Good While it Lasted

Impressed. That is the best way to describe the diners and wait staff at Apocalypse Gold's last Saturday afternoon. Apocalypse Gold is the regular weekend lunch hangout for the Icon Garage Team. After a hard morning of bike building we like to relax with some awesome Mexican food. And then Grant decided to ruin everything. 800 pounds of Road King Ultra Super Duper Glide roasting a Metzler all over the restaurant's front door - leaving behind the job of sweeping up the rubber debris - yeah, 'Impressed' is definitely the word that comes to mind.

1st gear limiter for 30 seconds 

Relishing in the act of rubberized defiance

Sh*tting were we eat - thanks Grant!

The Container Yard Classic 2010

We live motorcycles - not labels. Some think it odd - the eclectic hoard of Crotch Rockets, Sportys, and broke-ass Yamahondas. Icon is an enlightened look into the future. A fun ride of heavy-wristed abuse and irreverent attitude. We have never felt the need to discriminate over displacement, cylinder configuration, or country of origin. The bikes of Icon are crafted with a unique methodology: creation of the new from the ashes of the rashed.

The current batch of Icon customs are based on our fondness for the dirt oval. And for choppers. And for cafe racers. All of these genres are conscripted into our ranks. Enter Cold Dead Fingers, Anemic, The Snakecharmer, and both lastly and leastly, The Kitten. Armed with large knobbed tires we sent this batch of air-cooled combatants to war in the gravel strewn outskirts of North Portland. A zesty enterprise of gas spewing tanks and dust choked nostrils. A course dictated by rusty containers and disgruntled longshoremen, backlit by a blistering August sun. An event that would eventually become known as the Container Yard Classic. No one would survive alive.

Deep in the heart of NE Portland the battle rages - Team Icon vs. The Bikes of Icon 

SlegaDeth

The playlist found around the office of Icon is as diverse as what we ride. Jay-Z to Tool, The Commodores to Arcade Fire, David Allan Coe to Berlin. One particular genre that some of us have an affinity for is 80's metal. In fact, just today we were remarking on the number of roach clips, high top Reeboks, and acid washed Lees haunting the Icon office (we're looking at you James). So when we see this flyer for an upcoming Megadeth/Slayer show - naturally we freak out. The plan is to ride our BMX bikes to show, totally rock out,  and then go buy beer and cigarettes for all the thirteen year old neighborhood kids. It's the least we can do.

Caddy

Does it get any more America than this? A '64 Cadillac belonging to none other than Portland's airbrushing mastermind - Jason at Garage 31. If you find yourself with a helmet, bike, or even an entire restaurant in need of some serious airbrush work - give Jason a call. It gets no finer. 

Sweet cappuccino justice

From the Fringes of Respectable Motorcycling

Straight from the crew over at Streetfighters magazine - stickers!!! We've been reading Streetfighters for nigh over a decade and a half. Damn...has it really been that long?  Anyway's - Streetfighters Magazine = Original Gangsters.

The Icon toolbox will be happy to see these.

True Patriots

What is it about red, white, and blue motorcycles that makes them so damn sexy? Whether it's HRC or Evel Knievel, the tricolors are always fresh and clean. 

Cold Dead Fingers & The Hurricane posted up outside Kelly's Olympian

Lost Souls

Another lost soul wandered was pushed into the Icon garage last night. She's a CB550 in all her hipster glory. The previous owner gave up on her once she started spewing gas from her carbs. It seems hipsters have an aversion to gas soaked denim - we wish the same held true for the skin tight variety. Anyways, saved by a new Icon Garage Team member her fate lies in his trembling hands. What will she turn into? A bobber, a cafe, a smoking inline four shitebox? Only time and twelver's of Natty Light will decide.

Randy when parked...

Busy with the Brush

Damn it's hot in here. After a couple of straight days of unfiltered Portland sunshine the Icon Garage Team starts to feel the heat. In order to cool down, multiple light flavored ales are in order. And nothing goes better with Coors Light than a little one-shot, rattlecan, and oil paint. All three classic painting mediums brilliantly executed on alloy and steel. Never let it be said that Icon is anything short of renaissance. Beer me Leonardo.

If you were BMX'ing in '82 than you know what this is

The Snake Charmer's tank  perspiring under the hot midday sun

Our finest tank paint yet - address your zealous pro or anti religious comments to ihateiconsguts@rideicon.com

Dusk 'Til Dawn

Nick 'Apex' Brocha and Ernie 'E-dub' Vigil  recently rolled into Portland for a photo shoot. They brought along their Japanese teammate - Shin Kinoshita. Icon, being the gracious hosts that we are, brought Shin to our favorite Vegan gentleman's club - Casa Diablos. And though Shin is not a vegan, he seemed more than comfortable with the meat menu.

