Billy Lane's Shovelhead Blue
85 images Created 13 Aug 2020
Billy Lane (2020)
Blue has been with me for over two decades. I started building her in 1998, but she was shoved to the side so that I could take on other opportunities. Everyone has always called her "Blue Suicide" which, fitting as it might be, is a name I've avoided using. I'd lost a close friend in the late 1990's to suicide, and that name was always a reminder.
Michael Lichter noticed and photographed my 1999 custom, "Money Magnet," at the Charlotte Easyriders Bike Show, after which "Money Magnet" became the breakout success that elevated me to be included, ultimately, in the company that gathers here today. "Money Magnet" sold shortly after Charlotte, but the buyer wanted an EVO engine in place of the 1972 Harley-Davidson twin-carbureted Shovelhead. It was this '72 that went into the bones of "Blue."
It sat in a corner as I went back to work on "Devil-in-a-Red-Dress", "Knuckle Sandwich", and "Psycho Billy Cadillac". When I got back to completing "Blue", she took Best of Show at the 2000 Columbus Invitational Easyriders Show before I even had time to have the flames shot on the tank. Not long after, my brother George dropped a brown bag of cash on my desk and said, "Blue is mine!" to which I agreed, and she left me for the first time. George wrecked "Blue" repeatedly, so I see her beauty in her scars. And somehow, “Blue” keeps coming back to me and she keeps getting more and more scars!
She fell out of my pickup truck after one rescue, was wrecked by another friend in Sturgis, was stolen in Miami and very sketchily recovered. We ripped countless wheelies at the 100th in Milwaukee, and she became my west coast ride at Mondo's Denver's Choppers in Vegas and Jesse James' West Coast Choppers in Long Beach.
When I went to prison in 2009, I thought Blue might be gone forever, but she came back to me this last time in 2015. She's very simple, and I still think her lines make a helluva lot of sense. When I look at "Blue", she reminds me of the mid 1990's. She's my longest relationship. Indian Larry told me "Blue" was his favorite of my customs, so I'll leave you with that.
Blue has been with me for over two decades. I started building her in 1998, but she was shoved to the side so that I could take on other opportunities. Everyone has always called her "Blue Suicide" which, fitting as it might be, is a name I've avoided using. I'd lost a close friend in the late 1990's to suicide, and that name was always a reminder.
Michael Lichter noticed and photographed my 1999 custom, "Money Magnet," at the Charlotte Easyriders Bike Show, after which "Money Magnet" became the breakout success that elevated me to be included, ultimately, in the company that gathers here today. "Money Magnet" sold shortly after Charlotte, but the buyer wanted an EVO engine in place of the 1972 Harley-Davidson twin-carbureted Shovelhead. It was this '72 that went into the bones of "Blue."
It sat in a corner as I went back to work on "Devil-in-a-Red-Dress", "Knuckle Sandwich", and "Psycho Billy Cadillac". When I got back to completing "Blue", she took Best of Show at the 2000 Columbus Invitational Easyriders Show before I even had time to have the flames shot on the tank. Not long after, my brother George dropped a brown bag of cash on my desk and said, "Blue is mine!" to which I agreed, and she left me for the first time. George wrecked "Blue" repeatedly, so I see her beauty in her scars. And somehow, “Blue” keeps coming back to me and she keeps getting more and more scars!
She fell out of my pickup truck after one rescue, was wrecked by another friend in Sturgis, was stolen in Miami and very sketchily recovered. We ripped countless wheelies at the 100th in Milwaukee, and she became my west coast ride at Mondo's Denver's Choppers in Vegas and Jesse James' West Coast Choppers in Long Beach.
When I went to prison in 2009, I thought Blue might be gone forever, but she came back to me this last time in 2015. She's very simple, and I still think her lines make a helluva lot of sense. When I look at "Blue", she reminds me of the mid 1990's. She's my longest relationship. Indian Larry told me "Blue" was his favorite of my customs, so I'll leave you with that.
