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Bikers set up magazine shoot at Jamesport Country Store

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Motorcycle owner George Stinsman was joined in Jamesport Monday with photographer Mark Velazquez to shoot Mr. Stinsman's latest work.

The Jamesport County Store on Main Road was turned into a photo studio Monday as members of Chaos Cycle, a custom motorcycle shop in Mastic, used the property as the location for a magazine shoot of their latest bike.

The star was a “board track” design custom bike made to look like a motordrome racing cycle from the 1920s and 30s (the sport was outlawed after bikes and their racers kept flying into the stands, killing spectators).

The bike, built by Chaos Cycle owner and founder George Stinsman, uses the same low-lying look of the board track bikes, while adding in modern safety features like disc brakes on the tires.

The custom motorcycle was painted deep red to look like it was rusted and the paint was chipping away. Mr. Stinsman also used lights from his client’s grandfather’s boat to make the headlights and tail-lights, and included a false storage bag on the bottom of the bike to disguise the battery.

“The bikes have to be very minimalistic,” Mr. Stinsman said. “Every part on a motorcycle should have a purpose. Motorcycles are about two wheels and a motor that you take on the road.”

Mr. Stinsman previously worked on hot rods and cars, but said he got tired of the “Corvette guys” and found the biker community was more laid back. He founded Chaos Cycle about 10 years ago, and makes between five to 15 custom bikes a year, he said.

He said the Jamesport Country Store was the perfect location for the photo shoot, which featured a model from New York City dressed in Daisy Dukes posing on the bike.

“The idea behind the bike fits with [the Jamesport Country Store] so well,” Mr. Stinsman said. “[The bike] is only a few months old but it looks like it’s a hundred.”

Photographer Mark Velazquez, who shoots bikes made by Chaos Cycle, said the location also allowed the group to showcase a different side of Long Island.

“We try to get Long Island exposure as much as we can,” he said. The photos will appear in Xtreme Bikes, a custom motorcycle magazine based in Sevilla, Spain.

This wasn’t the first time the Jamesport Country Store has been used in photo and film shoots. Owner Howard Waldman said personal care and apothecary chain Caswell-Massey used the store in the 1970s to shoot photographs for advertising, and added that last month, crew members from the Coen Brothers’ newest film “Inside Llewyn Davis” rented an old coke machine to use in their shoot in Riverhead.

Mr. Waldman, who has run the store for 40 years, said the bikers approached him about using the storefront and the vintage truck out front for their shoot.

He was more than willing to let them spend the day at his shop.

“I believe in helping artisans out,” he said. “And the guy who built this bike is an artisan. Plus, it’s fun.”

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