- Hi, I missed you. - I missed you.
My goodness.
- He doesn't like that. - No.
Bro, it's epic. It's a JD, JD Knucklehead Chief.
- Indian, yeah. - JD Knucklehead Indian Chief.
It's a good name, dude.
Chief of the Knuckleheads.
It's a really special moment because I've always wanted 36es.
And this is the reason why. When I first saw this bike,
I wanted to have a 36 and so when I told Jeremiah...
- I said: "I wanna have six 36es." - Bullshit.
Jeremiah goes: "That's impossible,"
"you're not gonna be able to get six 36es, I've only seen a couple."
And so, my goal has been to get six 36es.
Only because he's my little brother and I just wanna spite him.
I think the genesis for doing six 36es
it just kinda came out of I guess Jeremiah just giving me guff
about it not being possible. He's never seen six 36es.
Being able to find six 36es quickly and be able to make these kinda bikes,
it's the first year of the Knucklehead.
I have an obsession with the Knucklehead motor.
You might call it a problem, especially the ones from 1936.
They're so rare that they're Holy Grails.
I'm gonna do something that's never been done before.
Get six of these historic 36 Knuckleheads on the road
together with my friends and do one epic ride.
The first four of the 36es I've already built with some amazing craftsmen,
like Big Scott Stopnik and then Socco Obestein.
Now I'm asking Jeremiah and Max to come on this journey with me
and build bikes five and six.
I love Knuckleheads. But Knuckleheads now
are not as easy to come by as they were 15 years ago.
The parts we're finding now are just completely stuff
that was trashed.
I love the fixing of it, of fixing something that was totally broken
and putting it back together.
Jeremiah's un-fucking-believable. He does everything.
He knows everything. Some people are style,
some people rebuild every part of it, some people do everything.
Jeremiah does everything.
The thing with old engines is, or anything old,
like this stuff isn't new.
We're fixing it, yes, but it has to be broken in.
This is a mechanical being right here. And all these things,
it's like joints in your body, everything has to warm up.
For when an engine is rebirthed after you rebuild it
and people that only rebuild engines know this,
every piece has to be fit and sized
and everything has to wear in to where it finds that spot
to where it wants to live and operate,
like a well tuned athlete.
And if you don't take that time to break them in, some people say:
"I just build a motor and I just get on the road and go."
Alright, well, more power to you.
He's opened a world to me that I just knew nothing about.
Our families are extremely close. I love 'em with all my heart
and so he's done a lot of things for me and I've done a lot of things for him,
just trying to help each other's careers and help each other out.
He's like a little brother to me. And I love giving him shit.
This is my oldest hen. This is Jule. She's seven.
She's a little beat up, but she's our oldest girl.
She's like my bikes. Like 'em...
A little torn up.
Llittle torn up and got lots of personality.
The thing with building a Chopper is,
it's a blank canvas for you to do whatever you want.
You could either fabricate every single piece on the entire bike,
or you could just piece together what you have and make it your own.
It's all come, natural yard.
What an amazing space.
So, my first ramp was started here and went there.
- Now there's the ring back. - You had a 12 foot bulk ramp.
Yeah. I had a full bulk ramp back here.
And mom was cool with it.
I grew up skating inside of a warehouse,
an old iron works building,
a ramp that my mom let me build inside the house.
So that, I was alone, or with her boyfriend,
skating six, seven days a week.
- So it was like built... - Wall to wall, dude.
- You get to hit the rafters. - I did, yeah.
See how that one's cut out ? I cut it out because it was in the way.
You'd have to air over it, which was like a six foot air.
Max is like, he just carries this vibe with him
where it's, I mean, everything he touches,
his style in skateboarding just blows me away.
And what he can do and then what he brought to the motorcycle industry.
His clean lines just the way, his paint jobs.
When I first saw the first 4Q bike, I was like, what is this ?
He just changed the game. Man, this guy's unbelievable.
I think as a skater you learn failure is okay,
'cause you fail repeatedly to learn something.
My first bike, I'm actually not really embarrassed about,
but I see a ton of flaws in it.
I think that's the thing about skaters, they make great photographers.
There's a lot of skaters that are amazing photographers,
because skaters speak that alien language to everyone.
