Applied Machete

Aw, nice one, Phil...

2012-02-02T09:37:00.001-08:00

Well, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, 6 more weeks of Winter. Damn. It was also reported that some reddish-brown stuff was running down his legs when he saw it. The Groundhog Committee reported that it was just some cheap tanning solution, because he was nervous and sweating.

"Get out of Denver, Baby GO, GO....."

2012-02-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

Looks like we're out of here earlier than expected for Love Cycles 3rd Anniversary party in Phoenix. We planned on leaving Friday morning, but the weatherman says to expect 6-12" of snow starting at Dinnertime today, into Friday afternoon. So, Part-timer Steve and I are out of here today at Noontime. We want to get over Raton Pass on the CO/NM Border before the fertilizer hits the ventilation unit, ya dig?

We're really looking forward to hitting this. Stop by and see Steve and I at the party, we'll have IRCC Tshirts with us, and we're gonna make the most of partying with old friends, and meeting everyone that shows up. You should be there......

Finished....almost

2012-02-01T23:55:00.001-08:00

The bends from Columbia River Mandral showed today. When I ordered them, I ordered 90 degree 3" radius bends, and at the last minute, I ordered an additional 90 degree 2 1/2" radius, and a 18 degree bend. I had a gut feeling I might need those, and I did. The 3" radius would have been too wide to make the tight bend, and the 18 degree bend mated perfect to the exhaust port angle. I'll tack the rear pipe together Tuesday when I'm back from Phoenix....or not.

I got two big boxes of backordered parts today, and another couple should be here tomorrow, for 3 different bikes going through here, so those have to come first. I'm extremely happy with the way the collector system came out, it's only the 3rd one I've ever done totally from scratch.

"Are we ready, Mr. Music?"

2012-01-30T00:37:00.000-08:00

Since Sundays are my day, I thought I'd get my 2 into 1 system cut, fitted, and tacked up..... I started with 1 3/4" dia. 16ga mandrals, and all seams go to the "inside". First, a 30 degree bend out of the exhaust port, followed by another 30 degree bend.....
....that went into a 45 degree bend, which mated to a 70 degree bend, which was 6" short of the merge pipes....are you with me so far? I needed to add a straight section to the end of the 70 degree bend to complete the front pipe. Doesn't look like it, but careful cutting, fitting, cleaning, and tacking these bends took well over 3 hours. I'm not plating or wrapping this system, this is getting a black porcelain (not ceramic) coating. I had to make the mating cuts tighter than a gnat's ass.....(Gnat's note: "That's pretty tight!")Everything was going along great, untill bam...screaching halt. Why? Well, I was sure I had a couple extra 90 degree bends left over from the last set of pipes I did for a client, so I didn't order any additional 90's for this setup. Turned out they were 70's. Guess what I'll be ordering tomorrow? That blows...

Show Class magazine - issue 5, and the interview......

2012-01-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago, Show Class magazine asked if I'd like to do an interview for their next issue. They'd Email me a series of questions, and I'd Email those back with my replies, and then I'd get a new group of questions to reply to.

They assembled the interview, and it's available in its entirety in the new issue (issue #5), which will be available to ship around (I think) the 14th of February.

If you'd like to pre-order issue #5, you can do it here:
http://www.showclassmag.com/
I'd like to thank Show Class for the opportunity to do this, it was something I don't get a chance at very often. It's a cool "small sized" magazine, and I gotta give the guys there at SC a lot of credit for launching a publication like this. The inde magazine biz isn't an easy game to crack into, so my hats off to them for the effort. Thanks guys!

Boo-yaaa....

2012-01-24T00:43:00.000-08:00

Real, real happy with the initial fitup on Tommy's frame! When the top tubes in the seat area get "realigned", it'll be pretty stock-looking, which is what Tommy wanted. The rear section needs to go a little more "vertical" , and towards the backbone still. This will have people scratching their heads. 4 speed swingarm, Evo powerplant, 5 speed transmission, a stainless Pan neck (Tommy's numbers are on his front motor mount), and stainless sidecar loop forgings to match. They won't know what came from where.

Almost, but not quite. Approximately 3/8" more needs to come off all the splice points, and 3 of the trans plate bolt holes will align, and the trans plate will bolt in place. See, somebody decided to weld in the 5 speed plate, and they cut the trans mount on the seatpost down to match the plate (?) I'll have to build that back out to get the Lt. front trans plate bolt hole back again. Oy vey!

The Dalai Lama......

2012-01-20T23:26:00.000-08:00

.....is in Manhatten, giving an address to the UN General Assembly. On his way back to his hotel, he decides to get something to eat, not having had anything all day. He passes a pizza parlor, and decides to go in. As he enters, the counterman says "Can I givva you somma help today?" "Yes you can..." says the Dalai Lama, "Can you make me one with everything?" Think about it.........

Usually, I'm cutting off the swing arm section, and putting on a hardtail. This time around, I'm cutting off a hardtail, and putting on a swing arm section. Tommy's plans for me, in addition to the swing arm section, are to add a stainless OEM-style neck forging and stainless sidecar forgings from John at Hardtail Choppers, then mix in dual 16" wheels, 5 gal. fatbobs, a short glide front end, and a hinged rear fender, with the "flip-up" section removed. Then, we're looking at an all black paintjob, a little pinstriping, along with as many accessories as we can powdercoat in gloss, semi-gloss, and wrinkle black for contrasts.

Also, check out what a killer job Blast Tech, in Englewood CO. did on that nasty rear section. Total professional work.

Looks like the best splice for the top rails will be at point A. ,right behind the seatpost crossforging, then with a little tweaking, and a little judicious heat applied to the rails, they should line up on both sections just fine for the splice.

The splice point on the bottom rails will be a piece of cake, right at point B. ,just behind the 5th trans mount. We'll use an offset trans plate that adapts the 4 speed frame to a 5 speed transmission to line everything up on the primary drive, and allow Tommy to keep his 5 speed. What's that you say....5 speeds don't fit in 4 speed swingarm frames, because of the L/H swingarm pivot? I've done them before, so you'll see how it's done.

300,000.....

2012-01-20T19:54:00.000-08:00

......pageviews, that is. Since December 2008, Applied Machete has had 301,558 pageviews to be exact, at the time of this posting.

Thank you everyone who follows my blog, leaves comments below my posts (except you fucking spammers), and the people who Email me and add more info on one of my post subjects, that I didn't know about. I've gained a lot of knowledge doing this blog, and I hope you've taken away a little from it as well.

When you think you've seen it all......

2012-01-19T21:27:00.001-08:00

Ok, I've seen slammed/bagged/hydro'd cars and trucks....I've even seen slammed tractor/trailer rigs and school busses, but I've never seen a slammed vintage travel trailer....until now.

Photos from Supreme Seventies, and Go Away Garage blogs, respectively.

"We can make chicken salad.......

2012-01-17T21:32:00.001-08:00

......from chicken shit". An old Ryan Family saying.

Take one 3" dia. 16ga. 90 degree mandrel exhaust bend, one 3" dia. 10ga. fence top sphere, and an old merge pipe. Cut the fence top sphere in half, scalp the top of it off, cut the 90 degree bend off appropriately, add in the merge pipe....

...add in a little ER70-s for flavor, and voila! We have a 2 into 1 collector for my CFL project.
It's 14" long on the "muffler" section, although I doubt it'll muffle anything. Now, if Paughco will just ship my Shovelhead BYOP pipe kit, we can finish this exhaust system. I think the whole motorcycle parts world is on backorder........

Triskaidekaphobia, and enjoy your Friday The 13th....

2012-01-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

Triskaidekaphobia ( noun ) : From the Greek tris meaning 3, kai meaning and, deka meaning 10, and phobia, meaninbg fear, or morbid fear. An unusual fear of the number 13, and anything related to the number 13.

Thank ChopperDave for the inspiration.......

2012-01-12T20:09:00.000-08:00

A few days ago on his blog, ChopperDave posted up a couple of David Mann's paintings that were part of the RM Auction for the Brucker Bros., held at the Peterson Automotive Museum on May 13, 2006. The auction was titled The Originators - Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Von Dutch, Robt. Williams - The Brucker Collection.

As part of the auction, the Bruckers put up for bid the entire collection of original David Mann paintings that Mann had done for Ed Roth, which in turn Roth turned into his well-known series of chopper posters.The Bruckers acquired the painting from Roth when he went to work in the Brucker's Cars Of The Stars, and Planes Of Fame (later, known as Movie World) museum from '70-'75, in Buena Park, CA.

There were a total of 17 Mann paintings that Roth turned into posters over the run, and the Bruckers offered up 16 of those - missing from the collection/auction (previous sale?) was the Outlaw Motorcycle Parade-Springfield Il. painting. In addition, the Bruckers offered the painting that Mann had done in '67 for Roth's catalog cover (the full painting wrapped around the cover), and 2 paintings Mann did for Roth that Big Daddy never used for posters - Dade County, and Ride Together-Die Together. In ChopperDave's blog post, he was bemoaning the fact that he didn't have a clear shot of the Ride Together-Die Together painting to post, so I dug one up for him, and you can see it below. In every one of the paintings Mann did for Roth, there is a hidden "Dave Mann" signature on each one of them. This painting has Mann's signature hidden below the gas tank, on the backbone - look hard, and you can see it.

I made a comment on ChopperDave's blog that the green bike in the center of RT-DT was based on a bike that was built by a friend of David Mann's named Sonny Rogers, from Kansas City, MO. Sonny's bike was also featured in the August '69 issue of Roth's Choppers Magazine, with the words and photos coming from David Mann himself. I scanned in the feature for you here, to go along with the painting.
You'll have to forgive the quality of the scans, and anybody who owns any of the Roth Choppers Magazines will tell you, the original printings were "less than stellar". The layouts were sometimes crooked (as on the 1st, and 2nd pages), the mass of black on the pages is splotchy, photo reproduction varied with each shot, and in this issue, the text is partially cut off from the page when the printed pages were cropped (page 3). Plus, this magazine is a little more than 43 years old to boot! But hey, it was a first of its kind, so we can cut ol' Big Daddy Ed some slack, right?You know, a "Little Bird", that lives in Burbank once told me he was up at the Brucker Ranch years ago, and in the basement below one of the buildings up there, along with a lot of the other stuff (read Roth and Von Dutch artifacts) that went to the RM auction, were all of the Mann poster paintings hanging down from the upper floor joists. He told me that Brucker offered him the paintings at about 1/6-1/8 what they went for at the RM auction, but finances prevented him from pulling the trigger on them. "Such is life....." .Hey, check out the cherry '56 Chevy Nomad parked in the driveway, in the background of the shots on pages 3, and 4? That was probably a $1,500.- 2,000. car back then in '68, even though it's a Nomad, and in as pristine a shape as it looks.

Did you catch the fully functional double-barreled 12ga. shotgun mounted to the back of the seat/sissybar on page 2 ???

It's called TOP FUEL, son.....

2012-01-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

No roll cage, no seatbelts, no parachute.....6 seconds and below, over 200 mph, and all while you're laying across a bomb, steering with the rear tire........

The Man.......

2012-01-02T18:21:00.001-08:00

......The Fuzz...The Heat...John Law...Five-O...The Barney Fyfes....The Po-Po...The Donut Munchers...The Boys In Blue...The Cops

Happy New Year 2012!

2011-12-31T22:24:00.001-08:00

2012???? What the hell happen to 1972! Or...1962, for that matter.
Tempus Fugit........

To all my friends, readers, and supporters.......

2011-12-24T08:57:00.000-08:00

The Doherty Phantom oil filter......

2011-12-13T09:55:00.000-08:00

Tim Doherty gave me one of his Phantom Oil Filter kits to try out, at the Laughlin River Run about 11 years ago, when the kits were fairly new. I've never had a chance to do just that, until now.

