Monday, November 16, 2009

Von Dutch Monday IX

Von Dutch wandering around Lance Reventlow's Scarab racing sports car pits at Riverside in '58. Dutch did all the scalloping, lettering, striping and the "Scarab" emblem on all of Reventlow's cars.

Quotes from Von Dutch:

On striping and painting, in 1958: "Too much of the same thing, and nothing new in sight. It was interesting to go from cycles to rods, then to Detroit cars, then to sports cars. Now where? About the only new things for me are bicycles, and there aren't enough of them".

On changing his name to Von Dutch: "Who'd ever remember a name like Kennith Howard? I needed something unusual - a tag the customer would only have to hear once to remember".

On what he charged, and why: " There's a struggle you have to go thru, and if you make a lot of money it doesn't make the struggle go away. It just makes it more complicated. If you keep poor, the struggle is simple".

"That's why I never overcharge anybody, and never made this thing commercial. You can't do good work if you're thinking about the money angle all the time. To me, the work is important, that's the number one".

And finally, Von Dutch just being Von Dutch: "The easy thing in life is realizing that everybody else is full of bullshit. The hard thing in life is realizing you might be full of bullshit, too".

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Benji Rabanal....

Benji Rabanal (circled above) then, around '67-'68......

So, who is Benji Rabanal? Benji has been a boxer, a surfer and a shaper of boards for Bing, Stoner, and Noll, a motorcycle flatrack racer with the likes of Savage, Tetter, and Mann at the old Ascot track, a bare knuckle brawler, and a builder of rods and custom bikes. He's also the father of Superco Trevelen, who Trev affectionately refers to as "Pops".

I've spent more than a couple hours talking with Benji, when Trev had his shop in Downtown L.A., and Benji is one of the most facasinating guys I've ever run across. Although not in the best of health these days, the guy is still hard as nails, works along with Trev on his projects, and can come up with an old story to match any topic you can think of.

Benji Rabanal today....

You need to do yourself a favor and get ahold of Garage Magazine # 16 while you can, and read Eddie Jolly's excellent article he wrote on Benji. Plus, there are some priceless Rabanal family photos you'll only see in the article anymore, unless Trev decides to put them back up on his website/blog. There's a really cute photo of Trev when he was a tiny guy (in a diaper!), sitting on the gas tank of one of Benji's custom Triumphs.

The Bikro - wave !

I don't exactly remember which year in Sturgis I took these pictures of the "Bikro - wave" , I think it was in the mid-'90's.

It was on one of the entries in the rat bike class, when The Rat's Hole Show was still held in City Park. I talked to the guy who owned the bike, and he claimed it worked great. I didn't bother to ask how his garden tractor tire saddlebags worked, though......

Check out the "cooking times" on the front of the Bikro - wave: burrito - 5 mi., hot dog - 2 mi., beans - 8mi

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Does everybody know..........

........that Jeff Decker has a blog?
Why am I the last guy who knows this stuff?
http://jeffdeckerstudio.blogspot.com/


Monday, November 9, 2009

Von Dutch Monday VIII

"Nothing is original....."