There's a perfectly good explanation why we're been slacking on the Acme blog:

We've launched our new fan site at Facebook.com/AcmeChoppers.

Stuff around the shop has been mental since we returned from Born Free 3 last month, and social media is one thing we've let slip through the cracks. Well now that we've got a proper spot on Facebook, you can count on us to keep the news and info flowing.

Plans are in the works for updating our website later this summer, and when that happens the Acme wall on Facebook will appear on our home page. Bam! no more blog. Facebook does a better job than blogs of keeping people up to the minute on what's going on around here anyway, so it's a change we believe will make everyone a whole lot happier.

We'll be the first to admit it: Acme's presence on Facebook and our blog has been a little lax. There's an honest reason for our slackness, but it's not our style to make excuses for jobs poorly done.

Roadside Marty from Flat Broke Customs in Pensacola, Florida, swapped the Sportster forks on his Purple Haze pan to entertain the crowd at last week's Limpnickie Lot Bike Show in Daytona Beach.



When he and Tim from Papa Clutch Customs were finished with the 60-minute project, Purple Haze was rocking a brand-new Acme Wishbone Springer.



Tim from Papa Clutch Customs lends a hand

Thanks to Chris Callen at Cycle Source magazine for setting up the program, and to Marty, Tim and our friend McGoo at ChopCult for entertaining the audience at the Limpnickie Bike Show.



The project begins




Buttoning down some details




Chris Callen and friends take the finished project off the stage

The guys from True East M/C and FOTS are hosting their fifth annual Ride 2 Skate Jam. The chopper ride goes from Philly to Baltimore, at which point everyone will unload their sticks and skate to hell. It's a good time for a good cause, so load up your Logan Earth Ski and get ready to ride May 22-22, 2011. For more info, click the flyer or visit the events page in the Acme Gallery.

Cyril Huze's blog is a must-read for many bike nuts, which is why we include the French master builder in our monthly press releases. Not all the facts Cyril rehashed from our most recent PR are correct (we've been building Acme loop tail frames for well over a year), but the man's heart is in the right place.

The "debut event" Cyril refers to in his post is actually a fork install at the Limpnickie Lot—not a "frame intro" as Cyril suggests. In any case, we appreciate the juice, and thanks to the all the positive comments shared by CH readers.

At least one guy we know will have an awesome new year: Billdozer at ChopCult and Biltwell. This is the frame we finished for him before Christmas, and it's shipping next week. Bill's frame deviates from our normal Acme aesthetic, but he told us what he was gunning for, and after seeing the photos he says we nailed it.

We're really stoked on the BMX/Triumph style axle dropouts. The loops are one-piece CNC'ed billet steel just like our customer frames, but we reduced the radius and their scale to complement the proportions of Bill's 650 Brit mill.



The axle adjusters are Pangea Speed's stainless steel cams, which is a design that was popular on MX machines in the '60s and '70s. You can see these gizmos zip-tied to the motor mount in the photo below:



Thanks for letting us pitch in on your 2011 show bike, Bill. Let us know if you need any more custom stuff.

And to everyone else…