Doherty Machine made some great products, the best known were their PowerVents for both crank and head breather Big Twins, the Power-Pak air filter kits, and their "Mist-Free" head breather conversions for Twin Cams.

Unfortunately, Tim passed away in March of this year, and Doherty Machine ran into some operational problems. It's my understanding that Trask Performance , in Phoenix, AZ acquired Doherty, and is supposed to be producing the old line of products. Whether the Phantom is available again I'm not sure, you'd have to give Trask a call. The old Doherty product distributors show it "unavailable".

The Phantom Oil Filter was designed to be installed in place of the center fill cap on rigid frame 4 speed, and Softail 5 speed horseshoe-style tanks. But, it would mount on any oil tank - like the end of a round oil tank - that gave you a flat 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" surface to work with, and clearance for the filter length inside. The kit took the internal-style oil filter replacement cartridge used in Harley's ElectraGlide 4speed oil tanks, and is easily found.

You can see, Doherty changed the cap on the later kits, to a side feed for the return line, vs. my kit's threaded center feed location, and 1/8" NPT 90 degree elbow. This is the location of my Phantom - LT. side of the tank, between the belt drive runs. When I was figuring out the width of my tank, I was sweating the dimensions to not only get clearance for my starter, but enough side surface for the filter mounting flange. I made it, with an 1/8" extra on each side of the flange - whew! Instead of the the original inlet spigot, I installed a 1/8" NPT male to -6 AN male fitting. Totally hidden oil filter!
See how trick the Phantom was? You just remove the return line, unscrew the cap, and remove the filter for service. Hopefully, Trask will include this in the Doherty product line when they are up to speed.Here's where I'm at on my oil tank. The feed bung is A. in the photo, and the vent line goes into bung B., where there is an internal stand tube that bends over to the right to clear the filter cartridge, then up to about a 1/4" of the tank top. Darin from Bung King has my filler bung and screw-in cap on its way to me.......

Hip Ghosts........

2011-12-07T11:11:00.001-08:00

Photo courtesy of Glenn Caley Bachmann
"...East side of Moultrie St., between Cortland Ave. and Eugenia, in Bernal Heights, San Francisco". 06 (?) 8 68 Joe Jerry Hells Angels Frisco

The photographer also pointed out that partly visable in the upper R/H corner (see my arrow) is the name Loaded Linda.

Bernal Heights is just below The Mission Dist. in San Francisco. Bachmann also stated that unfortunately, this strip of sidewalk was torn out and redone shortly after he photographed it in 2005.

Let's dig in the mailpouch again.......

2011-12-07T10:30:00.001-08:00

Always in the "Top 10" most viewed posts on Applied Machete are the one's that I did on the Psychedelic Love Temple, the subject of the David Mann Painting by the same name. Not a month goes by that I don't get an Email or two from somebody who partied there, lived there, or crashed there when they were passing through L.A. Some of the accounts I get are concise, clear recollections with dates, times, and names, others are disjointed random pieces (go figure, huh?).

I thought I'd share one Email I just got a couple days ago, from "lewis.kl1". Read on.....

I lived at 1039 S. Ardmore , from mid '67 till the last party, my room/home was the front balcony set of room's. If you came to the house, I'm the one who normally opened the door if it were closed, or I greeted you as you came up the front stairs. We knew when people came in because of the noise the gate made, the gate had a very unique sound. The trike in one of the Roth posters was Tankers, the Panhead was mine. It was a great time of brotherhood, every day was a party.

The painting that "lewis.kl1" referred to, containing his and Tanker's bikes. Everybody calls this painting Bikes, Booze, Broads, but the actual name of this is A Taste Of Honey. "lewis.kl1" didn't specifically say weather he was a member of the Barons MC or not, but Tanker was. Tanker's trike was also featured in the very first issue of Roth's Choppers Magazine - under the title Tanker's Love Machine.

70 years ago today, always remember.........

2011-12-07T09:24:00.001-08:00

After all is said and done, and the dust settles.......

2011-12-06T20:35:00.001-08:00

This guy is still an assclown. This guy would be an assclown if he was doing beanie propeller hats. Unfortunately he chose "motorcycles". So sad.

They call it FRISCO.....and, a little more for you.

2011-12-03T23:46:00.000-08:00

I didn't want to mix these things in with the post below, but I found some interesting things about Chocolate George, and a REALLY interesting document on Hairy Henry Kot. First the Chocolate George items:

* Chocolate George owned a couple auto junk yards in San Francisco, one of which was called D&G A GoGo. The "G" was for George, and the "D" was for his younger brother and partner, Doug Sessions.

*George's original Angel name was "Junkyard George", because of his junk yards (not to be confused with "Junkie George", the HA that kicked Hunter S. Thompson's ass, he's a different Member), but on a run to Berdoo one time, George produced a quart of chocolate milk to drink to sooth his ulcers, and he was renamed "Chocolate George" from then on out. George had reoccurring stomach ulcer problems, and he drank the chocolate milk to calm them down. It was also an easy way for him to consume whiskey (which he spiked the milk with) without it upsetting his ulcers.

And, now for this obscure document I ran across on Hairy Henry Kot. It's the appeal ruling, dated June 1, 1959, on a 1957 arrest and conviction of Hairy Henry on a Possession Of Stolen Property charge. It involved Henry being found in possession of a stolen Pan engine with altered case numbers in a bike he owned/rode:
http://online.ceb.com/CalCases/CA2/171CA2d9.htm

They call it FRISCO.....Chocolate George's funeral.

2011-12-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

The famous Chocolate George's Funeral poster, and some on the events that occurred that produced this photograph.

UPI/29 Aug 1967 San Francisco, California, USA... San Francisco Hells Angels-style funeral cortege dots a hilly street as upwards of 200 cyclists roared to the funeral party of one of their members - "Chocolate George". His real name was Charles G. Henricks (sic), a 34 year old Angel who was killed in an accident in San Francisco's Hippie Haight-Ashbury district. It was the kind of last run Chocolate George would have dug the most. The cycle parade into Golden Gate Park..beer and wine..women..and rock music. After all the din and dancing it was, perhaps, apropos that one of the music groups attending the send-off was the Grateful Dead...Image by Bob Campbell

The photograph of Chocolate George's funeral, that became an iconic (and much sought after today - an original 24" x 48" will run you at least $400.00) poster was taken by Bob Campbell, and it ran on pg. 4 of the SF Chronicle with an article on the funeral entitled The Gang Gathers. The photograph hit the wire services, and it was in most of the major papers across the country the next day. Why? Well, because the Angels, hippies, and Frisco were news, and not many people had seen a sight like this in their lives. The original poster was printed by The Print Mint, in SF.

On the afternoon of Aug. 24th, 1967 Chocolate George was riding down Haight St., and went to make a turn right by the Straight Theatre. He hooked the front wheel of his bike on the bumper of the car in front of him (I've heard said it was a '55 Chevy), which caused George to be thrown from his bike onto Haight St. , suffering a serious head injury. George was taken to the hospital, where he died that evening.

George's funeral was held on the next Monday morning, the 28th. The funeral procession actually wound its way down Haight St, past the site of George's accident, with the procession gunning their engines as they passed the Straight Theatre, in a last salute to George. The funeral procession then headed to Cypress Lawn Cemetery, where George was cremated, and his ashes later scattered over Twin Peaks - the 2nd highest peaks in SF, located almost in the geographic center of the city, offering almost a 360 degree view of SF.

After the funeral, everybody went to Golden Gate Park for George's wake, or Wail! as it was called on the posters announcing it. Almost all of the Haight community turned out, because George was a much loved fixture in The Haight. Several of the SF bands played that day, most notably Big Brother, and the Grateful Dead. The Angels supplied the beer, and the Diggers supplied the food. It was a good send-off, indeed.

Here's something for you about what you see in the photograph/poster. Obviously, you see the hearse carrying George's body, with the family car right behind it. Next, behind the family car, riding 3 abreast, is the Frisco Chapter (I noted Pete Knell as #1. in the photo). Riding directly behind the family car is Hairy Henry Kot (#2), next to him (#3) is an unidentified rider - some have told me it's Sonny Barger, but I don't think so. That guy is flying some pretty tall apes. And, to the far right (#4) is Doug Sessions, Chocolate George's younger brother.

And, last but definitely not least.....here's some super-rare 8mm footage below these last two paragraphs, of Chocolate George's funeral, including a brief interview with Hairy Henry, and the Grateful Dead playing at George's Wail! in Golden Gate Park afterwards. If you look, you'll see Galloping Gooses, Satans Slaves, Straight Satans, and a few other clubs that came that day to pay their respects to Chocolate George, and his Club. Don't ask how I run across this stuff!

You know what's always bugged me about the original poster (which I had by the way, but disappeared on one of my moves, along with the first 3 issues of Easyriders, but I replaced those, never the poster)???? I still can't figure out why the Print Mint found it necessary to print the poster with the family's funeral car colored in bright florescent pink, when the rest of the poster is in B&W, save for the words at the top Chocolate George's Funeral, which are in brown and gold. I've never been able to find out if or what that meant. Anybody know?

The "art" of safety wiring.....

2011-11-30T18:21:00.000-08:00

A lot of people safety wire their fasteners. Most people have a good idea why safety wire is important on some components, but they are lacking in the how, and don't accomplish the intended results. This guy knows what he's talking about. Watch and learn......

Know how most guys.......

2011-11-29T20:15:00.000-08:00

......have a swingarm bike, and they bring the frame to me to have it hardtailed ? Well, Tommy's bringing me one of his bikes that has an aftermarket hardtail frame, and he wants me to splice this swingarm section into it.

I took this OEM rear section to the blaster today.......never throw anything away, right? This should be interesting for you to follow along on.

As my random thought process is wont to do..........

2011-11-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite blogs out there is Jon Patrick's The Selvedge Yard, and I have it linked here on my blog. I'm a religious reader of TSY, and you'll find it in my links list on the R/H side. One of Jon's recent posts is about a movie that is on just about everybody's "favorites" list - American Graffiti. The direct link is here:
http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/

Be sure to read the "Comments" section in the post, because it contains a couple more links from a couple people who left them there in that section, that provide a wealth of background information on the movie itself. In one of the links, it provides a mini-bio of Wolfman Jack, one of the driving forces in AG that ties the whole movie together as only the Wolfman could have done.

While I was reading Wolfman's bio, I recalled The Wolfman's move from across the Border, back into L.A. in '66, from reading his auto-biography Have Mercy! Confessions Of The Original Rock 'n' Roll Animal. A great read if you can find the book, I might add. Virtually driven/legislated out by the Mexican Government, Wolfman Jack had headed for L.A., to re-establish radio station XERB on this side of the Border. The studio/offices he set up were on Sunset Blvd., just a couple blocks east of Crescent Heights.

On a little triangle at that intersection of Sunset and Crescent Heights, sat Pandora's Box, a former beatnik hangout, now given way to the Counter-culture/hippie movement. If the name Pandora's Box doesn't ring a bell, it was the epicenter of the famous "Riots" that occurred in '66 on the Sunset Strip, and that incident inspired Steven Stills to write For What it's Worth, and also the exploitation B movie Riot On Sunset Strip as well, filmed and released a mere 6 weeks after the Riots went down. Below is an excerpt from The Wolfman's book, where he relates what he experienced while he had his offices there in that time period in '66. Also, here's a link I found, explaining the full story of Pandora's box from the great website Laurel Canyon Stories:

http://seastwood.com/backup310/pandoras.asp Pandora's Box, circa 1966.

