Somebody hand me a Phaser, quick !

I know this is waaaay OT, but I always thought this guy was a dooshnozzle, and this little diddy pretty much reinforces my belief. This spot just went up on YouTube.

Right now, 80 year old William Shatner is in the middle of doing another one of his cover song compilations. This time his "theme" is "fantasy/si-fi", entitled Seeking Major Tom.

Here the camera captures Captain Kirk in the midst of laying down the vocals for Iron Man. We can't hear the track, but Shatner can in his headset. If I were you, I'd turn this up really loud........

Things that take time to make.......

.......are necessary, and most people don't look twice at when you're done. The new brake stay anchor tab for my caliper bracket. I know, I could have paid $40.00 for a repop springer brake tab on Ebay, but......

And, the winner is.......

The winner of the Best Engineered Chopper trophy I sent to Alberto for the Moon Cafe Reunion is......

Franchino, from Chopworks. Congratulations!

Thanks for the photo of Franchino, Alberto.....but where is the photo of his bike, haha!

A Von Dutch Bus/Steve Kafka Restoration update.........

Back on 11/02/09, I made a post about Von Dutch's lathe, and a few pictures of Dutch operating it inside his bus, when he was living up in Calabasas. In the comments section, Steve Kafka left a note about his ongoing restoration of Dutch's bus:

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2009/11/von-dutch-monday-vii.html

Well, the other day, by accident, I ran across this clip on YouTube, posted almost exactly a year later, on 11/7/10, by Steve Kafka, on the progress of the bus restoration. I'm hoping Steve might see this post, and share with everyone where the bus is at almost a year after this video. One can only hope it's rolling under it's own power now, right?

This weekend......

Unfortunately, this is probably the closest I'll ever get to Italy - Pagliacci's Italian Restaurant, at 33rd and Navajo here in North Denver. Fantastic food by the way. If you're ever in town, you should go, and take me with you!

" And, it's..........Ladies Night! "

It was quite the last couple days here as far as the ladies go. Marilyn Stemp, Executive Editor of IronWorks magazine was in town, and she had Emailed me before she got here, and wondered "....if a nosy magazine-type" could stop by on Sunday. I'd never met Marilyn, although we've Emailed back and forth, and she wrote the story for the feature of the rigid Shovel I built for Chris Worrell in the May/June 2010 issue of IW. So, I was stoked she was taking the time out of her hectic week-end schedule to stop at my place.

Well, let me tell you, we had a great couple hours here shooting photos, and shooting the breeze. She's one of the nicest women I've met connected with the magazine/ bike world, and it was a pleasure to have her here, and I know she enjoyed the time as well. Part-timer Steve was even able to stop for a while while she was here.

The afternoon went all too fast, and of course, me being a dumbass, I never thought to get a photo with Marilyn untill she drove away! So, I'm sorry Marilyn, this is the best I could do on short notice, babe!

Next, the phone rang today, and it was really a surprise to hear another real sweetheart, Vyvyan Ross (widow of Phil Ross, of Super Max belt drive fame) on the other end of the line. She said Phil had been poking her around out in the shop to call me, so she thought she better get it done! I'm glad she called, and we spent about an hour catching up on everything.

Best news she had to share was that Phil's brother has been getting up to speed, and for the last couple months, has been making the Super Max primary drives again. Yep, you heard right! Vyvyan has always done the rear belt pulley poly overlays since Phil passed, but Phil wasn't able to pass along enough of the info she needed to keep the belt drive production going. But, that's all changed now, thanks to Phil's brother's efforts.

So, if you've always coveted a Phil Ross Super Max primary belt drive setup, or Super Max secondary belt drive, you can have it now. Vyv also said that they can do the overlays on the transmission belt pulleys again, too!

Vyvyan Ross and myself kickin' it at her place in Cottonwood, AZ last December.
Here's the contact info you'll need:
For rear pulley overlays only, contact Vyvyan

(928) 649-2836

For all primary and secondary belt drive kits only

(800) 604-8030

All the information and drive applications you'll need to reference is still on the Super Max website, so look it over before you call:
http://www.supermax.net/

I guess I never posted a photo........

........of my springer all put together and mounted, after I finished the extension work. 8 3/4" overstock, converted to Timken tapered neck bearings, and a WCC hidden fork stop plate adapted to the bottom tree. If you didn't catch the original posts on the springer rejuvenation , here they are:

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2011/05/month-goes-by-like-nothing.html

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-getting-there.html

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2011/06/pretty-much-finished.html

A hardtail for Jay.......