They look at a set of stairs or a bank, and they're like:
"Man, look at that, that's insane."
Well then you wanna shoot it and you want it to look good.
I know that transfers into this.
You're looking at the lines of everything
and you just switch a rear tire sometimes on a bike
and you're like: "There it is, finally."
And like, for two months you've looked at it like:
"What the fuck is wrong with this thing ?"
It was just the tire, or the size,
if 16 versus an 18, and bam, that's it.
Max definitely paved his own way in skateboarding
and I can relate to that as a skateboarder growing up,
'cause it gave me that eye.
But it's never been on the level that he is.
It's always very inspirational
to see how he's transferred that into his art form now.
Alright, so here is our next project.
It's the fifth 36.
- Looks like it. - This is number five.
I wanna throw it in something that is pretty awesome.
- Another crusty old bike ? - It's not another crusty old bike.
It was a pristine, beautiful bike, but it wasn't 66.
So, the history of it, I bought it, it's a show bike.
I asked for permission. I said:
"If I bought this, is it okay if I could remove this motor ?"
I love show bikes, you know me,
I love all these vintage old bikes, but I wanna ride 'em.
So, you have a survivor show ?
Yes, because the person who made it was a painter.
- He was amazing. It's amazing... - So 60 is amazing show bike.
Okay, I wanna see it.
Quicksilver is just super famous bike, I've seen it all the time.
It was really scary, 'cause I'm like: "This is sacrilegious."
I already have permission, don't be like: "You can't do it."
You're gonna mess with an original show bike.
- It's not the original motor. - Okay.
But here's the thing. The motor's massive
and it's like, you'll burn your ass off.
It's just for show. I would rather ride it. And if we're making 36es,
I'm asking if we can take this, put it in there, okay ?
We'll take it down to Jeremiah, get the motors,
put it all together, surprise Jeremiah and he's just...
This is a very famous bike.
The Quicksilver was built by a guy, Dean Lanza,
he has a cool roster of Choppers
that he built and they became fairly collectible.
- I'm gonna wheel it up. Okay ? - Okay.
- Faith, don't look. - I'm not looking. I'm turning around.
- Close your eyes. - They are closed, I'm turned around.
It's, looks like a drag bike, but it's a Chopper
and everything's kind of molded so that it looks like it's one piece.
It is it's name, it looks like this quick moving piece of silver.
- Ready ? - Okay.
Get the fuck out.
A Quicksilver, baby.
Oh my god, the history of this bike is insane.
The first time I saw the Quicksilver, I was blown away.
Dean Lanza built Quicksilver back in the late 1960s.
And it's probably his most unique creation.
It was a revolutionary design and cemented its place
in bike folklore as the grandfather of Choppers.
There's tons of articles about it. It's a beautiful bike, it's a pan.
It's one of the baddest show bikes on the planet, it's just so fluid.
I don't wanna take anything away from it. It's beautiful,
it's sacrilegious, but it is isn't the real motor.
- It isn't the one that went with it. - And it's a Chopper.
It's a Chopper.
So, it's also just go to like:
"Look what I got, bro, let's make something with this."
And he gets excited about it and: "What do you mean, we can't do this ?"
And I'm like: "Well, it's not the real motor."
He's like: "I guess. Is it not ?"
So I guess, that was that one man's dream.
Let's just evolve it, I'm not paint it black.
- And it's like... - Yeah, let's do it.
- Right ? - Let's do it.
- Alright, baby. - Let's do it, I love you.
But look, 36. A 36 Knuckle in there ?
One of the 36es, like, just taking a historical bike
and that paint job, what it's known for.
But I wanna ride the goddamn thing, that's the thing is,
when I buy these bikes, I don't want it to sit in a museum,
I wanna ride 'em. I wanna shoot 'em, I wanna film it.
Life is short. I wanna do this.
Bro, it's dope.
The fifth 36.
Dean Lanza, the guy who built it, you can just look,
I've fabricated gas tanks from scratch and fenders from scratch
and looking at his fabrication and his paint skills
and when I saw that bike, I've seen it for years, you know ?
But I've never got to see it in person to where I get to spend
hours and hours of looking at a creation
that was created 50 something years ago.
