I find design inspiration in old typeset literature, letter pressed posters, as well as nature and in this case machines. The folks at Wrench Monkees in Denmark sure know how to make a well designed motorcycle. Based around a 70′s Honda CB750 with a lot of custom modifications. One of my favorite parts is actually the subtle curve of the handlebars.

A bit out of my price range though.

My bike is in photographs 3 and 4. While not as custom and solid, still a nice ride that I put a lot of my own blood and sweat into. 1975 Honda CB400F. Basically a smaller version of the above bike. See that seat? I molded it out of fiberglass and frenched the taillights/blinker combo from a modern sport bike. A lot of other work went into it as well. Really fun bike.

So there’s this amazing bike race series in San Francisco where I used to (and will again someday) live, put on by some good friends of mine. They asked myself and one of my best friends (Shawn Gurczak) to help design a race kit for Soil Saloon. Now for the most part bicycle race kits are extremely ugly and if you’re not on a bike while wearing one you feel like an ass, even if your bike is right next to you. They are pretty necessary if riding a bike for long periods so most people go with what’s currently available or they emulate their favorite pro team with all those ugly logos and colors. Why oh why do these tight fitting kits have to be so ugly and loud? It’s bad enough they’re skin tight and stretchy.

The one requirement for the Soil Saloon kits were to be all black (black is tough remember) with minimal colors and no sponsor logos. We decided to go with a dark gray for all the text and a burnt orange for some highlight color. We just got the kits delivered and although they aren’t perfect they came out pretty damn well. I hope to design more of these in the future. See you on the cross course.

First compliment on the road from one of the organizers:

As suspected, as soon as your kit hit the road everyone started talking. Fans in Mill Valley and Stinson Beach are asking where we got them.

See you on the road NYC.

Since moving to NYC from SF I’m having a backlash of ye ol concrete livin. I bought my wife a banjo for her birthday (which I’m really excited to start playing too) and I think I’m going to stop wearing shoes and start wearing suspenders. I really like these covers to some old-timey banjo sheet music.

I’ve always been obsessed with Eero Aarnio’s Pastil chair. It’s such a simple design that’s actually really comfortable, durable and should remind us all to keep our designs simple, beautiful and of course functional.

My name is Dave Richard and I’m the Principal/Art Director at Popsicle Riot. This is the start to a gathering of anything relating to what inspires me mentally and visually. This will be an inspiration board to put it simply.