[woman] This is...
-Hi! Missed you. -Hi.
-Oh, my goodness. -[man] She doesn't like Dad.
-[woman] No. [laughs] -[Jason] Really?
Oh, bro, it's epic.
It's a JD... JD Knucklehead Chief.
[Jeremiah] Indian, yeah.
-It's a JD Knucklehead Indian Chief. -Yep.
It's a good name, dude.
[Jeremiah chuckles sheepishly]
[Jason] "Chief of the Knuckleheads."
Wow.
It's a really special moment,
because... I've always wanted '36s.
And this is the reason why, um...
When I first saw this bike,
I wanted to have a '36.
And so, when I told Jeremiah, I said, "I want to have...
I want to have six '36s."
-[chuckles] Bullshit. -[chortles]
And Jeremiah goes, "That's impossible.
You're not going to be able to get six '36s. I've only seen a couple."
And so, my goal has been to get six '36s,
only because he's my little brother
-and I just want to spite him. -Pfft.
["Whenever I May Roam" playing]
♪ And the road becomes my bride ♪
♪ I have stripped of all but pride ♪
♪ So in her I do confide ♪
♪ Off the beaten path I reign ♪
♪ Rover wanderer ♪
♪ Nomad vagabond ♪
♪ Call me what you will ♪
♪ Wherever I may roam ♪
[song gradually fades away] ♪ Wherever I may roam, yeah ♪
I think the genesis for, uh, doing six '36s, is, uh...
It just kind of came out of a...
I guess Jeremiah just giving me guff
about it not being possible.
He's never seen six '36s.
Being able to find six '36s this quickly
and be able to make these kind of bikes,
um, you know, it's the first year of the Knucklehead.
I have an obsession with the Knucklehead motor.
You might call it a problem.
Especially the ones from 1936.
They're so rare, they're the holy grails.
I'm going to do something that's never been done before.
Get six of these historic '36 Knuckleheads
on the road together with my friends, and do one epic ride.
The first four of the '36s, I've already built with some amazing craftsmen,
like Big Scott Stopnik, and Socco Obestein.
Now, I'm asking Jeremiah and Max to come on this journey with me
and build bikes 5 and 6.
[Jeremiah] I love Knuckleheads.
But, Knuckleheads now are...
not as easy to come by as they were 15 years ago.
The parts we're finding now are just completely stuff that was... trashed.
I love the fixing of it, of...
fixing something that was totally broken
and putting it back together.
[Jason] Jeremiah's...
unfuckingbelievable. He does everything.
He knows everything.
Some people are style,
some people rebuild every part of it. Some people do everything.
Jeremiah does everything.
[Jeremiah] The thing with old engines is...
or anything old, like, this stuff isn't new.
Like... We're fixing it, yes. But it has to be...
It has to be broken in.
This is a mechanical, like, being right here.
And all these things ha--
It's like joints in your body, everything has to warm up.
And like... Like, I don't know, it's like...
For when an engine is rebirthed after you rebuild it,
people that only rebuild engines know this.
Like, every piece has to be fit and sized and...
And everything has to wear in to where it finds that spot
to where it wants to live, and operate like a...
like a well-tuned athlete, you know?
And if you don't take that time to break them in...
Some people say, "Ah, I just build a motor,
and I just get on the road and go."
All right, well, more power to you.
[Jason] He's, uh, opened a world to me
that I just knew nothing about.
Our families are extremely close,
and I love them with all my heart.
And so, he's done a lot of things for me
and I've done a lot of things for him,
just trying to help each other's careers and help each other out.
He's like a little brother to me, and, uh...
I love giving him shit. [chuckles mischievously]
This is my oldest hen. This is Jewel.
She's seven.
She's a little beat up, but... [chuckles] she's our oldest girl.
-[chuckles sheepishly] -[Jason] She's like my... my bikes.
-I like 'em-- -[Jeremiah chuckles] A little torn up.
A little torn up, and got lots of personality.
[Jeremiah] The thing with building a chopper is...
It's a blank canvas for you to do whatever you want.
You know, you can either fabricate
every single piece on the entire bike,
or you could just piece together what you have, and make it your own.
[indistinct conversation]
-[Max] Natural yarn. -Whoa!
-[man] God. Geez. -[woman] Wow!
-What an amazing space! -[softly] Yeah.
So, my vert ramp was... started here, and went there.
-Now there's the ring back here. -You had a 12-foot, good...
-Twelve-foot vert ramp? -Yeah.
-I had a full vert ramp back here. -[woman] Yeah. Yeah.
And Mom was cool with it.
I grew up skating inside of a warehouse...
An old ironworks building...
A ramp that my mom let me build inside the house.
So, that... I was alone, or with her boyfriend,
skating... six, seven days a week.
