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Speaker 1: That's the first time I saw the Yankee bike.

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Speaker 2: Oh, since it's been destroyed. Yeah, yeah, I keep him around.

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I think this it came out, This came out good.

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Oh yeah, this was good man for us, you know, definitely,

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because that got us six episodes when we were like, yeah,

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struggling to come back, you know, hm, and they you know,

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it's funny because this bike came in. You remember back

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in what was it seventeen, when the show came back

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for two years, yeah, two seasons. They were really putting

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pressure on me to find a project to do with

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my father because you know, they always want that crossover

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with me and my father, even though we were separate

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at the time. And dude, a guy calls me, sends

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me pictures and he said, hey, will you fix this bike?

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And it's the.

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Speaker 1: Yankees bikes And I'm like wow.

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Speaker 2: I was like, well, that's terrible. And then I'm thinking

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damn because they were putting because my father's like, I

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don't he didn't care. He didn't want to have nothing

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to do with any of it, you know. So this

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thing walks through the door and gave us perfect content,

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like non threatening, not for a client, just something we

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did in the past that we were able to restore together,

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and honestly, it got us six episodes. Yeah, and then

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that lasted, you know, for two seasons. I'd say past.

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Speaker 1: That I forgot, actually what even happened to it?

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Speaker 2: So what happened with the Yankees bike is And the

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only reason I know this is this guy's name was

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something Wells, and he came to my shop and he

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was looking to buy bikes. I didn't have any for

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sale because everything I had I was keeping, you know.

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And he said, oh, I just came from your father's

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shop and I'm gonna I'm gonna be buying the Yankees'

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bike and the Jets bike. And I was wondering if

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you had any bikes for sale, and he was telling me,

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and he said, you know, I'm a gypsy, He's telling me.

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And he was a gypsy guys. I grew up with gypsies,

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and I know exactly, you know, nothing against them, like them,

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all quite off of blacktoppers whatever. But he was like

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wanting to buy bikes, and I had nothing for him.

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And then so impro two like six months later, that's

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when the Yankees bike shows up. Okay, and I'm looking

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at the pictures online and I'm seeing these you know,

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round round puck marks almost right, and I'm like, this

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is like an eight pound sledge did all the damage

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on this thing, and so everything when you look at

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that the old tens, everything is beat up with a sledgehammer.

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And so but he claimed this guy because someone else

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sent me pictures of a trailer upside down with the

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Yankees bike and the Jets bike in it. Trailer upside down.

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But that's not how they got damaged. They got beat up.

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So I think what he did was he bought bikes,

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especially the Yankees bike built on television by occ right,

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so that had a lot of value, and then all

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those signatures of the Yankees. I don't know what my

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father sold it to him for. It doesn't really matter,

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but I'm guessing he insured it for a lot more.

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And so I think what happened was he just did

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like a big insurance job on it. Now I can't

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prove it, but go look at that, dude. Yeah, it's

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take take you two seconds to look at like here,

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I'm gonna bring one. I'm gonna bring a piece because

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I want to show you this.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that didn't happen on the trailer.

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Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. Does that look like anything

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that like flipped over somewhere. It doesn't look like anything

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that flipped over in a trailer. You see how round

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those marks are. Yeah, so someone actually, I think that's

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a total insurance job right there. You know, I will

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say this. I think this is a prettier bike than

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the first one. Personally. I just like this. I like

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the lines a little bit better. And then I did

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you know, I did the white frame, I did the

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inverted front end with the white. I made it a

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little bit more home colors, you know, so I went

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more white and pin stripe.

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Speaker 1: I do. I like all the pin stripes on this one.

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It's clean, right, definitely?

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Speaker 2: Yeah. The ridge frame, same frame, so on this bike,

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it's like the same frame, same motor. I think I.

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Speaker 1: Changed the forward controls.

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Speaker 2: Same exhaust, pretty much everything. The only thing we changed

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was the tins same and we updated it. You know,

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we put like, I don't even know what we did.

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I gotta think about this because they had one like

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an extra pennant and stuff like that. So we just

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upgraded it at that time. And it's got a few

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signatures on it, but nothing like this this had the.

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Speaker 1: I remember when he took the tank over there. Damn no,

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Michael did, right, Yeah, Mikey did?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Crazy? That would The value there is huge, really huge,

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because you know, I dude, look at what some of

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these signatures are worth today. And that had the whole

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team plus Mattingly who was the batting coach. So it's

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kind of sad because I feel like that bike original

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tins big money down the road and commissioned by the Yankees.

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Maybe not the Yankees, but Posada got permission. It wasn't

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like someone did some tribute. And that's the thing about

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a bike like that. Can you name one other motorcycle

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that the Yankees were okay with? No? So that's like

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this is a fish as it gets as a motorcycle,

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you know at the shop. Yeah, that was great. That's

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one of my favorite episodes because of Helen, my grandmother. Yes,

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she loved Georgie's such a huge fan, right, I know,

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it's good. People love this episode. They come in here,

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you know, we're close to Philly, so there's some weird

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stuff going on with you know, they're not all about

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the Yankees over here, but they love that MLB bite

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because it represents every team, you know. So anyways, I

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guess we kicked it off like that. Rick pet Coo

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needs no introduction here on the Paul Junior Podcast. And

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I appreciate you coming out right definitely.

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Speaker 1: It's nice to be here. I've been wanting to get

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down to your shop for a long time now and good.

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Speaker 2: To be here. What do you think of the layouts?

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Speaker 1: This is cool? I like it definitely. I like all

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the old all year old tins and everything around here.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is your flavor, ain't it. Yeah, it's good.

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I appreciate that you appreciate it. I think people like

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the aesthetic. But when you know about good old stuff,

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you know, especially with you and motorcycles, you know, you

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could really appreciate it even more than just oh this

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is a pretty space, you know. The history, uh, in

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the advertising. I think that's that's really what I love

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about it.

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Speaker 1: And I almost wore my Indian shirt today, did Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I think i'd have been fine? Right? Yeah, Well, good man, listen,

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I figured let's just talk. This is what I'm doing.

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You know, it's catching up. We really haven't seen each other.

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I mean, when was the last time we saw each

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other in person?

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Speaker 1: That's been probably at least ten years.

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Speaker 2: I think. So you look great, man, So do you? Yeah, dude,

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you're not getting any older.

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Speaker 1: You got no facial hair shaved, it's there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, when the stubble comes in, you can see the whites.

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I know. I try and keep this short, dude, because

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when it grows, it gets I started looking like old

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man Winters, you know. Well good. So I thought maybe

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we could talk a little different. You know, everyone knows

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about American chopper. We could always transition into that a

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little bit. I wanted to get an idea because I

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started to think about having you come out, and I

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was thinking, there's so many things I don't know about you,

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like then, like I grew up with you know, and

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I knew Cody when he was a kid, and obviously

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my brother Michael, and but with you, I don't feel

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like I have a good background on you, like where

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really where you're from, or how you how you learned

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a trade, or how you got involved with motorcycles any

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of that stuff. So I guess where are you from originally?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? I guess. You know, we probably never really had

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those conversations we did, even with your dad or anybody together.

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Speaker 2: And I think it was more. I think it's more. Uh,

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it was the timing which you came in. It was

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just chaos.

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Speaker 1: It was extremely busy. Everything was just taken off like crazy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's probably why my father brought you in

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because we needed more help than we knew.

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Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, it was a a I think you're just

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finishing up the commandschee bike. Actually at the time, okay,

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that's when I stepped in.

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Speaker 2: That was a good project. That was a good time frame.

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That was a good time frame for the show. Was

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super early on. Creativity was just starting to really flow.

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Speaker 1: You had the little trailer outside.

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Speaker 2: That's that's right, that's right, And we had that little

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water jet right that really before we had the water jet. Jeez,

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that's crazy, man. So we were still like basically borrowing

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like everything we could find in the steel shop to

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make stuff work.

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Speaker 1: We were you just put together the second shop upstairs.

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So I come in and I did work downstairs for

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a while, and as the deep stair shop was getting

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laid out.

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Speaker 2: That's right, because we split for a while, we had

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that we start we did the downstairs shop and then

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we built the upstairs and then we kind of had

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both going because I remember working up there. Meanwhile, the

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pow bike was being worked on down below. So that's interesting.

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So you came in on the Comanche, which to me

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is when I think about that bike, man, that really

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is like that first season seems like the first season, right, I.

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Speaker 1: Think it was.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, I think you're right. Okay, so how it

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So when did you, I guess, motor Let's talk about motorcycles.

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How did you get into motorcycles?

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Speaker 1: Growing up? My dad painted bikes. Okay, so that's actually

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where I came from was painting, which I still have

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one of the first gas tanks ever painted. Really you

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still have that. But yeah, that was my thing painting.

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I was doing like more restoration type paint jobs at

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my house out of my garage. And then I believe

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it was I think Laconia was going on, and I

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rode up to Laconia, so I saw where your shop

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was at. So then when I got back home, that's

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when I called. Actually I talked to is he Ronnie

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or Steve at the time? Maybe Steve?

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Speaker 2: Did you stop by on the way to Laconia.

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Speaker 1: I didn't stop.

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Speaker 2: Oh, you just knew where it was.

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Speaker 1: I just saw the eggsit. Yeah, for a seventeen k

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that was your big thing on the when the show

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came out, and.

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Speaker 2: You were a painter by that time. You were doing

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paint like restoration work like old bikes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Really, that's she I can't believe I never knew that. Yeah. Yeah,

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And I was already a welder, you know, I did

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a lot of welding and everything like that. But then

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at the time I think you guys needed somebody to

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do the welding. I think everything was going over to Rollmar.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, he Romar was a very skilled welder right

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down the street. I think he welded up up the

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black widow for me. You know, all that web work.

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I had it all attacked together and he came in

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because at the time I didn't really you know, we

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came from that stick MiG welder background. Tig welding was like,

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I don't know, it was like a whole different art form. Plus,

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you know, the tig welder we had was like, you know,

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like as big as that block right there.

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Speaker 1: And I don't think you had the Miller ones yet.

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Speaker 2: No, maybe came no no, those little short wave no no.

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And then obviously tig welding's a lot easier. Now it's

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like much more friendly, even aluminums, way more friendly. So yeah,

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we needed that at the time. So you kind of

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came in as a welder. Huh.

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Speaker 1: Yep, just came into actually at the time I think too,

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was to help then with the all the mock ups.

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I think when I came in, we were like.

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Speaker 2: Twelve behind, oh like production mock ups. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I came in started doing that and then just

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kind of kind of drifted into the TV part of it,

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which wasn't even talked about like initially.

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Speaker 2: I got you. So you just kind of transitioned it.

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Speaker 1: Just yeah, just kind of float in there, and that's

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why it kind of happened.

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Speaker 2: That's wild man. Yeah, we used to do a lot

238
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of production bikes back then, the mock ups that you know,

239
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Pat Kennedy tank, whichever tank it was, Venders, there was a.

240
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Speaker 1: Lot of them. Yeah, I think at least a dozen.

241
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Ben was behind.

242
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we were I think we called him t Reck.

243
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I don't even know if we called him anything at

244
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that time, there were t recks. Is that soft down?

