I spoke a little too soon....from the Mail Box.....

I hardtailed this 4 speed swingarm frame for Jay, in SoCal, a little while ago. I used the OEM-style axle plates on this job, the results and the lines of the hardtail section are hard to beat. Jay sent the following Email and photos along to me this last weekend. Again, nice to see my work actually rolling down the highway. Thanks Jay!

"Hi Rich, how is everything going ? I was erasing some old emails and I came across this one from you, and it reminded me that I never sent you any pictures of the bike. We got it running but chrome and paint got put on hold because summer rolled around but I thought I'd send ya a couple pictures of it anyway. Thanks again it came out really nice. The photos came from a ride a few of us went on through the canyons. A guy named Troy over at the Chico Moto blog took them ." 

Haifley Brothers, Phoenix, Arizona.....

I had seen the Haifley Bros. upholstery work on their own brand of solo and king&queen seats at the 3rd Love Cycles Anniversary party last February in Phoenix, and decided they were the one's to cover my solo seat for my personal bike project.

I talked it over with Doug Haifley, and he said when I was ready, to send them the pan I had made, and they'd take care of it. And, boy, did they ever. Good communication,  fair price, fast service, no skimping on the workmanship and materials, and I couldn't be happier. Leather in a true tuck 'n roll, done in a "Bates" pattern. I'll have two more seat pans I made for client's builds on their way out to them shortly for the same treatment:

http://haifleybros.blogspot.com/

And hey, you know me by now, I don't endorse people unless I think they deserve it.

More from The Mail Bag - Got an Email from Shawn.....

If you look back in my blog to around the end of February of this year, you'll see a frame that Shawn brought me to work over for him, and some of the details of the modifications as I went along. Shawn didn't like the low ride height, or the "pro street' stretch in both ends of the frame, so he had me massage it into a more traditional looking frame configuration to suit his next project.

What I did was de-rake it 6 degrees (from 38 degrees to 32), gusset the neck OEM-style, reconfigure and replace the downtubes, and take 2 1/2" of stretch out of the rear section - and still allowing Shawn to use his 180 x 17 rear wheel again.

I also frisco'd the repop '00-up Sporty tank, relocated the gas filler and petcock, and mounted the rear fender. Shawn and his son CJ took it from there as a father/son build, with CJ as the ultimate recipient of it when it was completed. Wish I had a dad like that when I was in high school! But hey, what the hell, CJ put a lot of work into the bike as well, so why not?

Well, Shawn has another project just starting, and he's got another frame that's going to be needing some extensive mods, so along with a list of proposed modifications and photos of the frame for the new project, he sent along a couple snapshots of CJ and the bike that he and Shawn put together with the above frame.

Shawn said that CJ's been all over hell on the bike this summer. Nice to see a father/son team actually working together on something like this, and nice to see my work on the road as well. I don't get to see a lot of what I do for other people in the finished form most of the time (don't ask me, I have no idea why), so thanks for the photos!

Channeling Dick Allen......

I've never done a "double rail" sissy bar before, but Dick Allen did.........

No time like the present - my take-off on Dick's bar design. Credit where credit is due.....

There's a reason why tall sissy bars went out of fashion, along with tall birdshooter pipes. See, the problem is that real tall sissy bars look cool, but they act like giant tuning forks, and the bar will usually crack right at the mounting point between bar and fender. Why not just go with thicker diameter material - say 5/8" bar vs. 1/2" you say - well, thicker diameter material actually accentuates the tuning fork effect on a high bar. Trust me on this. Also, you guys know you should be using cold rolled bar for this, not hot rolled, right? Stay out of Home Depot for your sissy bar material, OK? Hit the steel yard. You have a lot (literally) riding on your choice of materials!

Dick Allen's idea was to use a tall primary bar, of say 5/8"" dia. material, with a shorter secondary bar of say 1/2" dia. material (along with a rubber isolator sandwiched between, and connecting the two bars), to lessen the "tuning fork" vibes of the main bar when you rode solo, and to add some support to the main bar itself for passengers leaning on it, and for carrying heavy travel gear when you hit the road. Pretty smart, that Allen guy.......

Pigpen kickin' a CH.....

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, original keyboardist for The Grateful Dead. Yes, Pig rode, long before it was the "fashion" for rock stars to do so. He rode because....well, he always had. But poor Pig, not only did he become one of the original members of the "27 Club" - musicians who died when they were 27 (the charter members died between '68-'70, and they were Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Alan 'Blind Owl" Wilson, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison), he also became the first of what people like to call the "Curse of the Grateful Dead Keyboardists", and you've got to admit, The Dead haven't been lucky in that department:

First was Pigpen, 27 - gastrointestinal hemorrhage in '73
Next was Keith Godchaux, 32 - auto accident in '80
Then, Brent Mydland, 37 - "accidental" drug OD in '90
And last, Vince Welnick, 55 - "apparent" suicide in '06

The only two keyboardist to "escape" the "curse" were Tom Constanten, who played with The Dead from '68-'70 (along with Pigpen), and Bruce Hornsby, who traded concert dates off and on with Vince Welnick on the Dead tours from '90-'92, while Welnick finished up previous musical commitments. Sometimes it was just Hornsby, sometimes it was just Welnick, and sometimes (like I saw The Dead here in Denver twice), it was both of them together playing with the band.

Pigpen's funeral memorial card