So sad, another legend gone.....Norm Grabowski

I remember Ronnie Paugh (of Paughco fame) telling me one time when he (Ron) was a young guy, he and his family would stop at Norm's parents house in The Valley, and buy eggs from them, from a little roadside stand they had. That's the Grabowski chicken ranch property where the famous photo of Norm laying under the "Kookie T", with that huge wooden A-frame engine hoist behind it, was taken.....

Just about every link you'd want on Norm Grabowski:

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/11/norman.html

Norm on his red metalflaked Pan chopper with the jugs and heads painted white, at the drags. Check out the sissy bar - it's a combination beer can holder/"church key" beer can opener....too fucking much! Now everybody will have one by Born Free 5.....

Norm's monster, The Corvair-powered "Six Pack". Neil East (another rodding icon), owned AutoBooks in Burbank, CA, and Colorado Carbooks here in Denver told me that Norm used to come to L.A. Roadster club meetings on the Six Pack, and he said Norm had no problem kick starting this bike, when it was time to leave. It had no electric starter!

2/5/33 - 11/12/12

Norm Grabowski's "Six Pack"

Hard to believe this was built almost 44 years ago. This has been one of my favorite bikes ever since I saw it in '65. Norm Grabowski took a '41 shaft drive Indian frame, and transplanted a Corvair flat 6 into it. I knew Boyd DeFrance of D&D, made the adapter to link the Indian shaft drive to the engine, and cast the "Six Pack" valve covers. What I didn't know until a little while ago, was the fact that I was wrong on who striped it. From the striping style, I always thought Von Dutch had done it. It turns out Dean Jeffries did it. An easy mistake to make, because Jeffries was a Von Dutch protege'.

You may have never seen this configuration, though. Norm took a German-made Steib sidehack frame, and added a narrowed and sectioned fiberglass T bucket body from CT Automotive to it. He did this around '67-'68. Tony Nancy did the upholstery, and Jeffries matched in his striping.

Notice the new pipe layout to accomodate the sidehack. Truly a beautifull, hand-built motorcycle.

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

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

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

Part 1 - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Barris-built BSA

Von Dutch did a lot of work for Barris. As a matter of fact, Dutch did the big Script lettering on the front of Barris' shop in L.A. This BSA looks like Von Dutch did the pinstripes and flames, but he didn't. Like Grabowski's bike Six Pack, it was done by Dean Jeffries. Tell me Jeffries didn't pick up a bunch hanging around with Dutch.