245
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Speaker 1: That?

246
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Speaker 2: Yeah? Right? Okay, interesting So that was Comanche right and then,

247
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and so when you transitioned into the show, what was that.

248
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Speaker 1: Like, you know, it was just kind of thrown into it,

249
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and it really wasn't a whole lot different probably than

250
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doing everything else we were doing at the time. It

251
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just happened to have, you know, the cameras there with you,

252
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But yeah, it was it was interesting. I never signed

253
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up for that part of it though. Yeah, I know that,

254
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I know.

255
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Speaker 2: And you were always like the quietest guy, you know.

256
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Speaker 1: I just like doing stuff and making stuff and building stuff,

257
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and then yeah, just kind of turned into that.

258
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Speaker 2: Yeah that's wild man, that's crazy. So but when did

259
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,480
the sheet metal come into play? Did that just did

260
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you just graduate? Did you just start learning that when

261
00:11:59,039 --> 00:12:00,840
you were working for us you had all that?

262
00:12:00,919 --> 00:12:02,159
Speaker 1: No, I was doing that at home.

263
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Speaker 2: Okay, so tell me about that aspect of your life,

264
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because painting and sheet metal are two completely different things,

265
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right they are.

266
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Speaker 1: Well, let's see, Well, growing up, I think before I

267
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came up there, I was doing auto restorations. Okay, I

268
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was working at a place local to me. We were

269
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doing auto restorations there, and I did all They didn't

270
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have any like forming materials, no, no English wheel, nothing

271
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like that, so I was doing everything by hand with

272
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a sandbag.

273
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Speaker 2: Im just hammering everything out.

274
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Speaker 1: Hammering everything out. Yeah, I did that. I remember doing

275
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a lot of tea birds, the back sections of tail

276
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lights on tea birds, and a lot of tailgates stew

277
00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:36,480
To Baker tail lights or tailgates.

278
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Speaker 2: Oh really?

279
00:12:37,159 --> 00:12:39,000
Speaker 1: Which was all the lettering? Doing all those?

280
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Speaker 2: Like would you have to emboss that in there because

281
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it said Stewda Baker.

282
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Speaker 1: Yeah they were. They were tough doing it and nobody

283
00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:45,399
else liked to do it or could do it. So

284
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then I was doing all those and.

285
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Speaker 2: So what did you have raised letters that you would

286
00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:52,039
knock the sheet metal over to have that embossed?

287
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Speaker 1: Look, I would just hammer everything and just use certain

288
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dyes and everything. It was. It was tricky, but that's

289
00:12:58,120 --> 00:12:59,600
the kind of where I started out doing. So I

290
00:12:59,639 --> 00:13:01,799
want to you got a sand blaster out back, got

291
00:13:01,799 --> 00:13:04,159
a burlapsack, put sand in air and that was my sandbag.

292
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Speaker 2: That was it. Huh, nothing fancy, nothing at all. He

293
00:13:07,279 --> 00:13:10,080
got the job done, though. Wow, that's interesting. So what

294
00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,159
made you come to us of all places? You know

295
00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:13,679
what it was?

296
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Speaker 1: I think I saw the show like the first or

297
00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:20,440
second episode and the mix between like you and vin

298
00:13:20,519 --> 00:13:21,919
I kind of felt like it's like well, I kind

299
00:13:21,919 --> 00:13:24,039
of fall in between them both. I was like, let me,

300
00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:26,080
let me give him a call, just randomly because at

301
00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:28,000
the time I actually at the restoration shop. The owner

302
00:13:28,759 --> 00:13:30,759
is big german dude. He was a real dick and

303
00:13:30,799 --> 00:13:33,399
he's like totally belittle this one guy there. I was like,

304
00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:35,480
I will not I will not work for you anymore.

305
00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:38,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, you couldn't stand it, and then I left and yeah,

306
00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:41,519
you have no tolerance for injustice. Not like that. No,

307
00:13:41,799 --> 00:13:43,840
that was pretty it was it was abusive. Huh, Yeah,

308
00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:44,320
it was bad.

309
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Speaker 1: So yeah, that was in That was I refused to

310
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work there anymore and saw your show and then went

311
00:13:50,679 --> 00:13:52,120
up to look on you. So where you're at, like,

312
00:13:52,279 --> 00:13:54,840
it's only one hundred miles. I can do that, And

313
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that's kind of where it happened.

314
00:13:56,679 --> 00:13:59,000
Speaker 2: And then I would imagine that once you started working

315
00:13:59,039 --> 00:14:01,919
for us, well the show kicking in, so it probably

316
00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:04,440
pushed you a little bit, huh, Like as far as

317
00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:08,200
your skill set, like we were always pushing the limits, right, Oh, absolutely,

318
00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:10,960
like he had to try We were constantly trying new things, right,

319
00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:12,519
it was kind of pushing the envelope.

320
00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:14,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, just with building everything. I mean it put what

321
00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:16,600
I was doing up to a whole another level. You know,

322
00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:19,600
obviously I had to just you're being on TV and

323
00:14:19,639 --> 00:14:21,799
then just just building everything, just your techniques and doing things.

324
00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:23,679
I mean, I'm working with a sandbag, you know, just

325
00:14:23,679 --> 00:14:25,360
a burlap bag, and then suddenly I have an English

326
00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:25,879
wheel or.

327
00:14:26,639 --> 00:14:30,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like, this is great, this actually works. Yeah. Wow.

328
00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:32,159
Speaker 1: And then we started doing deals with the different companies,

329
00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:34,200
air gas and you know, a couple of ones, and

330
00:14:34,679 --> 00:14:36,200
we were able to strike geting the equipment in and

331
00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:38,320
we were able to attack actually get really good stuff.

332
00:14:38,559 --> 00:14:41,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, real good equipment. That made a big difference.

333
00:14:41,399 --> 00:14:43,480
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely didn't. We had the first flow jet. We

334
00:14:43,519 --> 00:14:43,919
got that in.

335
00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:46,879
Speaker 2: We got tell me about the first flow jet. I

336
00:14:46,879 --> 00:14:48,200
got to tell you. So I grew up in the

337
00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,600
steel business, right and I had been building bikes by

338
00:14:50,639 --> 00:14:53,519
that time maybe for like four years and using like

339
00:14:53,559 --> 00:14:56,519
the sheer in the shop and cutting stuff out by hand.

340
00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,600
That water jet, to me was it remains to this day,

341
00:15:00,759 --> 00:15:04,120
the most important piece of equipment that I've ever had.

342
00:15:04,279 --> 00:15:08,240
And it's because you can think creatively and then utilize

343
00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:11,840
that piece of equipment in such a way in that

344
00:15:11,879 --> 00:15:14,039
it saves so much time. You mean, you think about it,

345
00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:16,759
even a square plate with four holes takes x amount

346
00:15:16,759 --> 00:15:19,000
of time. Oh yeah, on the water jet, it's just

347
00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:23,639
it's minutes. And so I love the reverse engineering of

348
00:15:23,639 --> 00:15:26,240
what the waterjet can afford you, right, how you marry

349
00:15:26,279 --> 00:15:28,519
things up and how you make stuff work in a

350
00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:29,440
much quicker way.

351
00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:31,240
Speaker 1: Yeah. We went from that little one, the first one

352
00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:34,159
we got, you know, up to what was the five access.

353
00:15:33,919 --> 00:15:37,279
Speaker 2: Yepant that's right, and then right at occ they had

354
00:15:37,279 --> 00:15:39,519
two water jets, right, the five access and then the

355
00:15:39,759 --> 00:15:44,240
other one. Wow, okay, let me back it up. So anyways,

356
00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,320
you felt like you would fit in between me and Vin?

357
00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:47,919
Is that what you said? That's kind of what made

358
00:15:47,919 --> 00:15:49,480
you think to even approach.

359
00:15:49,639 --> 00:15:51,960
Speaker 1: Yep, that's though. That was, you know what I was

360
00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,279
thinking about it. And then I called, like he said,

361
00:15:55,279 --> 00:15:57,240
I think it was Steve. It was probably Steve who

362
00:15:57,279 --> 00:15:58,919
I talked to, and then he called me back, and

363
00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:00,919
then I was up there, I think, going to I

364
00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:03,639
think it was a Wednesday. I rode up or drove up,

365
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:05,639
and then okay, I got hired on.

366
00:16:05,639 --> 00:16:08,399
Speaker 2: The spot, and that was it. They were like, all right, go,

367
00:16:08,639 --> 00:16:10,879
do you remember in the start mocking that bike up? Yeah?

368
00:16:10,879 --> 00:16:13,279
Speaker 1: In the in the in the top shop. Your office

369
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:15,679
was tiny, barely two of us could fit in there.

370
00:16:16,039 --> 00:16:17,159
It was you and your dad in there when I

371
00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:19,919
come up from my interview and then just fit in there.

372
00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:22,519
And remember you guys were grolling me and then.

373
00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:23,720
Speaker 2: We were putting it to you.

374
00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:25,559
Speaker 1: It was yeah, I just want to know if I

375
00:16:25,559 --> 00:16:26,200
can make a tank.

376
00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:29,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, can you make a guess that's kind of

377
00:16:29,279 --> 00:16:32,200
what we need. And you're like, yes, I can. Yeah,

378
00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:34,519
that's interesting. You know, even for the years in the

379
00:16:34,559 --> 00:16:39,159
steel shop. It's funny because coming up in the steel business,

380
00:16:39,399 --> 00:16:41,440
we would hire people, you know, and they would come

381
00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:44,279
in with their resume and they'd be like, uh, can

382
00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,600
you well yeah I could. Well can you grind? Yeah

383
00:16:46,639 --> 00:16:48,799
I could grind, you know, like he was like yes, yes,

384
00:16:48,919 --> 00:16:50,240
And then we'd be like, all right, let's let's go

385
00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:54,200
out into the shop. Nine out of ten it was

386
00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:58,559
like it was like it looked like chicken crap their

387
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:02,000
weld right, and then they're grinding was nowhere near what

388
00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:03,919
we you know, sometimes you could work with that and

389
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:04,799
teach people.

390
00:17:04,599 --> 00:17:06,000
Speaker 1: Hey, good grinder's hard to find.

391
00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:07,839
Speaker 2: It is really when you when you need to do

392
00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:10,319
it right, It's true, one cannot do it nope. And

393
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:12,359
I remember back in the day, we would have like

394
00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,880
different grinders for different purposes, like you know, like the

395
00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:18,119
hard grinding with the hard wheel, and then maybe a

396
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:21,279
matabo with like a sanding disc because it was a

397
00:17:21,559 --> 00:17:24,400
it was a it had less vibration, so it would

398
00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,799
just be a nicer finishing grinder, you know. So a

399
00:17:27,799 --> 00:17:29,920
lot of nuances to that stuff. But so I could

400
00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:32,680
see us, like I don't really remember it like, but

401
00:17:33,039 --> 00:17:35,160
I could see us, you know, grilling you about it.

