazing to go: "That bike right there..."
We've got Jeff Decker's coming in, but to buy that from him.
Can we make some of these ?
If we have this, we can make our own bikes,
and if we're making our own bikes we can make DAHs and DARs
and there's only one DAR out there.
16 months later, just so we can race 'em.
Just so we could all get together and race these,
'cause like all those pictures you see of all those guys in the 1930s,
having a good time on these bikes.
I'm like: "I wanna do that. Why can't we do that ?"
Seeing these bikes lined up in front of me,
ready to race with all my friends,
I just can't believe we pulled it off.
I just wanna say thank you for selling me this
and then also passing down the history.
I know you love this bike, but it means a lot
just to be able to have the vision to make something like this,
where we're all together. So, just thank you for...
No, absolutely, man.
I'm happy that it turned out this way, so beautiful.
Yeah. And this is probably the only time ?
There's never been four DAHs running at once together. Never.
Building something that nobody's ever done before
turned out to be a hell of a lot more involved than we actually thought.
Nobody's ever ridden these things.
Maybe a handful of people in the entire world
over the course of time have ridden one of these.
It was just like a pipe dream. It's one of those things where you're like:
"I wish we could do that. Can we do that ? We're gonna do that."
And then it all sinks in for everyone.
I get my own vision of a bike
and to put a motor together and then that whole anxiety.
Like: "How's it gonna run ?" And then when it fires up,
it's the greatest feeling.
They're so rare, and the way it feels, and the way they sound.
They sound like these lions. We woke up at 5:30 this morning
and started them up and it just sounded like this,
this pride of lions, growling in the dark.
It's been a lot of build-up.
So, like, what are we gonna be doing with these ?
Like, where are we gonna be riding ? How are we gonna set 'em up ?
Whether or not it was on our end or on the filming schedule
or just the logistics of everything. I think anything could've gone awry.
It's been very challenging and obviously taxing on everyone
because we wanna make all these things come true,
and here's the thing is like, it's all me. It's all my heart.
It's everything I wanna do.
You're literally watching everything that I love. And so, that's scary.
It actually got to the point
where I didn't know where we were gonna race these.
I knew I wanted to race these.
I figured it would be easy to find a hill 'cause we've done it before,
but it actually all kinda opened up with a dear friend of mine.
I was over at his house at Thanksgiving and he told me
that he had a track, and I was like: "What ?"
And we went and saw his track, I called my partner Brian.
I said: "I got it. We have the track."
I'm telling my friend about it and he's going:
"I don't know if you can race these old bikes into it."
And also, the risk is there's so much dust here
that it's very fine dirt, that if that gets in the motors,
you're blowing up 100 000-plus dollars bikes.
You risk a lot for...
You risk blowing them up to show the world, but it's worth it.
I had this crazy idea to take this one very rare bike, the DAH.
Took it apart and then we made three of 'em.
This hasn't happened since probably the 1930s.
Getting to see Decker do a hill climb
with a bike that started this entire journey, it was surreal.
The slant artist.
Yeah, Decker ! That was so cool, man.
He didn't think he was gonna be doing that two years ago.
Alright. First one to the top out of these three
between Cannon, Charles and Toscano,
five grand and it goes to whoever you wanna donate that to a charity.
Five grand on this one, right ? It's the first one.
You guys ready ? Let's get cameras ready.
What a dream come true.
I can't believe I'm racing DAH's with my buddies.
These bikes, they're like paintings.
They're these incredible works of art, and they've just been sitting there.
It's really a dream come true for me 'cause I wanted to make this show
about all these artisans, and you guys are the tip top for me.
I love all these old bikes.
Sadly don't know how to build these by hand,
but I appreciate you guys so much and I love riding
and really, being a filmmaker, I love having my friends
and what I'm good at capture what you guys are great at.
I treat these like delicate things that aren't to be touched,
and you guys are hammering these things,
and these are better than the originals. It's unbelievable.
And to see them treated the way they were meant to be treated,
it's something of another level.
The group that you've brought together
that we've got to play with the last few years, it's just family.
It's amazing. The people from all over come together,
like-minded, you guys are amazing.
- Thanks, Jay. - Alright, brothers.
Taking something that's never been ridden since the thirties
and then making four of them and racing them.
They've never even had four of them together, ever, to race.
That's so cool and so much fun, and the people that are creating them
are just like: "I can't believe I'm doing this."
and I'm like: "I can't believe I'm doing this."
And I hope people get inspired by that, going like:
"Yeah, that shit's possible. It's not possible, but is it ?"
"Let's go do it. Let's try."
I hope my memory is good enough that I never forget it.
That's pretty much... It's been really amazing.
When I'm gone it'll still be there, hopefully.
I could leave something to my kid.
He gets to see this 'cause he's only one year-old now,
so he'll be able to see the process of what we've done
and, yeah, something for my kid to see.
It's really wild to see 'em all come alive,
and especially when you've got a dozen motorcycles firing at once,
they're all, like, hyper-tuned,
and it really is these monsters barking at each other.
Even before I got into acting I was bussing tables
and I was working at a serve shop. I was 19 years-old.
Just wanted to climb and surf and when I got into acting on the show,
I didn't make much money and I lived with my dad.
I was like, all I wanted was a Harley,
and I wanted a pan head, and I finally got it.
I just knew I wanted one. I've ridden tons of dirt bikes,
biked my whole life, but I didn't know anything about it.
I just knew I loved that sound, I loved the way it felt.
I wanted to learn it. I wanted to just dive into the culture of it.
But all I wanted to do was go across America
and I wanted to just go to all these destinations and just be like:
"Alright. Here's just... My life is in these saddlebags."
And I was just this vagabond and I wanted to have my Harley.
You can be on a new bike and I could be on this old one.
We're on the same road in the same moment
and it's just, it's such a high to be on something that's so old.
I think there's nothing like it in the world.
Subtitling: FAST TITLES MEDIA