Jesse James bashes Gas Monkey Build Off Bike

[MrSinister]

My bike's ages are as follows. 63, 54, 45, years old.

They are as reliable as can be once shaken down. My oldest bike is the one I ride the most. Sure some stuff rattles loose, and it requires general maintenance more often. But to me, that's a much more worthwhile effort. I'll spend time keeping long forgotten relics on the road and I feel better for it. The ride to wrench ratio is heavily skewed to the riding side of the spectrum.

You just don't throw these things away because the technology has long been eclipsed.

Sure aesthetics plays a huge role. My factory rigid bike handles amazing and is predictable in turns. I weave through traffic fast enough to pass gun-shy street bikes riding the carpool lines.

My long chop with a 12 over fork and king and queen seat is more comfortable than a first class cabin on the Titanic. Laid back with some 6 bend bars.. I could sleep-ride on that bitch.

The bike in the link, I would assume, rides like 2 dudes fucking each other with a barbed wire canoe and they forgot the lube.




AND P.S. we're not just dudes on the internet. We're much more important than that.

I understand all of that, I really do!! I love old machines. I could drive my 55 Chevy every day, anywhere. What we might consider acceptable in terms of having to tighten things up from time to time, or what we think is comfortable or handles well, in comparison to what the average guy rides, is not even close to equal.
Think about how the average midlife crisis case with a stock Harley thinks about your bikes. I'm sure you don't care what they think, and rightly so, but these are the types who judge bikes for awards typically. They have no idea what they're looking at, they can't tell the difference between an off the shelf part and something you hand made, and they damn sure wouldn't ride anything without a factory warranty on it. That's who judged last year's show, and that's exactly why Jesse's bike didn't win. It was not only expertly crafted, it was also the most rideable of the three. Junior's bike own because it was a piece of art, and because it was Junior. Jesse built a bike to appeal to guys who build bikes. Junior built a bike for people who like shiny things.

[TheSandman]

Dig it.

But you could argue that if bikes should be judged on how rideable they are, a 60 year old pan or knuckle ain't going to win any awards, since you'll spend equal time working on it as riding. Some will argue they can be just as reliable, but in this day and age, you ride a pan or a knuckle because you WANT to ride a pan or knuckle, not because they're the best choice for reliability or rideability.

The way I look at it, it's all in the intended purpose. If you want something that you can hop on, fire up, and ride anywhere with no problems, you should judge the comfort, functionality, reliability, and overall user friendliness of that bike.
Now if it's something for bar hopping or just pissing on dudes with stock Harleys, it needs to look killer, sound like a caged animal, and be something you'd never consider taking on the interstate.
Is it douchey to want a bike that looks cool first, and is functional second? Well, as it's been said before, most of us are making sacrifices to function for looks here on Chop Cult. Why else would you deal with shit flying up in your face because you don't run a front fender, or ripped up jeans because your belt drive is exposed? Because it just looks cooler.
Not all bikes are created equal, so they can't be judged as such. There's room for both, and personally, I aspire to have (at least) one of each. The way I see it, build your bike however YOU want it. If you build it for you and people just happen to dig it, awesome. If you build it in the hopes of impressing people, that's lame.

But what the fuck, I'm just some dude on the internet.

That was another REAL cool thing about the old build offs. They'd build the bike, then ride the bitch across 3 states and 500 miles to a bike show.

There's NO WAY Jr's trash would have made it across the county.

[purerockfury]

fact is every builder builds what they like, at least at first. i'm sure at one point in his career JJ was some no name builder in a small garage or shed somewhere building things and bikes he thought was cool, after awhile people took notice and his popularity grew. every builder or artist has their own style and one could even argue if it is really your style seeing how everyone borrows things from the people that influenced them.

JJ's style may have fallen out of popularity but it doesn't take away from his craftsmanship or talent. i wouldn't compare him to Perewitz or Ness, while both were great builders and super talented in their own right they both jumped on the wide tire billet barge gravy train. i was at Perewitz shop for bike night not to long ago and he had his line of "bobbers" out front...JJ still builds bikes to his taste and his style, he even left the business for the most part rather than change what he does to appeal to the mass's...he could have easily jumped on the bagger trend like Yaffe and probably made a killing...

it's the same with music... bands tend to right music they think is cool but it all sounds similar from song to song or album to album, it's what they do, it's their style...

i love all kinds of bike from old to new, more so the old because they're timeless, a 50's pan is and always will be "cool" but if one of these bikes were given to me or i could afford a stable of killer bikes i wouldn't mind owning a WWC and i would ride the shit out of either of these two...



i was at a buddy's shop the other day and he had a dominator style frame he built for a customer, so i guess there's still a few of us out there that appreciate JJ's style...