402
00:17:35,759 --> 00:17:38,119
And then obviously you were up for the task because

403
00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:41,039
you got the job, and we were desperate for skilled

404
00:17:41,039 --> 00:17:43,839
workers at the time, especially someone who had experience with

405
00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:46,400
like making a guess, shaping steel. You know, we were

406
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,039
able to bend and everything. I was never like, I

407
00:17:49,079 --> 00:17:51,640
was never like a sheet metal shaper type guy, you know.

408
00:17:52,319 --> 00:17:54,559
So I do feel like you fit right in day

409
00:17:54,599 --> 00:17:57,559
one though, man, because we're you know, Vin's chill, I'm chill,

410
00:17:57,759 --> 00:18:00,960
different personalities, but you know, you you just stepped right

411
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,759
into it and it was welcome. I remember that at

412
00:18:03,799 --> 00:18:06,960
the time because we were behind and we needed to

413
00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:09,599
ramp up with I think the business was screaming at

414
00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:11,640
that point. It was like we couldn't keep up with

415
00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:16,119
bikes or T shirt sales, and it was out of control.

416
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:16,480
It was right.

417
00:18:16,519 --> 00:18:18,839
Speaker 1: You remember when we made the dirt road out back

418
00:18:19,039 --> 00:18:20,480
so we could get out because of all the fans

419
00:18:20,519 --> 00:18:21,640
would be outfront. You couldn't leave.

420
00:18:21,839 --> 00:18:24,559
Speaker 2: It was our little scape route. Yea, Yeah, that's crazy, man,

421
00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:28,559
it was. It was insane back then. That's interesting because

422
00:18:28,559 --> 00:18:30,640
you came into it at a time where we were

423
00:18:32,079 --> 00:18:35,680
we were really the show had really hit, you know.

424
00:18:35,839 --> 00:18:38,319
I mean we had like seasons yet to where it

425
00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:41,240
built and built, but it was very popular. I think

426
00:18:41,279 --> 00:18:45,319
by time, by time you came into the fold, what

427
00:18:45,559 --> 00:18:49,640
was your initial thought process when you saw me and

428
00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:54,480
my father's I want to call it instability, but like

429
00:18:54,599 --> 00:18:57,559
the insanity of what that looked like. I don't know,

430
00:18:57,799 --> 00:19:02,480
have you ever had experience prior to a scenario like that. No,

431
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:06,000
so this was like very foreign. Yeah.

432
00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:08,480
Speaker 1: One of the ones I remember was you guys were

433
00:19:08,799 --> 00:19:10,799
I think it was destroying the leather couch. That was

434
00:19:10,799 --> 00:19:12,319
a popular one. I would showed that one a lot

435
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:15,960
and driving the was it the expedition or excursion? Were

436
00:19:16,039 --> 00:19:18,559
not just destroying stuff?

437
00:19:18,599 --> 00:19:20,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, my father had a helmet on, right, it was

438
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,240
driving that what was that. Yeah, the excursion.

439
00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:25,400
Speaker 1: It was hard to believe. It was like, man, this

440
00:19:25,559 --> 00:19:26,680
is like perfectly good.

441
00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:29,160
Speaker 2: What's wrong with this office? Nothing?

442
00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:30,920
Speaker 1: I didn't get the concept, you know, with the with

443
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:32,960
the drama and with the TV end of it, what

444
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:35,519
people really like to see. It wasn't all about the bikes.

445
00:19:36,319 --> 00:19:37,599
Me personally, I liked the bikes.

446
00:19:38,039 --> 00:19:38,480
Speaker 2: The drama.

447
00:19:38,559 --> 00:19:40,920
Speaker 1: I didn't really know about that or how that worked

448
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:41,640
in TV land.

449
00:19:41,839 --> 00:19:45,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we didn't either until we created it, you know,

450
00:19:45,279 --> 00:19:48,279
because it worked, it worked, But there was nothing like

451
00:19:48,319 --> 00:19:51,200
that before us. You know, we we we uh really

452
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:56,759
unknowingly created a whole genre of television that now they

453
00:19:56,799 --> 00:19:59,759
call docu drama. But at the time we just were

454
00:19:59,839 --> 00:20:05,000
not us like our natural craziness. We were always like that,

455
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,279
and the steel business everything was like we did dumb stuff.

456
00:20:08,759 --> 00:20:11,319
You probably would have hated everything we did. You would

457
00:20:11,319 --> 00:20:13,960
have saw it as being pointless. And that's kind of

458
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:15,839
your point, right. You came in you were very uh

459
00:20:16,039 --> 00:20:18,640
single minded about Hey, this is work, bikes, this is

460
00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:21,839
what I love. And then there's these idiots flying around

461
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:26,119
the room, you know, destroying stuff. It's like my god, yeah, like,

462
00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:28,720
what's this is all good stuff? Why are you driving

463
00:20:28,759 --> 00:20:31,240
over it? Uh? We did that and we had a

464
00:20:31,279 --> 00:20:32,640
lot of fun doing it, and it was a good

465
00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:34,559
relief for us too, because there was always a lot

466
00:20:34,559 --> 00:20:37,240
of pressure, you know, like whatever it was, whether it

467
00:20:37,319 --> 00:20:41,319
was like personal relationship or business pressure. And that's just

468
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:43,839
kind of how we blew off steam back then. You know.

469
00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:46,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, as time went on, I got you know, obviously

470
00:20:46,559 --> 00:20:48,799
used to it, but you know, it was you could

471
00:20:48,799 --> 00:20:51,920
see how it was working. Yeah, everybody just to just

472
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:53,640
to build up and you needed that you did at

473
00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:55,279
a time with just blowing stuff up, running the cars

474
00:20:55,279 --> 00:21:01,359
into the woods. Ye whoa to send him into the trees?

475
00:21:01,799 --> 00:21:03,599
Speaker 2: Yeah? I remember we did that Michael's car. He was

476
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:07,079
not happy and all this stuff. Whenever he was not happy,

477
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:08,480
he wanted to kill.

478
00:21:08,279 --> 00:21:12,960
Speaker 1: Someone, not even doing the super Bowl commercials we did there.

479
00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:17,519
Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, that's crazy. The first commercial we ever

480
00:21:17,559 --> 00:21:19,839
did was a super Bowl commercial for AOL.

481
00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:20,279
Speaker 1: You remember that one?

482
00:21:21,079 --> 00:21:21,319
Speaker 2: Yeah?

483
00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:22,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I remember all this.

484
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,680
Speaker 2: It was like a quad processor or something, wasn't it

485
00:21:25,799 --> 00:21:27,319
or something like that? Is that what I'm thinking of?

486
00:21:28,359 --> 00:21:32,000
Speaker 1: There was there was one thanks remember the whole everybody

487
00:21:32,039 --> 00:21:33,359
that had to show up to.

488
00:21:33,319 --> 00:21:37,240
Speaker 2: Make it all work. It's crazy man. Yeah, that was interesting.

489
00:21:37,279 --> 00:21:39,519
The whole experience was interesting. So let me ask you

490
00:21:39,519 --> 00:21:41,759
a question. The first time me and my father really

491
00:21:41,799 --> 00:21:45,599
got into like a terrible argument, I felt like we

492
00:21:45,599 --> 00:21:48,720
were very disruptive to people. Even I was talking to

493
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:51,799
Michael about it, and you know in the steel business.

494
00:21:51,799 --> 00:21:54,400
It was terrible when I was a teenager. But I

495
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:56,559
feel like some of our fights right around the time

496
00:21:56,599 --> 00:21:58,759
you came in, because I remember having him in that

497
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:04,720
upstairs shop. I always felt bad for everybody man because

498
00:22:04,759 --> 00:22:07,559
it was it was scary, Like the way we fought

499
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,200
was like a like really angry.

500
00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:12,519
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you know a lot of people even today,

501
00:22:12,319 --> 00:22:14,119
everyone always asks, you know, is it real? It was

502
00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:16,440
a real you know, it's like what you see is

503
00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:18,440
how it was, you know. I mean it wasn't made

504
00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:20,680
up ahead of time, and you know if it wasn't real,

505
00:22:20,759 --> 00:22:23,640
I didn't know it, you know, but it didn't seem

506
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:24,599
like it was not real.

507
00:22:26,279 --> 00:22:29,000
Speaker 2: No, definitely not. I think you're good for credibility in

508
00:22:29,039 --> 00:22:31,359
that way, because that is the number one question people ask.

509
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:34,799
They're like, oh, was that was that real? That wasn't real? Well,

510
00:22:34,839 --> 00:22:37,359
because how could it be? It seems so surreal, you know,

511
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:43,200
so as time went by. Obviously you were there for.

512
00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:47,200
How many years did you work at OCC and what

513
00:22:47,279 --> 00:22:47,960
was your commute?

514
00:22:48,559 --> 00:22:50,119
Speaker 1: It's about one hundred miles each way.

515
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:53,680
Speaker 2: Wow, so how many hours is that? Like? Four hours

516
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:54,640
a day is a bit?

517
00:22:54,839 --> 00:22:58,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think my record was nour twenty. A lot

518
00:22:58,400 --> 00:22:58,960
of tickets.

519
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:00,720
Speaker 2: And you would go through the park, right, didn't you

520
00:23:00,759 --> 00:23:02,279
usually go through that park up there?

521
00:23:02,279 --> 00:23:05,119
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, right up through along the river New Jersey.

522
00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:07,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was a hairy run. A lot of

523
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:10,079
dead animals, a lot of dead I remember seeing. I

524
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:14,480
remember seeing bears. Be you did didn't kill them by

525
00:23:14,799 --> 00:23:17,559
motorcycle or car? Yeah, that's good.

526
00:23:17,599 --> 00:23:20,319
Speaker 1: I mean that was I always I didn't like ride

527
00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:22,240
a bike to work a lot, just because of the

528
00:23:22,279 --> 00:23:23,640
animals coming through that park.

529
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:24,279
Speaker 2: Yeah.

530
00:23:24,519 --> 00:23:27,599
Speaker 1: A lot of deer, a lot of bear, Yeah, a

531
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:28,240
lot of cars.

532
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:30,400
Speaker 2: So what was your favorite thing about the show?

533
00:23:31,799 --> 00:23:34,240
Speaker 1: You know what? I what the favorite favorite thing which

534
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:38,039
I miss now is just the creativity and being able

535
00:23:38,079 --> 00:23:39,759
to do it at such such a good level and

536
00:23:39,799 --> 00:23:41,400
doing it for the people that we did afore because

537
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:43,519
they were so appreciative and you know, just they they

538
00:23:43,519 --> 00:23:46,400
loved what you did. Yeah, just a creative end of

539
00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:48,240
it is something that even today. I mean, I do

540
00:23:48,279 --> 00:23:49,400
a lot of cool stuff. I make a lot of

541
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:51,559
cool stuff, but I don't have all that like we

542
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:51,920
used to.

