In Feb. 2005. I got a call from a childhood friend that I hadn’t seen or talked to since 1969.We used to build models of choppers and make modifications to our Sting-Ray bicyclestill his family moved away. It's strange talking to someone after all those years.
Greg's mom took a photo which he had re-discovered about ten years ago. A copy of it has been in his office since then.
He then came across a few drawings I drew back then, and figured that his old buddy, like him, would still be a bike freak.He performed an internet search and found the Bikernet.com article about me and my art, along with my phone number.
A short while later he sent a 8×10 copy of the photo and copies of two of my old drawings. I hadn't seen these since 1969.
I vaguely remembered Greg's mom taking the picture and seeing a 3X5 print back then. I only had a couple photos of my bike,but they'd been lost and I forgot about the drawings, so it was way cool to see them again. Once they popped up, it all came rushing back.
We were into this bikes from way back, as the picture portrays the second generation of modifications we didto our bikes. The first time I grafted two 26-inch bike forks together and had the stock butterfly bars mountedon the gooseneck riser. Greg's first bike had a stock frame with an extended fork much like my bike had in the photo, onlynot quite as long. It also featured some cool Z bars he made and a metallic blue paint job.
Greg suggested we meet in Malibu and take a new picture and have me sign some unsigned drawings that I'd given him38 years ago, but schedules and time slipped away and we haven’t met. Last week he e-mailed me and asked if I wasgoing to the David Mann Chopper Fest? I told him I would have a booth there so it would be no problem finding me.
I knew it was Greg as he approach my booth. We finally met face to face after 37 years. I can only speak for me, butI thought he hadn't changed a bit. Our wife's met and talked. As we talked, he told me about the frame he designed and built,and his plans on marketing it. He bought one of my framed prints and then we checked out the show.
We still plan to shoot an updated version of the photo on our current rides. Hopefully we don't put it off too long!Indeed, some of us never change.
Editor’s Note: Chris has been drawing since he could hold a pencil. He received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Illustration at California State University Long Beach. He worked thirteen years at Hughes Aircraft Company's Space and Comunications group as an Illustrator painting artist concepts of spacecraft and designing posters for marketing.
He purchased first motorcycle in 1975, a ‘71 Harley Sportster. Besides the 70 FLH pictured, he currently owns a ‘65 Panhead chopper, 72 Sportster and ‘48 flathead WL 45 (Basket). He’s also the Bikernet.com 5-Ball Racing official illustrator and here’s his lastest concept drawing, along with his latest old school print (above), which we may sell on Bikernet. You can buy his prints by clicking on the banner at the top of the article.–Bandit
