Meet Billy Geisendorff

This is Billy Geisendorff: carpenter, folk artist extraordinaire. We met him on the porch of the Blue Moon Saloon. He looks like Chris Cooper from Adaptation, only drinking a lot of beer and perhaps looking for some kind of fight?. He started telling us about the motorcycles he carves from matchsticks, and so we went across the way to his house to see one. The picture you see here is of the one he showed us. Keep in mind these are made solely with matchsticks and sewn leather for the seat and wheels. They are exact replicas of specific bikes, made from photographic memory, to scale. Also, the brake calipers move, everything turns, and there is even a real kickstand that props it up. Billy doesn't really use a computer, and I'm pretty sure only a handful of people have ever seen these bikes. What we loved about Billy was that he's making these bikes the way some people write love letters. He stays up at night gluing matchsticks together and then shaping them into brakes or handlebars or wheel spokes. Late at night after several beers he told me that he's waiting for the little people to come.