543
00:23:52,279 --> 00:23:54,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of a movement, if that makes

544
00:23:54,599 --> 00:23:59,039
any sense. And and it's interesting because I miss that

545
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:03,799
too to some extent, right, certainly the relationships too, and

546
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:06,839
like how the team got it done. I thought that

547
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,000
was fantastic and the interaction was fun too, Like I

548
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,440
don't have that anymore. There's not like a team of

549
00:24:12,599 --> 00:24:16,440
crazy guys working every day to do the impossible, which

550
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:19,039
really quite often it did feel that way, at least

551
00:24:19,039 --> 00:24:21,799
from a time frame. I think people think we put

552
00:24:21,839 --> 00:24:25,759
like fake stress on the show, And the truth was,

553
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:29,599
if it wasn't for editing and filming purposes that we

554
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:31,680
had to get stuff done, it was for an unveil

555
00:24:31,759 --> 00:24:33,720
and there was already and there was three projects that

556
00:24:33,759 --> 00:24:36,559
we didn't get to yet, you know. So I feel

557
00:24:36,559 --> 00:24:39,240
like all that pressure made great television, But it wasn't

558
00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:42,920
wasn't manufactured. We weren't pretending to be real busy. We

559
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:45,400
were overwhelmed, slammed right.

560
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:47,559
Speaker 1: Well, what nobody understood was that you had American chopper

561
00:24:47,559 --> 00:24:49,799
to a TV show. You also had Orange County Choppers

562
00:24:49,799 --> 00:24:50,680
building bikes.

563
00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:50,880
Speaker 2: That's right.

564
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 1: So not everything was a TV bike, that's right. We

565
00:24:53,039 --> 00:24:55,880
built hundreds and hundreds of you know, customer.

566
00:24:55,519 --> 00:24:56,680
Speaker 2: Bikes, tons and tons.

567
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:58,759
Speaker 1: It was all the same people. So we were filming

568
00:24:58,799 --> 00:25:00,720
every day and you still had a build those regular

569
00:25:00,759 --> 00:25:01,680
bikes every day.

570
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:06,160
Speaker 2: Yeah. That was crazy, man, crazy times. I do miss that,

571
00:25:06,799 --> 00:25:09,759
I'll tell you. Once the show went off in twelve, man,

572
00:25:09,839 --> 00:25:12,920
I remember being done with it because it was so

573
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,440
so much work for so many years. Think about it.

574
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:18,519
We were like that show film we show. We filmed

575
00:25:18,559 --> 00:25:20,319
that show for eleven months out of the year and

576
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:22,720
we took one month off, right, I mean for us,

577
00:25:22,799 --> 00:25:26,200
right with all the travel and everything else. And by

578
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:28,039
the time when it was done the first time around,

579
00:25:28,079 --> 00:25:30,960
I was like I was spent, I was burnt. I

580
00:25:31,039 --> 00:25:34,640
was like good. And then I had this time period

581
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:37,039
of time, maybe like six months later where I started

582
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:39,920
to really miss the show, like I started missing it all.

583
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,079
All of it was a weird thing, man. It was

584
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:45,759
like a separation thing. And that's been like all the

585
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,000
series of these different emotions throughout the course of years.

586
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,440
And I think where I'm at right now is such

587
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:55,319
an appreciation for what we had that I missed it

588
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:57,759
at the time a little bit because it was too overwhelming,

589
00:25:57,839 --> 00:25:59,920
you know, and me and my father were very uh,

590
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:03,160
you know, we had our differences and that was always

591
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,480
a very difficult thing. There was a lot at play.

592
00:26:05,559 --> 00:26:07,519
There was a lot of personal stuff, there was a

593
00:26:07,559 --> 00:26:10,240
lot of business stuff, as you remember, I'm sure, the

594
00:26:10,319 --> 00:26:13,079
different things we fought about. And so now when I

595
00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:15,200
look back at that, I don't look back at it

596
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:18,559
with angst or like even for the really kind of

597
00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:21,920
terrible stuff. I look at the whole big picture and think, man,

598
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:26,000
what an experience that no one ever gets, you know,

599
00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:28,640
like who gets to do everything that we did? And

600
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,480
then the appreciation people had for us, and even today,

601
00:26:32,559 --> 00:26:35,039
the nostalgia right now for the show I see it,

602
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:38,920
especially having this showroom, the nostalgia is off the charts

603
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:40,920
because all these people grew up with us and we

604
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:42,279
had an impact. I'm sure you.

605
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:43,799
Speaker 1: See it, right, you're oh, yeah, no, I hear that

606
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:44,359
quite often.

607
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I guess ultimately what happened with occ and

608
00:26:50,759 --> 00:26:52,160
yourself that you moved on.

609
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 1: Well, for me at the time, it was twenty sixteen

610
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:00,680
and we were having our second daughter, and I think

611
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:03,440
that the show had ended on our end at the

612
00:27:03,559 --> 00:27:06,559
DOCC shop a little bit prior, or maybe we're just

613
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:10,079
in between shows. And then it was just you know,

614
00:27:10,079 --> 00:27:12,000
Brittany's at home, we're having her second kid. It was

615
00:27:12,039 --> 00:27:13,920
just like, you know, it's time, it's just time to

616
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:15,640
be closer to home. Just at to book home one

617
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:17,799
hundred miles you know, in a hurry is kind.

618
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:21,319
Speaker 2: Of yeah, especially with kids. Man, having a kid myself,

619
00:27:22,039 --> 00:27:25,759
you don't want to miss nothing's worth missing out on

620
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,480
that kind of stuff, you know. And like with your commute, dude,

621
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:30,839
that was like half your week. Yeah, just driving.

622
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:32,240
Speaker 1: There was a lot of time. And you know with

623
00:27:32,319 --> 00:27:34,720
all the driving, I mean there's a certain ratio of crashes.

624
00:27:34,799 --> 00:27:37,039
Speaker 2: To write, your percentage was increasing.

625
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:39,039
Speaker 1: It was I mean I lost my license for a while.

626
00:27:39,319 --> 00:27:41,680
I mean that happened because of my tickets, which I

627
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:44,400
didn't even know. Really I lost that for you a

628
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:46,160
couple of months cost me a lot of money.

629
00:27:46,279 --> 00:27:47,880
Speaker 2: Really, you had to get it all back just to

630
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:50,480
buy it back. Well, you know it's funny too, well

631
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:52,599
not funny, but like when you think about the hours

632
00:27:52,599 --> 00:27:55,680
we put in, it was extreme. It was no eight

633
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:58,160
hour days. It was not eight hour days. It was

634
00:27:58,279 --> 00:28:00,519
like six to seven, you know, so it could be

635
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:03,160
like especially when we were up against it, right, a

636
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:06,480
lot of frustrating like late nights, trying to you know,

637
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,200
get it over the finish line, to get it on

638
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:11,920
the truck, to get it to California or wherever it

639
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:12,680
had to be. You know.

640
00:28:12,839 --> 00:28:15,400
Speaker 1: I remember getting home like nine o'clock at night, you know,

641
00:28:15,519 --> 00:28:18,240
just after working nine o'clock, I get home, you know,

642
00:28:18,319 --> 00:28:19,920
just to eat, crash out and get up in the

643
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:20,640
morning drive back.

644
00:28:21,599 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 2: Jeez, must have been worth it, though it.

645
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 1: Was, you know what I mean, you can't trade it.

646
00:28:25,519 --> 00:28:26,920
I mean, look what we got to do with all

647
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:28,440
the people we got to do with, and even all

648
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:30,359
the people got to meet. I mean just all those

649
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,640
mus celebrities, you know, just sports people, and just to

650
00:28:33,839 --> 00:28:36,240
working with you know, the film crews, all the different people.

651
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:39,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't it funny? Like people talk about what's it

652
00:28:39,599 --> 00:28:41,720
like to be on camera? And at first I remember

653
00:28:41,839 --> 00:28:45,039
like it was it took to getting used to. You

654
00:28:45,079 --> 00:28:46,960
may have experienced that. I don't know, maybe you were

655
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:49,680
comfortable right away, but I remember early on I was

656
00:28:49,799 --> 00:28:53,160
like it just was awkward. I come from Montgomery, nowhere

657
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:55,079
in New York I didn't even like my picture taking

658
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,640
and I'm on camera, you know, and I feel like

659
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,279
I feel like that quite often. It takes time to

660
00:29:01,319 --> 00:29:03,680
get used to that whole aspect of things.

661
00:29:03,519 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, it was for me. It didn't happen naturally.

662
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:09,839
I mean it was it took a while just to

663
00:29:09,839 --> 00:29:13,880
get used to it too. I remember Zach at the

664
00:29:14,079 --> 00:29:15,400
when I came in, he was doing a lot of

665
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:17,720
my filming, my stuff, and it was like he always

666
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,400
wanted to see everything, everything everything. It's like, look, dude,

667
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:21,200
I just did half of it.

668
00:29:21,319 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, where were you?

669
00:29:23,079 --> 00:29:25,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it was it was it was hard, just

670
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:27,039
like them winning all their shots and yeah, you do

671
00:29:27,079 --> 00:29:29,039
this and that. So everything you were doing for me,

672
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:30,880
you like, put my blinders on and get in my

673
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:32,759
mode and I just start started doing what I got

674
00:29:32,759 --> 00:29:34,759
to do. And then suddenly it's taking you three times

675
00:29:34,799 --> 00:29:36,680
as long because he's got to do this, he's got

676
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:38,720
to do that, and that that was the biggest adjustment.

677
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:41,079
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that that's that's a big that's a

678
00:29:41,079 --> 00:29:43,839
big factor when you're when you're focused and you're in

679
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:46,440
the mode right, because that's how you get work done right.

680
00:29:46,799 --> 00:29:48,880
And there's a lot of stop and start because you

681
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,200
have to make provision for the camra we and eventually

682
00:29:52,279 --> 00:29:54,000
you just get good at it. You just know what

683
00:29:54,039 --> 00:29:57,480
they need, you know. But I will say people always say, well,

684
00:29:57,480 --> 00:29:59,599
how is it? How is it? The truth is, like

685
00:30:00,319 --> 00:30:03,720
the camera guys and producers and show run like they

686
00:30:03,839 --> 00:30:06,400
just become colleagues. Like the people they just like anyone

687
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:08,440
else you would ever work with, Like he just the

688
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,400
guy's just holding the camera here. But it's just like

689
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,039
we worked together. We worked with them. It was just

690
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:15,400
par for the course, you know.

691
00:30:15,799 --> 00:30:17,559
Speaker 1: Yeah, you had to know how they how they operated,

692
00:30:17,559 --> 00:30:19,279
what they were looking for and like you said, you know,

693
00:30:19,359 --> 00:30:20,799
just that kind of stuff. So it was it was

694
00:30:20,839 --> 00:30:22,079
your buddy just looking over your shoulder.

695
00:30:22,279 --> 00:30:25,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right. Yeah. And it was fun. Man,

696
00:30:25,319 --> 00:30:27,920
those guys were good. He got to meet some cool people,

697
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,680
mostly from California. And because the show was so stable

698
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:35,400
and we filmed so much, we had guys on there

699
00:30:35,599 --> 00:30:38,759
sometimes for years, which is not usually people jump around

700
00:30:38,799 --> 00:30:40,759
and they did, you know, they'd come and go because

701
00:30:40,799 --> 00:30:44,240
they have to keep their portfolio fresh, so they're not

702
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:48,319
just you know, on one show all the time. But certainly

703
00:30:48,319 --> 00:30:51,319
we had some great guys Zach being one. God rest

704
00:30:51,359 --> 00:30:54,960
his soul, you know. So a lot of good people,

705
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,599
even Martin Marty Martin Martin Martin who was our sound guy.

