EXCLUSIVE: Tiger 1050 vs. Scrambler

What would happen if you took a Triumph Tiger 1050 and matched it up against a Triumph Scrambler in the dirt? Horsepower vs. weight and retro styling. Throw professional street freestylers Nick "Apex" Brocha and Ernie Vigil in the mix and you have all the tools needed to get your answer.

Fresh off a Border to Border run of over 3000 grueling miles in under 24hrs. all these guys could think about was what these bikes were capable of off road. Returning to Las Vegas, they simply found the first dry lake bed, unloaded and poured themselves into sideways action through the dirt, never-ending wheelies, and as many high speed blasts as they wanted.

This is what motorcycling is all about. Watch the exclusive first viewing here...

3.30.13 it happens...

What does a new custom line of Hinckley Triumph Cafe Racer parts and the number one Triumph Motorcycles dealership in Florida have in common? Nothing. Well, unless you're in Dime City Cycles neck of the woods that is.

Herm & Jason have spent the last year in the sweltering Florida sun developing a cool new modern-vintage inspired line of Triumph parts and recently, they invited us down to check 'em out and take the prototype bike for a spin. How could we say no?

And if a cool line of new parts isn't enough with an old school launch party being held inside their local Triumph dealership (that'll be crammed with custom British iron BTW) rumor has it there's an even bigger announcement at the end of the unveiling that YOU won't want to miss. No matter where you live!

Check out the details and come join us if you're in Florida, it'll be quite the memorable evening!

P.S. If you ride a modern or vintage Triumph/brit iron and would like to display it at the event, there is room for 25 machines at this point. Contact jason@dimecitycycles.com for more information.

Remember when we gave a bike away last year?

The Importance of Understanding Process

I have always been fascinated with process. I love those "How It's Made" shows, or seeing a builder take raw sheets of metal and form them into masterful tanks and fenders. It's incredible. Process is so important to understand in order to truly appreciate the things we hold and use – even the things we see.

While working on a recent poster design for a collaboration between Iron & Air and Dime City Cycles, I noticed my design unintentionally starting to take on a form and feel reminiscent of  legendary designer/typographer, Saul Bass. For those of you that don't know the name, you surely know the work. Bass created countless movie posters, title sequences, logos and more from the early 50's to the late 80's. Though the similarity was unintended, I must have drawn it up from my inner psyche and there it was staring me dead in the face. Because I knew I didn't bite it on purpose, and it wasn't copied from anything that actually existed, I decided to keep rolling with it. I mean, Bass was the fucking man. 

Prior to this, the early stages of the poster had me struggling. What I was stoked on, others were not – my wife included (she's brutally honest). So I pressed on – through frustration and exhaustion – to come up with a design I felt strong about, which was the design I mentioned above (you'll get to see it soon). After some tweaking with Brett and getting the verbiage locked in, we both had that "hell, yeah" moment and that was it. 

“Hand and bike are too irrelevant. Title looks bad small. Looks like ink didn’t take on the part that goes light.”

— Stanley Kubricks hand written notes on Saul Bass' poster designs

Struggling with design pisses me off. It's frustrating because I often feel like I should be able to do it faster, more creatively, with less process and more product. I blame the internet for jamming massive amounts of design and art into our brains and eyeballs everyday. Often it's more harmful to the process than helpful. Seeing work that guys like Bass did back in the day, made me wonder what they went through to create and design the work they did. I came across a great article on The Fox is Black (I guess the internet isn't all bad) that featured Bass' poster design process for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. It is incredible to see the work that lead up to the final poster design. It is easy to look at how utterly simple it is and curse over Saul Bass' grave at how good he was. As it turns out, director Stanley Kubrick made Bass go through nearly 300 variations of the design before finalizing the poster below (in yellow).

“Failure is built into creativity…the creative act involves this element of ‘newness’ and ‘experimentalism,’ then one must expect and accept the possibility of failure.”

— Saul Bass

My point is, without seeing the process and inherent frustrations and struggles that go into the things that surround us, it is easy to let them overwhelm you and force you to give in to the pressure. I go through it with every issue of the magazine that we put out.

Every. Damn. Issue. 

When this happens, it's imperative that you stop, walk away, stay off the internet and look for inspiration elsewhere. Go for a walk or a ride on your bike. Call your mother. Read a few chapters of an old book you enjoy. Do some push ups. Talk to an elderly neighbor. Clean out your fridge. Pray. Oil your boots. Fix that door that isn't closing right. Tell someone you love them.

It's the moments between the mundane where creativity thrives. It's important that we learn to understand and respect the importance of these moments – after all, it's part of the process. 

-Adam

Images Courtesy: Bobby Solomon from The Fox Is Black

Old Soul Young Blood

A slick video of our Sunday ride a couple weeks ago down in Miami. I make a cameo, but oh so small.

Inspiration for your quiet life

The Sunset House in southern West Virginia was built by Lilah and Nick using lumber reclaimed from a barn on their property which was cut and milled from the land by the previous owner many years ago. All the windows are reclaimed from junkyards over their history of thrifting together.More pictures.

Thank you for your support

All we're humbly trying to do is make the experience of reading Iron & Air Magazine as close to the experience of riding as possible. We'll never get there, but that's ok.

To grab the latest issue or explore back issues, click here.

Spread from Issue One. Snap by contributing photographer Brandon Schricten

The Dearborn Overshirt by Mission Workshop

Metal 305

Met these cool chaps at the Wynwood Vintage Motorcycle Festival in Miami last weekend. Check them out at www.metal305.com

Boss.

Hanging out this past weekend at the Wynwood Vintage Festival in Miami.