Saturday, April 3, 2010

Mosier


About an hour and a half east of Portland lies a little town called Mosier. To get there just follow the unending blacktop trail of sportbike nirvana. If there is a greater road in this country we've not found it. 


Imagine miles and miles just like this...

Friday, April 2, 2010

Behind the Glory: Sacrifice


With the widespread shortage of volcanoes and virgins in greater Portland area it seemed pyrotechnics would be the best direction for the 'Sacrifice' shot. Ernie Vigil's  ZX6 was wrapped with Icon 'Sacrifice' artwork while Nick Apex was wrapped in Fire-Retardant Nomex. It would be a do or die shot and the riders and crew knew it. 

In order to set the animal free we called in our own  pyrotechnic expert - Jerry 'fire bug' Buxbaum. A professional in every sense of the word and the owner of numerous propane cannons. We consider him our personal saucier of flame. For our infernal rear tire shot he concocted a special elixir. A flammable glaze that he referred to simply as 'Jerry's Spicy Northwest Napalm'. Combined with a reduction of white gas - Jerry gleefully spread his sauce across the bike, the floor, the rider, and the crew. Jerry, it seems, gets a little loose when the animal is about to be unleashed.

We had clicked off the shot we wanted by the third take, but we decided to go for three more. It's not often the Icon crew gets to start a flaming maelstrom within a tinder-dry wood-framed warehouse. What could possibly go wrong? Anyways, photos were took, riders were cooked, coors light was skoaled, and we all went home without any single singed hair.





Nick sporting his signature 'Grand Dad' boxers while putting on Nomex drawers

Snapping a few product detail shots before Nick lights things up


 Jerry liberally dousing the ZX with his 'sauce'


Primary ignition... photoshoot is go




Nick sits patiently as we adjust the lighting - the fire got close to getting out of control at this point




The final 'Sacrifice' art for the 2010 Spring campaign - the 'dragon' flame is the real deal (no photochopping here)




We liked the end result so much that we ran it on the 2010 Spring catalog cover

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Contest - Crazy Days, Bike Nights



Help us find the ultimate bike night spot in the US!



You think your local bike night is the ultimate? Well then snap a few photos and write up a 250-500 word description of what goes down at your weekly/monthly event. Then send it to us. Show us what kind of bikes, gear, and general moto antics go down in your hood. This is your chance to report to the world why you and your crew are where it's at.

The best submission will receive a complete set of the new Icon Sacrifice gear! That's a Sacrifice Contra Jacket, Sacrifice Airframe Helmet and Sacrifice Sub Glove!

To enter: You need to first become a follower of the Icon blog then send us a 250-500 word article about your local bike night - with photos that corroborate your story. Blatantly illegal activities cannot be accepted - Blatant nudity will also be rejected (but appreciated)! Submit your entry to contest@rideicon.com . All entries must be received no later than April 29th, 2010 1700 Pacific Standard Time. Be sure to include your follower name with your submission!!

Sacrifice Sticker Giveaway

With the raging success of the Zipperface sticker giveaway we decided to bring back the limited edition sticker giveaway this month in conjunction with the Sacrifice contest.

This time around the quantities are even more limited and the sticker is more skullified. If you are already a follower then you know the deal. Email us (contest@rideicon.com) your address and follower name with 'I've Sacrificed Everything' in the subject line along with your current mailing address.


If you are not a follower of the Icon blog you'll need to become one: 

 Do this by clicking on the Follow button located in the followers section (lower right side of the blog page). By becoming a 'follower' you can get all of your blog content sent directly to you. If you are not familiar with how blog 'following' works or have questions about the 'following' process click here. You can sign in using your Google, Twitter, Yahoo, AIM, Netlog or OpenID accounts. If you don't have one of these accounts how do you live with yourself? Shame on you for not conforming.

Next email your mailing address to contest@rideicon.com - enter 'I've Sacrificed Everything' in the subject line. Make sure you include your 'follower' screen name as well as your shipping address. For example - if your log in name is BigBonedJenny then make sure your email looks like this;


BigBonedJenny
(your name)
(your mailing address)

We promise not to sell your address to shady first world banks, Susan Powter, or Nigerian Dollar Choppers. Of course it goes without saying - only one sticker per 'follower' screen name as we didn't bring enough to share with the whole class.


Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Seattle Seventh Seal

Straight from Craigslist Seattle. Just for the record - we didn't write this - but we do very much approve. 









Bad Ass Icon Seventh Seal leather/textile jacket XXL - $200 (Tacoma)




Date: 2010-03-24, 11:10PM PDT

For sale is my Icon Seventh Seal jacket.


It's a serious piece of gear. See for yourself.






There are some issues however.


If you wear this jacket and try to hop on a motorcycle that is less than 600cc, the jacket will take itself off of your pansy ass and BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU for being a WUSS!