706
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,200
He's passed on. A lot of these guys have are

707
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:02,240
not around anymore.

708
00:31:03,119 --> 00:31:05,640
Speaker 1: He was great, Omar and Percy and you know, just

709
00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:07,880
there's you know, there's a yeah.

710
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,680
Speaker 2: What a great group of guys. Omar, Percy, all those guys.

711
00:31:10,759 --> 00:31:14,160
Speaker 1: Man you know Chip Chip, he was a van of

712
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:15,000
White's brother. Yeah.

713
00:31:15,079 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's such a crazy world, that television world. So

714
00:31:19,519 --> 00:31:22,279
once you left OCC, it was on good terms, right,

715
00:31:22,359 --> 00:31:23,200
it was just time.

716
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 1: Yep.

717
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 2: So where did you go?

718
00:31:25,559 --> 00:31:27,279
Speaker 1: Oh? I left there already had a deal set up

719
00:31:27,279 --> 00:31:30,160
with actually a Harley dealership right by my house, poking

720
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:32,559
them mount In Harley Davidson. So I worked to deal

721
00:31:32,599 --> 00:31:34,960
with them just to do pretty much everything we did

722
00:31:35,039 --> 00:31:37,400
up in Orange County, just no theme bikes. That was

723
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:39,039
my deal. Was like we're not doing thing, but right.

724
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 2: You're like, I don't want to do that. I don't

725
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:40,720
want to do things.

726
00:31:40,799 --> 00:31:42,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were just like let's stay away from there,

727
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:45,039
you know, but let's put together a full custom fab shop.

728
00:31:45,319 --> 00:31:48,039
There's only at the time, there's like maybe three dealerships,

729
00:31:48,079 --> 00:31:50,319
Harley dealerships in the country or saying in the world

730
00:31:50,759 --> 00:31:52,680
that would allow you to do what we were doing

731
00:31:52,839 --> 00:31:53,359
to that point.

732
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 2: Really so yeah, yeah, because they didn't really want custom

733
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,839
they didn't want their bikes changed, never wanted their bikes change.

734
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:03,039
Speaker 1: Now, not to the extent that we were going to

735
00:32:03,079 --> 00:32:03,519
be doing them.

736
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:06,839
Speaker 2: No, Yeah, it's funny a quick Harley story. I remember

737
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:11,759
in some prominent publication during the height of our show,

738
00:32:12,319 --> 00:32:15,440
there was some article giving us credit for Harley's ten

739
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:20,480
percent increase that year in sales and Harley's like pr

740
00:32:20,559 --> 00:32:23,559
team like spun it way down. Oh no, it's because

741
00:32:23,559 --> 00:32:26,160
of our great marketing and advertising in our newest you

742
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:30,079
know bike. But everyone knew, dude, American Chopper was selling

743
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:33,440
bikes for every manufacturer out there, like two at a time.

744
00:32:33,559 --> 00:32:36,880
As matter of fact, we were making bike riders of

745
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,759
people and then they were going and purchasing bikes. I mean,

746
00:32:39,799 --> 00:32:42,720
we really even the haters in the industry, and there

747
00:32:42,759 --> 00:32:44,440
was a lot of them, because you know, it's very

748
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:47,440
ego centric, it's very even coming into it myself, I

749
00:32:47,519 --> 00:32:50,079
knew all the big players and they were all haters.

750
00:32:50,079 --> 00:32:52,519
They all hated us, but they loved the fact that

751
00:32:52,559 --> 00:32:54,640
people wanted to buy bikes from them, you know, they

752
00:32:54,759 --> 00:32:56,480
they loved to hate us.

753
00:32:57,039 --> 00:32:59,039
Speaker 1: Look at the aftermarket world. I mean, look what happened

754
00:32:59,039 --> 00:33:01,880
to that. When when American Choppers you know started, I

755
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,039
mean that just blew up. Now there's there's Chopper shops everywhere,

756
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:06,920
you know, everywhere custom choppers.

757
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:13,440
Speaker 2: Everyone was building motorcycles or parts, and they they're all gone,

758
00:33:13,799 --> 00:33:16,440
all gone. I can't even you got to pre order

759
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:19,160
a transmission from Baker Like they're not on the shelf anymore.

760
00:33:19,359 --> 00:33:20,759
Speaker 1: That sucks today, I'll tell you what I mean.

761
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:24,279
Speaker 2: It's hard to get anything. Everything is just built to order,

762
00:33:24,839 --> 00:33:27,559
or it's just a big wheel bagger, right, just put

763
00:33:27,559 --> 00:33:30,000
the big wheel on there. I never got into them.

764
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:33,000
I built a couple just because people asked me to,

765
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:37,960
but just never my forte, you know. But I could

766
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,559
see the value because you already have the bike, and

767
00:33:40,599 --> 00:33:42,640
so you just have to customize that bike, not buy

768
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:46,599
another one, you know. But it's interesting. I think that

769
00:33:46,599 --> 00:33:50,079
that that and I wonder about the trends now. I

770
00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:52,079
wonder if we're gonna I wonder if choppers are going

771
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,920
to come back. I have a feeling that they're going

772
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:57,720
to come back. I love Choppers, right like I do

773
00:33:57,799 --> 00:34:00,599
Pro Street and I do Theme. That's my bread and butter.

774
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:02,960
I do Mark. You know, I sell these bikes to

775
00:34:03,039 --> 00:34:05,799
companies that don't need motorcycles, but they need outside the

776
00:34:05,799 --> 00:34:08,679
box marketing. I know what my business model is, but

777
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:11,199
I love a hardcore chopper. I even watch my father

778
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,280
the other day just finished the bike, and I was like,

779
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:16,920
I love this bike. It's so back to the roots,

780
00:34:17,239 --> 00:34:18,880
you know what I mean. It's so back to the

781
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:22,159
core of what got me interested in motorcycles, which frankly

782
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:25,599
was choppers. We were building choppers before we were a company.

783
00:34:25,639 --> 00:34:28,039
We were just doing it as a hobby. You know.

784
00:34:28,119 --> 00:34:31,719
My first bike I ever built was a chopper, you know, impractical,

785
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:34,239
way too long of a front end. But I love those.

786
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:36,719
So I wonder if that makes a comeback, you know,

787
00:34:37,159 --> 00:34:38,000
oh it will.

788
00:34:38,039 --> 00:34:39,719
Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of a lot of customs

789
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,400
out there now. Most of what I do up there

790
00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:45,760
at the dealership actually are like almost like restomants. I

791
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:47,039
get a lot of bikes and parts.

792
00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:50,079
Speaker 2: So who determines what the creative direction is for the

793
00:34:50,119 --> 00:34:52,519
bikes you're working on, the client or yourself.

794
00:34:53,079 --> 00:34:55,159
Speaker 1: They're usually a mix of both. Yeah, I see what

795
00:34:55,159 --> 00:34:56,920
they're looking for a lot. Some people are just like,

796
00:34:57,400 --> 00:34:59,920
you know, just this is what I got, build me something.

797
00:35:00,039 --> 00:35:03,559
Speaker 2: They give you a budget. Yes, and you're doing that

798
00:35:03,639 --> 00:35:05,639
through the Harley Dealership. Okay.

799
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:07,679
Speaker 1: Yeah, we got a full full custom fab shop inside

800
00:35:07,679 --> 00:35:09,840
the dealership. It's got the viewing windows just like we

801
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:11,960
had to put Orange can rely that whole setup like that.

802
00:35:12,639 --> 00:35:15,039
But I have full machine shop in there, all my welders, table,

803
00:35:15,199 --> 00:35:17,119
you know, English wheel, all my stuff.

804
00:35:17,039 --> 00:35:19,840
Speaker 2: Really, and you're doing exclusively motorcycles there.

805
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:21,840
Speaker 1: Yes, it's all my all myself in the room.

806
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,559
Speaker 2: Now is it? Is it you and the Harley Dealership

807
00:35:24,639 --> 00:35:26,280
or you work for the Harley deal Is it like

808
00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:29,079
a tandem thing? Or it's how does that work? Well?

809
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 1: Technically are our shop is called Pocono Customs?

810
00:35:31,559 --> 00:35:31,840
Speaker 2: Okay?

811
00:35:32,039 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 1: But I do work for Harley, gotcha?

812
00:35:34,159 --> 00:35:37,039
Speaker 2: So they're separate but the same, Yes, for Harley's purposes,

813
00:35:37,079 --> 00:35:39,159
I'm sure. Yes, they're like they can't be the same,

814
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:41,960
but they can be together. So why do you guys

815
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,719
get a special privilege in that way? Why do they

816
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:47,519
allow that? Did it pre exist or something?

817
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 1: No, No, we we put it together before I left

818
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:53,039
Orange County okay, and the whole thing together, you know.

819
00:35:53,119 --> 00:35:55,039
I mean we did have to talk to certain people

820
00:35:55,079 --> 00:35:58,239
to get everything we'll say approved for how we wanted

821
00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:00,840
to do it. But now like we have actually new

822
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:03,320
owners now. But I heard that, but we we don't

823
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:06,119
do anything outside of Harley we did before, like maybe

824
00:36:06,119 --> 00:36:08,599
i'd work on Indians or even some metric. Yes, they're

825
00:36:08,639 --> 00:36:10,119
like none of that, No, everything is one?

826
00:36:11,039 --> 00:36:12,119
Speaker 2: Is that because of the new owners?

827
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:12,559
Speaker 1: Yes?

828
00:36:12,639 --> 00:36:13,760
Speaker 2: Okay, well that makes sense.

829
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:16,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were owned by American Road Group now and

830
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,679
they own I think about ten that's ten different dealerships.

831
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:22,280
Speaker 2: That's all that. That's it. It's all conglomerates. It's no

832
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:25,199
more like individual owners. These bigger companies are coming in.

833
00:36:25,199 --> 00:36:27,599
They're just buying up all the dealerships, which makes sense.

834
00:36:28,239 --> 00:36:30,559
And I could see why they would be like just Harley,

835
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:32,519
you know, they want to be faithful to the brand.

836
00:36:32,639 --> 00:36:34,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, we did have when when they came in, we

837
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,079
had a bunch of different brands you know, in the store,

838
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:38,519
and then they got rid of everything.

839
00:36:39,199 --> 00:36:43,639
Speaker 2: Really, man, so interesting see all this, I mean I

840
00:36:43,679 --> 00:36:45,480
know bits and pieces of it, but I think people

841
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,039
are really interested in hearing this stuff. So tell me,

842
00:36:48,159 --> 00:36:49,719
Like what so what else are you? I mean, I

843
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:51,639
know you got like a farm, right, you got like

844
00:36:51,679 --> 00:36:52,840
a little farm going.

845
00:36:52,679 --> 00:36:55,440
Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, we have an eight acre farm Pennsylvania.

846
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:56,599
Speaker 2: So jealous.