Just about through with this one.......then Deb's 4 speed frame is up for one just like it, too - along with squeezing a big inch Evo into the frame first. You're going to enjoy following along on that one......

Saturday, Sept. 17, don't miss this one.....

I hate to pass on this show again, maybe next year. But, that's what I said last year......

http://brooklyninvitationalbikeshow.blogspot.com/

Johnny Lizarraga ???

All these years that i've know Johnny Surprise, err...Johnny Cocaine, err...Johnny Dogstyle, err...I never knew his real last name was Lizarraga. I found that out when I got the new Oct. 2011 issue of Back Street Heros. Johnny's bike is featured in their spread on this year's Grand National Roadster Show. And, right there in the photo, is his real name.

Johnny has a bunch of nice bikes, but this black Shovel is just sooo right. People could take a lot of styling cues from this bike. Too bad BSH ran the gutter of the magazine through the photo.

I could tell you all kinds of stories about Johnny, like the time he ran all the way down the legnth of this Downtown L.A. diner on the backs of the booths - that were 5 feet apart....with the booths full of people, for example. Everybody I know has at least one great Johnny Surprise story to tell. Ask Part-timer Steve about his first encounter with Johnny sometime, haha! But, Johnny is a guy I can call in L.A. if I ever need anything, and he'll be there ASAP.

A better shot of Johnny's bike from the Dice blog. Aside from the Kimtab "snowflake" wheels, my favorite parts on this bike are the XLS headlight nacelle, and the dual rear old cast center-port PM calipers. I hope I got this right....the framework was done by Superco Trevelen.

Here he is, Johnny in all his glory (?), posing for the Dice guys at this year's GNRS. Johnny's bike won its class. Johnny is a fucking riot, I haven't seen him for a while now. He never fails to crack me up.

And, to finish everything off, here's a photo of Johnny, Eddie, and Scott Craig during Scott's Mooncricket photoshoot for Dice magazine. Scott's another guy for another time. I've never asked about this photo.......

9/11/01 - 9/11/11

Trophy for Alberto

Alberto is a Nomad Sinner in Jesolo, Italy. He's also the owner of the Moon (as in Mooneyes) Cafe' there. Alberto is putting on what will become an annual event - The Moon Cafe' Reunion - at the end of September. For the inaugural show, I offered to make a trophy for him to present. You can get the info for the Reunion, and also read Alberto's Blog here:
http://albertovenezia.blogspot.com/

The trophy is basically things I had around the homestead and shop. The base is basswood, and assembled, it measures 9" L x 7" W x 9" tall. I cut the shape, routed the edge, then gave it a couple coats of cherry oil-based stain. After that, I hand-rubbed in 6 coats of tung oil, then when that dried, I gave it a coat of Trewax hardwood floor paste wax. The plaque has a nice, warm look to it.

The gear is an old Rivera-Primo Brute III starter ring gear that I TIG'd a couple feet to, and the compass is a cheapie from Horror Freight. Ok, I didn't do the brass plaque, my local trophy shop handled that.

I feel that trophies like this are the best kind to get. Anybody can waltz down to the award shop, and pick up a bunch of trophies to hand out. But, when Ive gotten one like this in a show, these type of trophies are the ones that mean the most, I think.

Part-timer Steve isn't here.....

Well, Part-timer Steve left a week ago Sunday to ride his chopper back to Stevens Point, WI to attend his sisters wedding. After that, he riding on further East to take part in Walt's Gypsy Run V, then back here via I-70W, I think.
http://www.eastcoastgypsyrun.com/

He'll be gone a while, and the Fall work and the Winter long-term projects are starting to come in, so I brought in Marlon to pick up the slack while Steve's galavanting all over the country. So far, so good, and I'm seriously thinking of keeping him on (if and when) Steve shows back up.

On the plus side, Marlon doesn't mind working long hours, and he's pretty handy with tools, and he really knows the older bikes. He's rapidly getting to the point where I can trust him to be on his own as he works. And, he's not on his phone all the time texting his girlfriends every 5 minutes, or checking FOX Sports for the latest info on the Packers.

On the negative side, we had a little bit of a language barrier, but we're getting over that hurdle. Marlon talks about this Darwin guy all the time, and he tends to throw poop at clients he doesn't care for. I've been trying some of the behavior modification stuff I used on Steve, and it seems to be working somewhat.

Take your time getting back, Steve - enjoy yourself. No need to rush back on my account......