Ola Chicos - The workshops

 It's plural because I am move around quite a bit.   But all my workshops have one thing in common :  they are all called : "Repair d'El Vis".  

The history behind the name "Le repair d'El Vis" is one resulting of a rock'n roll discussion with my best mate and litres of a specific yellow liquid we consume without moderation in the south of France - the famous Pastis of Marseille, more specifically the one called "Ricard".  My friend was arguing that my workshop was lacking identity and needed a name, and that the name had to be linked to Sex, bike and RnR.  So we came up with "Repair d'El vis".  

Now follow up the explanation carefully :  Repair sounds like Repère in French which means place or venue where one can work on bikes. ElVis stands for Elvis the King, but Vis also means bolt in French, which can also associated with Vice linking it to sex.  Therefore the names covers : bikes, sex and Rock n Roll.  Bit confusing but we had about 3-4 grams of alcohol in our body.   

My first workshop was in Norway, outside Oslo, I rented some space from Knut.    

When I left norway and relocated to the South of France, I used all my savings to extend the house I had just purchased to build my second workshop.  I drafted the floor plan.

Destroyed what was left of the small garage next to my house, and build according to plan. 

And I opened the workshop with some friends.  

But 2 years later, I had the itch to move again.  Se I relocated to the US.  So we temporarily closed El Vis Repair in France and moved lock stock and barrel to Houston.   Where I started working out of the corner of the garage of the rented villa we live in, and then move in a small house where, I remounted the 3rd Repair d'Elvis. 

Ola Chicos - Kaien's Disciples

 

The Kaien's Disciples is not a Motor Club or any other Harley Davidson Club, nor any other type of association of some sort.  The Kaien's disciples is an "Order", and the member of the Order are called :  "Kaien's Disciples".  

It is a brotherhood ran by set of rules, value, and code but none are yet established.  Today, there are no disciples, it only lives in the imagination of his creator.   The order mostly post random shite on its blogspot which are very often pasted on the Uxpatc blogspot.  

The Kaien's Disciples is a group of incorrigible non-conformist.  They go by one man one vote (just like Company MC in Oslo).   To become a member of the Order, there are 2 rituals to fulfill:  the first one consist of doing chores for 18 months at the club or for existing members; and thereafter complete the "Syndikat Run" (also called the "tour").   Once both are completed, the candidate must be voted in unanimously by all existing members.  The life president and creator of the order is Dirlligaf Asoratnof.  Their modo :

Exist rather than live, Yell rather than shut up, Dare rather than obey

The "Syndikat Run"

Is done within 14 days of which 12 are spent on the seat of yr bike.  It consists of doing a "Tour de France" following the natural boundaries of the country without using any highway.  All together it's approx 4500Km which gives you an average daily ride of 375km. Piece of cake.  The tour must be done without assistance and everything needed must be carried on the bike. The bike must be rigid or have undergone some serious modification.  The committee will approve the bike participating.  Windshield are obviously forbidden. 

 1st Day : Sausset-Perpignan - Distance 331 km - itinerary : Port Saint Louis, Aigues Mortes, Cap d'agde, Beziers, Narbonne,

2nd day : Perpignan-Biarritz - Distance 456 km - itinerary : Saint gaudens, Tarbes, Pau,

3rd day: Biarritz-La Rochelle - Distance 391 km - itinerary : Mimizan, Lacanau, Soulac-sur-mer, Royan

4th day:  La Rochelle-Lorient - Distance 358 km - itinerary : Challans, Pornic, Saint Nazaire, Vannes

5th day:  Lorient-Saint malo - Distance 381 km - itinerary Quimper, Brest, Saint Brieu

6th day:  Saint Malo-Calais - Distance 522 km - itinerary Caen, Rouen

7th day:  Calais-Metz - Distance 474 km - straight 

8th day:  Metz-Belfort - Distance 367KM - itinerary Strasbourg

9th day:  Belfort-Annecy - Distance 350 KM - itinerary Pontarlier

10th day: Annecy-Briancon - Distance 184 KM - itinerary Albertville, Valloire

11th Briancon-Nice - Distance 313KM - there is only one road

12th day Nice-Sausset les Pins - Distance 284 KM - itinerary Cannes, Ste Maxime, Toulon, La Ciotat

Ola Chicos - my logo

 The original idea was to ink my body with another tattoo. I had got my first tattoo at the age of 18 when I was living in the US in the hands of a local member of the Hells Angel on his dirty kitchen table.  Just as I like customizing things, I love the idea of personalizing your body.  My first tattoo was the logo of a band I identified myself at the time (still does) Operation Ivy.  It represent a type of music and also the way I sleep...