-Curves to that. -It goes to like... It was, like,
-built right... -Wall to wall, dude.
-In fact... -[Jason] You could like, hit the rafters, basically?
I did it. Yeah.
[Max] You see how that one's cut out?
-I cut it out because it was in the way. -[chuckles]
You'd have to air over it, which was like a 6-foot air.
-So, yeah... [continues indistinctly] -[Jason] Max was like...
He just carries this vibe with him, where it's...
I mean, everything he touches...
I mean, like, his style in skateboarding just blows me away,
and what he can do. And then, what he brought
to the... the motorcycle industry,
his clean lines, just the way his... his paint jobs.
And, I mean, when I first saw
the first 4Q bike, I was like, "What is this?"
He just changed the game. I'd be like, "Man, this guy is unbelievable."
I think as a skater, you learn
"Failure is okay,"
because you fail repeatedly to learn something.
My first bike, I'm actually not really embarrassed about,
but I see a ton of flaws in it.
I think that's the thing about skaters,
they make great photographers. There's a lot of skaters
that are amazing photographers because...
skaters speak that alien language to everyone.
They look at a set of stairs or a... a bank, and they're like,
"Oh, man, look at that! That's insane."
Well, then you want to shoot it, and you want it to look good.
I know that transfers into this.
I mean, you... you're looking at the lines of everything.
And... you just switch a rear tire sometimes on a bike,
and you're like, [exhaling] "Oh, there it is. [slaps thighs] Finally."
You know, and like, for two months, you looked at it, like,
"What the fuck is wrong with this thing?"
It was just the tire,
or the size, you know, if... 16 versus an 18.
And... [snaps fingers] bam, that's it.
[Jason] Max definitely paved his own way in skateboarding,
and I... I can relate to that, as a... as a skateboarder growing up,
because it gave me that eye.
But it's never been on the level that he is.
It's al-- It's always very inspirational
to see how he's transferred that into his art form now.
All right. So...
-[strains] -[rumbling]
Here is our next project. [exhales]
it's the... [sighs]
fifth '36.
-[Jeremiah] Number five. -This is... That is number five.
I want to throw it in something that...
-um, that's pretty awesome. -Another crusty old bike?
It's not another crusty, old bike.
-[Jeremiah giggling] -No. It was a pristine, beautiful bike,
but it wasn't '66.
So, the history of it... I bought it.
It's a show bike. I asked for permission.
I said, "If I bought this, is it okay if I could remove this motor?
Like, I love show bikes. You know me,
I love all these vintage old bikes, but I want to ride 'em."
-I... -So you had a survivor show bike?
Yes, because the person who made it was a painter, who's amazing.
-It's an amazing-- -Okay. So, '60 is an amazing show bike. Okay.
-W-- What it... I wanna... I want to see it. -[Jason tittering]
Quicksilver is this super famous bike. I've seen it all the time.
You know, it was really scary, 'cause I'm like, "This is sacrilegious,"
and then I'm like...
I already have permission.
So, don't be like, [whining] "Ooh, you can't--"
And you're gonna mess with an original show bike, though?
-Okay. -It's not the original motor.
-Okay, okay. -So, but there... Here's the thing,
like, the motor's massive. It's like... You'll, like, burn your ass off,
and it's like the... It... It's... It's just for show. I'd rather ride it.
-Okay. -And so, if we're making '36s,
I'm asking if we can take this, put it in that. Okay?
I'll take it down to Jeremiah,
get the motors, put it all together, surprise Jeremiah.
And he just... I mean, you're talking to a...
Dude, this is a very famous bike.
The Quicksilver was built by a guy, Dean Lanza,
that was, uh...
He has a cool, uh, roster of choppers that he built,
and they became fairly collectible.
All right. I'm going to reel it up. Okay?
-[Jeremiah] Okay. -[imitates babbling]
Stay. Don't look.
-All right. I'm not looking. I'm turning around. -Don't look.
-[Jason] Close your eyes! -They're closed. I'm turned around.
[Max] It's... Looks like a drag bike, but it's a chopper.
And everything's kind of molded,
so that it looks like it's one piece.
It is its name. It looks like this quick-moving piece of silver.
-You ready? -[Jason] Okay.
[exclaims loudly]
[softly] Fuck, that is...
-[Jason] Quicksilver, baby. -[chuckles]
Oh, my God. The history of this bike is insane.
The first time I saw The Quicksilver, I was blown away.
[Jason] Dean Lanza built Quicksilver back in the late 1960s,
and it's probably his most unique creation.
It was a revolutionary design,
and cemented its place in bike folklore
as the "grandfather of choppers."
There's tons of articles about it.
It's a beautiful bike, it's a Pan.
[Jeremiah] It's one of the baddest show bikes on the planet. Like...
