Let’s give a push to a small team of builders from beautiful Calgary, Canada that I met in Sturgis, struggling their way up for acknowledgement from their older brothers. Setup at the Broken Spoke County Line among other “next generation of custom builders” shops, they learned the hard way that exhibiting in Sturgis costs a lot of money if you can’t sell bikes or even tee-shirts because you forgot to request a vendor permit!
Still, they kept a great sense of humor (you have quite a bit to call your shop “Mad Jap Kustoms”), showed me a couple of their builds, and handed me their mini-bible 4-page business card which made me smile when I read it. Hope you smile too. Here it is…
The Chopper God Spoke. 1- Thou shalt never own a chopper with a fat tire. 2- Thou shalt never wear a suit nor associate one’s self with corporate. 3- Thou shalt not steal except from a corporation. 4- Worship the chopper Gods. 5- Remember the Sabbah day…thou must ride. 6- Thou shall respect thy neighbor unless they call the cops. 7- Thou shall not kill unless they fuck with your bike. 8- Thou shalt not commit adultery unless she is willing. 9- Thou shalt never take shit from a four wheeler. 10- Thou shalt not have a wind screen. Amen. Mad Jap Kustoms.
They forgot number 11… Thou shalt not use a monkey-ass DNA springer.
Keep building great bikes Mad Jap, but leave the writing to the writers.
Cool bikes and a cool business card. Keep at it guys.
-Darin
Our vendor permit was checked two sometimes three times a day for eleven days……..If the permit is good on the first day of the rally can it somehow lose its power the next day? Is that why they check it often, to renew its power? I’m just sayin…… ( I really don’t want to upset the inspectors! ) peace ps where can I get this new “monkey-ass springer” I keep hearing about? sounds interesting
Burnout, where were you working in Sturgis?? I’d a sent some of my bro’s to pass on some “spank” HEE HEE
and rule 12: thou shall not paint a chop to look like an ugly Easter egg.
I always loved old school bikes,kind of remind me of old days….these are the perfect example.Love ur work and bikes.
Men Men Men,
Give these young guys their due. They have a code. They publish their code. It’s clever and their bikes are their art. And they live by it. What’s not to love?
I have a copy of Cyril’s commandments blown up as the cover of my own three ring binder with bike titles, etc.
Have a great day everyone.
Clarke
Respect the old make room for the new..
Fredp we were on Lazelle beside Jack Daniels and HD. As it turned out we were not lacking “spank” anytime!!!!! One day a homeless girl got a shot in on me!!!!! peace
Just stay true to your comandments and sooner or later you’ll be enjoying the prison food and comeradary of such other like minded souls….
SSDD; David
Hey, David. Relax. It’s a young builder joke to show his “attitude.”
Anyone above with some humor?
I don’t buy all this scripted and copycat “bad-arse” attitude some builders fell compelled to copy ad nauseam. They all think they are unique and being rebellious, yet clothes, bikes and even body language are just cookie cutter copies of the same old uniform their peers are doing.
I suppose it is no different from the Teddy Boys of the 50’s, or Greasers and Mods of the 60’s, but everyone looking and acting in such a scripted way makes me feel the bike industry is less real than an American Chopper show.
Feel insecure? Join a tribe, saves all he hassle of exploring your sense of self.
Blue jeans, black T shirt, tatts, baseball cap on “badarse” backwards, Stupid and predictable “10 commandments”, cookie cutter old Skool bikes……
Originality isn’t just a word in a dictionary.
Fluke,
I’ll agree that there’s a certain look to a lot of the newer riders with skateboard/bmx roots, but it’s no different thatn the do-rag dorks with their carefully manicured goatees and wraparound shades, looking like they just got off the set of Scorpio Rising.