GarageChoppers

As many of you know, and just as many don't, I used to be on the staff over at GarageChoppers that was based out of Lakeland Florida. I was with them for two years or so doing motorcycle articles, stories and tid-bits. I remember doing the coverage of the "Liquid Steel" bike show with my friend and photographer/author Billy Jones who were given the assignment (see side bar). This show was in Concord NorthCarolina and was also the weekend that Indian Larry was killed while performing one of his stunts.
As a member of the media the show sent me; or should I say left me my press kit and badge at the will call window. There were supposed to be two Media Event Passes in the envelope for Billy and I. Well, there was only the one for me and not Billy. So I paid Billy's entry and off we went, talking to a few people while snapping pictures of interest to our readers. I know that I enjoyed the Perfect Angels performance as did Billy and the others watching those girls gyrate around on stage to Ted Nugents cat scratch fever. I'll never listen to that song with out their picture in my mind again. That's all I can count on as Billy's pictures of that particular event did not turn out so well. I kinda think Billy maybe forgot what he was doing and quit looking through the eye piece on the camera.

But the reason I'm writing this is because I miss the old crew down at the Garage. I long for the antics of the whip and spatula jokes, Madrocka and her coffee pot that never emptiedand her quick wit. The strange postings on the site about weird shit between the Rocka and I that only we understood and kept others wondering.
Our trippings, between Rocka and I, seemed to have a large following and people were always keeping tabs on what we might be up to next. She was mucho fun and kept things lively around the old Garage. Others began getting tuned into she and I and joined in on the fun and trying to figure the two of us out.

Zeps wit, humor and sometimes lashing tongue at those who wished to bash us and our beliefs, attitudes and his steadfastness to keeping talk and fondness of the old school bikes alive. He was our editor mentor and general slave driver. His no bullshit attitude seemed to piss some readers off but he knew his stuff and would not back down. Zep wasn't a bad guy if you knew him but like all of us had his moments. He was the man who created the whole thing in the first place and kept it all together and running. Mostly he sat back and let us do our thing, whatever that might be, at any given time. Many of times he was left shaking his head at our antics but the readers liked it and as long as it was fairly clean...he let us have our fun. The crew all just clicked and made the whole adventure and site a fun place to hang around.

There were others who came onboard the staff and left. One in particular gave many a bad opinion of us and the GarageChoppers mag. His issues took a huge amount of wind out of our sails from what he did to some of his motorcycle customers and it ultimately gave GC a black eye. He was the tech guy who did the how to articles on bike the building and answered readers questions about same.

Wolfie came on as the tech man for GarageChoppers and did a bang up job of things. He fit in quickly and it did not take him long at all to tune into Madrocka and I. It was beginning to be as if he had been with us for a long time.

I miss those people as it made for bright and fun days to be a writer. They were a fantastic group to work with and I miss them like friends miss friends. It's not often that a motley group like we were could be brought together to work so well and bring in the readers, keep them coming back for more, and looking forward to the next day.

Perhaps one day I'll be able to cover events and write again for another motorcycle media source. Did I mention that I miss it?

Later,
WooleyB