It's just so fluid.
[Jason] I won't take anything away from it.
It's beautiful. It's sacrilegious.
But it isn't the real motor. It isn't the one that went with it.
And it's a chopper.
It's a chopper.
So, it's also just to go like,
"Look what I got, bro. Let's... Let's make something with this."
And he gets excited about it, and like, "What are you doing?
What do you mean we can't do this?" And I'm like,
"Well, it's not the real motor." And he's like,
"I guess... Is it not?" It's like, it's, you know, that was that one man's dream.
And I'm like, "It's just evolving. I'm not gonna paint it black."
-And it's like... -[Jeremiah] Yeah, let's do it.
Let's... Yeah. Right?
-Let's do it. [chuckles] -Right, baby.
-Yeah, I'd love to... -But look at that. But look.
'36... A '36 Knuckle in that.
One of the '36s, like, if we're gonna take...
we've taken a historical bike and that... that paint job, what it's known for,
But I want to ride the goddamn thing.
That's the thing, is when I buy these bikes,
I don't want it to sit in a museum.
I want to ride 'em, I want to shoot 'em, I want to film it,
I wanna... I mean, life is short. I want to do this.
Bro, that's dope.
Fifth. The fifth '36.
Dean Lanza, the guy who built it,
I mean, you can just look, uh, uh... at fabricated gas tanks
from scratch, and fenders from scratch.
And looking at his fabrication and his paint skills, and...
When I saw that bike...
-[speaking indistinctly] -...like, I've seen it for years, you know?
But I've never got to see it in person
to where I get to spend like hours and hours, and hours, and hours,
and hours of looking at a creation
that was created 50-something years ago.
All right. Well, let's take this bike,
and I want to put a Knuckle in it.
It will fit with what we're doing.
"Are you guys cool with it?"
He's like, "Yeah, I think it'd be awesome.
And we can ride it." And I'm like,
"It's pretty impossible to ride it the way that it is."
-[Jeremiah] Rock it all the way towards... -[clatters]
[Max] It's like a Jimi Hendrix song.
Your... You know, like a good one
you hadn't heard, where you're like,
I remember seeing that, and I was like, uh... "Whoa! That's..."
It's special. It's a... It's a cool thing.
I don't know how to describe it,
uh, aside from that it's... it looks
-like a drag bike, chopper. -[man] Whoo! We'll get it rolling.
-[imperceptible] -[girl] Yeah.
[Jason] I was like, "This is an amazing piece and I want to ride it.
Let's... Let's do it."
And so, I think everyone kind of got behind it.
I'm sure people are going to be pissed, but, I mean...
[murmuring softly] I don't know.
Originally, this thing had this, like, 10-over, wide glide.
It sat in the weather for 30 years.
I wanted to switch it to a Springer.
But I think the bike we're doing for you,
-it's perfect for that. -Absolutely.
So, we'll rip it apart.
-I mean, it... -But it's frozen as shit.
-[Max] ...frozen to shit, yeah. -Yep. [sighs]
[hammering]
-[Jason] Ooh. Oh, yeah. -[Max] Oh, yeah!
[sizzling]
[Jason] Whoo.
It's like we're making Thor's hammer.
[cackles and sizzling]
[hissing]
-[loud hammering] -[Jason] Look at this.
-[tool hammering] -[growling] Ah!
-[Max] Holy shit! -[smacks tool and laughs boisterously]
-[Max chortles] -[exclaims]
[growls] Yeah.
-[objects clank] -[Max] This is the front fork,
but it sat for so long outside,
it wouldn't fit in here with, hanging this up.
I don't know if you can see in there.
-Jason's cleaning the floor. -[Jason] It's a lot of...
That's a good man. Do you know what else he cleans?
Is the little thing at the bottom of the sink.
The little strainer, it's the first thing I noticed about him.
-He made tea, and he cleaned the strainer. -[grunts]
-[Jason] Raised by a woman. -I tried to marry him but... [chuckles sheepishly]
-he said no. -[exclaims in exhaustion]
So, uh... Basically, uh,
-COVID happened. -Right.
I couldn't be with you. Uh, we had to frame
-'39 with a '40 motor. We're gonna make a 4Q bike. -Yep.
-'40 4Q. -'40 4-- '40 4Q. And then, uh,
we had a whole design set up for it, and it was gonna get nickel-plated.
Yep. What happened was, I took the motor out, uh, you know,
-to use for something else we use. -Yeah.
You brought the '40 motor, and when I had the motor out of that frame,
I noticed some damage.
Uh, the old frames took a lot of abuse.
-So, I sent it to a guy that's the best. -Yeah.
Well, COVID happens. Six months turned into a year and a half.
Uh, the guy had some unfortunate circumstances,
-and then I thought, "Our... Our project's done." -Yeah.
