Laughlin River Run 2006

This past weekend Laughlin played host to Nevada’s famed River Run - a long-standing biker event on the southern edge of the Nevada and California border on the Colorado River. It’s been a few years since Kathy and I last attended the event, so it was especially exciting to drop in this year. It was a very full day and we enjoyed every minute of exhaust fumes, roaring engines, blasting rock ‘n roll, and tons of vendors with great new product to share. Most of the usual suspects were present as well as quite a number of new industry talent. all-in-all, this year could best be described as total visual overload.

We also got a chance to meet Matt Hotch and lust over his new offerings. Eddie Trotta of Thunder Cycle wowed crowds with some unbelievably beautiful new bikes. These guys build rolling art of the highest caliber. I’m bummed to say that, while I took some great shots of their metal masterpieces, I had a camera glitch and many shots were lost. Mr. Hotch suggested that I might get to check out his shop sometime, and maybe get a couple shots then.

Hugh King, aka the Chopper King, best known for his hit show “Biker Build-Off” on the Discovery Channel was a big hit with the fans. They were conducting a poll for the latest in the series of Build-Offs and voter turn-out was brisk. We hope to catch up with several of Hughe’s legendary custom bike builders over this coming summer, but in the interim… we’ve got some great paint to share with you; along some smilin’ celebs, wild bikes, and biker babes to hold you over.

Great paint as promised.

Smilin’ celebs; Rockem & Sockem Motorcycle Company showed off their Snap-On bike which was recently featured on Steel Dreams TV - The Patriot Project

Wild bikes - absolutely…

…and biker babes.

And once again, we run into the infamous Street Vibrations model and official smile of bike rallies everywhere. Cassie always the bikers reason to pause and reflect on the finer things in life. You may remember her from our shot of multiple beautiful ladies on the Big Bear Chopper in our “Quick Throttle EXPO 2006″ post a couple weeks back. Remember the one with the cool hat and feathers sandwiched in with the Hooters girls?

One of the great pleasures of these events is the opportunity to see all the great art up close and personal, and meet the artists who create these works - and this event did not disappoint. David Uhl - authorized Harley-Davidson artist thrilled crowds (and us) with his masterful paint brush. Of course, his motorcycle art is fantastic and well known among the biker community, but you’ll want to check his site to his other works as well.

Legendary motorsports/motorcycle artist Eric Herrmann showed several of his paintings, including one in the works. The Jack Daniel’s Historic original painting was featured, along with his painting “Dangerous” - one of my personal favorites.

The talented crew at Sneaky Talent, inc. home of BIG LEAGUE CHOPPERS showed off their masterful art on metal and shared some of their ice cold refreshments with us (thanks guys). These guys sure know how to celebrate a hot day of booth sitting and talent sharing.

If you’re a fan of cool bikes and hot chicks - and who isn’t? - click the calendar above to check out their Hard Limits Hard Iron calendar online.

It was great running into Josie Lawton, a talented artist I seem to only run into at car shows and bike rallies, She and Bob Pruner are the heartbeat of Illusions Custom Airbrush & Paint out of Tacoma, Washington. Click here to visit their site at MotorcycleMurals.com

The Paintworx crew traveled from Quail Valley, California showed off a full display of airbrush work.

Darron Baker, owner, operator, and airbrush body artist of Bear Tracks Limited, offers temporary tattoo services and was on hand to adorn enthusiasts with some great body art. Darron is clearly a double hitter when it comes to using his Iwata Eclipse airbrushes and his line of waiting customers was ready to strut his stuff.

We hooked up with Joe Guzman (Original Cycle Studio) from L.A. This guy is a triple threat in the truest sense of the term. His airbrush is outstanding, his graphics are wild and crisp and his pin-striping is flawless. Watch us here for more on him - it’s coming - oh yes it is. But in the mean-time, here’s a sample of what he showed us in Lauglin: Click Here

A long day of visiting with great talent and meeting new friends made for a long, yet exciting day. Our last stop for this trip was with Shawn Wilken, airbrush artist extraordinaire from Phoenix, Arizona. I’m a huge fan of his work, which was featured in the book titled “Extreme Motorcycle Art” (published by Merrell Publishers Limited 2005). We posted a taste of his great art here, but you can also check out his work online at www.ShawnWilken.com Or, you can see our pics of his art by clicking here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Photos, Artists, Events, Motorcycles, Laughlin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.