"Well, let's take this bike, I wanna put a Knuckle in it."
It'll fit with what we're doing. Are you guys cool with it ?
Yeah, I think it'd be awesome if we could ride it.
I'm like: "It's pretty impossible to ride it the way that it is."
It's like, a Jimmy Hendrix song, like a good one you hadn't heard
where you're like: "I remember seeing that."
I was like: "That's special." It's a cool thing.
I don't know how to describe it.
Aside from that, it looks like a drag bike Chopper.
I was like, this is an amazing piece and I wanna ride it.
Let's do it. And so I think everyone kinda got behind it.
I'm sure people are gonna be pissed, but I mean...
Originally this thing had this like 10 over wide guard
that sat in the weather for 30 years.
I wanted to switch it to a Springer
but I think the bike we're doing for you, it's perfect for that.
- Absolutely. - So, we'll rip it apart. Clean it up.
- Well, it's frozen. Shit. - Frozen to shit. Yeah.
Yeah !
It's like we're making Thor's hammer.
Look at this.
Holy shit.
Yeah.
This is the front fork, but it sat for so long outside,
it wouldn't fit in here with, hanging this up.
Don't know if we can see in there. Jason's cleaning the floor.
That's a good man. You know what else he cleans,
is the little thing in the bottom of the sink.
The little strainer. It's the first thing I noticed about him.
He made tea and he cleaned the strainer.
- Raised by a woman. - I tried to marry him, but...
He said no.
So, basically COVID happened.
I couldn't be with you.
We had a frame. 39 with a 40 motor, we're gonna make a 4Q bike.
- Yeah. 44Q. - 44Q.
We got a whole design set up for it and it's gonna be nickel plated.
Yep. What happened was, I took the motor out,
to use for something else for you.
You brought the 40 motor
and when I had the motor out of that frame,
I noticed some damage.
The old frames took a lot of abuse. I sent it to a guy that's the best.
COVID happens, six months turned into a year and a half.
The guy had some unfortunate circumstances
and then I thought: "Our project's done."
And the other day, I looked at my own bike
and I was like, you know, this frame's perfect.
Take my whole bike apart. Give you the frame.
And redo the project in a different style.
We were doing nickel plated with fancy paint.
And now we're gonna do the best Bay Area crust.
This is kinda need to go: "Well, let's go pick through"
"all the amazing collection of things that you have."
Build this sick, what your style it, maybe pull the Frisco.
Let me get some fenders out. I'll get on the ladder and you say when.
I kind of have a fender problem, just so you know.
This one, maybe we make that pink with the...
... with the stripe ?
With the gold pearl. Do the gold pearl down the peak.
I love taking things blue and making 'em pink, I'm not gonna lie to you.
Yeah. You hate blue.
There, bro. That's fucking beautiful.
We'll just stop there,
'cause I don't wanna embarrass anyone else's fender collection.
You know what I mean ?
This'll be kind of a bigger boy bike.
I'm gonna make something a little longer for you.
This is a tank that I just test paint colors on to see,
how they spray out so it won't look anything like this.
And then you love that Frisco mounted sporty tank.
Yeah.
One of the greatest things about being on this show
is you get to go to so many studios like craftsmen, artist studios
and you get to be in the world, the world that they created,
what they're inspired by.
I get to create something with them
and so it's definitely like these wonderful moments
where, it's like pinching yourself and being like:
"I'm starting to build a bike with Max at 4Q and I can't believe it."
Hey guys, if this is how I go, take care of Rachel.
- Okay, while I'm up here... - Yeah ?
- Pick a primary. Any primary. - Do crusty rusty.
- This guy, right ? - Here, right.
This dude ? Yeah, that's it.
What do they say, the piece de résistance ?
Get on my shoulders.
I wanna be able to have it some day, so it's gotta be so cool to be able
to come in here and just be like: "What about this one ?"
It's so nice.
It's wonderful to be in his shop and be able to pick these pieces.
It just find it soul and it's life.
Someone that you look up to and who inspires you
and you're gonna go create this bike together.
I feel very blessed to be able to do this.
- Cool. - Super cool.
- Alright. 44Q. - Alright, on it.
Let's do paint !
Max's style kicked off so many things in our community.