And the other day, I looked at my own bike. And I was like,
"You know, this frame's perfect."
Take my whole bike apart.
-Give you the frame... -Yeah.
...and redo the project
in a different style. We were doing nickel-plated...
-Yeah. -...with a fancy paint.
And now we're gonna do the best Bay Area crust.
It's just kind of neat to go,
-"Well, let's go pick through all the amazing..." -Yeah.
-"...collection of things that you have..." -Yeah.
-"...build this sick, what your style is..."
-Yeah. -"...maybe pull the Frisco."
Let me get some fenders out.
-Yeah. -I'll get on the ladder, and you say when.
-Absolutely. -Okay.
[Max] But I kind of have a fender problem,
-just so you know. -[chuckles]
This one... This one, maybe we make that.
-Pink, with the... -Ooh.
...with the stripe.
-The golden, uh... the stripe... -With the golden pearl.
-[exhales] -[Max] Do the gold pearl down the peak.
I love taking things blue and making them pink. I'm not gonna lie to you.
-[Max] Yeah. -[object clanks softly]
-[Max] You hate blue. -[object clatters]
-[man mutters indistinctly] -[Jason] Oh!
-[groaning] Aw! -[groaning] Aw!
There, bro.
-That's fucking beautiful. -[man] Yeah, that's...
[Max] That's, uh... We'll just stop there,
'cause I don't want to embarrass anyone else's fender collection.
-[gasping] Oh, man. -You know what I mean?
[Max] So, this will be kind of a... bigger-boy bike.
I'm gonna make something a little longer for you.
-[Jason] Yep. -This is a tank that I just test-paint colors on,
uh, to see, you know, how they spray out,
so they won't look anything like this.
And then, you love that Frisco-mounted sporty tank.
[Jason] Oh, yeah.
One of the greatest things about being on this show,
is you get to go to so many different studios,
like craftsmen, artist studios.
And you get to be in their world, the world that they created,
what they're inspired by.
I get to create something with them. And so,
it's definitely like these wonderful moments
where I... it's like pinching yourself, where I'm like,
"I'm starting to build a bike with Max, a 4Q, and I can't believe it."
[Max] Hey, guys. If this is how I go,
-take care of Rachel. -[chuckles]
-Booyah! -[Jason] Oh, yeah!
-Okay. Oh, while I'm up here... -Yeah?
-...pick a... pick a primary, any primary. -I'd take "Crusty Rusty."
-This guy, right? -Here. Right.
This, this dude?
-[exclaiming excitingly] Oh... Bro. -[softly] Yeah, that's it.
What do they say? The "piece de resistance."
Use my shoulders. [mumbles indistinctly]
-"Sa-sa!" -[strains and laughs]
I want to be able to have this someday. It's so...
It's gotta be so cool to be able to come in here
-and just go like, "Oh, what about this window?" -Oh, it's so nice.
[Jason] It's wonderful to be in his shop
and be able to pick all these little pieces,
and it just finds its soul and its life.
Someone that you look up to and who inspires you,
and you're gonna go create this bike together.
-I feel very blessed to be able to do this. -[Max] Cool?
-[Jason] Super cool. -Cool.
-All right. -So...
-'40 4Q. -All right, on it.
Let's, uh... Let's do the paint. [claps]
Max's style kicked off so many things in our community.
Growing up skating really kind of gives you this eye that is something of its own.
And I see that in his work, and I love how he brings it to his work.
His paint jobs are unbelievable,
and you can just stare at them. And they're so deep.
I just really admire, one, watching him paint,
but, two, just the... the finished product of everything.
He's teaching me how to paint,
and it's just a wonderful experience
to sit next to someone who's a master at it.
With Max, you can see,
you know, his... his passion and love come into his craft.
He's just so fucking cool, man.
[inaudible]
There's people that come into your life,
and they open your mind.
They are a reflection of what you want to be.
And I think Jeremiah and Max have that.
It's weird to be like, "Hey, are you star-struck,"
when you meet, like, actors, and this and that.
And different people, and I'm like,
"I actually got start-struck meeting these guys."
[Jeremiah] The first time I met Max,
this was early in the days of the blog, and seeing him in Dice Magazine,
I think dating back to 2005.
I was just in love with his style,
his paint.
He's just very creative.
That he was a skateboarder,
and not that he was just a regular skateboarder, he was, like,
amazing, like, skating with John Cardiel,
going on skate trips on the other part, like...
This dude ain't just building bikes.
This dude's a badass and he ain't no fake.
This guy is as real as it gets.
The first thing I ever saw of Jeremiah was on YouTube,
and it was, like, him kickstarting a bike.
And he had Vans on, and he had shorts on.
But just from the way he walked and moved,
I was like, "This dude skates."
