Working in your home garage is a nice setup. Burning your house to the ground because you didn't pay attention to safety basics sucks. Grinding, welding, and torches combined with fluids, vapors and other hazards can make the home builder's base camp a tinder box.

Here's another informative feature from the archives written by Bill Bryant. With the riding season upon us for most of the states, this is a perfect time to showcase this article again. One inevitable thing about contemporary grass roots events is that it's easy to find yourself riding in a large pack of bikes, most of them piloted by people you don't even know yet. Of course this can be fun or a complete ball-up depending on where you are in the pack and who you end up next to, behind, etc.

The 2013 El Diablo Run was the fifth time nutjobs on old motorcycles have decided to descend into Mexico and have a party. Much has been written about previous runs, the first of which was done in 2006. The neat thing about the EDR is that it's different for everyone; for wide-eyed noobs it can be an exotic adventure and for old salts it's like a family reunion. 

Born Free was a bitch to shoot. There are so many top-quality bikes that it's a gaurantee that you'll miss some. I wandered around in a daze with my camera set on spray and pray. Afterwards I had high hopes of doing a few photo features, split up into different categories: panheads, triumphs, etc. The amount of hype after the show was nearly as overwhelming as the event itself and I didn't want to add to that clutter so I let the images sit a while. I never got around to organizing them, and now that this is the last week for me doing articles on Chop Cult, I thought it would be best to just pile 'em all into one big gallery. So if you've been jonesing for some chopper porn, here's an even 100 images for your veiwing pleasure.

Dennis Fauerbach and his sons Jagger and Cole built this neat '67 Triumph TR6 over a two year period. Here's the story according to this proud pop.

Pounded by critics for not being technologically advanced and pummeled by customers every time they stray from tradition, Harley-Davidson will always face a double-edged sword. Outlasting all other stateside bike makers and defending themselves from quality imports is a testimony to both Harley's cult-like status and the rabid dedication of its customers. What if a new motorcycle company came along that didn't have the restrictions of over a hundred years of defining a category?

A couple months ago our friends at Show Class had an idea for a way to get someone new into the "invited" builder arena at what has America's best custom motorcycle show. Taking submissions from over a hundred builders meant 75 percent of them had to be clipped, with survivors filling the roster. Eventually it'll come down to six bikes to be displayed at Cook's Corner on the Friday evening before Born Free. The winner of the Show Class pre-party bike show at Cook's Corner will get to display his people's choice machine with the big guns at Born Free.

I should have named this story the Matchmaker. We had a friend who was looking for a knucklehead and another who happened to own one. We'll let Jason Craze tell the story.

When McGoo and I launched ChopCult.com in 2009, we did so with limited knowledge of the growing realm of social media. We wanted to assemble a community for people just like us: blue-collar guys who enjoy building and riding custom motorcycles. We dedicated a lot of time and energy to make ChopCult as good as possible within the scope of our abilities, but ultimately, members quickly became the people who made ChopCult unique.

How many times have you heard that details make the difference? Obviously this is especially true when it comes to building motorcycles. Off-the-shelf parts are easy and often that is the best way to go. But, combine a few of your own hand-hewn solutions and the end result will surely be more satisfying. A few details at the recent David Mann Chopper Fest caught my eye (and lens) so here's a bit of inspiration.