Good Luck Tour Dirt roads in Utah October 18 2016, 0 Comments

photo Tom Laveuf

After our first night in Brian Head, Utah we had a few hours break from the storm. We decided to do a little exploring on some dirt roads up a ski slope. I'm not going to lie, I didn't feel that great about taking a bike that has no business on the dirt. Especially this early on the trip, the last thing I wanted to do was screw up my bike doing something stupid. 

photo Tom Laveuf

Like most things that are a bad idea, it was a lot of fun. There were a couple of four runners in the garage, so the crew hoped on those and we headed up into the hills. Everything was going great. The trees looked amazing and it was beautiful out until I hit some of the clay like mud!

more to come on this story...

Good Luck Tour Utah Fall Color & Rain October 15 2016, 0 Comments

photo Jacob Day

Starting our day by rotating our gloves, pants, boots, and socks on the heater in our room in Cedar City, we prepare our minds for another day in the wet. But, we first had to sort out Tom's bike. The reg/rec arrived at a nearby Holiday Inn were Dave and I met up with Tom and Jacob who were already busy at work swapping parts. We used the down time to figure out our next route with the growing storm in mind. Since we didn't have much time left with Jacob and Tom on the trip, who are getting photo/video content for us, we decide to make our way up to Brian Head, Utah were Dave's sister has a cabin we can wait out the storm.

As it turns out there is more going on with Tom's bike that a roadside service can't fix. We put his bike back on the trailer and continue on upwards on our way to Brian Head.

photo Jacob Day

Getting back on the road has a way of clearing your head of stresses and worries, even in the rain and cold. The mountain roads of Utah definitely play a roll in heightening that experience as well. Having never tackled a trip of anything close to this size before, it's settling in that the road is something that is very much alive. I couldn't help but to think, it's throwing tests and challenges at us earlier on to not only reveal itself to us, but to prove our worth to it. It was at that point my respect for the road grew.

 Climbing in altitude the temperature dropped, fog grew, and rain increased. Surprising, our moods increased as well. Being surrounded in such beautiful landscape each mile we became more absorbed into it. Seeing this terrain under neutral skies and a blanket of moisture, we felt was a privilege and would have it no other way.

photo Jacob Day
photo Tom Laveuf

With few miles planned for the day, we took advantage of pulling over at our leisure to better capture our environment. 

photo Tom Laveuf

10,000ft in elevation, mid 30 degrees, and the rain becoming hale we make it to the cabin where we'll warm up and watch the storm change into real display of force.

photo Tom Laveuf

Good Luck Tour Finally Rolling.. Breakdowns October 15 2016, 0 Comments

photo Jacob Day

The Tour was finally off and running, now with all of us together we set out to cover some miles. My CB550 was the first to start giving us some trouble. While on our way to the first fill up of the day, my bike starts cutting out, sneezing, and wanting to die. limping it the gas station and filling up I pushed it into the shopping center across the parking lot to brain storm what could be going on. After bouncing some ideas back and forth I assume my mechanical advance is sticking and clean and lube it up. Thinking back, since it was a new bike and I still hadn't got used it its character or it mine. I easily could have just been running out of gas. Whatever the case, I never had the issue again. Back on the road, it was good to get out of Vegas and start heading up to Utah. 

photos Jacob Day

30 miles out, in North Las Vegas, Tom starts to fade back in the "something is wrong" sort of way. Dave and I slow down and wait while Tom is, fortunately, able to coast up to us. As he's explaining the issue he's having, it was hard to understand with our helmets on, so we decide to get off the highway to a, very convenient, open gravel lot.

photo Jacob Day

As he explains what was going on before it cut out, which was the motor cutting out, surging, and then dying completely with no signs of battery power, all possibilities of causes are running through my head. Tom and I start running through the basics, like is it a loose ground, broken connection, or a short. The grounds are good, even after adding another main ground to be sure, so our next suspect was a broken connection. This turned out to be a memory lesson for me since I wired his bike. Without wanting to completely destroy the harness, I tried to statically check solder points on the ignition and switched hot circuits looking for a short or broken connections. All checking out, we agreed the charging system was suspect. The last system we wanted an issue with. We packed nearly every tool to completely tear all our bikes down, a multimeter was one that was not packed. Key for diagnosing charging issues. 