847
00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:00,519
Speaker 1: It's it's nice, it's pretty, it's peaceful, it's old. It's

848
00:37:00,519 --> 00:37:04,760
probably from the Civil War era. Right right around there,

849
00:37:05,199 --> 00:37:07,639
you have a barn. We do have a couple of barns.

850
00:37:07,639 --> 00:37:09,880
I think we got seven outbuildings on the property.

851
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:12,679
Speaker 2: Now you built a few really so you have a

852
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:13,840
workshop there too.

853
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,079
Speaker 1: We do. We just put in like Brittany has a shop.

854
00:37:16,119 --> 00:37:19,159
She does yarn, she dies yarn, Okay, so she has

855
00:37:19,159 --> 00:37:22,039
a shopter on a property. And then our newest shop

856
00:37:22,119 --> 00:37:25,159
is our distillery that we're doing. So we have it's

857
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:28,239
RPD Whiskey Company. So that's our distillery building.

858
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:29,679
Speaker 2: Rick Rick Peco design.

859
00:37:30,519 --> 00:37:33,760
Speaker 1: We didn't designate the d yet, Okay, so we're not

860
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:36,079
sure it could be it could be distillery.

861
00:37:37,079 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 2: We can use it interchangeably, you know what he's going

862
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:40,400
to argue with it, you know.

863
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:43,079
Speaker 1: But I've been doing The Knives, which I had to

864
00:37:43,079 --> 00:37:45,000
take a break from that just to get the distillery going.

865
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:47,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, so so let's back up for a second, because

866
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:50,920
the Knives interest me. I looked online. Spectacular. I love

867
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:55,440
the style, real art. I love Damascus steel such a

868
00:37:56,519 --> 00:37:59,519
I mean, it just makes a knife spectacular in my opinion.

869
00:37:59,599 --> 00:38:01,360
It helps it along, right, It's like it's like a

870
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:04,320
nice paint job, you know. So how did you get

871
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:07,039
into knives? Like forging and.

872
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:08,800
Speaker 1: Well, you know what, we were doing it actually when

873
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,400
we were at Orange County yet. Actually Jim, he used

874
00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:13,800
to work for trade.

875
00:38:14,559 --> 00:38:17,920
Speaker 2: Oh, Charade Trade, Shrade, Yeah, that's right, not Suarade, but

876
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:19,119
Sharde Trade. Yeah.

877
00:38:19,159 --> 00:38:21,559
Speaker 1: Yeah, And at one time I worked up in their

878
00:38:21,599 --> 00:38:24,639
building at Shrade. We were actually it was where I

879
00:38:24,639 --> 00:38:26,719
work with Orange County. We were I think fixing one

880
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:28,519
of their heat treat ovens at the time. I was

881
00:38:28,599 --> 00:38:32,079
up there doing refractory work. And then me and Jim

882
00:38:32,079 --> 00:38:33,480
were talking about that one day and he was still

883
00:38:33,519 --> 00:38:35,480
doing some knife stuff on the side, doing here and there.

884
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,360
Some Me and him were actually building knives up at

885
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:40,480
Orange County, So I was doing something there. My first

886
00:38:40,519 --> 00:38:42,320
knives is when I was working up there, and then

887
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:43,880
just kind of drifting on the you know, just a

888
00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:46,159
hammer mount and just forging and doing stuff. I bought

889
00:38:46,199 --> 00:38:49,159
a forge from my ferrier. He was selling his.

890
00:38:49,119 --> 00:38:51,039
Speaker 2: Forge oh, for shoes, for making shoes.

891
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:53,800
Speaker 1: So I bought his forge and just started hammering stuff

892
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,000
out and I made a bunch of railroad spike knives.

893
00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:56,719
Was my first.

894
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,280
Speaker 2: Yes, that was like the first time I saw knife

895
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:00,519
from me.

896
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,199
Speaker 1: I made a bunch of those and started selling the

897
00:39:03,199 --> 00:39:03,760
crap out of them.

898
00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:05,920
Speaker 2: So what is that? Just it's a good steel to

899
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:09,400
work with. No, no, not really, just just available.

900
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:11,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not even high carbon stuff. Okay, So it's

901
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:13,599
a good learning point, right, and you can make cool

902
00:39:13,599 --> 00:39:15,519
things with them. Yeah, And that's what I did, and

903
00:39:15,519 --> 00:39:17,079
I started selling them. I started selling them on eBay

904
00:39:17,119 --> 00:39:19,199
and I think like I sold them a couple of

905
00:39:19,199 --> 00:39:20,639
them from up to like five hundred dollars.

906
00:39:20,679 --> 00:39:24,760
Speaker 2: Wow, spike knife, Yeah that's right. Cost was way.

907
00:39:24,599 --> 00:39:26,320
Speaker 1: Down on those, about fifty cents a piece.

908
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:29,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great. It's a good return, definitely.

909
00:39:29,159 --> 00:39:30,599
Speaker 1: But it was cool. It was just fun to do,

910
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,400
and you know, it just gave me more creativity to do.

911
00:39:33,679 --> 00:39:35,920
And then them morphed into doing the Damascus and just

912
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,199
all my my own kind of patterns and hand foraging

913
00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:40,400
and and everything. And I started working actually with the

914
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,960
company out of Sweden, Doma Steel, and they have like

915
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:47,880
it's powder metallurgy and they use they add the powder

916
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,039
and yes they did work out like alchemy.

917
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:52,199
Speaker 2: Yeah kind of right.

918
00:39:52,559 --> 00:39:55,719
Speaker 1: But it's the like the purest stainless steel in the

919
00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:58,679
world that they use, really, and they've been around since

920
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:00,000
I think the late sixteen hundred.

921
00:40:00,199 --> 00:40:02,360
Speaker 2: So what is pure stainless steel? No nickel in it?

922
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:04,840
Isn't there nickel in stain What is in stainless steel

923
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:07,519
that when it's of a low quality, there's rust? Maybe

924
00:40:07,519 --> 00:40:08,679
some iron.

925
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:11,079
Speaker 1: Well they be iron iron. So there's all different grades

926
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:12,960
you will have like the three oh four to the

927
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:13,599
three sixteen.

928
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,159
Speaker 2: Now they get harder and softer depending on the grade.

929
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:19,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yeah, but they have like the purest form

930
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:20,800
of powder stainless.

931
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:21,199
Speaker 2: Okay.

932
00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:23,159
Speaker 1: So I started working with those. The owner re Pair,

933
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:26,440
he's actually a huge bike person. He was a big

934
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:28,280
fan of the show. Yeah, he's come to the house

935
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:30,000
a couple of times and just started working with the

936
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,159
steel and everything. So we we have a good partnership

937
00:40:32,199 --> 00:40:35,440
with them. So very very beautiful steel that they have.

938
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,840
Speaker 2: Now does that steel come looking aesthetically pleasing like the

939
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,400
Damaska So let me ask you a question, Damascus steel,

940
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:43,840
don't you have to fold that, yes, like a lot

941
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,840
of times. Yes, like however many times, and then you

942
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:49,039
get your patterns depending on how you fold it.

943
00:40:49,159 --> 00:40:51,679
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, yep, yeah, So I do make my own

944
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,400
and I use the domin steel and that comes as

945
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:56,639
it's like a billet, just a just a flat piece

946
00:40:56,679 --> 00:40:59,159
of flat stock, right, And then that's more. You just

947
00:40:59,239 --> 00:41:01,400
kind of cut it. You don't do any hammering, right,

948
00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:01,880
that's more.

949
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:05,360
Speaker 2: That's more getting a shapier knife, your hand at sharpening,

950
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:06,960
getting it to look pretty right.

951
00:41:07,199 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's doing you know that set up there. But

952
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:11,840
then doing my own stuff, I make my own patterns,

953
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:12,960
do my own hand forging.

954
00:41:14,039 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 2: Now where do you get your style for your knives?

955
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,079
Because I noticed that I like the style it was

956
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:25,880
what's the word I'm looking for very I don't know,

957
00:41:26,159 --> 00:41:29,519
maybe like organic kind of shapes and things, you know,

958
00:41:29,639 --> 00:41:32,920
the handles they just look I don't know that it

959
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,000
definitely is a specific style.

960
00:41:35,039 --> 00:41:37,280
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. I just like something that

961
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:39,840
actually fits my hand really well. And that's kind of

962
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:42,280
just how I've always done it. Just something that feels good.

963
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:44,400
And then alas of other people different size hands, you know,

964
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:46,760
how does this feel any big or smaller? We just

965
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:48,960
kind of came up with a really good, you know,

966
00:41:49,119 --> 00:41:50,960
metiorocre kind of set up there.

967
00:41:51,159 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 2: Nice.

968
00:41:51,599 --> 00:41:54,679
Speaker 1: But yeah, we do all kinds of nives. I built

969
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:56,920
just knives for a lot of people all around the world.

970
00:41:57,159 --> 00:41:59,199
Speaker 2: And so will they put in a like a creative

971
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:02,639
request like hey, I want like this handle, like they

972
00:42:02,679 --> 00:42:04,760
give you specifics or they just say build me a

973
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:07,039
knife and here's five seven hundred bucks.

974
00:42:07,159 --> 00:42:09,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it varies. Some people are like, look, just

975
00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:12,719
build me something cool. You know, I need nine inch knife.

976
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:14,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, so do what you want.

977
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:17,159
Speaker 1: Most of the wood in the handle material I pick myself.

978
00:42:17,679 --> 00:42:20,559
I use all exotically from around the world. It's all,

979
00:42:20,679 --> 00:42:23,079
you know, just just really good stuff. You just it's

980
00:42:23,119 --> 00:42:25,639
not regular oak out of the you know, from home

981
00:42:25,679 --> 00:42:27,480
depot or something like that. You know, but I'm not

982
00:42:27,639 --> 00:42:30,159
just really good quality stuff from all over the place.

983
00:42:30,599 --> 00:42:32,239
And then one of my favorite ones that make I

984
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:34,800
like doing a sandmi, which is a three layer Okay,

985
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:38,519
so what I do is I do it's a high

986
00:42:38,519 --> 00:42:42,039
carbon center, and then I do stainless steel outer, and

987
00:42:42,079 --> 00:42:43,519
then I will hand forward that together.

988
00:42:43,639 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 2: You fold the steel over it.

989
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:47,960
Speaker 1: You don't fold it. It's just three layers. And then

990
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:49,280
I will forge all that together.

991
00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:51,440
Speaker 2: And then what I did, well, so you heat it

992
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:54,199
and is that with the powder and chemically forge it

993
00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:55,440
together with heat and.

994
00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:58,159
Speaker 1: The heat no powder. Oh okay, Actually what I would

995
00:42:58,159 --> 00:43:01,400
do is I keep it in My thing is I

996
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:02,480
keep it in kerosene.

997
00:43:02,679 --> 00:43:05,599
Speaker 2: Okay, this is a really good tempering type thing.

998
00:43:05,639 --> 00:43:08,039
Speaker 1: It's for a flux. Okay, we'll say, so, so welds

999
00:43:08,079 --> 00:43:10,440
together really good. So I soak it in kerosene and

1000
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:11,840
then I can forge well them together.

