Miss Betty...

is featured in issue 315 of BackStreetHeroes. Also visit their great blog! The bike is build by L&L Choppers, one of the best and most inspiring chopper-shops in these low lands...

Airbrush bikes

Planned this photoshoot tomorrow, but the weather broadcast promised 90% rain, so I went to Ria and Rinus today, to shoot their Sportster and Dyna. Rinus is a talented airbrusher and painted both bikes. Ria's blue Sporty in a deep-sea theme and the black Dyna has a macabre touch on it. Thanks for the nice day Ria and Rinus!

El Santo Diablo

... is featured now in issue #102 of Wild magazine, France. The bike is build in 2008 by Dark Star Kustoms.

Kistekloete

Stephan from Kuringen, Belgium, is a real artist. This Evo softail is his previous build. It features loads of cool details, like a really funny rear-fender, made of a spade, and a nice racey exhaust. And what about the fat rear tire, and the RSD gear-box, and the one-off seat, and the wonderful fuel tanks and... and...

Schapekoppen!

I actually only planned to make some photo's of Nito's Ironhead chopper. But then he told about this group of greasy friends, the Schapekoppen (Sheep head): a little group of chopper/riding/tooling/drinking/BBQ'ing friends in Dordrecht. Check out their blog! And so, at the spot we decided to change plans. Crazy plans, to be exactly! So, we don't make a bike-feature, but a lifestyle report of the Schapekoppen crew! Janus with his cool Sportster, Nit(r)o with his smokin' Ironhead and the dead-cool Intruder (Yes, it really is!!!!) of Jacco. All the paintwork is done by Jacco's 'Royal Kustom Works', check his website, as he's a very talented painter & pinstriper! Have I already said I really like this Intruder? I'm not the biggest Intruder fan ever on this planet, but I really like Jacco's intruder...

Bigtwin June 2010

It's again the end of the month, time is flying by! In next month's bigtwin some good stuff:

F. in action

Fred alias 'de Zeeuw' send me these photo's.

Ramon's Evo chopper

Today we went to the Cote D'azur in France, to shoot Ramon's Evolution chopper!














Just kidding! It was a stone pit somewhere in Brabant, were we had approval to do a fast (!) photoshoot in the half-an-hour rest-break of the work-guys. We did some really cool shots, though. The conditions were really sunny and unfortunately, really windy too. I put one big studio flash with umbrelly next to my car to get it out of the wind. It had to fill-in the shades of the bike's side. Y'know, it was 12:30 o'clock, with the sun burning hot from high above upon the bike's top! Also I put dual strobe-flashes behind the bike, high, and one in front of the bike, just to light the tires and seperate 'em from the background. We did the session really quick and then all the big power-shovels and trucks came out and so we went to to a little pool wich had a bizarre green/blue colour, like if we were in the South of France! Yessss, I'm on vacation all the time...

Harleydag Arnhem 2010

Last sunday I went to the Harleydag Arnhem with my Harley Trapson (bicycle) as it's near my home. Sunny weather, thousands of Harleys, bikers with striking cloths etc. etc. There was a fun fair, too so it was a nice day out for families too.









Bas' Honda Shadow, build by Milo Customs








Cool Swedish style







Chevy powered V-twin (yeah really!) rigid chop







Really nice Yamaha custom chopper

Garage Maniacs Party 3

Yesterday was such a great day. I snapped some pixels at the GMP3 party, in the backyard of Sjofel. There were about 20 old skool bikes. With a camp-fire, a ride-out, big BBQ, tons of meat and a garage-band, this party was a blast! Thanks Sjofel!

Sjofel and his 'spaghetti racer'








The one & only Harry!






Really nice old skooler in progress with 23 inch front wheel from Belgium.







ZZ-Tjebbe has a great taste. Few weeks ago it looked like a 70's longbike. Now he's going back to his rat-roots :-)






Chop with amazing paintjob! Really liked this one!

Huang Guan hardtail

Have you ever heard of the brand name Huang Guan? Do you? I haven't, to be honest, and yesterday was the first time I've seen a Huang Guan in real life. This chopper-enthusiast Oliquattro brought this little two-stroke chopper to the GMP3 party, were we -at the spot- shot some photo's. Huang Guan seems to be some Chinese brand, who copied an old Jawa engine. The frame is made by Dark Star Kustoms.

John's Indian highneck

Today everyone in Holland is bicycling "Dauwtrappen", as that's the tradition on "Hemelvaartsdag". But I went toe Coevorden to visit John, the man behind the little bikeshop of Bike Parts Coevorden. He finished this highneck with a modified Indian engine. It isn't only a showbike, but a real mile-eater too!









































Tried a new set-up today. One 500 watt studio-light, full power, with softbox, pretty far away from the bike to avoid bike white spots. Plus that with two speedlights. The studio-light with umbrella results in a smoother fall-off of light at the asphalt and so it's a less 'flashy' image than with bare lights... something I wasn't really happy with, the last few dark rainy weeks...

Black Thunder

The weather still is dark, grey and depressing over here in The Netherland, and so this morning I thought about cancelling today's photo-shoot and set another date with Jose. But it seemed that in Schiedam, near Rotterdam, it would stay dry-(ish) and so we gave it a try. The way to Schiedam, the windscreen-wiper of my car worked overtime. But in Schiedam... it stopped pissing down and we succeed in making some decent shots! This bike is an Evo Harley Davidson, named the Black Thunder, and it features a tuned engine and a 300 mm rear tire.














With this kind of weather it's hard to have some detail in the highlights, but look, there even is a teint in the sky, coz the background is a tiny little under-exposed. Strobe 1/4 power, left (close to Jose's face) and another bare light 1/2 power in front for a little fill-in, about 5 metres away from the bike.














Jose wanted some riding shots (without helmet and eehhh... in the hectic traffic of Schiedam!!) as he liked the action photo's I did for Evert's highneck! But, as said, the weather was really, really dark and because of the long shutter-speed, most of the photo's were shaky... Arrghhh!! But then I bumped onto this lucky shot! (no, we didn't rode really that fast, just about 50 km/h)

Fred's Shadow chopper

It isn't really spring here in Holland, lately, but that doesn't stop us making cool photo's! Today I went to Zeeland to shoot Fred's Honda Shadow chopper under Dutch skies, the way Rembrandt liked 'em. This bike is a endless project which is changing all the time. Fred is a cool guy with a good taste of music too!



Mention the sun, which actually is behind Fred! Three bare speedlight left, right and front @ 100% power

JAS Trikes

We almost cancelled today's photo shoot because there would be heavy showers everywhere in the Netherlands. but then Arie -the owner of this V8 trike - phoned me with the good news that it would be 'dry' in Anna Paulowna, in the North side of the Netherlands. We photographed this bike between the rain, though, but we succeed making some nice shot though!
Okay, this trike is based on a Mustang engine- and driveline. The rest of it? Home made by Johan, Arie and Simon (a.k.a. Joy & Speed a.k.a. JAS trike). What an incredible and wicked ride this is, and fully road-legal too!