I respect that guy a lot, man.
'Cause he's... he's made it
in the skateboarding world, which is, like...
That's difficult, you know?
And I was a skateboarder,
and I still am a skateboarder. You can't ever give up on skating. I'm...
I'm not what I used to be, but I watch Max, and he's, like, six years older than me,
and he's still blasting his frickin' frontside airs
with... Just killing it, you know?
I think what makes Max so special is that he is,
uh, he's a pioneer, in the sense of a style.
And he's perpetuating a... a style from the...
the late '60s that no one really has,
and he really lives it.
He's an artist through and through. And I feel like
my relationship to him is really fueled by his love for skateboarding,
my love for skateboarding,
and you know, him really bringing that flavor to motorcycles.
[Max] Jeremiah,
he had asked me to paint something.
I... I asked him to paint... see if he could paint a gas tank for me.
And there was no hesitation. He...
From, like, the first time I started talking with Max...
I mean, we've all had our rough roads with friendships.
But me and Max...
Jeremiah was... got into the chopper thing
shortly after I did,
and he started Love Cycles.
And there wasn't a lot of us back then that were, like,
under the age of 40.
And Jeremiah,
his first bike was cool.
He did a good job.
And so, I took notice.
And then, uh, we were like fans of each other.
And then we meet each other at a show, and...
we've wrestled each other at every show ever since.
And I think I've lost every wrestling match. [chuckles sheepishly]
Yeah, I call him more than he calls me, just 'cause I get...
Like, at 11:00 at night, I'll just be like, "I gotta... I gotta talk to him," and...
He'll be like, "I'll talk to you tomorrow."
He just sends me selfies of himself with his shirt off.
He's constantly sending me selfies.
And I'll fuck with him. I'll be like,
"Oh, another cute selfie from Jeremiah."
And he nev-- He'll never stop.
He's very old-fashioned. He loves his families.
He loves being a craftsman, and he's a pure soul.
[inspirational music playing]
[Jason] It's rooted in his title, it's Love Cycles. Does everything.
It's really inspiring, at the same time, he's just the most amazing family man.
Max is being a skateboarder and just being an awesome human being and...
You know, we've been able to ride motorcycles on the other side of the damn planet and...
We've been able to meet some of the coolest people
and become really good friends.
It's a friendship...
I love that guy, man. You know?
I can whoop his ass in wrestling, though.
[laughs heartily]
I bought this bike that had been in a fire and I restored it
and it ended up in the museum in Milwaukee.
And I took it out of the museum a couple of months early to race it and...
I was getting really good at building engines at that point in time of my life.
I was... I was so nerded out of performance and--
I wanted to build everything and I wanted to build the fastest, most powerful
bike I could build and I didn't care of the consequences
of doing a 120 down Grand Avenue at two o' clock in the morning
all by myself or going out to the desert by Joshua Tree and...
going as fast as I could. I couldn't recognize
how stupid I was being because I was...
I was so... Sucked in by this mechanical thing.
That it was like a drug. It was like, the faster I turn that throttle,
the more I wanted to do it. And that day on the beach...
My good friend Benji said, "Man, you already beat the fastest guy,
just wait 'til tomorrow."
I called Mona on the phone,
and I told her I just beat the fastest guy.
And two minutes after that I was, you know... I was screwed.
[mellow music playing]
I couldn't foresee the dangers involved of what I was doing
I just felt invincible because I was on this bike that I had built
from nothing, you know?
And it was so powerful.
My inexperience of racing on the sand,
and my ego, or you could just say, drive.
I wasn't thinking about Mona, I wasn't thinking about Angus, Paloma, Jonas.
Anybody that I was around.
It was just Jeremiah and how fast could I go.
And it didn't matter.
And for a couple of years after my accident, I couldn't get excited anymore.
I had all these blank canvases in front of me,
and I couldn't touch any of them.
It wasn't the bike that did it.
It was me being-- Taking this bike and almost killing myself, you know?
That was a hard thing. Losing full use of my hand.
Being so stubborn that I could do anything,
I didn't need to listen to the doctors.
I still didn't wake up even after wrecking,
I couldn't wake up and say to myself like, stop!
You know? Just, focus on the moment of what's here, right now, one day at a time.
The accident is what drew the line in the sand if I'm gonna keep doing this.
And Mona was gonna still support me.
I don't know how she puts up with me.
My family has been my number one grounding point.
And even though I lost touch,
they were always there for me
when I couldn't recognize it.
It's just overcoming these mental hurdles, you know?
Depression's a messed up thing, you know?
[Max] I think Jason came back around and believed in what we were doing,
and I've noticed that in the last year
Jeremiah's inspired to build a chopper again.