"Even back then (My note: Wolfman Jack referring to the late '50's-early '60's) The City wanted to tear down Pandora's Box. It created a traffic flow problem for all the people trying to get home to their expensive pads in the Hollywood Hills. Mostly, though, the pressure was on to demolish the club because the hippies were a lot crazier than the beatniks who used to hang out there a few years earlier. They smoked dope in public, flashed bare boobies at people driving down Sunset, and balled each other right on the sidewalk. They also attracted a lot of greasy, sex-hungry biker dudes into the scene. Plus the L.A Free Press, the local underground newspaper, had their offices underneath the club. So, Pandora's Box kinda had The Establishment pissed off in several different directions".

Pretty current satellite photo of the former location of Pandora's Box.

" Lou (My note: referring to his wife), for one, was glad to see Pandora's Box go. She was still a very proper Southern Belle, and every time she walked from our offices to the bank, she had to pass in front of the club. There she was, striding along in her nylons and high heels, dressed like she just stepped out of a Beverly Hills shop window, while the Hells Angels and Iron Horseman were standing around, smoking pot, and saying, 'Hey baby, how about climbin' on my hog, and taking' a magic ride?'. "

Don't short change yourself on the rest of the Laurel Canyon Stories's site, it's a wealth of historical information on The Sunset Strip, it's clubs, the "scene" in the '60's, and Laurel Canyon in the '60's and before. Just remember to allow yourself several hours, or bookmark the site to go back to in the future:
http://seastwood.com/backup310/default.asp

A little variation.......

2011-11-18T22:57:00.000-08:00

The above oil tank, is the one that we used on Part-timer Steve's bike. Originally I built this tank for my FXTT bike, but with the rear frame section shortened up 2", it wouldn't fit - too thick. When It came time to build Steve's bike, he wondered if we could work the tank in on his build. As far as length went, it fit just fine, but it was too wide for the Paughco frame. So, off came 2 1/4" from the L/H side, and voila! It just fit.

This tank was done when I was just getting the hang of TIG welding, but it was a good design, and 50,000 mi. later, it's still hanging in there. No leaks or cracks whatsoever, so I know this style of tank can take it out on the road, in a rigid-framed bike. If Steve can't bust it, nobody can!

This time around (because I have the room, due to the CFL's 2" stretch "over stock" in the back legs), I kept the fender at full length (Steve used a half-fender), and shaped the oil tank's back plate to fit around it, with an 1/8" space between the fender and the tank. I made the frame mounts for the oil tank next, very similar to the Softail's rubber insert mounts for their flatside gas tanks. Once I had a "platform" to work from, I rolled the main part of the tank in 1 pc. (Steve's front was 3 pcs.) to fit the contour of the back plate, with radiused bends at it's front corners. Easier said than done, haha!

The feed and vent lines will come from the lower part of the tank - save for the return line, which will enter the L/H side of the tank just below the secondary drive belt's top run, through an in-tank flush mount Doherty oil filter setup, that uses the same canister filter as the old Shovel 4 speed electric start oil tanks did.

Yeah, you read right, I'm using a 1 1/2" wide secondary belt drive. I don't need to remind you that H-D has been running rear belts for over 2 decades, Phil Ross ran them, so does Sugar Bear. Nobody ever said anything to Indian Larry for running secondary belts on every bike he built from Voodoo Chili to Mr. Tiki's Shop Droppings. Larry, Phil, and Sugar bear knew where it was at, so to all you smarty-pants guys that love to type "Haw, haw...belts are for pants, haw, haw...", I'm gonna tell you guys that "Chains are for wallets, haw, haw". Belts are pretty tough, and if you get them aligned as they should be, tensioned where they need to be run, and use good quality belts, they can take some really hard punishment....stay tuned.

Third wheel......

2011-11-10T11:43:00.001-08:00

"One phone call does it all....."

2011-11-10T10:08:00.000-08:00

Near as I can figure, with some rare exceptions, I've used Fab Kevin brake brackets on every bike I've built over the last 11 years. Kevin is one of these extremely rare, talented individuals that you can call on the phone, tell him what you're doing, and have parts that show up a week later that practically install themselves after you unwrap them.

These stainless beauties came yesterday from Kevin. The one on the left is for a Brembo dual piston Ducati 999 rear caliper w/34mm pucks, that's going on the springer for my CFL single downtube bike. It's a full-floating bracket for an 11 1/2" rotor.

The bracket on the right is for the rear of the CFL, and it'll mount a dual piston Nissin rear caliper from a Kawasaki ZX14. I cut the softail-style brake mounting tab off the frame, and the rear caliper will now hang at 6 o'clock. Kevin had to run a special CAD on this one, to work with the 10 1/4" oddball diameter Grimeca rotor that Dick Allen used. All done over the phone with Kevin, while he typed it all into CAD while we spoke!

Perfect parts, and.......perfect hair! You're the Master, and thank you once again for being the key to translating what I have in my head into functioning components.
http://www.fabkevin.com/home.htm

Hey....they named a rose after me!

2011-11-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

The Irish Rich Marbled. Rightly so! They were probably inspired by my rosey (cough, cough....) disposition, and outlook on life.

William Van Dyke "Swapmeet Special"

2011-11-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

I looked all over the internet for this clip, and the only one I could find was on YouTube, from a Speed Channel program clip. It's William Van Dyke's Swap Meet Special, done live at the Buffalo Chip, during Sturgis 1982. Check the size of the crowd at the Chip! Also, check out the makeup of the crowd at the Chip.....a little different cut of attendees back then.

The clip originated from the the Easyriders' Video Magazine #1, in 1988. The good part of this Van Dyke segment is you'll get not only see Van Dyke at his best, you'll also get a couple quick shots of Phil Ross kickin' up his heels at about :46, and 1:00 into it. But.... this is such a sanitized version of this clip by Speed Channel, I almost thought about not posting it. I can maybe understand them blurring out the boobs, but they cut an entire verse of the song out of the video - for no other reason I can think of - other than not wanting to piss off some advertisers, I guess. The missing verse goes, to the roaring approval of the crowd:

"Well, I don't want no Honda, or no Kow-a-sock-ee,
Them Japanese motor-sickles is a little too plastic for me!
So Give me a Harley-Davidson, that's the one for me.
Hey, it's a swapmeet special, I rode it over for you to see".

Do yourself a favor, and hunt up a copy of the Easyriders Video Magazine #1, it's not bad. Segments like the Van Dyke one, and others like "JD John" Cameron and Lance Tidwell talking about, and riding their Flxi sidecar rigs make the video worth getting - it's only in VHS format as far as I know.

Metamorphosis....

2011-10-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Noun; plural
1. A complete change of form, structure, or substance, as transformation by magic or witchcraft.
2. Any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc.
Everything fitted, tacked, and plug welded. I added in an additional 1" of stretch to the hardtail, to bring in the proportions of the previously done 2" downtube stretch. Otherwise, it'd look way too stubby from the seatpost to the axle plates.

You should see it with the Evo in it...... fits like a glove. Quite the difference. A 2" over repop springer, 5 gal. fatbob tanks, upswept fishtails, and a med. height sissy bar are on the build list.........trad Fatbob-style road bikes never go out of style!

HEY! Look who's on the cover.......

2011-10-26T20:49:00.001-07:00

.......of the March, 2012 issue of In The Wind. Why, it's PART-TIMER STEVE!

Mike Lichter caught Steve in the rain on the Sugar Bear/Mike Lichter Ride in Sturgis last August. If the rain wasn't enough to ride in, Steve was just a few turns away from riding right into a hail storm.

Congrats Steve - you finally got your cover with a riding shot, just like you wanted, haha!

West Coast Choppers bare steel.....

2011-10-25T00:13:00.001-07:00

Ladies and gentleman....Johnny Cash

2011-10-19T23:16:00.000-07:00

Cash puts his own imprimatur on Soundgarden's Rusty Cage, and brings in Marty Stewart to administer the knockout punch. Thank God for video tape.......

Patina Turner knocks one out of the park.........

2011-10-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Nice, Brandon, nice.......

http://mullinschaindrive.blogspot.com/

http://www.mullinschaindrive.bigcartel.com/

Thinking about you, Dave.......

2011-10-15T07:50:00.001-07:00

Heal up fast, buddy!

A little more progress today........

2011-10-12T00:16:00.001-07:00

I got a late start on this this afternoon. It seemed the phone wouldn't stop ringing, and I'm battling with a wiring job on a Sporty that needs to be finished. Plus, Kyle ( you've seen his green Sporty that I worked over and hardtailed here previously) is back from his tour in Afganistan, and he brought his buddy Lumpy and his CFL roller over for me to start Lumpy's build. And, Part-timer Steve had a photoshoot with a model for a feature article on his bike up in the mountains, and he wasn't around today, so I was pretty busy.

I skipped taking photos of bending the backbone, and making the slugs for the neck and seatpost, but they're done the same as I've shown on here before.

The shape of the backbone is similar to what H-D does on their Softail frames. The backbone doesn't follow the line of the rear head, because it needs to be a little higher, then dip down so I can mate the top legs of the hardtail with it later on, and still allow clearance under the top legs for the engine to slide in and out. The top legs will hit the backbone approx. where the white line is on the photo. Next, I marked the seatpost for the angle of the cope, so it will butt up to the backbone.........

.....then into the tubing notcher for a 10 degree cope with a 1 1/2" hole saw. I can't remember who made this notcher (I know it's USA made, but there's no name on it), but I've had it for 10 years, and it's still dead accurate, and it's been used a LOT.

Backbone and seatpost aligned and final fitted.

Closup of the coped top of the seatpost, and how it fits. Here's a bonus tip: If you ever do something similar to this, before you weld the post and the backbone together, trace the post on the backbone. Take the backbone, and drill a 1/2" hole centered inside your tracing, then weld the two together. That way, you can run your headlight wires, coil wires, etc. up your seatpost, and up through the backbone.

I cut the backbone to length, ending it in a "doefoot". I'll cap it to finish it off.Here's where I dropped off this evening. I still have to clean the neck area to weld the backbone there, trim the old neck gusset, and drill my plug weld holes for the backbone and seatpost slugs. Then jig it up, weld it together, and then fit up the lower tank brace tube. From here I'll have a good foundation when I do the hardtail. I'll post up the frame when it's completed.

"Good morning, Mr. Phelps.....your assignment, if you choose to accept it...."

2011-10-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

OK, what do you do when you have a titled 4 speed frame with an extremely grenaded Shovel engine, a low mileage Baker 6 in a 4 transmission, a good BDL 3" primary belt drive, and a brand-new S&S stroker Evo?

Well, you do like Deb did - you call me up and you say "Can you make all this stuff work together, and make it a rigid, so I can run The Horse's Stampede with it next Summer?"

Why yes, Deb, we sure can! And, I'm thinkin' if I know Deb, that Charley The Nomad will have her right on his ass, if she decides to run the Stampede with this. Deb's a pretty competitive gal in everything she does, and I'd like to have a bike I've done that runs The Stampede, to show exactly how durable something I modify can be under those conditions.

Here's where we start. Somebody has previously made replacement downtubes 2" longer than stock, and given the legs a rigid frame "dogleg" shape where they meet the lower engine mount. We're not going to change this area, and it'll look more like an original rigid when the hardtail is finished.
Structurally, this backbone is OK, but it just needs to be executed a little cleaner. We have to mod and raise the backbone anyways to fit the Evo, so why not make a nice, new 1 piece backbone? We're going to give it a Softail-style configuration over the back rocker area.
Here's the Baker 6 in a 4 in place on the trans mounting plate. When the Baker 6 in a 4 is pushed forward all the way, the clearance between the trans top and the post is minimal, but the trans will move back some after the primary belt is adjusted, so we won't be notching the new post for clearance in this area. The trans will go in and out of the finished frame no problem. Who says that stroker Evos don't fit in 4 speed swingarm frames? This one seems to fit just fine. OK, we did do a little "trimming" on the backbone..... Here Part-timer Steve is holding a section of 1 1/2" OD tubing to approximate the final post shape we need. The seatpost was cut down close to the white line you see, and a piece of tubing was rough cut to length....... .....and into the hydraulic bender it goes, for a 10 degree bend, with the bend winding up right below the rear exhaust port, like we wanted it to. Here's where we stopped for the day. The post angle leaves plenty of room to get the engine in and out of the frame, and the clearance on the trans top to the post didn't change. We'll leave the seatpost long until we get the backbone in place, then we'll cope the top of the post to mate the bottom of the new backbone. There won't be any need to notch the seatpost for the rear pipe to clear, either. Perfect. More to come.....

