Gary Hetrick followup......

Almost a year ago, I did a post here on Feb. 20, 2101, entitled Magazine Trifecta, featuring Gary Hetrick, and his motorcycles. You can see the post in its entirety here:
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

Gary's bike was always one of my favorites, and I came to find out that Grant Peterson and Harpoon had always liked the bike as well. What we all had was a mutual appreciation for the fact that Gary had virtually built the bike from the ground-up, and had made almost every single part on his custom. Hetrick's bike was Light Years ahead of everybody else's choppers at the time it was built.

Well, a little while ago, Grant was poking around at Garage Company in L.A. when out of the corner of his eye, he sees a familiar front end poking out of a lineup of bikes. He walked over, and sure enough, it's Gary Hetrick's old bike. Where did Garage Company get it? Who knows where Yoshi gets any of the bikes and parts he has. Grant was kind enough to snap some photos for me on his last trip down there, and he said it was OK if I posted up a couple for you here. Thank you Grant, we all appreciate it.

Photo courtesy Grant Peterson

The bike is in remarkably intact condition. Bikes like this usually wind up get "cherry picked" for all the cool parts as they go from owner to owner, then the carcase sits out behind the garage for decades. The only things that aren't original on the bike - save for the nasty paintjob - is the seat, carb/air cleaner, the R/h foot control, and the handlebars. All of Gary's meticulous hand-machined, hand-built parts are still there, right down to the gold anodized Cragar Super Trick wheels.

Photo courtesy Grant Peterson

It's my opinion that 99% of all motorcycle tank and fender murals blow chunks. This one is no exception. The devil looks to be inspired by the one in the Dante's Inferno/Ave Maria segment from Walt Disney's Fantasia. What does somebody do....walk into the mall to the airbrush kiosk with his gas tank under his arm, and say "Do something really crappy on here for me"?

Not exactly sure what's bolted to the center of the outer primary that Hetrick spent hours machining. There was a smoked inspection panel inlayed there originally. Maybe a vent for an enclosed belt drive - the primary was originally a sealed wet chain drive.

Photo courtesy Grant Peterson

Here you can see someone has replaced the R/H foot control with a Perf. Machine unit. Those yellow "scallops" are, uh.....oh boy......I'm amazed the gold anodizing on all the parts has held up so well over the years. I sure hope Yoshi plans on bringing this bike back to pristene original condition again.