Met one of my heroes, turns out Craig Rodsmith is one righteous Dude!

When we rambled our grinning selves on down to The One Moto Show in Portland last week I had a sneaky little bucket list item in mind. Have a shot with Craig Rodsmith, of Rodsmith Motorcycles in Grayslake, Illinois. Mission accomplished, Now kindly pardon me while I fanboy it up a bit.

Just gonna say right off the bat that Craig is one patient and gracious guy. When we were getting ready to head back to the hotel after a full day, and I still hadn't had a chance to say Hi, I pretty much just grabbed the poor bastard on his way past. Wouldn't have blamed him a bit if he'd told me to get stuffed, but it turns out he's a lot nicer than I am, even if he is still the only person I've met that swears more than I do.

* (Full disclosure: I use the word "Fuck" like a comma.)

Between displaying his new Pipeburn featured turbo Guzzi V9 at the Chicago Progressive International Motorcycle Show on Friday and participating in the Rizoma Behind the Build panel at the One Moto Show in Portland Oregon on Saturday the man had a chock-full docket, and that's before gearing up for Mama Tried in Milwaukee later this month. Doing two shows in two days, on opposite coasts, would pretty much have me in permanent, "I'm not a morning person" mode, but not Mister Craig Rodsmith. Nope, he was all friendly and personable-like.

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It was a pleasure to get to shoot the shit a bit about life as a grease-monkey in general and his experience on Wrench Against the Machine.* Craig had nothing but praise for his competition, gotta love a guy with integrity. Now I'm not gonna lie, I may or may not have hugged the dude once or twice during our confab, but it was totally not my fault. There were PBR's and shots involved and Craig's just got that whole teddy bear thing going on. That's my story anyways, and I'm sticking to it.

* (Shout out to the universe: Wrench Against the Machine was six episodes of indie-builder awesomeness, featuring Roland Sands of RSD, (Roland Sands Design, as if you didn't already know) Alan Stulberg of Revival Cycles  and Michael Woolaway of Deus ex Machina, as judges of a 3 day, $3000 build-off challenge that brought in some crazy talent.) ​​

​Craig's plus one to the event, Dave Woll, was one pretty cool dude his own damn self, offering some solid insights into the online aspect of the industry and corralling Craig into signing a couple of glossies for me. I've never been much of an autograph guy, but these totally cracked me up. Gonna have to whip up some creative way to frame 'em for the shop wall. Something with rainbows, unicorns, and oily fingerprints should just about get it done.

​The day got even cooler when Craig wandered up later on, while I was sneakily charging my phone from an outlet outside, and stuck around for a bit more of a chin-wag.

In a perfect example of karma, my completely platonic man crush got to meet one of his own idols this weekend, when they were co-panelists. A certain Miguel Galuzzi, designer of the Ducati Monster, head of Piaggio's Advanced Design Center (PADC) and design manager of the Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Derbi and Gilera motorcycle brands. can not freaking wait to see what kind of potential creative collaborativity-type stuff comes out of that particular friendship!

​Safe to say that we all really dug the cool, relaxed vibe at The One Moto Show and, with any luck, we'll all be meeting up again next year. This time though, Rodsmith Motorcycles and Killman Customs Independent Buildhouse will both be bringing bikes, and you all KNow that's going to be a good time.

Thanks a ton for the courtesy Craig, It made a serious impression. if you're ever looking to chill out, head on up to our neck of the woods some time. We'll get our knees in the breeze, check out some nature and hoist a few!