I couldn't try and live in the future. I just needed to focus every day,
and I still struggle on focusing every day,
but when I do, and I can focus on one day at a time,
I feel like life just is so fluid.
I've got all these ideas and I've got all these blank canvases in front of me.
I'm gonna build something that all my creativity goes into it
and there's no concern of what somebody thinks or who do I have to build it for, or...
A timeline.
It is validating when someone has done some really cool things with their life
has said, "Hey, man. I believe in you, let's do this thing."
And I feel that Jeremiah is validated again.
And he's ready to build some bitchin' shit for Jason.
[Jeremiah] Getting over that hurdle, like hurdles, man.
For people that are struggling or going through depression,
and I was in here, at the end of last week,
and I came in and I have had this bottom end
of a motor I've been working on for the past year.
It just went together like it was a, a dance.
Like all my knowledge came back to me, like,
how to fit it, how to size it.
I could remember how to make this dance again.
[calm music playing]
Man, life's good. You know? Life's, life's awesome.
As far as bikes, man, I just want to keep creating.
No matter what it is.
No matter what it is, never stop using that part of your brain
to where you want to create something.
-[man] Mark. -Okay.
All right.
Long time coming.
Late 60s, Dean Lanza. Amazing artist, amazing painter.
This was a show bike, my first show bike. Show them, bro.
We took the pan and put in a 1936.
[groans] Nickel-plated, dual carburetor. Holy shit.
Bro.
Jeremiah.
[exhales] Bro, look at that.
Wow, bro.
Being able to put the motor that I really cherish and love the most,
put it in there, have it all nickel-plated, dual carburetor.
-Start it up, man. Start it up. Let me hear it. -[laughs]
[Jason groans]
Look at that, baby!
That was insane. It's so beautiful.
It's so complex and complicated.
[Jason] Look at that paint, George.
1968. It's like the Jimi Hendrix of bikes.
Dean Lanza's amazing monument and uh,
I wanted to put a nickel-plated motor in there, so--
The 36 is rare as it gets.
And uh, it's beautiful. We're gonna take it for a ride tomorrow.
'Cause we lost the sun, but tomorrow's gonna be a great day.
It's really beautiful to watch Jeremiah.
Because that bike is a chapter in our relationship,
and it was a chapter in his life.
Who would have thought that this bike would have forced us to get through these,
these times that were extremely hard on him.
Look at that.
Six '36s, buddy.
[Jeremiah] I told you.
-[Jeremiah laughing] -I told you!
[Jeremiah] Just like the way your heart beats. Like, nothing stops it.
Like, when I feel like I get creative again, like,
just putting that bottom end together, I feel like,
the next step is I could just create this
badass sissy bar and make this frickin' killer tank and these pipes,
and I could just see it all flowing with my eyes closed.
[Jason] This was something that was to respect the history.
Dean Lanza's amazing, and I think Quicksilver kind of came in to my life.
And I feel like this all came together, the universe kind of came together for this bike.
And I wanted to make something special with Jeremiah,
but the truth is, Jeremiah and Max together
was very important for this to all to come together.
Jeremiah was going through a pretty tough time and what was going on in our lives,
and what needed to happen, it really helped bring
one of my best friends out of a hole.
It's kind of the most prolific storyline
that moved me the most in this whole series
because of really the backstory of what's been going on
with two of my really, really dear friends.
[calm music playing]
There's only so much you can do for your friend
but he needed to come out of his shell and he needed to find it,
and feel like this bike got that little bit back.
Got him rolling again and got his inspiration going,
and he's got his mojo back.
And really, what that was, is like rescuing a friend.
Being there for a friend.
It just was the right thing to get him back into his craft.
[hopeful music playing]
I really thank everyone who could make Quicksilver come together,
because it was such an important piece
from one of my best friends to like, survive.
It was a survivor bike, I feel like, we got through it 'cause of that.
Do you think that's the farthest that this thing's ever been ridden?
On an actual road, I mean, yeah. It's...
Dean Lanza, I think, took it up a drag strip a couple of times.
Like that. But not as far as doing 20 miles on it.
[Max] It was just meant to be a show bike.
[calm music playing]
-How are we doing back there? -Woah, woah, woah, woah.
See that?
Okay, Jerry. Gonna need your help here, brother.
[Jason] Oh, man.
-Holy shit, bro, it looks huge. -I know.
-I look fucking tiny-- -Bro.
There we go, there we go.
-Got it? -Yeah, right there.
-[groans] -Oh, boy.
-Oh, boy. Yeah. -[exclaims excitedly]
-[both laughing] -Yeah. Oh.
-Almost lost a thumb in the process. -[groans happily]
Oh, man. Damn.
And I made everything king-sized. Like the shifter?
This is it.
-Brake. -Where's...
This is going to... this is going to...
It's going to England, baby.
