Cheap Thrills 2018

Early Friday morning Chris and I (Jodi) left our house with Craig (Barnfiend) to pick up Christian Newman's 1940 Knucklehead (and Christian of course) and started the trek south east to Jersey. With lots of snacks in tow, podcasts playing and endless talks of motorcycles and their parts, we hit Asbury Park in no time. 

The gang from Devil Chicken Design met us at our air b n b along with Mikey Arnold from Lowbow/Forever the Chaos Life and his beauty of a wife Kat. It was a solid crew for shenanigans. Sean Ramses, who took photos for us all weekend, also joined us from Buffalo.

We had an early morning start Saturday to get ready for the event. Upon arrival Craig instantly made his rounds to scope out the parts in the swap before the doors opened and Christian's bike already had a crowd around it. We were ready for a rad day!  

My favorite part about these shows is not the bikes, it's not selling our Spoke & Dagger Co. gear, it's actually just getting to connect with new people in the motorcycle world and catching up with friends from out of state we typically only see at events. 

Heather LaCour stopped by our booth. Incase you don't know, this rad chick and her husband are the Lucky 13 pick for The Greasy Dozen builder series. They are building a Kawasaki KZ440. I can not wait to see it finished. Follow the progress at @littlebellblue.

 She told us how she loves our shop cat Pepperoni. I always get taken aback when I meet people who follow us online. I still think of us as nobodies so it's actually pretty funny to learn a girl that I follow and admire has the mutual respect. 

At one point in the day, Chris Galley, of Devil Chicken Design, asked if I wanted to go down to the bike show and help him judge the competition.  I laughed thinking he was joking. He wasn't. This was another highlight of the event for me. Chris talked me through a lot of the bikes, their custom hand made parts and pieces. I learned a lot and got to appreciate the details of the bikes I had previously scoped out and probably overlooked. May I add that most of the bikes Chris voted for won in their categories! Homeboy knows what he's talking about!

Christian Newman took home some awards (not surprised because he's a literal genius). Best in Show & Best Fabricator. I really love going through the crowd at shows that he is a part of and listening to the crowd talk around his bike. He should hire someone to pick everyones jaw off the floor and mop up the drool. He'd probably roll his eyes at my suggestion though, he is a humble guy about his talents.

After the massive crowd cleared out, our air b n b crew went back to eat and play cards. One thing I want to mention about our beautiful air b n b is that on every wall surface hung a sign. Inspirational quote. "Live, Laugh, Love" "Life's a beach" "Cocktail Hour" "Home is where the beach is". It was comical how many garage sales they must have gone to for this collection.  So while we left the house spotless, we rearranged every sign in the house to freshen it up a bit. You're welcome. 

Cheap Thrills was an amazing weekend for us. We loved that it was a winter event. It was actually the first bike show in a LONG time that I didn't ride to, therefore could actually bring a pillow, cooler, etc. It was the best. We appreciate all the hard work that Walter & Dusty do to put the show on with Kickstart Cycles & Old Bike Barn. We will definitely be back. 

Photos by Sean Ramses