"Just win, Baby......."

2011-10-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

1929 - 2011

Professional Football and the National Football League wouldn't be what it is today without Al Davis. Instrumental in forcing the merger of the AFL with the NFL, a founding member of the American Football League, the owner of the Oakland Raiders, and former AFL Commissioner.

Pro Football Hall Of Fame member. 5 Raider Superbowl (including Superbowl II) appearances, with victories in Superbowls XI, XV (first wild card team to ever win a Superbowl), and XVIII. 19 Raider team members inducted to the Pro Football Hall Of Fame, along with former Raider coach John Madden.

Say what you want about Al Davis, he was a true maverick in the world of Professional Football. Love him or hate him (there was no inbetween) , he was what he was. Being an Oakland raider fan for 41 years, I felt that maybe the game of football had passed him by a few years ago, but I have nothing but complete respect for Al Davis. Football lost a great man today, and I lost another one of my heros....damn.

Jay's frame hardtailed.....

2011-10-06T08:14:00.001-07:00

Jay's frame hardtailed, and already shipped back to SoCal. Jay says he's jumping right in on this build, so I asked him to send some build pics as he progresses, and he promised he would. I'm interested in seeing where he goes from here, and in turn I'll pass them along for you.

Check out the fancy-schmancy seatpost forging matchup I had to do on his top rails. The seatpost forging has to be cut on each side, and the original rails have to be heated and brought down to match the angle of the new upper legs coming from the OEM-style axle plates, before they can mate up. Then, that forging needs to be rewelded, and blended in to look "stock".

Every one of these frames matches up a little different than the last one in that seatpost area.

Il Postinos Italiano.......

2011-10-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

I recieved a couple Emails within a few days of each other from Italy. The first was from my brother Nomad Sinner Alberto, with some shots of one of two bikes that Frankino, of Shop-Works, enterd in Alberto's Mooneyes Cafe Reunion.....

Then, I recieved some photos from Frankino himself, of his Chop-Works built Guzzi that was awarded the Best Engineered trophy that I sent to the Reunion. Frankino calls this bike the Motomorphosy Moto Guzzi T5 . Thank you both for sending these photos along to me, it was most appreciated!

Sundays are mine.......

2011-10-03T09:59:00.001-07:00

Lately, I've left Sundays for myself, to get things done on my personal projects. I just turn on the football games, and try and get at least one or two things accomplished from the build list. Today, I decided that one job that I have procrastinated on needed to be polished off, and that was notching my downtube so my Shovel and the front exhaust pipe could once and for all fit the frame right, and have both easily removable.

Here was my problem solving for today. My WCC CFL frame with the curved single downtube was originally built to house a Evo engine. I've had an Evo in this frame to check clearances before, and the front exhaust pipe had no problem clearing the single downtube. I wanted to use a cone Shovel instead, so I figured out it would fit no problem. Well.....

The Evo is a little taller, and the exhaust port is set on an angle away from the downtube. But, on a Shovel, you can see in the above photo how far out to the front the exhaust spigot, pipe mounting flange/bolt, and the pipe stick out. No problem on a stock-type frame layout, but on this frame, when we slid the Shovel in it for the first time, the front exhaust spigot ran smack into the middle of the curved downtube before it was even close to mounting up. Fuck.

If this engine was to fit this frame, a little judicious frame notching was in order. It had to be done, it had to look good after it was finished, and it had to not compromise the structural integrity of the downtube itself - especially a single downtube. Fortunately, the downtube is 1 1/2" OD, 1/4" wall DOM, so it made things a little easier structurally for the notching.

I started off by grinding down the old spigot until I got enough initial clearance on the downtube (and digging out an old helicoil exhaust bolt repair coil), and a good shape to the port area itself.........

......then I took the head over to Rick Labriola (Labriola Machine - home of the 5 Speed Suicide), and he built me a new exhaust spigot positioned 90 degrees to the left. Rick used my head to try out his new zoot pre-heating oven, and his new water-cooled TIG torch setup. Came out perfect, I've never seen Rick to do any less.

Here's another view of the repositioned spigot. Rick's work is flawless. You can see how much tubing would have had to be removed for the original head flange and exhaust pipe to fit. I would have had to notch the tube right to the outside wall for clearance.

I didn't shoot any photos of the actual work involved, because notching frame tubes like this is slow, tedious work - hence me putting it off for the last few months. You have to cut and grind little amounts of material off at a time, and it's easy to get impatient - otherwise, you wind up with a frame tube that looks like a bag of smashed assholes.

I will tell you that I started off by making a posterboard pattern of the initial shape of the notch, then I marked it on the tube with a Sharpie. Then, instead of going over the Sharpie line with a soapstone line, I used an old trick of tracing just inside my line with a series of centerpunch ticks, which are way easy to follow as you cut. I did the initial cut with a torch (I don't have a plasma cutter, way easier) with the flame set for a fine kerf line, cutting just on the centerpunch tick line. After that, it was grind, fit, grind, fit, until I was satisfied I had my final shape and clearance.

Here's the final notch shape from the L/H side. The notch at the deepest point didn't even get a 1/4 of the way into the diameter of the tubing. Once boxed, it'll be plenty strong, and there's enough room now for the engine to slide out without any hassles.
Top of the notch mirrors the shape of the exhaust spigot, as seen from the R/H side. Little details.......
The pipe looks closer than it is to the frame (at the small black arrow), but there's about a 1/16" between it and the frame notch area. When I get the tube boxed in again, I'll be able to take a slight recess of an additional 1/16" in that area under the exhaust, giving me about an 1/8" total, without sacrificing any strength, and you won't see it.

When I build my 2 into 1 collector system, the front pipe will angle down in approximately the same way as the big black arrow is pointing. It won't be anywhere near the magneto. Also note the nice, thick Fab Kevin exhaust flange. We made it, everything fits, and another thing off the "to do" list.

Somebody hand me a Phaser, quick !

2011-09-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

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.......

2011-09-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

.......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.......

2011-09-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

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.........

2011-09-21T17:08:00.000-07:00

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......

2011-09-21T10:58:00.001-07:00

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! "

2011-09-20T23:50:00.001-07:00

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........

2011-09-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

........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.......

2011-09-16T23:23:00.001-07:00

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.....

2011-09-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

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 ???

2011-09-11T22:35:00.001-07:00

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

2011-09-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Trophy for Alberto

2011-09-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

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.....

2011-09-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

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......

I lost a faithful companion last night.......

2011-08-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

I lost a faithful companion and friend last night. My German Shepard, Star, died in her sleep. She was 10 years old. You don't have to read any further if you don't wish to, I'll understand. This is mainly for me, and for Star.We got Star from a German Shepard Rescue Service when she was about a year-and-a-half old. As near as they could tell, she had escaped from a "puppy mill", and was carrying a littler of pups. She had been hit by a car, and they had to spay her to save her life, and she lost the pups. When we adopted her, she was a scrawny 40-odd lbs., had no muscle tone, and she had not-so-good hips. But, it was love at first sight when we went to pick her up. We named her "Star", because of the diamond shaped patch on her forehead

When we got Star home, she behaved like she had never seen the inside of a house in her life. We worked with her, built up her weight, exercised her, and took her to dog training classes twice a week. We took her up to a very muscular 85 lbs., and back into shape again. About 5 years ago, Star's hips were giving her some real problems, especially her right. Even though it cost a fortune (but, what are you going to do?), we had Star's right hip replaced, only to have it fail, and she would go through another replacement surgery a month later. She came back strong after her second surgery, and was up and back to her duties pretty dam quick. To say she had a lot of heart, and a lot of guts to survive all she did in her life is an understatement.

Star was a loving companion, and a fierce protector. She would have charged straight through Hell without hesitation if she thought one of us, or her "pup" (our other younger German Shepard, Jet) was in danger. When I left to go on the road someplace, I never worried for Laura's safety when I was gone. Between Star, and Jet, there was no way anybody was getting in this house without getting fucked up.

Yesterday Star seemed to be her usual self, no different than other days. She and Jet spent the day the way they usually did, and she seemed fine when I put them in their crates last night. This morning, I went to let them out of their crates, letting Star out first as I always did, because she would get pissed if Jet came out first. Star didn't come out this time. I knew before I touched her, she was gone. Jet came over, licked Star's head a couple times, and I think she knew too. I like to think that I'm a tough guy....but I just sat there and cried, yeah I did.

We wrapped Star up in one of her blankets, and drove her over to the vet's this morning, so she can be cremated on Monday. I'll put her under the apple tree in the back yard, the one she's laying under in the photo above. Jet's been wandering around all day looking for her "mom", and I feel pretty sad for Jet, too.

Like I said, this was mainly for me, and for Star. I'm pretty sad she had to leave so soon, and we're all going to miss Star a lot. I just wanted to give Star the tribute she deserved. Goodbye, faithful friend.....

Dun-bar.......

2011-08-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

Zach's sissy bar is pretty much finished - save for the mounting lugs for his fender. Part-timer Steve thought we should give it a little bend at the top, and I agreed. I also added a 1/2 turn twist to the crossbrace before I welded that in. Maybe people will notice it, maybe not. I think Zach'll be happy with the results.

The bar's overall height wound up at 27", and took 5' of 1/2" hex stock to complete, and when I trimmed it to length, I had a 1 1/8" piece from the left leg, and a 1 3/16" piece from the right leg left over. The crossbrace was a piece of hex that came out of the scrap bucket. You know the old adage "Never throw anything away....".

Like I've said, I don't use jigs, don't use outlines drawn on the shop floor, welding rod patterns, etc - just a centerline mark before I bend the material in half, and I use a few well-placed measurements and soapstone marks to get my bends in the legs to fit the fender and frame dimensions after that. Plus, a few tricks I've passed on to Steve about bending and forming sissy bars, but he still can't snatch the pebbles from my hand - "Hit me with the broom, Grasshopper......". His time will come.

"Twistin' the night away......"

2011-08-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

Started the 1/2" hex sissy bar for Zach's rigid '04 Sporty tonight, the bar will be 30" tall in total. One side of the bar twists clockwise, the other side counter-clockwise. You think this is easy to do, and keep the bar straight on both sides? By yourself? HA!

See, that's why they pay me the small bucks!
More pics to come on this bar........

More of Micah McCloskey's Indian Chief.......

2011-08-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

From the Emails I got on the previous post on Micah McCloskey's Indian Chief, there is a lot of intrest in the bike itself. I had a bunch of mail asking for additional pictures of it, so here everybody, this should satisfy you - enjoy!

Micah's feature in the August '76 issue of Choppers Magazine. From the cover, can you tell that I read this magazine A LOT? Painted in solid "Indian Red". The cover was shot on the road, headed down to Ensenada, Mexico, and the 2nd shot I believe was in Ensenada itself. The Chief, from Supercycle, November '77, in its black livery. Micah's Chief, as it appeared in the Jan. 2006 issue of Hardcore Choppers Japan, with Micah on the cover. Candy red this time around. Photo courtesy Kristina Pamias/Glitterfist Productions Photo courtesy Kristina Pamias/Glitterfist Production
A couple photos from the David Mann Chopperfest, Dec. 2010, taken by Kristina when we coverd the Event for The Horse magazine. Back in black again, and it's still black today. And, to finish this off, here's Micah barrel racing the Chief at an Easyriders Rodeo - right off the street.... apehangers and all. GO MICAH!

