How This All Began

This whole wild ride began, when the world felt like it was coming apart at the seams. Everything was shifting so fast, it felt like the America I grew up in was fading, right before my eyes. I needed to go find it again, feel the heartbeat of it, before it disappeared.

So I planned a road trip across the South, from the Cactus lined deserts of Arizona, to the untamed wild, of the Everglades. At first, it was just going to be me, in one of my vehicle creations. But that felt empty, boring... I wanted something alive, something I built, trip specific! Another hot rod? Maybe. But then the idea hit me, when I was running around town one day, on my little hot rod, Honda Cub. I thought, I should drive this damn thing, all the way to the Everglades, for the big hunt!

I’ve always been obsessed with swamps and the creatures that prowl their depths, especially the Everglades, crawling with invasive species: Burmese Pythons, Nile Crocodiles, Monitor lizards, Giant Iguanas, Tegus, Monsters not meant to be there, now thriving, like some strangely out of place, modern Jurassic Park! The idea of hunting them, experiencing that strange, but wild beauty, that was the spark... a road trip, with purpose.

My grandmother, Barbara Jean, was a legend. A full-blown, chrome-loving, vintage car obsessed, force of nature. Growing up, everything around her had an old car on it, towels, mugs, coasters, blankets, clocks, watches, even her water glasses. She passed that love down to me. I became a builder of machines and every time I rolled out a new bike or hot rod or trike, she’d be the first to run her hands over it, like it was alive. She talked to them and she taught me that, to treat them like they had souls!

Last year, she passed away, just shy of her 93rd birthday. No funeral, that's how she wanted it, just ashes in a gold box. And that box ended up buried in my shop, forgotten. That haunted me, no pun intended. Well maybe a little! Wink

Then, as I was began thinking of what I might like to do to my little Cub, to make it special, for this crazy road trip, I couldn't bring myself to cut up my beautiful little Honda. But I had a battered old Honda Ct90 Trail, that someone had treated like crap and had been dropped off at my door, in hopes I'd find something very special, to do with it.

Well both the Honda ct90 and the Cub are built off the same platform and I had always loved the idea of the slogan Honda was famous for; "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" and I thought I'd like to bring that back again!

I was thinking it sure would be nice to utilize that old 40's fiberglass sidecar, that someone had given me, into the build... another complete basket case that someone had neglected and pawned off on me! I had always wanted to do a trike, out of a sidecar and I thought; what if I morphed the little sidecar and the trail 90, into a badass trike?

So I took a vintage sidecar, stretched and widened it, raised it up, and sculpted a fiberglass body, with a proper door. For the front, I dropped in a ’40s Chevy I-beam axle, that I narrowed and re-spoked early ‘70s KZ 900 wheels, bored out the hubs, stuffed in giant bearings, built some custom spindles, to adapt the KZ motorcycle wheels, to the GM front I-beam, then wrapped those beauty's in whitewalls. It was rolling art, It was madness and magic.

Then, one hot summer night, as I stirred the fiberglass resin, to begin my creative reimagining, of a boring old sidecar, I said out loud, "Grandma would’ve loved this." and that’s when it hit me.

She should be part of it.

I ran to the back of the shop, dug through the boxes, pulled out her ashes, and right then and there, I added Barbara Jean, to the big barrel of resin. She’s now literally, part of the machine, built into the very body of the trike. So my grandmother became the hot rod and the vintage vehicle, that she always loved, so much!

As word spread, others wanted in on the wild journey. So I turned this into a movement. A small-bike road trip, through the South, riding low, slow, and proud. Taking back roads, making memories, meeting strangers, who become friends.

So now, it’s me, a crew of crazy, adventurous riders and my grandmother, built into a handmade machine and leading the charge.

And we’re inviting you to come along for the ride.