Chopper Hostel

Short of a few projects I want to finish up I’m as ready as I’m gonna be. I had intentions for a few bigger projects but the money’s not there yet. So, for now just keepin’ the grounds clean and clear is damn near a full-time job. When the gates swing open, you’ll have a nice place to dig in stakes and comfortable facilities when you do.

There’re places to eat just over the hill a few miles so that won’t be problem, I still have plans for an outdoor kitchen but nothing that will be ready by the Takeover. I’m building an outdoor bathroom and will get more port-a-johns as needed when folks start arriving. It’ll all work itself out once kickstands start droppin’. I’ve been t enough ‘rallies’ to know that you don’t need much to have a good time, you got a bike, everything else is just frosting. Ridin’, campin’ and wrenchin’, what then fuck else do ya need?

It’s only my opinion but that’s the thing that’s lost in the big events, they’re so fuckin’ overwhelming, expensive and with any carnival eventually the clowns show up. Everybody hates clowns, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but mostly clowns. She’s a close second.

It all shit the bed when they switched to aluminum cylinders, life is a lot more care-free on an Evo and that’s when it started to lose its footing on that slippery slope towards clown-dom. Carefree milage makes you soft and that softness has been growing ever since.

I hate to compare today’s events with the ones I attended when I was a kid, but it was a different world back then and this affected everything including ‘bike rallies’. Aside from all the internet/smartphone situation, bikes with cast iron cylinders tended to need a lot more attention, that meant if you were riding you knew a lot about your ride because it always required your attention. The connectivity to your machine made all the difference in the world. The ‘biker brotherhood’ back then was all about being able to discuss and work on your own shit. Today, a cellphone is all you need to get things done; no owner involvement required. It’s easy, and easy brings the clowns and the event is more about ‘being seen’ than being involved.

There’s a shit ton of differences between the events then and events now. Time, however, waits for no man and as much as I liked the old events, the connectivity to a man and his machine isn’t required anymore and at the end of the day whole scene suffers because of it. I’m not here to be seen, I’m here to ride and I hope that will catch on, at least at the hostel.

The amenities here will improve each year and will hopefully spawn a different attitude for the time spent riding your old iron in the Appalachian Mountains. This year, it’s a great place to camp, share a few laughs and maintain your sled. A few laughs with your buds while enjoying a chopper-centric atmosphere is what this year offers. After the first event things will morph improving each time you visit. This year let’s just kick this off right and set a president for what purpose the Hostel will serve in the future. Bring your sled and let’s get this shit started in the right direction.

Currently, I’m knee deep in gettin’ my bike straight for the Takeover. Originally, I wasn’t sure if I would have ANY bike on the road never mind my ol’ Shovelhead. Gettin’ all those ducks in row AND gettin’ ready for guests has been keepin’ me on my toes. Lookin’ forward to ridin’ the twisties with some friends keeps me focused. There’s a big payoff at the end of all this and all I have to do is everything.

I’m within days of pickin’ my motor up from Lukes place @hillbillydemafia’s about a hundred miles away. We were waiting on carburetor ‘O’ ring clamps and it’s ready to pick up and heat cycle. The trucks got a full tank and I’m anxiously waiting on that phone call. It’s killin’ me, in a good way.

The bikes going through an initial assembly sans motor just to make sure I have everything. I’m running the Shovelhead in the best configuration I found. I’ll again be running the jockey shifted five speed with a hydraulic clutch and harley electric start.

Nothing fancy, just a strong runnin’, great handling, foot clutchin’ Shovelhead with a 24″ over springer front end. I had a notion that I wanted to pretty up the frame and paint, but time ran short and I kinda like it’s knock around attitude that seems to really fit a ridden Shovel…and it doesn’t require me to do shit but assemble it.

i haven’t REALLY ridden since back in 2019. I threw an Evo in my old four speed frame and upon completion I realized I had systematically removed everything I love about riding, so I sold the motor and never looked back. It’s 5 years later and I really miss the old girl so I’m thowin’ caution to the wind and bringin’ a little irresponsibility back in my daily routine.

So, with the Hostel more or less in maintenance mode for the moment it’s time to turn this pile of parts into an inefficient waste of a perfectly good motorcycle. The bike was in my favorite configuration when the motor went south, so I’m duplicating that. Long, low and torque only a Shovelhead can provide. A regular West Virginia Mountain Climber. Chugga-chugga!

Welp, things change quick around here but you gotta roll with it. Between this paragraph and the last, I may have smoked the motor in the truck. I’m gonna blame it on a faulty eBay temp gage that stopped working and possibly a blown head gasket. Long story short, the motor got really hot and I didn’t know until I was in my driveway. The temperature read 180 but that’s the temperature that the gauge quit working. When I turned off the power and the temp stayed at 180…it’sa kinda stuck there, fuck. What a nightmare.

I’ll try starting it in the morning because today I just don’t want to deal with it. I had intentions of taking the truck off the road to pull the bed for undercoating and to just adjust some stuff around getting ready for winter. Looks like that plan just got moved forward, because if I have to choose between which project finish first, I’m going chopper.

If I have the bike on the road, I can get the truck squared away, the reverse can’t be said. So, time to get the chopper finished. Fuckin’ truck can just suck my dick for now.

I have roughly 17 days before the unwashed masses will be knockin’ at my door. I have paintings to get finished, acreage to keep clearin’ and a bike to build…piece of cake…or whatever.

I have two main obstacles to overcome before the bikes parts list will be complete. I’m looking into battery options as the oil tank is designed around a smaller, more expensive anti-gravity battery and finding the specs on a proper replacement affordable AGM battery. I’m currently piecing together a points style ignition but will eventually go with single-fire again. My heads a dual plugged with dual coils and I’ve always run single fire so that’s what I’m set up for. I’d like to just run the single-fire with the coils that I have because it would match my coils, but I don’t have that actual module. I usually run one of those Ultima modules and pickups, but I don’t have them for some reason. Anybody holdin’? It sure would be a God send as money’s tight gettin’ all this shit together.

Surprisingly, I need a set of Shovelhead, hardtail drag pipes or whatever that I can use to get on the road until I decide on the final set. Anything will do really, it’s too late to be getting picky.

Seems like I so often can’t catch a break that I always have a plan “B” not far behind. All tragedies aside, this has been one hell of a spring that’s lookin’ like a dynamite summer. So, get your ass on your sled and take it for a scrape at a moment’s notice.

Grab your buds, jump on your scoot and make some plans to make it to the Hostel Takeover June 7-9 mount hope west virginia 25880…look forward to seein’ you here.

“GTP”