Return Of The Black Shadow......

2011-08-18T23:29:00.001-07:00

When I sit down to take my lunch break, I used to watch re-runs of Emergency! and The Rockford Files. They've taken off Emergency!, but I can still catch ol' Jim Rockford (played by James Garner) on the tube. The Rockford Files used to be one of my favorite Friday night TV shows in the '70's, and it lasted for 6 seasons. Today, I saw an episode from '79 that I'd never seen before........

Today's episode was called Return Of The Black Shadow. The basic story line is Jim Rockford takes his buddy's (John Cooper, or "Coop", played by Bo Hopkins) sister Gail out for a date, only to encounter a pack of 1%ers at a gas station. The name of the club is The Rattlers (funny, because the real club The L.A. Rattlers was a very well-known black MC). As per Hollywood, the Rattlers stomp the stuffings out of Rockford, and "pull a train" on poor Gail. As a result, Gail winds up in the Mental Ward of L.A. General, and Rockford is laid up in the hospital with cuts, contusions, and broken ribs.

So, Coop decides to avenge not only his sister's honor, but also to get in a few licks for Rockford as well. See, Coop has a "club" past himself, with a club that was called The Black Shadows, so he gets his old chopper out, and sets out to infiltrate the Rattlers.

Now, as Coop rolls his bike out, I immediately recognize the bike - it's Micah McCloskey's Indian Chief! Turns out that Micah acted as a technical advisor and mechanic for this episode, and his bike was used as Coop's old ride. Now, you never clearly see Bo Hopkins riding the Chief, he evidently rode another bike in the pack riding shots. But, there are some nice, clear shots of the bike with Hopkins on/around it throughout the episode.

Also included in the cast as members of the Rattlers are perennial biker bit part players Mickey Jones (also one-time drummer for the New Christy Minstrels, Trini Lopez, Bob Dylan, and Kenny Rogers and The 1st Edition, and a spokesman for Panzer Motorcycles later on), and Dennis Burkley, best known for his role as Dozer, in Mask. I'm surprised Dan Haggardy wasn't in there someplace! And, I swear that I saw Rip Rose as part of the Rattlers, I'm gonna have to ask Kristina if she remembers her dad doing anything like that.
Photo courtesy of MotoZania

Micah McCloskey's iconic and well-ridden Indian Chief, the one that appeared in The Rockford Files episode. Micah has owned, ridden, and raced this Chief since the early '70's. This photo was taken at Wink Eller's benefit, in Orange, CA on June 26th of this year - the day after Born Free. I had an extremely cool talk with Micah at the event, as well as Joe Hurst. This bike has had numerous features over the years in magazines like the old Bob Bitchin's Biker, Choppers, Supercycle, and even Hardcore Choppers Japan in '06.

I couldn't find an online source for the Return Of The Black Shadow, but I see it's available on Netflix. It's Season 5, Episode #18 - originally aired on 2/17/79. Also, while you're at it, stop by Micah's website, and you can read his whole biography on there. I think you'll appreciate the young Micah's encounter with Von Dutch, during the time when Dutch was up in Calabasas:
http://www.micahscustomcycles.com/

719 Ashbury St.

2011-08-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

I saw this listing about a month ago on some San Francisco site. The house at 719 Ashbury St, in the Haight/Ashbury is for sale. It doesn't mention this in the realitor listing, but the other site said it used to be a "Hells Angels hangout..." during the Summer of Love. I do know that it's right down the street from the old Grateful Dead house, at 710 Ashbury.

I don't think this was the house Pete Knell (then President of the Frisco Charter) lived in, I think that was over on Geary, with Pete in the bottom half, and Billy Batman & the Bat Family collective on the top half - but, I could be wrong. If I am, please somebody correct me.

I see that the original asking price has been lowered from $2,395,000.00 to $2,285,000.00 . Wow! I'm gonna wait and see if it goes any lower before I put in a counter offer.......but hey, it isn't every day you get a chance to buy a house with such an extensive Frisco/biker/hippie pedegree! I wonder if it still smells like 60w, reefer, DMT, and patchouli oil???

http://www.apr.com/cmfoo/719-Ashbury-St-San-Francisco-CA~l2853455

Point P-funk Reborn on Barnett's website.......

2011-07-20T20:18:00.001-07:00

Eric Bass shot Point P-funk Revisited while it was in the Builder's Circle at Born Free III, for a Barnett's online feature. You can see the article and additional photos here:
http://www.barnettharley.com/component/k2/item/3349-point-p-funk-revisited-by-shamrock-fabrication

And, the day after Love Thy Chopper.......

2011-07-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

Part-timer Steve has something going on, starting the morning of the 17th, the day after Love Thy Chopper. If you're coming all the way here for LTC, you can't pass up a chance to take a guided ride through the Rocky Mountains for a couple days.....and Steve knows the way!

For more information, go here:
http://milehigherrun.blogspot.com/

New T shirts, new name......

2011-07-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

For Born Free III, we decided to have some new shirts printed, so we could sell them at the event. So, without reservation, we contacted Andy, at American Icon. Andy does some of the best printing out there, so give him a shout when you need something:
http://www.americaniconmerch.com/

Andy and his crew went above and beyond for us at the 11th hour- getting the artwork print ready, printing the shirts, and shipping them out to Kirk Taylor in Novato, CA so he could bring them down for us to BF. But, us here realizing that the shirts might not get to Kirk before he left on Friday, we called Andy. Andy tried his best for us to catch the shipment at the various terminals to make sure they arrived in time. Guess what? UPS said in effect "Nothing we can do, fuck you very much, and please use UPS again for all your shipping needs!"

So, needless to say, they arrived in Novato 5 hours after Kirk needed to leave to get to L.A. on time. Sucks, but that's life. We have them here in stock now, ready to ship, in Mens LG, XL, and 2XL. I'll also have them in my booth at Love Thy Chopper July 16.

Click the link at the upper R/H corner of the blog to order, or take this link below:
http://www.shamrockfabrication.com/shamrock_swag.htm

DON'T MISS THIS !

2011-07-08T11:54:00.001-07:00

Did you miss Born Free?? Well, here's the perfect reason to load up the bike, and head out to Denver for Love Thy Chopper to make up for it. A year is a long time to wait for an event, and you'll kick your own ass if you miss out on LTC, too!

We'll have a booth set up at LTC, so come by and say hello to Part-timer Steve and myself, see our Born Free Builder's Circle Bike.....and buy the Tshirts that didn't make it to Born Free so we could sell them there!

And, the night before LTC, come join Dice Magazine for their Issue #39 release party........

Now THIS is a weekend you can't pass up!

Oooooohhhhh Nooooooooo!

2011-07-07T20:11:00.001-07:00

ChopperDave's Murdervan done got murdered!

Read the grim details here:

http://chopperdaves.blogspot.com/2011/07/death.html

A little movie trivia.......

2011-07-05T19:09:00.001-07:00

Below is a still from the movie Hells Angels '69. It's from the scene where Terry The Tramp is showing his motorcycle riding prowess to the two new guys. While doing so, he crashes into the side of a Rambler station wagon, and flies over a hedge into somebody's yard. Magoo dives over the hedge right after Tramp, opens up his medical bag, and treats Tramp's injuries by administering him a beer.

Now, Tramp didn't do this stunt, it was done by a double. I know who the stunt person was, but can any of you tell me who did the stunt? You don't get anything for being correct, just the bragging rights.

(Yeah, and no fair going to the IMDB for the answer, you cheaters!)

July 3, 1971.....40 years ago today

2011-07-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Jim Morrison left this earth......or did he?

Saw The Doors many, many times. Fuck, I feel really.....really......old.....today.

"Welcome to the Soft Parade.

All our lives we sweat and save,

building for a shallow grave....."

Hot Bike, August 2011 issue......

2011-06-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

Strange how things work out sometimes. The August '11 issue of Hot Bike features a tech article I did on hardtailing the '99-back Softail frames. If you're not a regular reader of HB, and if you've contemplated doing this exact frame conversion on your Softie, the issue is well worth picking up to see exactly what a conversion like this involves, and how practical it is. Why not work with what you already have, right?

Originally, I did this article for Jeff Holt, and he was going to run the article in Street Chopper. But, Jeff told me at Kutty's Hippy Killer Hoedown that Eric Ellis, the editor for Hot Bike, was in Jeff's office, saw the article on Jeff's desk, and asked if he could have it for Hot Bike. Jeff said he thought I wouldn't mind, and gave it to Eric. I told Jeff I didn't mind, they could have run it in Guns and Ammo or Yachting, as long as Source Interlink sent me the check, haha.......

Seriously, it worked out great. Part-timer Steve shot the photos as we worked, and did a killer job on them. The crew at Hot Bike did a really nice job on the layout, and you can follow along on the conversion easily as you read it. They even gave me a nice blurb on the cover to boot, and I got a chance to share the issue with Tommy Foster's build he did for Marc Altieri, two guys I know well. Thanks to Eric and the HB staff, it was most appreciated!
Speaking of hardtailed Softail frames, Wade sent me this photo of his TC B-motored '06 that I did the conversion on, along with a rewiring, Altmann P-3 ignition, a custom set of hi/lo shotguns, and one of my sissy bars.

This photo was taken at a carwash in Taos, NM, on one of his trips from Oklahoma back to Flagstaff. Glad to see you're out and about and enjoying the finished product, that's what it's all about! Now, if I can just get back on Deb's bike project......

Pretty much finished......

2011-06-03T23:04:00.001-07:00

The rear leg's sleeves were pretty tricky to do. I tried a bunch of different ways to make them, and finally decided to cut two sections of the leftover tops of the radius rods to form them from. Even then, I had to open up the seams to slide them into place, then I had to clamp them to the legs, and get the final shape by working them with body hammers to fit. I'll have to add a small filler to the backside of each sleeve, then silicon bronze that in, and final contour them with the vixen file. They look nice, though, and were worth the hassle to put on.

I've seen a lot of extended springers without the sleeves, and I dunno - the back legs just look "off" without them. Most of the stock sleeves are approx. 3/4" on the short side, and 3 1/8" on the long slde. The "XA" sleeves are around 3" on the SS, 5 1/2 on the LS. I made these sleeves 2" on the SS, and 4 1/2" on the LS. I still have to fab up a stock looking brake stay, but I'll wait on that until I get my caliper bracket from Fab Kevin (who else? haha!)

Front and back forks together. I've got to drop off from these for a while, Matt's Sporty frame that I hardtailed, and his other parts are back from powdercoating, so I've got to assemble his bike. Next photos of the springer will be when they're mounted to the bike.

It's getting there.......

2011-06-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

Before I could start welding the springer's forks together today, I had to do some preliminary get-ready work on the parts. First, I turned down some reinforcement slugs out of 3/4" thick wall tubing to go inside the crown and the rear legs. Then, I needed to make something to take up the gap inside the cups between their ID, and the front leg's OD.

The cups were 7/8", and the front legs were 3/4". I found a section of 7/8" DOM, and cut 1" "caps" out of it, then welded those to 2 1/2" long pieces of 5/8" OD thick wall tubing. I then turned the tubing down until they were a light press fit inside the front legs. I tapped those into place, and plug welded those into the front legs before I put them inside the crown caps.

This is how I started this afternoon's welding session, figuring out an improvised jigging to get everything to stay in place as I welded. I again used my mill vise to hold one of the spring rods, then I used the little tower that I use to hold axle plates in place for hardtails, a welding magnet, and a length of grade 8 allthread. Worked killer!

Here's the finished front fork. The photo makes the legs look like they're wider at the bottom, but they're plumb, and straight. Pretty good for an improvised jig, I'd say. All you really need is a way to hold everything in place as you weld, check and measure everything as you go, and take your time as you weld. As my Grandma always said "Haste makes waste....".

