The Big Sleep......

Indian Larry's resting place. What better vessel for Larry than a Panhead jug, with the dishpan fully engraved by CJ Allan. This shot comes from inside the IL shop, during the Indian Larry Memorial, held in Sept. of 2004.

Close-up detail shot of the top and side of the dishpan with CJ's engraving. I'm sorry, but I can't remember who actually constructed the urn. Could someone tell me, please?

David Mann's urn. Designed and painted by Krylon John in "David Mann Red" - the paint coming from the exact same can of paint John used to repaint Mann's bike in 1997. The urn itself was constructed by Kenny Morris - Hot Rods & Hogs, Stanton, CA.

David Mann back home at he and Jacquie Mann's house in KC, MO.

Randy Smith's most fitting final resting place - a set of cherry Harley factory WR racing tanks. I forgot I had these photos. I found them on an old disc, when I was going through stuff after my computer crash. I have no idea who sent these to me, or when, I'm sorry. I have no info on who constructed or painted it.

As you can see, Randy rests in the L/H side of the tanks, and Lisha, his wife, will eventually join him on the R/H side.

More shit that I get in my Email every day......

I get shit like this in my Email boxes every day from aftermarket manufacturers. Here's one of the more bizarre ones I got today. Doggie helmets, from Fire Star. Too bad they don't make one's with that diamond plate aluminum face (muzzle?) guard.....

You know what else would be cool? If they had face bandanas for dogs with growling, salivating people faces screened on them. 

Der Rico is selling his bike......

You'll recognize this bike from Choppertown, and Choppertown FTV. Rico puts together a solid rider, no worries with this one.

Email Rico here for the skinny - fatherfury@hotmail.com

Phone - 909-208-8795

St. Patricks' Day - parts 1& 2.....

Part 1 - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As I always say, no better way to honor the Patron Saint of Ireland, than to drink green beer, and then throw up in some alley, haha! Seriously, I'm proud to be an Irish-American, and proud to be born on St. Paddy's Day.

Hey, you know what an Irish 7 course dinner is?
It's a six-pack of Guinness, and a potato.
Know how many Irishman it takes to change a lightbulb?
It takes 6 - one to hold the lightbulb, and 5 to drink until the room starts to spin.
Know what the difference is between an Irish wedding, and an Irish wake?
One less drunk....

Part 2 - " I hope I di-di-die before I get old......."

Well, look at this....... it didn't happen. I'm still here. With this birthday, there's no way to get around it. I've reached that plateau in my life that makes me officially OLD. I never thought it would happen, but it did.

I think the realization of being OLD finally sunk in when I renewed my drivers' license a couple days ago, and the DMV issued me a pair of horseblinders sunglasses, and told me to pay particular attention to the back of my license.

There were some new endorsement on the back - they enabled me to legally turn my right turn signal on, and leave it on permanently for the rest of my life. It also allows me to legally drive in the fast lane next to somebody in the right lane, to prevent people from passing. I can also now drive 10-15 MPH below the speed limit in the right lane, and then when somebody tries to pass me I can lawfully speed up to a maximum of 100 MPH when they get next to me to prevent them from doing it. Nice! That'll show them damn whippersnappers. I also have the option now of having "Pops" put on my license instead of "Mr.".

Take it from Frederick......

The Incredible Shrinking Frame.....

Sean brought me this frame after he mocked up his bike, and didn't like the proportions of this pro-street (I think it was an early Chopper Guys) frame. It was stretched out 2" in front, "0" up, and stretched 2 1/2" in the tail section. Sean wanted the rear section shrunk the 2 1/2", the neck rake taken from 36 degrees to 30 degrees, and the downtubes redone so they and the neck area more resembled an "oem-style" frame in those areas. Plus, he brought me a tank he wanted Frisco'd and mounted while I was into the framework. Here's how we went about it....

You can see the 36 degree rake of the neck well in this photo. The idea is to make a cut parallel and behind the neck's original welded area (stopping about 3/8" from cutting it all the way through), take about a 3/16" wide (at the bottom) wedge cut out of the backbone, heat that area, and bend the neck back in for 30 degrees - then reweld and blend in the cut.

After some quick guesstimates, it looks like an 11 degree bend in the new downtubes' lower splice areas will hit the backbone in the location we want.....

The new downtubes ready for their final trimming, fishmouthing, and beveling.......

New downtubes welded in place, and starting the "oem-style" neck area with the neck lower web support. Hey, thank God for snake welding magnets. They're pretty handy.....

Slugged, plugged, and ready for final welding. The rear section was shrunk in the seating area, and the lower legs for the rear section were shortened, then realigned with the axle plates. As a bonus, shrinking the rear section like we did also lowered the rear axle height another 1 3/4". Looks a lot different now than when it came in here, and Sean liked the proportions a lot better.

Here it is, ready to go home - shrunken, with a Frisco'd late Sporty tank we did, and an 8" fender mounted to cover a wire wheel with a 180/60-17 tire. Shawn will have a nice platform to build from as he and his son CJ start on their project together. Let's hear it for good ol' Dad.....CJ will be the recipient of the bike when it's finished.

The website is back up.....sorta.

The Shamrock Fabrication/Irish Rich Custom Cycles website is back up again. It took a lot of after-hours work on my part to get it up and running, but there's still more work to be accomplished on most of the pages. But, I'm knocking them down one-by-one when I can spare some time.

I lost the whole website because of the computer crash. When I got the computer up and running again, I had to import my site, then re-publish it. When I checked it after it "published" again....all white pages! It blows, but the site was a little "stale" anyways, so this kinda "motivated" me to update it.

Same address as always.....
http://www.shamrockfabrication.com

Some nice press......

I got a nice inclusion in Marilyn Stemp's article in the new April, 2012 issue of Iron Works magazine. It's entitled Running The Front Range - from her trip out here in Sept. of last year. In the article, Marilyn does a synopsis and gives her personal observations on several shops in and around the Denver Area. Included are visits to 2Wheelers, Dennis Goodson's Fantasy In Iron, Ryan Boyd's shop in Loveland, and David Uhl's art studio in Golden. Oh yeah, and my shop, too!

Here's the section that I occupy in the story, with a nice photo of myself, and Part-timer Steve. You'll have to find yourself a copy, because the photo of Dennis Goodson (and the caption that goes with it) is not to be missed. There's also some good shots of the stainless eagle that Dennis did for the main exterior side of David Uhl's studio. Marilyn, the inclusion in your visit and story was most appreciated. Thank you very much.