1001
00:43:11,639 --> 00:43:14,119
Speaker 2: Really so the kerosene will actually get into the steel

1002
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:16,639
and cause that fusion. When you put the right temperature

1003
00:43:16,679 --> 00:43:17,960
to it, it keeps.

1004
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:20,840
Speaker 1: All the all the impurities out. Ah, is what it

1005
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:22,760
did when you're going through the heat cycles. So like

1006
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:25,519
when you're doing a stand my because it's stainless, stainless

1007
00:43:25,559 --> 00:43:28,320
is really hard to weld to forge, well, I will

1008
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:30,480
weld to build it up, like all the four sides.

1009
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:32,679
So I'll weld it up, put a handle on it,

1010
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:34,960
and then I will forge that out. So I'll forge

1011
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:36,719
it together first, and then I made.

1012
00:43:36,559 --> 00:43:38,840
Speaker 2: A You mean you'll weld it together and then forge it.

1013
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,280
Speaker 1: Well, I'll say I tig welled the edges all right,

1014
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:41,880
So it's.

1015
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:43,840
Speaker 2: And that's not hard or brittle. The tig weld that

1016
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:44,239
doesn't know.

1017
00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:48,079
Speaker 1: And then I will I'll put in the forge, heat

1018
00:43:48,119 --> 00:43:50,239
it up. And then I made a press out of

1019
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:52,800
my one of my logs splitters, so I can I

1020
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:54,960
can use the press and stretch it out all different ways.

1021
00:43:55,079 --> 00:43:56,719
And if you see some of the knives, it'll look

1022
00:43:56,800 --> 00:43:59,639
like like an EKG. That's what it looks like. And

1023
00:43:59,679 --> 00:44:01,199
I'm all on when I do all my grinding because

1024
00:44:01,239 --> 00:44:02,760
the way I set up my press, so it's that

1025
00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:04,960
really cool. It looks just like all these punky, sharp lines.

1026
00:44:05,039 --> 00:44:08,599
Speaker 2: Oh, it's kind of like like a heartbeat almost really.

1027
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:10,639
Speaker 1: Yeah, it comes out really well. Then afterwards the stainless

1028
00:44:10,639 --> 00:44:12,719
will polish up really nice and shiny and bright, and

1029
00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:15,440
then the high carbon will be darkened. Then what I

1030
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:17,800
do is actually do that in the coffee edge. I'm

1031
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:19,199
I'll put it in coffee because it's like the only

1032
00:44:19,199 --> 00:44:21,960
food safe kind of coloring you can use. And then

1033
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:26,119
the high carbon steel will turn black, so that'll be black.

1034
00:44:26,159 --> 00:44:28,239
Speaker 2: It'll be is that being dyed or oxidized?

1035
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:28,920
Speaker 1: Oxidized?

1036
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:32,760
Speaker 2: Okay? Interesting? Is it the acidic nature of coffee that

1037
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:33,760
does it? Yeah?

1038
00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:36,840
Speaker 1: It typically used like instant coffee. Really just a super

1039
00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:37,639
high concentrate.

1040
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:39,880
Speaker 2: Interesting.

1041
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:41,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's food safe, so it's like one of

1042
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:43,440
the best things to use. Otherwise you use like maybe

1043
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:45,320
ferrochloride or something like that's chemical.

1044
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:49,119
Speaker 2: You don't want to be playing with that stuff. Yeah, yeah, right,

1045
00:44:49,559 --> 00:44:51,320
So what's next for Rick peck Coo?

1046
00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:53,400
Speaker 1: Next is the distillery.

1047
00:44:53,599 --> 00:44:55,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, tell me about that. I'm super interesting.

1048
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:59,400
Speaker 1: So we're doing the distillery. It's all set up. We've

1049
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:01,280
made a couple of bad so far. I'm working on

1050
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:04,239
flavors and you know, different recipes and stuff like that.

1051
00:45:05,159 --> 00:45:08,199
But yeah, we're doing bourbon whiskey and moonshine. Got a

1052
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:12,360
shirt on today. But yeah, that's just the latest thing

1053
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:14,719
we're doing. I was always interested in it actually for

1054
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:17,480
quite a while anyway. And then me and Brittany we

1055
00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:20,440
went to Europe and we just one of the guys

1056
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:23,159
that was with us on our tour. He was a

1057
00:45:24,159 --> 00:45:28,840
like a master distiller from a very well known distillery,

1058
00:45:29,199 --> 00:45:30,880
and just did a lot of talking with him. And

1059
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:32,719
then really as soon as we got back from Europe,

1060
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:35,280
I started the whole process and it took me about

1061
00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:37,480
two years to get all the licenses and everything squared away.

1062
00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:40,199
Speaker 2: Now, okay, Now does your does your farm afford you

1063
00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:42,440
the ability to do this? Is this some kind of okay?

1064
00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:44,519
So the farm is a big factor in how you're

1065
00:45:44,559 --> 00:45:46,960
able to make or distill certain alcohol.

1066
00:45:47,119 --> 00:45:48,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, we couldn't do this if we weren't a farm.

1067
00:45:49,159 --> 00:45:51,119
I would have to like actually build a full distillery

1068
00:45:51,119 --> 00:45:53,599
on a commercial proper. But yeah, we're able to do it,

1069
00:45:53,639 --> 00:45:55,639
but we're not open to the public. That was my

1070
00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:57,800
choice on our property.

1071
00:45:57,519 --> 00:45:59,599
Speaker 2: Right you don't want people there? No, So so then

1072
00:45:59,639 --> 00:46:01,719
how does distribution work for something like that? How do

1073
00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:02,039
you just?

1074
00:46:02,519 --> 00:46:04,800
Speaker 1: What I will do is I work with a distributor.

1075
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,119
But I'm in a program with the Pennsylvane New Liquor

1076
00:46:08,159 --> 00:46:10,599
Control Board where they give me like ten liquor stores

1077
00:46:10,599 --> 00:46:13,000
to work with, so I can work with them initially

1078
00:46:13,079 --> 00:46:15,599
right away. So then my deal with them is pretty

1079
00:46:15,679 --> 00:46:17,719
much I have to keep them supplied with like a

1080
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:18,599
case a month.

1081
00:46:20,639 --> 00:46:23,440
Speaker 2: Wow. And then are they So where are you in

1082
00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:26,079
the process? Are you? Is that is that in play yet?

1083
00:46:26,159 --> 00:46:27,719
Or there's no distribution just yet?

1084
00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:29,840
Speaker 1: There's no distribution yet. Like I said, we're working on

1085
00:46:30,039 --> 00:46:32,239
we still get to do our labels, but we we

1086
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:34,960
have product and we put that out, got some flavors,

1087
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,960
some really cool we're doing them Britney's candy, I'm cotton candy.

1088
00:46:38,039 --> 00:46:40,159
So you come up with sore doing a cotton candy.

1089
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:43,400
We're doing a blueberry. We're doing an apple pie to

1090
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:44,159
have an apple pie.

1091
00:46:44,599 --> 00:46:47,239
Speaker 2: That seems to be very popular. That apple pie. Moonshine

1092
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:48,199
is it's very good too.

1093
00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:50,920
Speaker 1: So we're we're raising our proof above everybody else's and

1094
00:46:51,079 --> 00:46:52,960
we still get a really good sweet flavor out of it,

1095
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:54,800
which which is really good. We're going to keep our

1096
00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:57,920
price point like at or just the hair belowka.

1097
00:46:58,920 --> 00:47:01,079
Speaker 2: What is that like forty a thready five forty three

1098
00:47:01,119 --> 00:47:04,320
dollars a bottle something like that in that area. Yeah, yeah, interesting.

1099
00:47:04,599 --> 00:47:06,280
Speaker 1: So we're doing that with the moonshine. And then because

1100
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:08,159
the moonshine is really off to still.

1101
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:10,360
Speaker 2: It's easier, you can see it's it's it's a quicker,

1102
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:11,880
easier process than bourbon.

1103
00:47:12,039 --> 00:47:14,559
Speaker 1: Yeah. The bourbon has to age by law two years, okay,

1104
00:47:14,599 --> 00:47:17,079
and a brand new American oak barrel, and we can

1105
00:47:17,119 --> 00:47:18,679
do that on the property also, so we have another

1106
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:20,360
in one of our barns. We have that set up

1107
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:22,320
to do to do all our aging.

1108
00:47:22,559 --> 00:47:22,840
Speaker 2: Okay.

1109
00:47:23,039 --> 00:47:24,840
Speaker 1: So that's going to be done in there on the property.

1110
00:47:25,639 --> 00:47:27,320
The whiskey also, I mean that only has to age

1111
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:30,440
really a little bit, nothing dramatic. And then but we're

1112
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:32,840
gonna do it. We're doing a honey whiskey. We're gonna

1113
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:35,880
do a honey bourbons and then the moonshine. So the

1114
00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:38,320
moonshine will go out first, the whiskey will age for

1115
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:40,159
a little bit, and then the bourbon will be aging.

1116
00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 2: Now the honey bourbon is that is that are you

1117
00:47:42,519 --> 00:47:46,199
using honey as the of what makes the alcohol or

1118
00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:49,039
is that like you add flavor to how you're making

1119
00:47:49,039 --> 00:47:49,519
the alcohol.

1120
00:47:49,559 --> 00:47:52,079
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we'll add flavor to the to the alcohol

1121
00:47:52,079 --> 00:47:54,880
we're running. One of my deals also with my township

1122
00:47:55,199 --> 00:47:57,239
is that since we're a farm distillery, I have to

1123
00:47:57,320 --> 00:48:00,320
use my own base. So we changed our crop from

1124
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:02,760
hay to corn. So now we're growing.

1125
00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:06,119
Speaker 2: Oh so that's that's part of the catch. They want

1126
00:48:06,159 --> 00:48:10,199
you to grow your own corn for your whiskey. Interesting,

1127
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:13,079
well that's good, which is great start to finish sort

1128
00:48:13,119 --> 00:48:13,400
of thing.

1129
00:48:13,599 --> 00:48:15,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, So like the first stuff that we made, the moonshine,

1130
00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,199
I mean we grew the corn, I milled the corn,

1131
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:20,519
you know, and then I made everything right there in

1132
00:48:20,559 --> 00:48:22,840
the building and came one hundred percent off our property.

1133
00:48:23,159 --> 00:48:25,000
Speaker 2: Do you let the corn dry on the stalk or

1134
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:27,360
do you do you harvest it and then let it dry.

1135
00:48:28,039 --> 00:48:30,039
Speaker 1: It would dry just like normal. Yeah, it's you know,

1136
00:48:30,079 --> 00:48:33,039
it's number two dead corn. It's regular horse corn. Yeah, basic,

1137
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:34,920
same stuff. But I have a farmer I lease it

1138
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:36,840
out to, so then he takes it down to his

1139
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:38,760
place and then he'll dry. It goes through a dryer

1140
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:40,760
and he'll bag it and then whatever I need to

1141
00:48:40,840 --> 00:48:41,440
bring back up.

1142
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:45,280
Speaker 2: And that's sick man. Yeah, you're like a renaissance man, bro.