Crude jig, but very effective. This is as far as I got tonight on the rear fork - leveling, squaring and setting everything where it needed to go, and putting in the plug welds for the reinforcement slugs on the legs. I'll weld the legs themselves to the crown tomorrow, and hopefully get the upper angled sleeves for the rear legs shaped and welded in place. I'll use silicon bronze to put the sleeves on, so I can easily blend in the sleeves to the crown, and besides, there's a lot of trace brass in the area where they need to weld up.

If you look at the white arrows, they point to the old stick welds that held the original slugs in. I'm going to smooth those down, and come in with some pins in the other old plug welds, shown with the red arrows, to hold the reinforcement slug in that area from possibly moving. They were a light hammer fit, but why take a chance? I'll definitely be using some silicon bronze in that area. Hopefully, I can show you the completed springer tomorrow. It was a lot of work, but worth it.

"A month goes by like nothing....."

2011-05-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

....but, client's bikes and projects come first before blog entries and my stuff, and there's been a bunch of them. Plus we're working on Part-timer Steve's bike redo for BF III, and my BF III Builder's bike in between it all. It's been some long days, and some late nights, believe me. I figured it was time to get my front end built, so......

You'll remember from a few months back, Fat Bob and Slippery Pete scrounged up these parts for me. Not too pretty, but definitely what I needed. After a good solvent and pressure washing to remove the 65-odd years of grunge, I sent the rear crown out to mill the bottom flat, and to have the old extension reinforcement slugs somebody had done years ago bored out.

It took a while for Bob to get the work done, but as with all his work, they were spot on. When I got them home, I worked the stem to take a WCC hidden fork stop plate, and converted it to modern tapered roller neck bearings. I also punched out the old spring rods from the front horseshoe, because one was tweaked, and the other was mushroomed at the top, and the threads were buggered up.

So, here's the collection of components I'm going to use for an old-timey springer extending - the rear crown, the front horseshoe, '29-'31 Ford rear radius rods, some 3/4" DOM tubing for the front legs, and a pair of BT rockers that Dennis Goodson had hanging on the wall of his shop. The length of the springer when it's finished will be right at 8 3/4" over stock. Why the odd extension length? Well, that's due to the 17 x 2.5 Centerline Front Runner I'm using for a front wheel.

I think I found the last set of good Ford radius rods in the Metro Denver area, and it took a while to dig those up. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a set of seamless '46-'48 rods, but beggers can't be choosers, right? They were straight, has some minor dings on one rod, so they fit the bill. After I found them, I cut off the axle brackets, and turned them over to pour out about a cupfull of rust dust and flakes out of each rod. So, a trip to A-1 Metal Striping for a chemical strip was in order. After I got the rods back, I heated the ends and bent the tabs straight.

Not pictured are all the rest of the parts that go into assembling a springer, but I have them all after scrounging various sources over the last few months.

Because I'm starting out with '29-'31 rear wishbones, I had to start the tedium of welding up their seams. I clamped them in my mill vise, and ran 1" long beads, skipping seam segments as I went to minimize the warpage. When I finished, I sighted down the legs, and saw zero warp from side to side, but.......

Looking down the lengths, and OH BABY!....both legs looked like I rear-ended some car! I expected so much, and a walk over to the 20 ton press, a few well-placed pressings, and they were quickly back to straight again. After that I worked the seams down with a vixen file, then a DA with 80 grit, then 120 grit discs. As you'll see in the photo below, they came out pretty damn nice, and have a great taper/shape to them.

I'm happy with the way the fork parts are mating up so far. Next comes drilling the rear leg bottom holes out to 5/8", to weld in a thin-wall steel bushing to take my 1/2" rocker bolt studs, and cutting and fitting the angled sleeves for the upper rear legs, to duplicate the stock configuration, and fabricating a stock-looking brake stay for the left leg.

Stay tuned, I promise to post the progress........

"Knock, knock..." - "Who's there?"

2011-05-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

"American Special Forces, you're dead, motherfucker......."
Well done, Ladies and Gentlemen, well done!

YOU NEED TO BUY THIS BOOK!

2011-04-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

Mark Kawakami - killer photographer, dedicated family man, all around great guy, and a good friend. You need this book in your collection......

http://joyrides.mwrc.net/en/category.php?product_category_id=4859

I get a lot of "new product" Emails......

2011-04-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

I get dozens of Emails every month alerting me to the "latest & the greatest" new products for bad-ass bikers. I guess this is so I can get in on the ground floor before the mad rush takes place to buy this stuff.

Most of the time I just delete them, but I thought maybe some of you would like to jump on this new helmet before they're all instantly sold out. It's the SKULL DIABLO, but in my excitement, I don't remember the manufacturer. It'll probably be in the new issue of The Horse, though......

Just think how awesome you'd look if you wore this in combination with your Solid State Covers "logsplitter" face guard? And, hey....I'm all for any new product that makes it even harder to see when you're riding your motorcycle!

I know, I know.....

2011-04-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much on the blog for awhile, but things have been jumping here - just ask Part-timer Steve! Work hasn't stopped coming in, and we've been concentrating on getting Wade's rigified TC-B wrapped up, along with trying to get ahead here on the other projects before I split for the Left Coast next weekend. More on that further down this post....

Anyways, I thought you'd like to see Wade's 'naked" frame fresh from the powdercoaters last Thursday, before I assemble and wire it up. The frame, now that it's completed, looks deceptively easy to do, and that's the way it's supposed to look when it's finished. All in all, adding the rigid section to his stock TC Softail frame front section was a lot of work and head scratching, but I think it came out killer for the effort.

I worked with a new blasting company - Blast Tech, in Englewood, CO - this time around, and Gary's guys put a fantastic finish on the frame before Roger at ' Taint Paint in Colo. Springs did one of his excellent glassy black powdercoats on it. Zero peel on the finish, just as it should be. Blast Tech will be getting all my blasting business from now on, and Roger's powdercoating has always been top notch, and on time to boot.

I'll post photos of the completed bike before I load it up to take it out to Wade in Flagstaff next Thursday. After I drop it off there, Friday it's on to L.A. to pick up a basket case '79 Shovel, that'll supply me with the engine for my Invited Builders Bike for Born Free III. The basket has a solid 96" stroker with a Morris M5 magneto, and a lot of parts to sell off once I get back here, including a titled '79 swingarm frame, a drum glide front end, and a Kraft Tech stock dimension rigid frame with a good MSO.

I'll be making my home base at T-rod's place in Costa Mesa while I'm out there. Can't wait to see the sidehack in person! On Saturday the 16th, I'll also be hitting Kutty's Hippy Killer Hoedown in Winchester for the day, so if you see me there, come up and say hello!

You need to see this......

2011-04-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Frank Kaisler, Four Aces Wes, Part-timer Steve and I a couple years ago visited with Mike Parti at his home and shop. Mike was kind enough to let Steve film while we talked. Here's part of that footage. You need to see this.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4dAmDPxpQ4

GO T-ROD! Part 2.......

2011-03-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

I stole this snapshot from Nelson's blog. None other than T-rod, posing with his Evo-powered racing sidehack. I talked to T-rod this week, and he said "May 7th, baby, it's on!".

Just check out all that first class fabrication on this rig. The frame is truly a work of art, to say the least.

Photo courtesy of Nelson Kanno

Late night pipedream......

2011-03-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since you saw this bike from the side, huh?

Paughco was a day late in shipping in the coctail shakers, so that put me behind a day in a tight schedule, and puts me behind on the 2 bikes behind this one, and I've got 2 previous bike's worth of sheetmetal coming in behind those 2, and those bikes need to be final assembled and wired.....

I couldn't weld up the bottom pipe's 3 sections, or make the pipe's frame mounts until the mufflers showed up. I had them close, but the frame mounts needed to be re-thought once the 'shakers were installed. In all, there are 6 sections of bends that make up the pipes, and all the mounts are hidden when you look from the side. Clean.

.......and here's how I solved the problem of putting in some extra support into the back section. I felt that the TC-B Softail's faux seatpost just wasn't enough support for the rear area. Stress bars between the rear legs would have worked, but Wade wanted that area open. So, I made a support that bolts in on the rear fender's 5/16" thick mounting plate up top, and keys in at the transmission mount's bolt below.

It's completely removable, should the transmission need to be taken out of frame for any reason. The engine doesn't need to be removed for that operation, either. Simple.

GO T-ROD !

2011-03-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

Ol' T-rod out hot-lapping his latest speedway bike. You've got to see this bike to believe it! The engine is a 500cc Buell Blast/Buell hybred, all done by Rod, and built to compete with the Jawas. If this wasn't challenging enough, T-rod is also building a 998cc destroked BT Evo-powered sidecar racing rig to compete against the dominant Kawasakis in that class for this season, too!

Go out and support and cheer on T-rod this year on his home track - Costa Mesa Speedway, Costa Mesa, CA.:
http://www.costamesaspeedway.net/schedule_2011.asp

Costa Mesa Speedway also has two "Harley Nights" scheduled this year for "hooligan racing" - take your chopper out there, and race it.....iffin' yer not skeered to!

You know, T-rod pretty much does this all on his own hook, so if you'd like to see him continue to bring the H-D banner into the arena against the "other" makes of bikes, and stay competitive, you might think of dropping some sponsorship his way. You can contact him here:
http://www.illusionmotorcycles.com/index.html
And, see the racing team here, along with all the construction details and videos on the sidecar build-up:
http://www.illusionmotorcycles.com/racing-team.html

Tailor made......

2011-03-18T01:00:00.001-07:00

tailor (tai·lor) n.

1. To fit or provide articles to specific measurements.
2. To make, alter, or adapt for a particular end or purpose.

Dropkick Murphys - Warriors Code

2011-03-17T07:53:00.000-07:00

One of these years, I'll be in Boston on St. Paddy's Day.....

Shamrock & Roll.....

2011-03-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day......

2011-03-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, time once again to honor The Patron Saint of Ireland by drinking Irish whiskey and green beer, and then throwing up in an alley.

Q. How many Irishman does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. It takes 6 - one to hold the lightbulb, and 5 to drink until the room starts to spin.

You know, there are only three types of Irish songs:

1. The first is: " We hate the British, and we'll chop off their heads, and stuff them with grass, then put them on poles and march around and fuck the Queen....."

2. The second is: "I'm lonesome and sad, and she broke my heart, and now I'm drunk, and I'll never love again...."

3. And, the third one is: "Fuck all this, I'm going to America!...."

Yes, and it's also my birthday. Harpoon did this for me more than a few years ago. I always thought my Dad had my Mother jump off the refrigerator so I'd be born on March 17th.

I remember my dad taking me around to all the bars when I was a little kid on St. Patrick's Day. He'd go in and yell "Hey! It's my kid's birthday today!", and everybody would go "Hey! Happy St. Patrick's Day, and Happy Birthday to the kid, let me buy you (my Dad) a drink!" He'd get shitfaced for free on St. Paddy's Day.

And, to keep this post motorcycle related.......

I need to correct my Mann/Powell posting........

2011-03-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

As my mother always says:

"There was only ever one perfect guy, and you see what they did to him!"

I got a call from good friend Frank Kaisler. Frank just happened to be parusing my blog last night, and read my post on the David Mann/Rod Powell connection. It seems that Rod Powell (and myself) didn't have everything correct as far as David Mann owning Rod's '56 Chevy Sedan Delivery in the late '70's. Oops!

As Frank was kind enough to let me know, David Mann didn't actually own the '56 Sedan Delivery. It was actually owned by one of David Mann's close friends. If anybody should know, it would be Frank. Frank at the time the centerfold was painted was into his tenure with Easyriders magazine, and remembered Mann's friend driving it over to the EZ headquarters on several occasions. Frank said that Mann's buddy was the inspiration for the centerfold, and Mann never actually owned the '56, as Powell had thought. David Mann did however have custodial care of the SD for a while, while his buddy was down in San Diego for employment, and did drive it around quite frequently.