For me, a tattoo is personal, and somewhat unique, so I was looking for something in which I could find myself in, just like I had done with my first tattoo.  

I have always been fascinated by people with double personality such as "doctor Jeckil and Mr Hide".  I think it fits perfectly to me.  The idea of coupling successful biz man during the day that travel the world in first class, staying in fancy hotel, wearing the latest Italians suits, speaking at conference, blablablabla, and the Devil in the evening, which rides loud, street illegal motorbikes, DJ in underground club, hand out with punk rock n roll bands, or biker clubs.   As my mate puts it, Angel during the day, Devil during the night.  So after going through serious thinking going over all the music collection, I took the logo of Joe Jackson "big world" album representing a business man and consequently the angel and me during the day, and the logo of Social Distortion representing the Devil and me during the night.  All was lay upon a tribal bike tattoo that I had downloaded on the net. I gave the sketch and the idea to my sister who took it to her tattooer friend of her for a first draft.  

And here is what he came with.  Not there yet but good beginning.  

The logo remained like this for more than 5 years, before I found the help of Kathrina, a professional Graphic Designer working for the same company.  After short explanation, she came up with exactly what I was expecting.   

Than the only things left was to conceptualise it and found a name.  Being fan of Exile Cycles who draw its name from having move from the UK to LA, I felt why not Xpat Cycles, since I had not been living in my own country for the last 20 years and that I move from places to place every 15 days.  A few month later, after I had taken my first built to Arne at Custom Service to do the latest road worthiness testing, I added the word "useless" in front.  There was so many things that I had done wrong on the bike that I felt useless when I delivered the bike to Arne.  So, I ended up with Useless Xpat Cycles.   For the lower cut, I wasn't really focus and since I don't take myself seriously I started by using the But WGAFA (but who gives a fuck anyway) but that just did not do it.   

So I went on the famous 3 words from Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistol ; "sex, drug and rock n roll" and I just replaced the Drug by Bikes and used the "Benighted" font.  And that was it... . 

Ola Chicos - Intro

 Well 2020 was a fucked up year, so did not post.   New resolution for 2021, is to be a little bit more active.  To start with, I did not renew my website subscription, so I am gonna have to import all the writings I had done on my website to this blog.  Might take some time but at least I will have a archive of my personal time and work.   So, before I give you a bit of an update on 2020, I better do like I do on website by introducing myself.    

So, here it f.... is.....

That's how it all started.....and has been going on since......

The first bike that swop me off my feet was a XT 500   

I remember as if it was yesterday.  It was in 86, we were playing basketball when Nabil's sister turned up with her 500 XT, the one with the silver tank.  I stayed there looking at it promising to own one one day.  In the spring 2011, I finally found one at a reasonable price but in really poor shape which I undertook to restore. 

And after restoration 

 

 My second experience with motorcycles was in Aix en Provence in the late 80's.   We were out in our usual hangout the Mistral night club.  It was the cool place to hang out (still is).  The place was full of rich kids wearing the latest fashion.  Nothing I could match but it was still cool to be there.  It was one of those night that I noticed 2 HD parked in front of the entrance.  They had leather stripes hanging all over, chrome to make a blind guy see again, "ride to live, live to ride" logos all over, and the rich kids went inside the night club with their Chaps on.  Everything I now despise was the coolest thing I had ever seen.  And I am not talking about the chicks that were drewling for it...   All of this to tell you that its not "easy rider" or any of the 1% biker gang that has made me dream on custom bikes but a bunch a rich kids showing up with the latest Evo to pick up girls and act kool.   Anyway, it took 10 years before I purchased my first HD.  Strangely enough I don't have any pics left of the sportstser I first purchased.  6 months later I traded it for a second hand Dyna which I still owe today (although it has been severely modified).   

I really got interested in building or modified bikes when a friend of mine called Tor Erik Aarlot sent me a link to the Exile web site.  It blew my mind.  I communicated a bit with him, even to the point where I offered to be a distributor of its product in France to which he answered negatively at the time.  I have met him since and talked it, and we both laugh. 

   After this meeting, there was no going back.  I had to start building something, although I had never change a single drop of oil in one bike.  So, rather than start by changing oil, I decided to build a bike from scratch and I order a rigid from L&L in Holland that I pick up myself from the shop.  The only problem was that I had no tool, no mechanical background, no welding background, no painting background, and no place workshop.   

I was riding a good old Ironhead at the time that I had purchased from Custom Service in Oslo.  The owner of the shop Arne and his right hand Lars where both members of the "Company MC" a pure brotherhood club whose focus is purely on camaraderie and bike building.  They invited me to come around their club house and I made me feel really welcome.  A great club.     