Growing up skating really kinda gives you this eye
that is something of its own and I see that in his work
and I love how he brings it to his work.
His paint jobs are unbelievable and you can just stare at 'em,
and they're so deep.
I just really admire one, watching him paint,
but two, just the finished product of everything.
He's teaching me how to paint and it's just a wonderful experience
to sit next to someone who's a master at it.
With Max, you can see his passion and love come into his craft.
He's just so fucking cool, man.
There's people that come into your life and they open your mind.
They are a reflection of what you wanna be
and I think Jeremiah and Max have that.
It's weird to be like, a hairy star struck
when you meet like actors and different people,
I actually got star struck meeting these guys.
The first time I met Max,
this was early in the days of the blog and seeing him in Dice Magazine,
I think dating back to 2005.
I was just in love with his style, his paint.
He's just very creative.
That he was a skateboarder,
not that he was just a regular skateboarder,
he was like, amazing, like, skating with John Cardiel,
going on skate trips on the other part.
This dude ain't just building bikes, this dude's a bad ass
and he ain't no fake. This guy's as real as it gets.
The first thing I ever saw of Jeremiah was on YouTube
and it was like him kick starting a bike.
And he had Vans on and he had shorts on.
But just from the way he walked and moved, I was like: "This dude skates."
I respect that guy a lot, man.
'Cause he's made it in the skateboarding world,
which is like, that's difficult, you know ?
And I was a skateboarder, and I still am a skateboarder,
you can't ever give up on skating.
I'm not what I used to be, but I watch Max
and he's like, six years older than me and still blasting his frontside airs
but just killing it, you know ?
I think what makes Max so special
is that he's a pioneer in the sense of the style
and he's perpetuating a style from the late 60s
that no one really has. And he really lives it.
He's an artist through and through and I feel like my relationship to him
is really fueled by his love for skateboarding,
my love for skateboarding.
And you know, him bringing that flavor to motorcycles.
Jeremiah, he had asked me to paint something.
I asked him to paint, see if he could paint a gas tank for me.
And there was no hesitation, he...
From like the first time I started talking with Max,
we've all had our rough roads with friendships, but me and Max.
Jeremiah got into the Chopper thing shortly after I did.
And he started Love Cycles. And there wasn't a lot of us back then
that were like, under the age of 40.
And Jeremiah, his first bike was cool.
He did a good job and so I took notice
and then we're like fans of each other.
And then we met each other at a show
and we've wrestled each other at every show ever since
and I think I've lost every wrestling match.
Yeah, I call him more than he calls me,
just 'cause I get, like 11 o'clock at night, I gotta talk to him.
He'll be like: "I'll talk to you tomorrow."
He just sends me selfies of himself with his shirt off.
He's constantly sending me selfies. And I'll fuck with him,
I'll be like: "Another cute selfie from Jeremiah."
And he'll never stop.
He's very old fashioned, he loves his families.
He loves being a craftsman and he's a pure soul.
It's rooted in his title, Love Cycles. Does everything.
It's really inspiring, at the same time he's just the most amazing family man.
Max just being a skateboarder and an awesome human being
and we've been able to ride motorcycles on the other side of the planet
and we've been able to meet some of the coolest people.
And become really good friends.
It's a friendship. I love that guy, man.
I can whoop his ass in wrestling, though.
Bought this bike that had been in a fire and I restored it
and it ended up in the museum in Milwaukee.
And I took it out of the museum a couple of months early
to race it and I was getting really good at building engines,
I was so nerded out of performance and I wanted to build everything
and I wanted to build the fastest most powerful bike I could build.
I didn't care of the consequences of doing 120 down Grand Avenue
at two o'clock in the morning all by myself,
or going out to the desert by Joshua Tree
and going as fast as I could.
I couldn't recognize how stupid I was being
because I was so sucked in by this mechanical thing
that it was like a drug, the faster I turn that throttle,
the more I wanted to do it. And that day on the beach...
My good friend, Benji said:
"You already beat the fastest guy, just wait 'til tomorrow."
I called Mona on the phone
and I told her I just beat the fastest guy
and two minutes after that I was screwed.
I couldn't foresee the dangers involved of what I was doing.
I just felt invincible
because I was on this bike that I had built from nothing.