Thankfully Coors Light is Vegan approved

Observing the Sabbath at the Icon Garage

The Icon Garage Team holding church on a rare sunny Sunday.

All denominations are welcome at our sacrament (except of course for you BMW)

Hero Worship

A great thing about Jason is that he always takes the time to hang out with the little people. He prefers to be there in person. But for Walter, that wasn't in the cards.

It's All Pink on the Outside

MAPP gassing $800 worth of Controltac into place. Pretty, it seems, doesn't come cheap.

The next person to call the 600RR a girl's bike gets punched in the throat

RIP Beachnut

We came into the shop this morning to find the star of The Vegas Cup belly up. The office won't be the same without you... and by same we mean quieter without all those crickets chirping that you couldn't figure out how to eat.

He lived a good life  a boring slow painful hungry life till he died, as all Scorpions should.

Oregon Superbikers

If you're into low budgets and good times race number two is this weekend in McMinville, Oregon

Our development manager #555 can be found in the pits whining about the dirt section

Strong Arm Fate

Apparently someone just watched the entire 'Sons of Anarchy' season one DVD

The Kitten

Back in 2008, when gas was close to four bucks a gallon, people got scared…. people got real scared. Would this mean the end of bikes as we know them? Is it time to buy an electric? Should we move to Canada? Some of us went so far as to downsize our daily rider just to save a few pennies for Friday at Slabtown. Others just downsized our wife’s rides so we could continue on in 1100cc bliss. 

Enter the Kitten. Purchased new by an Icon employee to replace his wife’s Suburban as the family grocery getter, it only took a long winter and a little time on E-bay before it faced the inevitable grinder.

230cc’s of unsalted Honda butter. Good for 100mpg and 71.3mph.

Rendering the bike worthless

 Our patented handlebar-weakening process - you know, for fun

Jason Britton sampling the kitten's flavor

They ask: “Why would you do this to a perfectly good bike?”  We ask: “Were you just talking?”

 The true test of any bike comes during the SFRC “Alley Sweeper” Urban Enduro.

Hobo cake from the back-alleys of NE Portland

Headfirst into a wall at 35mph - this is why removing the cross-brace from a set of Renthals is a bad idea

Maybe if we park it nose first the wife won’t notice

Long, Tall, & Fugly

In a post back in the early days of the Icon blog we told you that we like all bikes (except bmw’s of course.) If memory serves, a Frisco Chop was mentioned as a style we tolerate. Pictured below is the bike from which that language arose. Two years in the compound just to get a big v-twin stuffed into a rigid frame with little regard to anything but the correct color of flame-red-orange-flake-pearl to be applied. Shown here undergoing the traditional Slabtown inauguration ceremony. Let the faithful know, we have a new pope.

Grant peers down at his creation - at last becoming aware of how hideous it actually is

Dressed for success, Grant admires the ritual abusing of his creation by various Icon staff

Dog Daze

So the Icon Garage Team walks into Slabtown and there's this dog sitting at the bar. The dog looks at them and says "are any of you a doctor?". The Garage Team answers with a unanimous  "No". To which the dog responds "I didn't think so". 

Any day or night is good times at the Slab - except Mondays - those are kinda fruity

Satchel bellies up - don't judge him until you know all the facts

Enjoying Slabtown's "Cocktail Hour" - if you lay your head on the bar long enough someone will eventually bring you a bowl of cool tap water

Downrange

Every so often the Icon Garage Team gets together for a little meeting of the like-minded. A cartridge and shell filled day of spent primers and sore shoulders. Such was the case last Friday. Just outside the Slabtown Survival Compound we met up with Grant aka 'Mack Bolan' for a 2nd Amendment discussion. After a hearty truck stop breakfast of eggs, bacon, and dreamcatchers we mobilized to our secret firing range. Cases were unloaded, targets erected, and magazines emptied. In the end, everyone left with all their fingers still attached and $358 worth of Winchester and Wolf were uselessly dispatched into the dirt. All in all it was a good day. The Constitution is a beautiful thing.

The complete history of 80's firearms in one easy to read paperback 

The Garage Team prepares for the milk jug & cantaloupe genocide - no honeydew is safe when the Benelli is humming

Too close for missiles - switching to Glocks

A distinctive clatter as  'Open-Bolt Jay' puts thirty downrange

In case you're wondering - our Uzi does indeed weigh a ton

Walter bypassing the AR15 in favor of the MAC11 - style over accuracy - well played Sir

Portland's Finest

'Fierce' doesn't even begin to describe them...