 It's with them that I went to Nortallje, the Mecqua of Scandinavian Chopper.  That's where I met Knut who was presenting is later chopper the "Gladiator" which took 3rd place.  I managed to obtain his number few weeks after the show as I had heard he was living and had his workshop in the same village as I was living in at the time.  I don't remember the exact word I used but the conversation sounded something like that: "Hi, I am french, I don't speak norwegian, I want to build a chopper, but I have no workshop, I have no tool, I don't know anything about welding, mechanics or anything about bike building.  Can I use yr garage, can I use your tools and can you please teach me?"    

Well against all odd, 3 days later he called me tell me and he accepted.  This is the kind of guy he is.  15 days later, I moved in the workshop, I bought my first tools, took a welding class, and start tearing the good old Ironhead apart.  15 months later, the bike was on the front page of Biker Journalen. 

Thanks to everyone.

Ola penderos - Q4/2019

here comes the quarterly update y'all have been waiting for....Seriously, my life has just become a nightmare and haven't got time to do anything.  Last update ended up on a Beamer trip to Andaloucia and rejuvenation of my french Harley for a planed tour of Provence in the summer.

Meanwhile on the Texas front, and after my harmstring injury got cured, I carried on riding a combination of off-road and on-road tour.   Took my KTM to Rio Bravo, where I elaborated an interesting Cross-country tour suiting my riding style.

All going well till, a bloody steel rod sticking out of nowhere came and damage my radiator.

While waiting for a replacement, I hooked up with Bill whom I had met in Vietnam one year ago and had now relocated from Australia to Houston, and along with my partner in Crime in Houston, Jean-Louis, we took few rides in the hills countries of Texas, or along the Galveston coast.

Now, it was time to head to France for well deserved vacation and a small tour of Provence and a long awaited stop in Ginaservis where the famous film "les 4 saisons d'espigoule" was shot.

And since then, apart from one enduro weekend riding at Brunes Mills with the Trail Riders of Houston, not much to talk about.

I will be heading back to the US, shortly, and have planed to spend at least one day at the Lone Star Rally in Galveston.

Ola hijo

it's been a while since I last posted, consequence of a crazy life and lack of time.  
I reckon I can last just few more years before I burst.   But what can we do, all  have to struggle to make it? 


So, what has actually happen since last time?   Well not much because except that had a off road incident in Brune Mills Texas that resulted in 2 months of not doing f.all...

As I was about to cross an fairly easy obstacle, my leg got stuck under tree root while bike kept going leaving my growing and right leg stranded behind.   Am laughing now but it was so painful that I drove straight to the ER.    

So, not much activity to speak for.  Although, worth to mention that I spend 4 days in France, to work on my bike and get her ready for this summer ride.   I shorten the handle bar and had to redo all the wiring

Then I changed the footpeg, removed the side plate and installed a Custom made Texas Style plate on the rear fender, and changed the headlight and rear lights. 

Finally I chaged the rear suspension and the front break caliper.

Here is how it looks and sound

Next job is to change front spring to Progressive spring to have better front control and if finance allow, go to PM rear caliper.  

 I did manage to fly back to the US for one week and used that opportunity to go the F1 motoGP and attend the Handbuilt.   I like the Handbuild better this year then I did last year.    Here are my 3 favorite pics for this year.   

I also attended the MotoGP at Circuit Of The America.   As usual, it was Marquez but contrary to previous year he lost the front wheel.   Got me exited to see Rossi win but he lost lead in the last lap.  

 But one of the best thing that happen over the weekend was the discovery of a HD salvage yard, next to the circuit.   A paradise of a thing....

They got spares for everything.... I could have spent the whole day there just going through boxes...But had to have a good Texas Style Pull Pork Sandwich instead.  Will come back

I took a quick ride with the miss to La Grange to keep the chopper alive.

 And headed back to Europe.   When I got to England, I realized I had to fly to Gibraltar the following week for work.   And as luck would have it, it was the same time for the Spanish MotoGP in Jerez which happen to be 1,5hrs away from Gibraltar.  

So, here it go again, rented a F800 from Malaga Airport, headed to Gibraltar and then to Jerez



One last thing.   Do you remember the Triumph Scrambler I built about one year back which was a hybrid between a Triumph Tr6 1964 and Yamaha MX 370.  

I had built the mock up but cause I moved more or less to UK, I sold it to a british guys.   Well, it tore my project apart and built this little beauty. 

That's all for this update lads