And it was so powerful. My inexperience of racing on the sand
and my ego, or you could just say, drive.
I wasn't thinking about Mona, Angus, Paloma, Jonas,
anybody that I was around,
it was just Jeremiah and how fast could I go ?
And it didn't matter.
And for a couple of years after my accident,
I couldn't get excited anymore.
I had all this blank canvases in front of me
and I couldn't touch any of them.
And it wasn't the bike that did it.
It was me being, taking this bike and almost killing myself.
That was a the hard thing, losing full use of my hand.
Being so stubborn that I could do anything,
I didn't need to listen to the doctors, I still didn't wake up,
even after wrecking, and I couldn't wake up and say to myself:
"Stop." You know ? Just focus on the moment
of what's here right now, one day at a time.
The accident drew the line in the sand if I was gonna keep doing this.
And Mona was gonna still support me.
I don't know how she puts up with me.
My family has been my number one grounding point.
And even though I lost touch,
they were always there for me when I couldn't recognize it.
It's just overcoming these mental hurdles. You know ?
Depression's a messed up thing, you know ?
I think Jason came back around and believed in what we were doing.
And I've noticed that in the last year,
Jeremiah's inspired to build a Chopper again.
I couldn't try and live in the future, I just needed to focus every day
and I still struggle on focusing every day.
But when I do and I can focus on one day at a time,
I feel like life just is so fluid.
I've got all these ideas and these blank canvases in front of me.
I'm gonna build something that all my creativity goes into it
and there's no concern of what somebody thinks
or who do I have to build it for, or a time line.
It is validating
when someone that's done really cool things with their life has said:
"Man, I believe in you, let's do this thing."
And I feel that Jeremiah is validated again.
And he's ready to build some bitching shit with Jason.
Getting over that hurdle,
for people that are struggling or going through depression,
and I was in here at the end of last week,
and I came in and I had this bottom end
of a motor I had been working on for the past year.
It just went together like it was a dance.
All my knowledge came back to me, how to fit it, how to size it.
I could remember how to make this dance again.
My life's good. Life's awesome.
As far as bikes, man, I just wanna keep creating.
No matter what it is, never stop using that part of your brain
to where you wanna create something.
Alright.
It's a long time coming.
Late 60s, Dean Lanza, amazing artist, amazing painter.
This was a show bike, it's my first show bike. Show me, bro.
We took the pan, we put a 1936...
... nickel plated dual carburetor.
Holy shit. Bro.
Jeremiah !
Bro, look at that.
Being able to put the motor that I really cherish and love the most,
put it in there, have it all nickel plated, duel carburetor.
Start it up, man ! Let me hear it.
Look at that, baby !
That was insane. It's so beautiful. It's so complex and complicated.
Look at that paint, George.
1968, it's like the Jimmy Hendrix of bikes.
Dean Lanza's amazing monument
and I wanted to put a nickel plated nutter in there, so.
It's a 36, is weird as it gets. And it's beautiful.
We're gonna take it for a ride tomorrow
'cause we lost the sun, but tomorrow's gonna be a great day.
It's beautiful to watch Jeremiah,
'cause that bike is a chapter in our relationship.
It was a chapter in his life. Who would have thought
that this bike would have forced us to get to these times
that were extremely hard on him.
Look at that. Six 36es, buddy. I told you.
Just like the way your heart beats, like nothing stops it.
When I feel like I get creative again, just putting that bottom end together,
I feel like the next step is I could create this bad ass sissy bar
and make this killer tank and these pipes.
And I could just see it all flowing with my eyes closed.
This was something that was a respect to the history,
Dean Lanza is amazing.
And I think Quicksilver kinda came in to my life
and the universe kinda came together for this bike.
I wanted to make something special with Jeremiah
but the truth of it is, Jeremiah and Max together
was very important for this all to come together.
Jeremiah was going through a pretty tough time
and what was going on in our lives and what he had happen,
it really helped bring one of my best friends out of a hole.
It's kind of the most prolific storyline
that moved me the most in this whole series,
because of really the back story of what's been going on
with two of my really good friends.
There's only so much you can do for your friends,
but he needed to come out of his shell and to find it
and I feel like this bike got that little bit back.