Fortunately, our good buddy Jacob was with us in a chase car getting photos and drone footage on the first stretch. As Tom and I continued to brainstorm on a diagnosis, Jacob ran back into town to buy jumper cables and a multimeter. With no new ideas, Jacob returns with jumps and an analog meter. Never using an analog before I immediately blow the fuse on the meter checking battery voltage, which helped adding some comic relief to the situation. Switching to the jumpers from his car to the lithium battery on the bike, with you're not supposed to do, we get the bike started and all is well till removing the cables and the bike duplicates the initial symptoms of the issue. Without the proper meter, we're still uncertain if it the battery or charging system, so we remove the battery and connect the jumpers directly to the battery leads. Keeping the rpms high and disconnecting the cables the bike dies instantly meaning it is in fact a charging issue. Great.

With a glimpse of hope we call every shop within 50 miles that showed up under a search of motorcycle searching for an 8 wire regulator/rectifier. Being the only part of the charging system that wasn't replaced new. No luck. 

We were all very determined to keep Tom on the trip, so splitting up and towing the bike home was not as option. So some creative thinking later we found a cheap trailer on craigslist to at least buy us some time will we get a replacement reg/rec overnighted to our next destination, a hotel in Saint George, Utah. 

Tom rushes to meet at potentially sketchy dude about a potentially sketch trailer, when a potentially sketchy dude parks his car and approaches us. With a limp and one hook for a hand we meet Rude, as to make clear "like a dude with a bad attitude." I'm on the phone with Jarred who's at the Seaweed custom shop back home working on getting one of our extra reg/recs overnighted as Dave and Jacob chat with curious stranger. Walking into a conversation cold I pick up on talk of cars, motorcycles, and engine building and tuning, it wasn't hard to jump right in. It had to be more than a couple hours go by as we chat with our new bud, only breaking when he remembers a new friend he could call about sourcing our needed part. 

It's getting late and only a few hours of valuable sunlight remain and we are all getting bit restless. Rude offers a ride to Jacob in this car, which was a built to hell 500+ hp AWD VW GTI, in his generosity to do something for us. Jacob politely refused, but I couldn't let chance pass. Upon sitting in his car Rude informs me, in his newly familiar humor, that it's not wise to get into a built car with a man with a partially working hand, a hook as the other, and one leg behind the wheel. The leg one leg was news to me. Nonetheless, I wasn't going anywhere. Rude, shifted through the gears faster than most veteran drivers with all their limbs. After reaching 150 very quickly I look over to just a hook on the wheel as we 4 wheel drift around a cresting turn after the long straight. Circling back to the lot I was still in an adrenaline filled laugh. Dave and Jacob pleased to see us back safe and without any more missing limbs, we say our thanks and goodbyes to our new butthead buddy. 

 With Tom returning with a seen better days trailer, we load up and make our way north toward Utah. Getting only just over 100 miles in mostly nightfall to a campground, we find that there were no spots available as a storm starts to close in on us. With our patience tested all day, it was difficult not to be frustrated but we pushed through it as we geared up for another stretch to Cedar City, Utah to the closest vacancy in the area. We had our first best sleep of our lives that night. That 50ish mile run in the poring rain while exhausted from the day was a true test of our mental strength and endurance. Something we will later find as a valuable attribute to have on a trip like this with the bike we're on.   -Brady

Good Luck Tour Departure to Vegas October 11 2016, 0 Comments

After many delays and last minute paperwork at the DMV we are ready to get the hell outta dodge. Pictured here, my CB550 build and Tom's CB750 dohc build are packed up and ready to go. We are both using Wolf waterproof packs which turned out very useful. Our sponsors, Biltwell, Red Cloud Collective, Crawford Denim and One Down Four Up were well represented. Thanks to them, we have all the gear we need on this bare bones road trip. My CB550 is well tested and the front sprocket went up one tooth to give it more legs on the open highway. Tom's bike was put together just in time to depart. It was tested but not to the extent that we like to do. We left about 6:00 pm for Las Vegas to meet up with Dave. We rode mostly in the dark to Vegas which turned out pretty great. The weather was cool and no one on the road made for hauling ass.

Family and friends were watching on the "find my friends" app to see our progress as we make our way through the Mojave desert. Our first stretch on the road was filled with moments of 'I can't believe we're doing this' and 'Holy shit, we're doing this!' Paying a lot of attention to every noise the bikes were making, making sure they were the right noises. With every mile our confidence in our machines grew. We stopped a few times to inspect the bikes and Tom learned to always keep his gloves secure as the big rigs easily suck them into to the road. 

Being that Tom's bike hadn't been throughly tested we chose not to push them too hard the first stretch. It was a great first day of riding, and when we finally met up with Dave in Vegas we were beside ourselves in excitement. It was a long and challenging journey to get to this point and little did we know we would have our fair share of challenges to come starting just the next day.

- Brady

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Day 11 September 01 2016, 0 Comments

Seat is done and she is almost complete! Time for testing, breaking in the motor and get some last little things worked out.

