Polaroid Fame

A selection of unsolicited, but entirely welcome photos from various Icon GoGo fans. Thanks for the memories. 

Team No Limit - San Diego

Jason and the rest Team No Limit will be performing in San Diego this Saturday, April 24th. Check them out at them San Diego House of Motorcycles.

@JasonBritton

@EricHoenshell

@ThreesCompany

Urban Reminiscing

The year was 1985 - I had just turned fifteen and coerced my parents into letting me get a moped license. When you're fifteen years old and living in surburban USA, ownership of a moped is akin to getting patched in as a 1%'er - an adolescent outlaw. Sure, they'll only do 30mph - but mechanized freedom has never been defined by a top speed.  The king of mopeds during the early 80's was the Honda Urban Express. Far more refined than it's competition, the Suzuki FA50 or the Yamaha QT50, the Urban Express was as close to a real bike as a fifteen year old could get. With stripped off fenders, mirrors, and signals I ruled the 15 mile radius around my parents house.  It withstood a ton of abuse, both on and off-road, and continued to run even after my misguided performance mods (drilled holes through the head pipe for increased flow). I even wired in a cigarette lighter to fire up my Lucky filters because in the 80's kids were still encouraged to smoke. In 1986 Honda would introduced the Spree, a cool moped in it's own right but it would never match the Urban Express for 50cc streetfighter style. Great bike, great memories. -Kurt

Tall wheels, tall risers, tall style

Headtrip

Concept Ad for the Alliance Headtrip Helmet

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

Hoenshell

Icon team rider Eric Hoenshell

Variation

Straight from the garage of Chopper Dave.

Busted and Broken - Head On

ICON,

I just wanted to say thanks. I was recently in an accident where a woman turned into me. I was out enjoying a sunny winter day here in Virginia and the 1300 bucks I had just thrown into my bike. As I rolled through a school zone at about 25MPH, a car made a left turn in front of me. She hit me head on, throwing me over the hood, about 15 feet past her car.

Fortunately I was wearing your Domain Decay 2 helmet, and when my head hit the ground, it felt like I landed on pillows! I injured my right hip, right calf, left elbow, and had abrasions on my left shin, but no head or neck injuries. I had on ICON gloves and boots, and hell, maybe if I was wearing ICON pants I wouldn't have any abrasions on my shin! Thank you for putting major effort into your products, not only so they look good, but so they save lives. I definitely will be replacing my helmet with a 2009 "Death or Glory” model. To tell you the truth, I think your helmet saved me from a lot of pain and suffering, maybe death...

Sincerely,

Mike

XDL Round 2 Recap

The following is a recap of last weekends second round of the XDL Freestyle Championship from last years champion Nick 'Apex' Brocha


There are weeks where everything that can go wrong does, and there are weeks that make those weeks feel like a vacation. Last week was the latter.  For XDL Round 2 I hosted two Japanese riders at my home in Las Vegas, loaned them competition bikes, and overall just had a good time.  That good time however was cut short about two days into their eight day stay when the first bike problem appeared.  After a marathon bike setup my teammate, Shin Kinoshita - a Japanese ninja mechanic and one of my favorite riders - couldn't accept the way his bike was running.  So we went home - pulled off everything, replaced everything with new parts and got back to it the next day.  Now four days until competition and the second day on Shin's bike the problem worsens.  So with limited resources we decide to build another bike. I've been working on a new competition bike but it still needed some serious love. We'd finish that bike and I'd let Shin use my current competition bike. I wasn't a total fan of that idea as it's critical I'm comfortable with the bike I  ride in the XDL events - but that's what friends are for.  

Three days to go,and my bike still won't idle. Visually it looks better than any of my previous bikes and I'm determined to fix it.  Shin and I tear it apart - check everything, voltmeters, vacuum tests, new coilpacks/injectors/throttle bodies and so much more.... it was a long list.  One day to go and we discover the headgasket is blown.  There isn't the tale tell water/oil/bubbles in the radiator to give it away, but it now overheats in three minutes and won't run for crap unless I'm hard on the gas.  At this point Shin's transmission decides to start jumping out of 1st gear. Note to self - get some nicer bikes.

Last minute mechanical heroics are the sign of a true champion

So we pile into my truck with two very questionable bikes and make our way to Arizona for what felt like a suicide mission.  We meet up with Icon riders Tony Carbajal and Ernie Vigil along with my other teammate, Lin Eshalom. Somehow qualifying  went well. I discovered if I went out with a fairly cold bike it would idle for the first 30-90 seconds.  With XDL's new two minute format that might be enough. The entire team qualified well. My run was good enough to qualify in the top spot earning a bonus point for the overall title.  Shin rode through the transmission problems and scared everyone that's ever wheelied a bike.  In fact, I think it was one of his best runs ever, he's a madman!  That night we ripped apart another two bikes to build him a new one thanks to Vegas local and good friend Matt Soras.

Tony Carbajal getting "in the zone" before his run

Saturday (the finals) Ernie and Tony are riding well. This is Ernie's first time back after his horrific accident and even with limited use of his right foot he's cleaning up!  My first run was a catastrophe. It had been a long time since my last crash in competition so I guess I was due.  I wadded myself, twice.  With the XDL three run format we drop the lowest score so there was still hope. I went into the next two rounds with a lot of pressure - I'd have to ride mistake free.  Thankfully, all the bad luck must have vanished  as I ended up coming out on top at days end.  It was one year to the date since a major accident had destroyed my shoulder.  I had lots of personal doubts if I was able to win again. Thankfully I can now move on and focus on fighting for the 2010 points lead.  I'm happy the whole Icon team did well and both of my Japanese friends made it through the finals safe and placing well.

Thanks everyone for the support, I love this and can't wait for round 3!

-Nick

The tricks being executed were truly eye poping and  jaw dropping

Photo courtesy the-nags.com

Photo courtesy the-nags.com

Famous in Florida

Straight from the dirt ovals of inner Florida comes this spy shot. This proves that famous dudes love Icon. You'll notice Michael Gross of Family Ties fame reviewing a yellow Speedfreak. Jeff Foxworthy, chawing up a hero load of Redman, is also quite taken by this yellow masterpiece. Of course the helmet belongs to none other than Junior from Sin City. He's got this thing for yellow. The old dude is Brad Pitt's dad - Elmo - flattrack tuner to the stars.

"I'ma clap you on your ears ya little turd" Elmo said without a moments hesitation

We prefer the 'Tremors' era survivalist Gross

If you like Flattrack you might be a redneck - just sayin'

Ummm....