Oh well, 50 lashes with a wet noodle for me, for going on somewhat sketchy background info, I should have checked a little deeper. But hey, that's why magazines are always printing corrections and retractions. It happens sometimes.......thanks Frank, for the correct info.

They're here......

2011-03-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

The FedEx guy dropped off the package today, and two more pieces to the puzzle are added.

As an added bonus, biker poet laureate FatBob composed a little rune on the side of the shipping box for me. Very cool, FatBob....very cool.

"We don't care how they do it in Michigan...."

2011-03-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

Now that I have your attention.....JUST KIDDING! I've known Fab Kevin for over a decade, and he knows I have the utmost love and respect for him. Kevin's the one who did the pioneering on these conversions, getting them refined down to a nat's patootie, and I'm fortunate to have him as a long-time compadre'.

Finished the last two hardtail jobs, and they're winging their ways out of here to anxious guys with spring fever. They are a lot of work, but you just can't beat hardtail jobs like these with the OEM-style axle plates.

From the Mail Bag - more Sedan Deliveries........

2011-03-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

My good friend Carlos, in Santa Fe, NM sent me some old photos of his family's mini-fleet of sedan deliveries for their dry cleaning and laundromat operation, which is still family owned and operated in Santa Fe to this day. Thank you Carlos, it was most appreciated!

I'm guessing this had to be taken in the mid-'50's. Here we see (from Rt. to Lt.) a '53, and '54 Sedan Deliveries, and a '54 Bel Air station wagon. Notice the difference in the windshield heights between the '54 wagon, and the '54 SD. Chevy kept the '53 body for the SD in '54.

This later photo came in a little small, but you can see their Sedan Delivery fleet was at this time composed (from back to front) of a a '57, a '58, and a rare even for its model year (and even rarer today) '60. In this lineup, the '57 was in the 150 Utility series, the '58 was in the Delray series, and the '60 was in the Biscayne series. Too bad we don't have Wayback Machines.....

WHAT THE........????????

2011-03-01T23:50:00.001-08:00

Son of a.....
Make no mistake, dope was still pure, potent, and readily available in 1986. And, on top of that, this thing was turbocharged! I'm thinkin' Paul Sr. was hangin' around with this guy back then, too!

The David Mann / Rod Powell connection......

2011-03-01T13:14:00.001-08:00

I was bored, so I was cruising the blogs the other night, and on Nao's The World/Psycho Wheels blog from Japan, he has a couple posts featuring David Mann centerfolds from Easyriders. One in particular is the one shown below, from the Nov. 1979 issue of EZ.

It depicts a chance meeting of two "different but the same" worlds, in more than one respect. Both the chopped top '56 Chevy Sedan Delivery, and the chopper sport the same style black/yellow flamed paintjobs, and both of their respective owners are giving the "thumbs up" to each other in mutual respect for the others work.

I thought you'd like to know a little background on the centerfold, because David Mann was the actual owner of this particular '56 Chevy Sedan Delivery at the time he painted this centerfold. Read on.....

This particular '56 Sedan Delivery was originally built by who many consider the "master painter of flames", Rod Powell. According to Rod, in his book Rod Powell's Flame Painting Techniques, he states he built this car for himself, but he doesn't specify when it was chopped, built, or painted after he opened his own shop in '69. He does say that the car was painted by his painter Jack Bradford in black lacquer, and that Powell did the flames.

Powell is also sketchy about how long he owned the SD, only saying that he eventually sold the car to Boyd Coddington. Powell goes on to say it changed hands "a number of times" after Coddington, and that "...artist David Mann owned it for a while. He did a painting of it for Easyriders magazine".

Powell isn't real good on providing dates in this part of his book, probably owing to the fact that he couldn't recall them, or felt that they weren't really relevant in this section of his book. One can guess that David Mann owned it pretty close to the same time period that he did his centerfold painting, again, the painting was the centerfold in the Nov. '79 issue of Easyriders.

Here's a B&W photo of the '56, taken at 2:00am, masked off and ready to shoot the flames. Powell, like a lot of us, was working after hours on his own stuff, trying to get the flames shot before he had to open the shop later on in the morning to complete the paying jobs for customers. Yeah, those of us with shops have all been there.....

Here's the only color picture that I can find right now , but I'm positive that either Car Craft, or Hot Rod did a full feature on the '56 back then. In this photo, you can clearly see the top chop, and you'll note that Powell's original Cali yellow-on-blue license plate is the same number that Mann used in his painting - 154 DHP. What a fantastic job of color blending and fades on the flame's "licks".

You'll also notice that in the Mann painting, the original chrome reversed wheels with the baby moons capped with a bullet are replaced with a set of Tru Spokes and spinners, and the lake pipes are gone. Whether Coddington, another owner, or Mann did these mods is anybody's guess.

Sadly, one of the later owners after David Mann had the sedan delivery repainted in a "monochrome" paint scheme (Powell didn't specify the color), probably owing to the age of the original lacquer paint, and "refined to perfection", according to Powell. But, it has "disappeared" as of late. Wonder where it is now, and if the present owner is aware of its history?

A page from the 1955 Chevy "Light Duty" truck sales brochure, showing the standard and optional equipment for the Sedan Delivery . The SD is shown painted in Adobe Beige here. The Sedan Deliveries were always shown in the light truck brochures, not the car brochures.

I thought you'd like to know a little about the sedan delivery style of vehicles. Chevy (along with Ford, and Chrysler) offered the sedan delivery-style of vehicle for just about as long as they offered sedans and station wagons. The sedan delivery was your basic automotive (not truck) bare-bones sedan or wagon body and chassis, with the side windows replaced by a solid body panel, the rear seating deleted, and in lieu of a trunk lid (or in the case of a station wagon, its split liftgate/drop down tailgate), the body received a solid 1 pc. door with window, that was usually hinged to the L/H side, with the latch/door handle on the right.

The benefits in the delivery "market" for a sedan delivery-style vehicle were many. They were the ideal size for "light" home and office delivery businesses - like flower shops, meat markets, office supplies, dry cleaners, florists, etc. They were easy to maneuver through city traffic, parked where a car could, cost less than a full-sized truck to own, and were economical to run every day. Plus, they were also favored by people who offered "home services" like service station mobile repairs, carpenters, plumbers, and electricians. And, as an added bonus, it gave a company a little "prestige and class" when their delivery person arrived to do his job in the 'burbs.

Rear view of a restored '56 Sedan Delivery, also in Adobe Beige, showing the unique "clamshell" rear lift gate, which began with the '55 model, and continued thru '60.

In '55, when Chevy changed body styles, they came up with a feature that helped the delivery person's access to the rear of the vehicle, with Ford following suit in '57. Instead of hinging the rear door to the left, Chevy (and Ford) made the rear door to hinge from the top, supported in the open position by the same locking struts that the station wagons used on their upper liftgates. This allowed the driver even more access to load and unload the vehicles. They also offered a single bucket seat as standard vs. the bench seat, that allowed longer items to fit from the firewall to the tailgate on the R/H side of the interior. A R/H bucket seat was an option, and both seats hinged forward to access cargo behind them.

Chevy continued the Sedan Delivery line thru the '60 model year, when it was dropped, and it's niche in the light delivery market was filled in '61 by its replacement, the new Corvair Greenbriar van model, which itself was replaced in '64 by the "first generation" G-10 1/2 series of delivery vans.

Here's a tip on ID'ing a real GM-built sedan delivery. There are quite a few station wagons out there that have had the side windows filled, and the SD's tailgate added to it (the recesses for the top hinges are stamped into every wagon tailgate surround). It's an easy conversion, but if you look at the VIN ID tag (not the cowl tag on the firewall) on the left door pillar, you'll see a code similar to this:

D 57 K 01234.

The "D" in the ID # is the designation for the sedan delivery body, "57" is the year, "K" is the final assembly plant (in this case Kansas City, MO.), and the "012345" is the serial #. The "D" ONLY shows on this tag for a real sedan delivery.

Here's an ancient photo (only one I can find) of the '57 Chevy sedan delivery I owned, taken around '79 or so. Originally when I got it, it was painted that ugly Chevy "Surf Green", and had the original New Blue Flame 123 6, and "three on a tree" transmission. I replaced that with a SB 327/Powerglide combo shortly after. I drove it around like that for about two years, and then I came across a deal on a BB 454/TH 400 combo from a wrecked '70 SS Chevelle, and an all chrome '58 Olds rear end with 4:11 gears to go with it.

It was raggedy, the interior was loud and smelled like old gear oil, and that fucker would MOVE when you mashed the loud pedal. I loved it! I finished up the bodywork on it - including an all-steel tilt front end I did (that could be raised and lowered via two convertible top rams with a flip of a switch on the dash) , but never got it past the primer stage in the 6 years I owned it. As is the case, somebody made me "an offer I couldn't refuse...." on it, for a trade of a '64 Pan and cash for it. I wish I still had that sedan delivery today. Oh, and the Pan, too!

A good day's work - so far, so good.......

2011-02-27T20:07:00.000-08:00

Part-timer Steve and I did a good day's work on this frame today. This is the frame half that I had rough cut, sitting behind Justin's frame in the post below.

On a job like this, it isn't the welding that takes the time. Like painting a bike, it's all the preliminary and prep work that eats up your hours. All the tubing ends need the final trim to length, all the cuts need to be squared, stripped of their coatings, slightly beveled and drilled for plug welding.

Then, all the slugs, inserts, and tubes need to be deburred and cleaned inside and out of any rust scale or mill coatings. Next is the cleaning of every part with denatured alcohol or the like in every welding area. Now you can go ahead and assemble everything down with the fixtures, and level everything out front to back, and side-to-side. Next, measurements need to be taken front to back for length on the frame itself, and the axle plates need to be set at the same height, and the width between the axle plates set. If something doesn't square up, now's when you fix it. I try and keep all these measurements to within a 1/16" from side to side, and top to bottom.

With a hardtail job like this one, you need to split the forging on each side of the seatpost, because the angle of the old frame tubing of the top rails doesn't match the angle of the new tubing coming out of the axle plates. The old tubing is higher to allow enough room on the 4 speed frame for the electric start motor, and the oil tank. So, you need to heat the old tubing sections, and bend them down to meet the angle of the new top sections. Once that's done, you can trim the top rails to length, clean, plug drill, etc., etc.

If everything lines up, you can finally start your welding process. First, the plug welds are all done, skipping around from side to side, and top to bottom. Next, all the seam welds are done in the same manner, and I'm constantly checking my measurements as I go. With a frame mod like this, it's almost impossible to get all the welds completed as it sits, so you have to let it cool in the jig, and then pop it out, and finish up any seam areas you have left.

While a hardtail job like this is more involved in some areas than say, putting on a pre-made rigid section, all the prep work, squaring, leveling, and measuring are still the same for both. That's why I kinda smile when I see somebody on the message boards saying "Fuck, I'm not paying that much for a hardtail install, my buddy says he'll weld it on for a 12 pack!" Well, maybe he can, and maybe he can't........

These are the mild steel axle plates, vs. the stainless from the post below. Both of the axle plate sets, as are all of John's (Hardcore Choppers) castings, are a thing of beauty. Compare these plates sometimes with the ones that Taiwan Tedd sells. In another couple days, we'll have this job completed.

Two down, one to go.......

2011-02-27T10:19:00.000-08:00

Boom...boom...boom. Three frames showed up in 3 weeks to be hardtailed. I've finally managed to get two of them completed inbetween everything else, and I'm working on the third, which I hope to finish in a couple days. Nothing looks better than OEM-style axle plates on one of these conversions. Two frames get mild steel plates, the other stainless.

The stainless steel axle plates. These will look killer when they're masked off before powdercoating, and re-polished afterwards.