That said, it will grudgingly allow you to ride a bike less than a liter, but you'll have to go KILL something on your trip to appease its need for carnage!


This jacket is not for a scooter! If you get within 15 feet of a moped, the jacket will spin you around and lasers will shoot out of the back, disentigrating the Vespa/Faggio.


That's actually pretty cool, and I consider it a feature.


This jacket has limited edition graphic complete with a numbered badge inside. You will be among the few lucky bad ass bastards to own one.


The jacket is too big for me, so for safety reasons, I need to sell it.


It's been ridden for one season, and it's in excellent shape.


It has impact protection in the shoulders, arms, and it has a spine protector.


The liner is included, and it has its own custom print.


If you wear this jacket, and you have a fat, nagging girlfriend, watch out. As soon as she hops on the back, it will swallow her whole and spit out a hot, pierced chick covered in tattoos, and wearing a school girl uniform.


The hot chick won't ride on a scooter either.


These go for $360 new before shipping, and this one is in perfect condition.


Again, see for yourself.


http://www.amazon.com/Icon-ARC-Seventh-Seal-Jacket/dp/B002RPPPP6


My price is $200. I will entertain REASONABLE offers, or a possible trade for a jacket of similar quality in either L or XL size.


Unreasonable offers will be met with a swift roundhouse kick deliverd by Chuck Norris.


He hates unreasonable offers when kick-ass gear is on the line.


So if you're a bad ass dude who performs his own surgeries, showers with a brillo pad, or stores his contact lenses in habenero extract just for fun, your equally hard-core apparel has arrived!


Rock on. 

Sticker Shrine Contest Winner

We received some great entries this for this contest but Ryan from San Diego takes the prize on this round. It's clear that Ryan has been working on this for awhile. Nice job! Enjoy the helmet.

Can you 'Where's Waldo'  the McGill and Caballero stickers? 

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Paging Dr. Z

The DRZ400 is a formidable machine, known for it’s fear inducing power, engineering prowess, and stunning beauty.


Ok, that’s a lie. But that's not to say it’s a moto without merits. 


The most dubious honor that any bike can hold is a place in Icon's slabtown stable...especially for more than a few months. Most Icon steed are ridden hard and put away seized. And then sold for a loss on Craigslist. But not the DRZ.


This fine specimen has outlasted the rest and lived well beyond it’s life expectancy; passed down through three generations of wheelie squids, supermoto spackers, and maintenance averse luddites - she stands as a yellow homage to the overbuilt and underpowered.









She was beautiful once - well beautiful for a DRZ



The abuse came mercilessly.....



....and often



Help me Slabtown Joel....you’re my only hope....crackle, repeat, hologram fade.......

Monday, March 29, 2010

Airframe Street Angel Review

"Icon's new Airframe motorcycle helmets have arrived at dealerships just in time the motorcycling season. As a female looking for a foremost lid, the Icon Airframe Street Angel caught my attention. The graphics are valiant, the feminine colors are dazzling and the fit is secure." [Continued]



Dance Commander

The first four measures of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'  emanate form the Gravitron on endless loop. The aroma of spilled beer and corndog batter envelopes the grounds like a cheap rest stop cologne. Slightly stoned teens line up for thrills via mechanically dubious vomit comets as the carne's look on and cackle. Yep, it's state fair time again. Time to pin the blue ribbon on the prize pig and hammer down fried Twinkies and elephant ears until your innards revolt. And amidst this American tradition an idea birthed. A graphic to at once revere and revile. Twirled up from the sociopathic cotton candy machine that is Team Icon and dusted with ...dust. An Airframe like none other. Harkening back to a simpler time when girls wanted to be marine biologist. When Wham was waking us up before we go go'd. And when the Gipper held a strong pimp hand on the Nuke button. The Airframe Dance Commander - a breath of fresh air transported from a bygone era. Rossi has nothing on this.


The Unicloud stands majestically on his blue cumulonimbus...



...while leaping dolphins frolic in the warm Gulf Coast shore break



For the record - we forced Garage31 into painting this helmet at knifepoint - he thought it was a grotesque mockery of all things decent and tasteful. We expressed our agreement by stabbing him in the eyeball (figuratively).

Sunday, March 28, 2010

CMYK Lovers

Electric motorcycles, traction control, concepts that will never be built - who cares about that kind of news when there's bikes like this hitting the floor of the Tokyo Motor Show.


Neo Factory R1 CMYK


Airframe CMYK

A Heavily Modified War Surplus Dolphin

"He was more than a dolphin, but from another dolphin's point of view he might have seemed like something less. I watched him swirling sluggishly in his galvanized tank. Water slopped over the side, wetting my shoes. He was surplus from the last war. A cyborg." -William Gibson from the novella Johnny Mnemonic

Dune Cat may control the spice, but Jones controls the web. Thankfully we're holding the rest of his pod hostage until our demands are met. The internet will soon be ours...
 
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