1143
00:48:45,519 --> 00:48:48,119
Speaker 1: You know, it's nice to do everything start to finish. Yeah,

1144
00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:49,760
so that that's really cool. One of my things when

1145
00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:51,079
I bought this place is that I wanted to be

1146
00:48:51,119 --> 00:48:53,119
able to make a living off the property. Right, So

1147
00:48:53,159 --> 00:48:55,320
that's kind of where we're finally getting to that now.

1148
00:48:55,239 --> 00:48:58,639
Speaker 2: At home steading kind of. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool man.

1149
00:48:59,119 --> 00:49:01,559
I'm jealous, man, I want eighteen acres in a barn

1150
00:49:02,199 --> 00:49:04,320
in some civil war kind of layout.

1151
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:07,280
Speaker 1: That's great, it's cool. You know, it keeps it. It's

1152
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:08,679
stare at the house. I don't have to buy a

1153
00:49:08,679 --> 00:49:10,760
property or you know, reno foot because then you.

1154
00:49:10,679 --> 00:49:12,480
Speaker 2: Know, expenses go crazy, they do.

1155
00:49:12,519 --> 00:49:13,920
Speaker 1: You have to you have to, you know, put out

1156
00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:14,960
a lot just to get to zero.

1157
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:17,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're we're doing right now. We're looking at that.

1158
00:49:17,639 --> 00:49:20,239
We're looking at buying a house with property and potentially

1159
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:22,280
putting a building up so that I could just move

1160
00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:25,199
everything in there and not ever have to have another location,

1161
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:27,159
you know. And like you said, if you want to

1162
00:49:27,159 --> 00:49:30,239
go out and build something, just walk out your door.

1163
00:49:30,920 --> 00:49:32,960
I like all the outbuildings, so I got to figure

1164
00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:35,360
that out. You get you you're onto something here, because

1165
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:38,960
I mean, all those outbuildings sound spectacular. I especially love

1166
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:41,760
old barns. I just love them, you know, they're just

1167
00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:44,840
I don't know, I always wanted like an old barn shop,

1168
00:49:45,199 --> 00:49:46,920
you know. I mean, look around. This stuff would be

1169
00:49:46,960 --> 00:49:50,159
great hanging on the walls, you know, with those beams

1170
00:49:50,159 --> 00:49:52,760
from you know, the mid eighteen hundreds or something, you know.

1171
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:55,000
Speaker 1: And our barn or Hay barn. It's all pegged together.

1172
00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:57,360
And then we actually have a summer kitchen also, so

1173
00:49:57,400 --> 00:49:59,840
it has a really big stone fireplace, like a walking fireplace,

1174
00:50:00,599 --> 00:50:03,760
and you can see like you upstairs or even downstairs.

1175
00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:06,480
It's just all everything's all smoky because back in the

1176
00:50:06,559 --> 00:50:08,079
day they would cook out there instead of get in

1177
00:50:08,159 --> 00:50:10,159
the house hot. They're cooking out the summer kitchen. That's

1178
00:50:10,159 --> 00:50:12,519
went the summer kitchen, and you can just all see

1179
00:50:12,519 --> 00:50:13,280
the remnants from it.

1180
00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:13,519
Speaker 2: Wow.

1181
00:50:13,599 --> 00:50:15,440
Speaker 1: But it's all pigged together, you know, just Mortis and

1182
00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:16,239
ten and joints.

1183
00:50:16,559 --> 00:50:21,440
Speaker 2: That's fantastic, esthetically spectacular. Yeah, yeah, man, we got to

1184
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:23,880
come over and have dinner in your summer kitchen, right,

1185
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:25,880
can we make that happen or what?

1186
00:50:26,519 --> 00:50:31,039
Speaker 1: It's not over them? But yeah, we've been there one night,

1187
00:50:31,119 --> 00:50:32,800
buy that two thousand and seven, so we've been there

1188
00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:33,239
since then.

1189
00:50:33,599 --> 00:50:37,440
Speaker 2: Nice cool man. Well, hey, I got to come out there, definitely.

1190
00:50:38,079 --> 00:50:39,199
Would it take you to get here two and a

1191
00:50:39,199 --> 00:50:39,679
half hours?

1192
00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:40,360
Speaker 1: Two and a half hours.

1193
00:50:40,440 --> 00:50:41,079
Speaker 2: It's not bad.

1194
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:43,079
Speaker 1: It's just a little bit a little bit less. We

1195
00:50:43,199 --> 00:50:44,039
recruising pretty good.

1196
00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:45,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not bad. It takes us two and a

1197
00:50:45,840 --> 00:50:48,639
half hours to get to Montgomery from here, so it's

1198
00:50:48,679 --> 00:50:53,159
not that's a day trip. You know. I'd love to

1199
00:50:53,159 --> 00:50:55,480
come up there. Yeah, should check it. Give me the

1200
00:50:55,679 --> 00:50:58,360
I need the nickel tour man. You know, we'll maybe

1201
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:02,840
sample some of this, you know, some of the some Moonshine. Yeah,

1202
00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:03,639
what the heck man?

1203
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:06,400
Speaker 1: Okay, our best so far we have. I've been able

1204
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:09,119
to get one hundred and forty proof out that we're.

1205
00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:10,960
Speaker 2: Doing all corn really.

1206
00:51:10,679 --> 00:51:12,920
Speaker 1: So, and then we ever Bourbon that was about one

1207
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:13,920
twenty five proof.

1208
00:51:13,880 --> 00:51:15,760
Speaker 2: That So what's the idea? You give up a higher

1209
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:18,559
proof for the same price as the next guy who's

1210
00:51:18,599 --> 00:51:20,719
not giving as much proof and try and make it

1211
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:24,760
more palatable at that number or maybe not that much,

1212
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:25,280
but you know.

1213
00:51:25,360 --> 00:51:27,079
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're just we're just going to try to stick

1214
00:51:27,159 --> 00:51:29,559
like with about ten ten proof over what other people

1215
00:51:29,559 --> 00:51:32,760
are doing. And it tastes, like I said, just as good, yeah,

1216
00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:35,800
or or better. It's really smooth and smooth drinking. So

1217
00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:37,440
we were just doing this the other day at the

1218
00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:40,199
Cotton Candy we did, you know, two nights ago. So

1219
00:51:40,239 --> 00:51:41,920
we got that one. So so Brittany nailed that one.

1220
00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:44,679
We're working another with another company too. Actually out of Kentucky,

1221
00:51:45,079 --> 00:51:47,039
I went to a I did a six stage distiller

1222
00:51:47,079 --> 00:51:49,800
course down in Moonshine University down in Kentucky. I'm just

1223
00:51:49,800 --> 00:51:52,000
to get some more more recently, or it was in

1224
00:51:52,039 --> 00:51:54,280
January of actually last year, okay, and I went down

1225
00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:58,039
invaluable absolutely, just the contacts and the knowledge just from

1226
00:51:58,079 --> 00:51:59,719
so many people. We had so many people come into

1227
00:51:59,719 --> 00:52:01,440
a class room and just you know, just like talk

1228
00:52:01,480 --> 00:52:03,000
to us about what to do and how to do

1229
00:52:03,039 --> 00:52:05,360
it and you know everything. It is really cool. Just

1230
00:52:05,400 --> 00:52:08,400
a crash course both six and ten stays, which is

1231
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:09,079
really good to do.

1232
00:52:09,519 --> 00:52:09,880
Speaker 2: Dang.

1233
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:13,760
Speaker 1: But yeah, we're working with actually one of their companies

1234
00:52:14,239 --> 00:52:16,119
down there. Do you do a lot of flavoring, So

1235
00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:18,519
a lot of natural flavoring. So we're using them do

1236
00:52:18,679 --> 00:52:20,199
some of our for flavoring for the moonshine.

1237
00:52:20,280 --> 00:52:23,800
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, good products. Yes, yeah, I could see that right,

1238
00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:26,599
use the good stuff. None of that red dye or

1239
00:52:26,639 --> 00:52:28,519
any none of that weird stuff.

1240
00:52:28,519 --> 00:52:30,719
Speaker 1: Now there's no dies. Actually it's cool and like everything

1241
00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:31,119
is clear.

1242
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:34,119
Speaker 2: Yeah, so everything is right. There's no coloring because there's

1243
00:52:34,119 --> 00:52:40,400
no it's not necessary. Wow. Wow man, Rick Peckco. Moonshiner making,

1244
00:52:40,400 --> 00:52:44,400
whiskey making whiskey. Well, good man, this has been great

1245
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:46,480
catching up. I can't believe it's been ten years. I

1246
00:52:46,519 --> 00:52:49,760
mean we've spoke of yeah once or twice, some text messages.

1247
00:52:49,800 --> 00:52:53,679
We keep up a little, but no in persons like this, you.

1248
00:52:53,559 --> 00:52:55,079
Speaker 1: Know, it's been long. Overdue.

1249
00:52:55,239 --> 00:52:58,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, long overdue. Well, thanks for coming out, man.

1250
00:52:58,400 --> 00:52:59,320
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you.

1251
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:01,800
Speaker 2: See this again, you know.

1252
00:53:02,039 --> 00:53:04,480
Speaker 1: Sure, No, next time we'll be bring the kids down.

1253
00:53:04,519 --> 00:53:07,000
Speaker 2: We'll come down. This time we can hang out. Let's

1254
00:53:07,079 --> 00:53:10,039
do that. That was my intention for you guys to

1255
00:53:10,079 --> 00:53:13,079
come out here when it was like warm. But this

1256
00:53:13,159 --> 00:53:15,760
podcast is not waiting until the summer. You know, we're

1257
00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:18,519
cranking him out now. And I'm enjoying this. I really am.

1258
00:53:18,559 --> 00:53:20,920
You know, I'm getting I have had a great Mikey

1259
00:53:21,119 --> 00:53:25,000
was great and and I had a jersey John from Pickers.

1260
00:53:25,239 --> 00:53:29,400
He was fantastic. I've known him for years and years. Yeah,

1261
00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:33,599
because we go like back and uh, you know, he's

1262
00:53:33,679 --> 00:53:37,280
he's an interesting guy. Really, I'll send you that podcast

1263
00:53:37,360 --> 00:53:38,800
you're going to be Really he's impressive.

1264
00:53:38,880 --> 00:53:39,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, to check it out.

1265
00:53:40,039 --> 00:53:43,840
Speaker 2: You know, he's a real artisan. But is he nearby? Yeah, yeah,

1266
00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:46,519
he's right over here in Barnegat, Like he's like fifteen

1267
00:53:46,519 --> 00:53:49,480
minutes away. He's very local to this area. Yes, you know,

1268
00:53:49,599 --> 00:53:52,159
but I appreciate you coming out, man. Listen, let me

1269
00:53:52,199 --> 00:53:53,559
know when it's a good time to come out there.

1270
00:53:53,559 --> 00:53:55,800
I'd love to come out and take the tour definitely

1271
00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:57,199
and see what you got going.

1272
00:53:57,039 --> 00:53:59,960
Speaker 1: On, you know, springtime, summertime. We'll set it up.

1273
00:54:00,119 --> 00:54:02,199
Speaker 2: Sounds good, awesome, Thanks buddy,