"A Small Package Of Value Will Come To You, Shortly"

2011-02-25T11:41:00.000-08:00

If you don't know the title reference, it's a track from Jefferson Airplane's '67 album After Bathing At Baxters, with the album's incredibly detailed cover artwork rendered by R. Cobb. Most noted for his underground art and political cartoons for The L.A. Free Press in the '60's, Cobb at the age of 18, and with no formal art training, worked his way up to breakdown artist for Disney's 1957 animated feature film Sleeping Beauty, and later went on to do the conceptual designing for Last Starfighter, Star Wars, Conan The Barbarian, and True Lies, to name just a few of his prolific artwork projects for the major studios in the '80's.

The full album cover for After Bathing At Baxter's

Anyways, the "small package of value" that will "come ...shortly" are the springer parts that Fat Bob and Slippery Pete rounded up for me, that will eventually find their way into the front end assembly for my Invited Builders bike for Born Free III. Timing couldn't be more perfect, as I had just dropped off my radius rods yesterday at A-1 Stripping to get the rust scale on their insides removed, and stripped of their 82 year old chassis black paint. Thanks, guys, I'm most appreciative!

After BF III, the bike is also going up to Sturgis, to be part of the 2011 Michael Lichter/Jeff Decker exhibit, at the Lichter Exhibit Hall at the Buffalo Chip Campground. I'm stoked.
http://www.fatbobsusedharleyparts.com/

http://bornfreeshow.blogspot.com/

http://www.buffalochip.com/

Photo courtesy of Josh Kurpius

Where, oh where, is Part-timer Stevie ?

2011-02-15T21:35:00.001-08:00

Well, Part-timer Steve headed off to Hazel, KY on Sunday, to take CJ Allan's engraving class. I guess I'm not grumpy enough to work with, he had to travel a 1.000 mi. to work under somebody who makes Ming The Merciless look like Little Mary Sunshine, haha! Nah, I kid (?). Steve's a sharp, artistic guy, he should do just fine, and CJ told me he's gonna teach him well. Besides, I'm not losing a helper, I'm gaining an in-house engraver!

But, I haven't heard anything from Steve (or CJ) since he left. Either he's having the time of his life with CJ, or CJ's had it, and he's got him out on the back 40 digging a hole. Hmmmm....

Seriously, if you ever thought about learning engraving, CJ would be the guy you should contact. He'll give you the basics you'll need, plus some of his hard-earned "tricks", and steer you in the right direction as far as the equipment you'll need. Contact info is above.

In the mean time, here's some really early work from CJ, done for Pat Leahy. I'll have to give Pat a call, and find out if he still has this cam case cover. I bet he does.

Aw yeah, more Psychedelic Love Temple info......

2011-02-10T11:52:00.001-08:00

I received an Email from "Harry", with some additional information on the San Souci Temple, or as most people know it, "The Psychedelic Love Temple", as David Mann depicted it in his '68 Roth poster painting.

Harry's perspective comes from being a resident close to the Temple in that time period, and I thought you'd like to read what he had sent me. Thank you Harry, it was most appreciated!

"Hi, I did a google search for the San Souci Temple in L.A. and found your article. I lived 3 blocks from the Temple & remember it very well. I was only 12 or 13 at the time, but the hippies never hassled me about being there. I remember going up on the roof and watching bands play in the stage that was built into the central circular cavity of the Temple. There was a circular glass roof that allowed natural light into the shaft and one of the triangular panes was broken. I would lie on my belly and watch the fun happening downstairs. Many famous people visited and played at the Temple. Jimi Hendrix played there, as did The Santana Blues Band as they were known back then. Santana would come down from Frisco in a bus that the band used to get around in & it had Santana Blues Band painted on the side. You can imagine my delight when their firt album came out in ’69 under the now familiar name of 'Santana' ."

"As you mentioned,'The Trip' was filmed there and I remember the Love & Sex painting on Ardmore Avenue right in front of the Temple. Being that I was only 12 or 13, I wasn’t quite ready to take the acid and other drugs that were freely offered to me. It was because I was the youngest person there that I’d go up to the roof and just watch the things going on downstairs. My older brother met his future wife at a Temple party."

"The Baron’s took over shortly after I began going to the Temple and they ran it into the ground. The hippies were all very groovy, full of acid and love. The bikers were kind of abusive control freaks who always wanted to chase me & my friends out. We had ties to a notorious L.A. street gang called, 18th Street, and we considered raiding the Temple and putting a hurt on the Barons. "

"As you correctly stated, there really wasn’t much of a police presence at the Temple. The city did manage to shut it down and left it boarded up & abandoned. It was eventually torn down in the 70’s and the lot sat vacant for years. An old friend of mine dropped acid and sat on the vacant hill where the Temple sat and meditated on the good old days there. His band often played at the Temple. From Google Maps, it looks like apartments were eventually built on the site."

"Now about the Temple’s actual location: it was located on South Ardmore Avenue, in what later became the 'Koreatown' section of L.A. Koreatown’s main streets are Olympic Blvd., Western Avenue & Vermont Avenue. Ardmore Avenue is located between Western & Vermont and the Temple was just south of Olympic Blvd., closer to 11th Street. It was pretty much smack in the middle of inner city L.A. By the early 70's the black migration out of the inner city to Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley had begun. The Korean’s began arriving & buying up houses and businesses in the early 70’s. Being that the area was economically depressed. They got everything cheap & the city was glad to make the revenue when taxes were raised because of all the new Korean businesses."

"Being that this all hit me out of the blue, that’s pretty much all I have for you at this time. Feel free to write with any other questions you may have.
Thanks for your on-line write-up, it was great to see my old stomping grounds after all these years!"
Harry

While I was out for the David Mann Chopfest last December, I had a chance to talk to Droopy some more about the time he spent at the Temple, and he related being there one night when a guy fell through the dome, got up, and walked away afterwards! I wonder if that was the cause of the broken triangle in the dome Harry referred to?

You can check out the earlier posts that I've done on the Temple here:

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/08/1039-ardmore-ave.html

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/08/1039-ardmore-ave-followup.html

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/12/boo-yah-more-psychedelic-love-temple.html

Dennis Goodson - Tri-Hauler Bike.......

2011-02-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

Dennis Goodson built the "Tri-Hauler" bike for his old club brother Rotten Ralph, who was paralized from the waist-down, due to a lady who hit him head-on. Ralph died a while ago, and Dennis re-acquired the bike back again. He's gone through the bike from top to bottom, and it's in tip-top roadworthy shape. It's also for sale. Give the video a watch, and Dennis' contact info is at the end of the video if you're interested in the bike.

The Great Fatsby.....

2011-02-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

Leslie West and Mountain in 1970, in their prime. 40 years later, Mountain consistently places in the top 25 all-time group polls in every the rock publication. Still one of my favorite guitarists, I was fortunate to see Mountain many, many times when they played on stage just like this clip......

Unfortunately, I saw Leslie West in the early '80's and he was a pretty sad figure. Never a small man to begin with, West was grossly way over 300 lbs., glassy-eyed, strung out on dope and alcohol, and missing most of his teeth. He could still play guitar at the intensity he always did, but at most of his concerts, he was too fucked up to either remember to, or be able to sing the words to songs he'd done a bazillion times. It was really painful to watch him perform.

Fortunately (unlike so many other fellow performers from the '60's), West went underground for a long time, lost all his weight, got sober, and got himself a new set of choppers. Still on the road with Corky Lang, his longtime drummer, and still tearing up the stage. Go see him if you ever get the chance. Meanwhile, turn this up LOUD........

150,000 page views.......

2011-02-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

This makes me feel pretty good. We reached a couple milestones here on Applied Machete. We hit over 150,000 page views, and 160 followers sometime last week. Thanks to everybody who comes here to visit, thank you for all the Emails, and thank all of you that have links from your blogspots to here.

I thought you'd like to see what the alltime top 10 viewed posts have been over the last 3 years on Applied Machete:

1. Von Dutch Monday VI

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2009/10/von-dutch-monday-vi.html

2. Of Tank Girl, Pete Pepe's CFL, and Craig Fraser

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/10/of-tank-girl-pete-pepes-cfl-and-craig.html

3. Bending The Line

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/12/bending-line.html

4. A Hells Angel Goes To The Smithsonian

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/11/hells-angel-goes-to-smithsonian.html

5. Robert Tessier

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2009/11/robert-tessier.html

6. CNC???

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/07/cnc.html

7. Bill Ray Wasn't The Lone Ranger

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/07/bill-ray-wasnt-lone-ranger.html

8. 1039 Ardmore Ave.

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/08/1039-ardmore-ave.html

9. The Electric Chair

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2009/01/electric-chair.html

10. Norm Grabowski's "Six Pack"

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2008/12/norm-grabowskis-six-pack.html

Single downtube CFL frames.....

2011-02-02T16:45:00.000-08:00

A rarity even when West Coast Choppers was in full swing, the WCC CFL frame in a single downtube configuration is something you may never see in person, so few were the build numbers.

Never offered to the general public as an option on a CFL frame, you either had to have one built as a shop bike, or "have an in" at WCC to obtain one.

Because WCC wouldn't sell one, a lot of independent shops took a customer's regular CFL frame, and converted it to a single downtube. But, considering the thousands of WCC CFL frames that were built, a genuine WCC-built single loop CFL frame is as rare as hen's teeth. Every once and awhile, a bare frame will show up on Ebay with the WCC pedigree, and commands a pretty good penny to obtain it. Right or wrong, the last one I saw on Ebay went for 9 grand......

Photos 7 and 8 aren't shop-built bikes, but all the single loop frames, and every bike in this post are WCC-built single downtube frames.

Mark Nelson's single loop CFL. It was at the end of this photo shoot for Hardcore Choppers Japan that mark earned his nickname "9 1/2". It's a widely-known story, but if you haven't read or heard about it, you'll just have to ask Mark. This is another one that's in my shop-built "Top 5 CFL's" list.

I saved this one for last. The photo was taken "upstairs" at WCC soon after the move to the Anaheim St. shop. From what I understand, Jesse did this frame at the beginning of the CFL frame manufacturing as a prototype design. As far as I know, there were only two of this exact style frames built - this one, and the one below.......

This is my single downtube CFL frame. OriginallyI had asked Jesse if WCC could build this frame for a client of mine in Santa Fe, and Jesse said, "Yeah, sure....". Well, I kept asking, and Jesse kept saying "Sure...", but it was through the persistent lobbying of Mark (9 1/2) Nelson, that it was finally completed in '05.

It was funny, at the time this was assembled, WCC had a "showroom" and a "shop" cam operating, and you could see what was going on in those locations on Jesse's website Chopperdogs. The shop camera happened to be pointed just right, and you could see the guys assembling this frame in the jig all that week. Everybody was positive it was a frame for Jesse Rooke. I never said anything different. Originally, I had the go-ahead to buy a couple of these style frames, but money ws tight, and I only had WCC build this one, with an option to get one for myself later on.

Well, it turned out that my client in Santa Fe decided to forgo his new build, and bought a KTM or something instead. He offered the frame back to me, and I didn't hesitate buying it, vowing that it wouldn't ever leave here again. I've had some pretty outrageous $$$$$ offers to sell this frame over the years, and I've turned them all down.

The specs on this frame are 1" up, 2" out, with a 35 degree rake, with a special spiderweb gusset cut to match. The curved downtube and backbone are 1 1/2" dia. x 1/4" wall tubing, with the remainder of the frame tubes at the standard WCC 1 1/8" x 1/8" wall tube. It was originally set up for a 200 tire, and a drop down battery box, when that battery location was a shop CFL built-only offering.

I have the original MSO (signed by Pearl) for the frame, and the original custom order build sheet for it. Another strange thing about this frame is that the VIN # for it is stamped under the front engine mount, not on the mount's front surface like other CFL's are.

You might just see this frame on the road this year, that's all I'm coping to.........