[Guest]

Gas monkey garage's build although very nice and something im actually really digging, especially that paint... pink fucking rules. Im quite confident that Jesse James will be building something with way more craftsmanship in mind than the GMG.

im not quite sure but my guess would be the extension was raised up because i think JJ was filming more episodes for Outlaw garage at the time??? And if youve seen some of the projects hes been a part of that during the shows it makes sense as to why an extension probably was needed.


I dont see gas monkey garage making there own front ends or frames out of scratch. hell they didnt even originally make the gas tank... just modified it... theres a shitload of guys who do it just as good on the 33. what it seems to me is that GMG build is more of a modify/assemble pre ordered parts as opposed to Jesse actually fulfilling the concept behind "Building".

and as far as JJ talking shit.... Im in absolute love with my bike but when it comes to building one Jesse James can talk all the siht he wants about me cause i know he could do it 100 times better. and im not just wetting his whistle.

Theres tons of shops that can build a bike like GMG but theres not alot of guys around that could compare to JJ's skill level.

[purerockfury]

GMG is lame...they blocked me on facebook because i posted this link http://spankmymarketer.com/summary.html in a comment...wish i would have known, i would have posted that picture on their wall...

[Guest]

fact is every builder builds what they like, at least at first. i'm sure at one point in his career JJ was some no name builder in a small garage or shed somewhere building things and bikes he thought was cool, after awhile people took notice and his popularity grew.
..
.

He was in his mother's single car garage bolting swap meet cast off chopper parts onto an iron head...

I am not joking. A good friend of mine grew up just down the road from him. J.J. was playing with an iron head while my buddy had a norton chopper

My buddy's norton and his lady were on the back sleeve of one of the old Easyriders VHS tapes. The bike was not in the video, but it was on the sleeve

[MrSinister]

Rumor has it JJ's bike won't be ready in time.....
He posted something on his Twitter about it apparently.
Could be playing possum?

[rooster52478]

Supposedly from today.

[TheSandman]

GMG posted some pics on Instagram today of Aaron on the bike in Vegas. You can't see much of it but I'm not gonna lie, it's looks pretty fucking bad ass. A bike most us on here would ride the shit out of.

I'll see if I can take screenshots and post them.

[TheSandman]

[whiskeyhangover]

Beard of peace.

[purerockfury]

the more i hear that guy Aaron talk the more Obnoxious i think he is, he act's like he's the only person in the world who can build a nice looking ride or do it "Right"...meanwhile totally coping other peoples shit

yup that bikes cool and i really like it but not original by any means, as stated it looks like an imitation cole foster or a japanese style bike...and yes, i would ride the shit out of it

[Guest]

I am by no means an expert on GMG. I watched the episode where they redid a rambler wagon, and got the impression he was a hack. Doing a resto without a rotisserie, doing frame mods without pulling the body off, and replacing floor panels without undercoating is shade tree garage crap at it's best.
I started to watch a second episode, got disgusted, and turned it off. They were at an auction and buying an old chevy with an obvious 80s build. The chevy had the character Rat Fink painted on the back. Kaufman commented that he did not even know what that meant.... That was it. I knew he was a complete idiot right then. If you do not even know who Ed Roth was, and do not recognize his most famous character, you have no right even calling yourself a "car guy".
My 12 year old daughter knows who Rat Fink, and the rest of the asphalt fiends are. It is just sad that Kaufman does not.

that was when I realized I had seen the same two guys on Bull Run.

[Guest]

As I understand it, the GMG bike got ridden to Vegas from Texas right? I can't help but like that.

[Guest]

As I understand it, the GMG bike got ridden to Vegas from Texas right? I can't help but like that.

I do have to agree with that... a long road trip to break a bike in does take some intestinal fortitude