[calm music playing]
[Jason] Dude, it's unbelievable.
[Max] We should fire it up.
[Jason] Let's do it.
Wow.
All right.
-So... -Let's start it.
[engine sputtering]
[engine roaring]
[Jason] Oh.
-Oh! -[cheering indistinctly]
[indistinct conversation]
[exclaims]
Got a big boy bike, going to kill rattlesnakes.
[Max speaking indistinctly]
-There's no key. -Yeah, there's no key.
[indistinct conversation]
-Never had a bike actually start this easy. -Really?
-[Max] Yeah, dude, real nice. -[Jason] Yeah?
-Yeah. -Like that?
It's time, works perfectly, like, everything's tight. It's good to go.
[Max] Intense. Intense three weeks.
Yeah, well, that's the beautiful thing about this story.
We planned to do something else and this ended up exactly...
-by listening to our loved ones and... -Yeah.
-Trusting in-- -For sure.
-Trusting in the universe. -Yeah.
We got down to the last minute, I literally leave in a week and a half.
Perfect, dude.
-It's perfect. -Oh, yeah.
My old frame, that front wheel,
I just had got, and it just was like, perfect.
-Yep. -The brake pedal is hollow inside
so that it's light and it snaps back quick.
Those are old vintage table leg ends
to go with our white-black theme.
And then, yeah, I extended the shifter arm so your big foot can fit under there.
Everything's... Up, up.
[sighs] Bro.
So, one up, boom, boom, boom.
Yeah, GP style, like race bike style.
It says it on the gas cap, so... When in doubt.
"When in doubt," like... [chuckles] One up.
[Max] One, one up three to get down.
[Jason] One up, three to get down.
Fuck, it's beautiful. I love how you put these two different colors, too.
-Yeah. Cool. -I can't wait to ride it tomorrow.
So check it out, man. We got six '36s,
all of us are gonna ride.
-Thirty-sixes, choppers, on the road. -Can't wait.
Yeah, so we're gonna do that tomorrow.
Forty 4Q bike. [exhales]
[mellow music playing]
[Jason] My love for Knuckleheads,
I love the look, the aesthetic of them,
and it's really the sound.
Thirty-six was the first year.
It's not the best Knucklehead, but she's the first Knucklehead.
And it really was the one that when I was little, I was like,
that's the one I always wanted.
It's, it's a very unique motor.
And they're so rare.
It's the most beautiful engine in the world to me.
[Max] This shit will grind you down,
because you're constantly having people trying to criticize your work.
You know that thing with people where they love you when you're down?
Jeremiah and I faced a lot of that
in the chopper thing where people are kind of waiting for you to fail.
I'm not saying we're at the top but we're doing good.
You know? And having Jason on our side didn't help those things, you know?
There's memes made about making fun of us and all these silly shit
because we built bikes for Jason.
Some guy that had the means to help support our craft.
[calm music playing]
[Jason] It's a wonderful place, out in the desert.
So it was cool to bring Jeremiah and Max to my kind of territory.
It's kind of where I grew up after I left my mom's house, was being out in J-Tree, so--
It was one of the coolest moments
because I never got to ride with Jeremiah and Max at the same time.
How long's it been since we've all been together?
-Never? Never. -Never.
-I'd say that's-- -That's crazy.
-Isn't that crazy? -Yeah, this is the first time.
-That's insane. -Yeah, that is pretty weird.
We talk all the time. I'll be with Jeremiah, we'll call Max.
If I'm with Max, we'll call Jeremiah.
And it just has been going on for 11 years now.
[Jeremiah] We've never gotten together.
I gotta tell you, this, making the show, this has been the hardest
out of all the stufff to shoot.
The whole dream of being able to have six 36 choppers, riding on the road.
It's just one of these weird things that was in my head
and the fact that Jeremiah was like, "Nah, nah, you can't do this."
I was like, "We're doing it."
[Jeremiah] The feeling of bringing those together,
I've just never seen it before,
even when I talk to the old timers too, they're like, it doesn't happen.
[Jason] Everyone's got a different style.
And I love collecting, 'cause it's like, man, it's an art piece,
it's a little Picasso that I'm like, I appreciate these.
I get to ride this artwork.
It's what I've always said, man. We get to ride our artwork around town.
[stammers] You'd be an asshole if you had a painting outside your truck,
and you were like, "I painted this, check this out. Check me out."
[Jason] It's almost like therapy. There's a lot of healing stuff that happened
by just building these two bikes and...
And you know, the biggest one was Jeremiah, which I've shot,
you know, documentaries about him.
We've built so many bikes together. I've shot so many things together.
And you know, Jeremiah's had a lot of growth in the last year.
Taking Quicksilver, it's been really beautiful
to see you finish and like, your face when we started it up.