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. First Fire Up August 25 2016, 0 Comments

Day 10
Wiring is done, everything is right and tight after the rebuild. Oil and fuel and let's fire this thing up and see what happens. 

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Day 9 August 25 2016, 0 Comments

Day 9
It's all in the details. LED lights, Bridgestone tires, Cone Engineering pipe, Biltwell tracker bars, Uni intake.

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Time Lapse Assembly August 25 2016, 0 Comments

Here is Brady's assembly process on his CB550 brat cafe for the Seaweed and Gravel Good Luck Tour.

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Day 8 August 25 2016, 0 Comments

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Day 7 August 25 2016, 0 Comments

Day 7 
Everything is painted and ready to assemble! Here is the rolling chassis. This is the fun part! Most of the planning is worked out and all the parts have arrived, all that's left is put it all together.

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Day 6 August 25 2016, 0 Comments

Day 6
Breakdown for Paint! Get all the pieces organized for paint. He is not going to powder coat this bike due to time. Powder coating is backed up about 3-4 weeks! We ain't got time for that.

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Day 5 August 25 2016, 0 Comments

Day 5 
Brady has the engine back out and all cleaned up, painted with new rings, new gaskets, valve adjustment, tight and right. The carbs have been gone through and cleared. Everything seems tight with the motor. You can see the full for building in the background.. Lite Beer!

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Day 4 August 25 2016, 0 Comments

After waiting for some parts...
Day 4 
Brady puts in the motor to see if the mono shock tab will fit. He did all the fab without the engine in which is the first time he has done it that way. Miraculously the mono shock tab cleared the carbs by about a 1/8". Everything looks nice and right. Welded in the mounts for the subtle under seat LED tail light as well. We also received all our Biltwell parts and gear today! So we will be able to move assembly with the correct parts.

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Day 3 August 25 2016, 0 Comments

Good Luck Tour Build Process.. Day 2 August 25 2016, 0 Comments

Good Luck Tour Build
Day 2
Brady Young has the idea already in his head what he wants to do with this Honda CB550. It is a different kind of build, being that it is for him and not a client. This opens up all the possibilities to create whatever he wants and to think and move in a quick manner to solve challenges. Making everything really subtle and simplified is the overall goal. Stock modified would be the term. Fabrication of  the mono shock conversion and seat hoop is seen here. Working out all the angles and lines to flow together.

Good Luck Tour!! August 05 2016, 0 Comments

Our motorcycle builder Brady Young is building a CB550 to ride across the continental U.S. We will be documenting the build process and the trip. We are doing it on vintage brat/cafe's and we ride pretty scrappy. Mishaps and epic fails are all part of the fun as well as the epic get-away. Biltwell , Crawford Denim and Red Cloud Collective are helping us with gear to make this journey! The Seaweed & Gravel Denim line will also be launched during this epic adventure! Watch as we hit the road and visit our like minded shops along the way.

Build Process

Day One

Brady is set on doing the CB550 build in three weeks. The first thing he always does is cut the sub frame and tabs off. No messing about with this guy. Strip the excess immediately to see what the new lines will be. Keeping most of the stock frame is key though.

Leucadia Artwalk! August 02 2016, 0 Comments

Ride Summer! July 08 2016, 0 Comments

Ride! Saturday, July 16th at 10:30 let's Ride! Kick stands up at 11:00 for a North County Ride, route TBD. Everyone is welcome.

4th Anniversary Sale! July 01 2016, 0 Comments

All Weekend we are having a 4th Anniversary Sale to say thank you!! 20% off all merchandise.. use promo code: thankyou

Seaweed CB750 Custom Build Earthy May 31 2016, 0 Comments

CB750K Client Custom Build by Brady Young
Seaweed and Gravel Garage

Max and The Greenhouse May 23 2016, 0 Comments

Model : Max Balch
Photography : David Patri 
For : Seaweed & Gravel

Battle of the Bands May 10 2016, 0 Comments

Battle of the Bands - Sunday May 22nd, 2016
Here at Seaweed and Gravel ! Come out and see some amazing young bands. 

Spring Events at Seaweed & Gravel March 24 2016, 0 Comments

Two rides coming up! Sunday, April 10th and Sunday April 24th both start at 10:00am until about 3:00pm. All are welcome! Meet at Seaweed & Gravel about 9:45.

Battle of the Bands is May 22nd in the Seaweed & Gravel parking lot ! Come on out community and enjoy these battling high school bands. The winner is featured at the Summer Fun on the 101 Music Event later in the summer. 

Tillis Means Business March 22 2016, 0 Comments

model Kaitlin Tillis
photography Cody Means
vintage clothing Seaweed & Gravel, Crawford Denim
shot in Leucadia, California