Got him rolling again and got his inspiration going
and he's got his mojo back.
And really what that was is like, rescuing a friend.
Being there for a friend.
It just was the right thing to get him back into his craft.
I really thank everyone who could make Quicksilver come together
because it was such an important piece for one of my best friends
to like, survive.
This is a survivor bike and I feel like we got through it 'cause of that.
So you think that's the furtherest that this thing's ever been ridden ?
On an actual road, yeah.
Dean Lanza took it up the drag strip a couple of times, yeah,
but not as far as doing 20 miles on it.
It was just meant to be a show bike.
How we doing back there ?
Okay, Jeri, gonna need your help here, brother.
Man ! Holy shit. Bro, it looks huge.
I know...
Bro ! Here we go. There we go.
- Yeah ? - Yeah, right there. Bro.
Almost lost a thumb in the process.
Man ! Damn.
And I made everything king sized, like the shifter.
- This is it. - Brake.
It's going to England, baby.
Dude, it's unbelievable.
Let's watch you fire it up. Let's do it.
- Alright. So... - Start it.
Bro !
Got a big boy bike, going to kill rattlesnakes.
- There's no key. No, right ? - No key.
Never had a bike actually start this easy.
- Really ? - Yeah, dude. Real nice.
It's time, works a treat, it's everything's tight.
It's good to go.
Intense three weeks.
Yeah, well, that's the beautiful thing about this story.
Totally.
We planned to do something else and then this ended up exactly,
by listening to our loved ones and...
... trusting in the universe.
We got down to the last minute, I leave in a week and a half...
- Perfect, dude ! - It's perfect.
My old frame, that front wheel I just had got
and it was just was like, perfect.
The brake pedal is hollow inside,
so that it's light and it snaps back quick.
Those are old vintage table leg ends. To go with our white-black theme.
And then you have extended the shifter on,
so your big foot could fit under there.
Everything's up.
So one up...
Yeah, GP style, like race bike style.
It says it on the gas cap, so when in doubt.
What was it again ? One up, three ?
One up, three to get down.
It's beautiful, I love how you put these two different colors too.
- Yeah. - I can't wait to ride it tomorrow.
So, check it out man, we got six 36es.
All of us are gonna ride 36es, Choppers.
So we're gonna do that tomorrow. 44Q bike.
My love for Knuckleheads is I love the look, the aesthetic
and it's really the sound.
36 was the first year. It's not the best Knucklehead,
it's just the first Knucklehead.
And it really was the one that when I was little was like:
"That's the one I always wanted."
It's a very unique motor. And they're so rare.
It's the most beautiful engine in the world to me.
This shit will grind you down because you're constantly
having people try to criticize your work.
That thing with people where they love you when you're down ?
Jeremiah and I faced a lot of that in the Chopper thing,
where people were kinda waiting for you to fail.
I'm not saying we're at the top, but we're doing good.
And having Jason on our side didn't help those things.
There's memes made about making fun of us and all this silly shit,
because we built bikes for Jason.
Some guy, that had the means to help support our craft.
It's a wonderful place out in the desert,
so it was cool to bring Jeremiah and Max to my kind of territory,
it's kinda where I grew up.
I felt if my mom's house as being on J. Tree,
so it was one of the coolest moments because I've never got to ride
with Jeremiah and Max at the same time.
How long's it been since we've all been together ?
- Never. - Never. That's so crazy.
- Isn't that crazy ? - Yeah, this is the first time.
- That's insane. - Yeah, that is pretty weird.
We talk all the time, I'll be with Jeremiah and we'll call Max.
I'm with Max, we'll call Jeremiah. And it just has been going on
for 11 years now. And we've never gotten together.
Making this show, this has been the hardest out of all to shoot.
The whole dream of being able to have six 36 Choppers
riding on the road.
It's just one of these weird things that was in my head
and the fact that Jeremiah was like: "No, you can't do this."
and I was like: "We're doing it."
The feeling of bringing those together, I've just never seen it before.
Even when I talk to the old timers, they're just like, it doesn't happen.
Everyone's got a different style and I love eclectic,
it's like, man, this is our piece, it's a little Picasso,
I get to ride this artwork.
But I've always said, we get to ride our artwork around town.