That spark happened again.
And then seeing you come here looking how healthy you are, I'm like, it's fucking--
I'm very proud of you.
Man.
[chuckles]
Quicksilver was... [clears throat] that was a hard one.
I remember when it showed up at the house,
Uh...
You know, and they're like, "We're gonna change it."
And I'm like...
[stammers] "You can't change it."
I'm like, "Okay. I could do it," you know? "I could do it." And um...
I had closed my shop down and...
And I just fallen out of love...
[clears throat] with bikes.
It came to a head, you know? A year and a half later, like, why am I--
I gotta do it. And um...
Those months leading up to that were, you know, I'd been struggling.
I had quit, quit drinking and...
I'd go into the shop and I could just sit there and I couldn't...
I couldn't love what I loved, you know?
How am I gonna build this motor
to go into like the baddest chopper on the planet?
I don't have the skills right now.
And I was calling Max, "like, what do I--"
He said, "Why don't you, like--"
-Just do it, like--" -[Max] Start.
-Just start. -Just start, and, and...
I'm like, "Oh, okay. I can do the-- I can build the flywheels,
I can balance the flywheels, I can fix the case, I can pour this," like...
Everything was lining up, you know? And...
It was going so perfect, you know? This is not how it goes. Like, this isn't...
How it happens, you know?
That day, that morning, I go in and got Mona
and I said, "I think it's gonna start, Babe."
And, "Blam!"
It fires up.
I couldn't believe it, like,
I never built a Knucklehead with all the rocker arms and everything exposed,
and no oil to the top end, and it was running. It was like...
I feel like I got to be kind of like, reborn again. Like...
"Man, I wanna build a chopper again, Max, I wanna-- Can you paint my chopper?"
-Like, that's all I wanna do, I wanna do that, you know? -Yeah, yeah.
And um, but just take it easy. And listen to the signs.
'Cause those are important, you know?
-[clears throat] -Good to have you back.
And like, you guys know I...
I love motorcycles, you know? And I love you guys. And I'm--
I'm honored to do Quicksilver, and I hope I did it justice.
-[Jason] Amazing. -Thank you, Jason.
-[Jason] You know it, buddy. -For asking me to do it.
-Yeah, man. -'Cause it's been a journey, and...
[chuckles] I wouldn't be here without you.
[Jason] Talking to one of my best friends about what he's going through,
it just was like, I was moved, and that's the real magic, and uh...
I'm happy I was aware to capture that moment.
[calm music playing]
Both of us had to like, "Get your fucking act together.
Do what you are born to do.
-Someone cares." -[Jason] Yeah.
"And you're gonna show so many people.
Let's do it, like, buckle up and let's go."
Most of all, we didn't want to let you down.
The spirit of what these two bikes are, really, um...
Super impactful I think for all three of us, you know, the friendship.
And just going like, "this is uniting us."
We've all been talking for, you know, a long time, but now this is it.
-Yup. -Us sitting under this tree
talking about this kind of stuff
and knowing what we've all, what we've all been through.
-I love you, guys. -Love you too, man, thank you.
-I learned a lot, man. I love you brother. -Thank you, brother.
Hermano.
All right, let's go ride some bikes.
Pretty fucking cool, how healing that whole process was, man.
It was the most intense therapy session I've been through yet.
[all laughing]
-Oh, shit. -It was a good one.
God damn it.
[all chuckling]
[hopeful music playing]
[Jason] Riding with the six '36s at dawn,
all personalized, some survivors,
it was a beautiful thing, and it was really just coming out of two friends going,
"Oh, well, that's impossible, that's impossible," and I'm like, well...
I like to see that.
[calm music playing]
It was really fun to be able to dream that up and then all your friends build those?
And customize them, and just--
It's having your wildest dreams come true and so that's why six '36 came out of it.
It was extremely special.
[Max] It takes a long time for some of us
to feel comfortable in our own skin
and to believe in who we are.
And that has been a journey.
I'm elbow to elbow, we're like a David Mann painting,
we're like, literally touching each other.
I have my handle bars hitting Max's and we're just riding top speed.
The sun is coming up. I'm so close, I could just hold on to them.
I felt like we were in one of those paintings.
Who knows? In a hundred years, are there gonna be motorcycles?
[Jason] They're really beautiful.
And I know how much fun they offer
and what they've been through, these machines,
whether it be at war, good times, bad times, like...
I just love all the history that gets wrapped up and soaked into them.
[Max] I hope more people can slow down
and enjoy...
These machines are really simple.
Just being on the road, like, the universe is just connected to this machine
and you're riding right next to one of your friends.
[Jason] I'm through and through...
Just a roamer, a vagabond. I love--
I love moving.
It's just that vehicle, it's how I wanna move through life.
[captivating instrumental music playing]