Bike Check With Joel Sim

Aaron Hartless
2021-03-26T16:48:53-04:00
First Manufacturing Company

A Rundown on Joel's Badass Ironhead.
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This bike has been with me for 3 years now and it has changed soo much over the years. When I first moved to the United States, I knew I would be getting a chopper after being inspired from selling Japanese motorcycle clothing prior to my move. I managed to snatch up a Harley Davidson, however little did I know it was actually a 1965 Ironhead. Only till much research I managed to understand more about my bike. I drove all the way to Ocala to purchase my first bike and trailer-ed it back. This was the start of my journey.

Robison Motorcycle operated by Jecoa and Joe has helped me through the start of my Ironhead and then handed me over to Nick Pensabene of Madpen Cycles who helped me realise the direction of which I envisioned. Without him taking me in, I would not have gone far to where I am today. After my first experience of bike week, Ron from Chopdocs gave me a ring and sold me an old frame that was found in the back of the Bush at the Last Resort. Right after the end of bike week, we tore the bike apart. Nick and Garrett helped me along the way by rebuilding the motorcycle and started Retrofitting the new frame with old and new parts.

The bike was completed right before Fuel Cleveland, with it being my first bike I owned in my life, It has some gnarly system to it. It was a hand clutch, right hand shift and heel-controlled rear drum brake. The learning curve was exponential for my first test ride in the hills of Pittsburgh. It was here at Fuel Cleveland that my photography grew stronger in this culture. I started shooting the event with a Minolta 7s, a film rangefinder. After developing the films, I saw that I could invest more time into photography and created, @coldhardink. The name started when I was running a Tumblr blog long time ago where I was inspired by many Americana country sides and dry deserted gas station photos. I started having the support by many friends of mine who consistently praised some of the shots I have done which I was motivated by.

I never knew that I would get into photography and remembered telling myself I would never be into it. It has been a great journey from where I started to where I am today. It is to great thanks to this tight knit community that has not only treated me like a fellow biker, but taken me into their own arms like family.