You'd be an asshole if you had a painting outside your truck
and you were like: "I painted this, so check this out, check me out."
It's almost like therapy, this is a lot of healing stuff that happened,
by just building these two bikes.
The biggest one was Jeremiah, which I've shot documentaries about him.
We built so many bikes together, I've shot so many things together
and Jeremiah's had a lot of growth in the last year.
Taking Quicksilver, it's been really beautiful
to see you finish and like, your face when you started it up,
that spark happened again.
And seeing you come here and looking at how healthy you are,
it's fucking... very proud of you.
Yeah. Quicksilver was a hard one.
And when it showed up at the house...
And you're like: "We're gonna change it."
Then I'm like: "I can't change it."
I'm like: "Okay, wait, I could do it."
And I had closed my shop down
and I had just fallen out of love with bikes.
It came to a head, a year and a half later,
you're like, at mine with it. You gotta do it.
And those months leading up to that were...
I had been struggling and I had quit drinking.
I'd go into the shop and I could just sit there
and I couldn't love what I loved, you know ?
How am I gonna build this motor
to go into like, the baddest Chopper on the planet ?
I don't have the skills right now.
I was calling Max, like, what do I, I think right...
- "Just do it, like..." - Just start !
And I'm like, okay. I can do the bike. I can build the flywheel,
I can balance the flywheel, I can fix the case, bore this up.
Everything was lining up. And it was going so perfect
and I was like: "This is not how it goes, how it happens."
And that day, that morning, I went and got Mona,
I said: "It's gonna, I think it's gonna start, babe."
And... It fires up.
I couldn't believe it, I'd never built a Knucklehead
with all the rocker arms and everything exposed
and no oil to the top end. And it was running.
I felt like I got to be kind of like, reborn again,
and I'm gonna build a Chopper again:
"Max, I wanna, can you paint my Chopper ?"
Like, I wanna do that, you know ?
But just take it easy and listen to the signs.
'Cause those are important. You know ?
Good to have you back.
I love motorcycles, you know ? And I love you guys.
I'm honored to do Quicksilver and I hope I did it justice.
Thank you, Jason, for pushing me to do it.
'Cause, it's been a journey. I wouldn't be here without you.
Talking to one of my best friends about what he's going through,
I was moved. And that's the real magic.
And I'm happy, I was aware, to capture that moment.
Both of us had to like: "Get your fucking act together."
"Do what you were born to do. Someone cares."
And, you're gonna show many people, let's do it,
like: "Buckle up. And let's go."
Most of all, we didn't wanna let you down.
The spirit of what these two bikes are, really super impactful,
I think for all three of us.
The friendship and just going like this is uniting us.
We've all been talking for a long time, and now this is it.
Sitting under this tree talking about this kind of stuff
and knowing what we've all been through.
I love you guys. And I learned a lot, man.
Love you brother.
Alright. Let's go ride some bikes.
It's pretty fucking cool how healing that whole process was.
That was the most intense therapy session I've been through yet.
- It was a good one. - Don't do it, man.
Riding with the six 36es at dawn, all personalized, some survivors,
it was a beautiful thing and it was really just coming out
of two friends going: "That's impossible."
I'm like, well: "I'd like to see that."
It was really fun to be able to dream that up
and then all your friends build those.
And customize them, it's having your wildest dreams come true,
and so, that's why six 36es came out of it.
It was extremely special.
It takes a long time for some of us to feel comfortable in our own skin
and to believe in who we are. And that has been the journey.
I'm elbow to elbow, we're like a dead man painting,
we're like, literally touching each other.
My handlebars hit Max's and we're just riding at top speed.
Sun's coming up, I'm so close, I can just hold onto them.
I felt like we were in one of those paintings.
Who knows, in 100 years, are there gonna be motorcycles ?
They're really beautiful and I know how much fun they offer
and what they've been through, these machines, whether it be war,
good times, bad times, I just love all the history,
it's wrapped up and soaked into them.
I hope more people can slow down and enjoy...
These machines are really simple.
Just being on the road, like, the universe,
you're just connected through this machine
and you're riding right next to one of your friends.
I'm through and through just a roamer. A vagabond,
and I love moving.
It's just that vehicle, that's how I move through life.
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