Monday, September 24, 2012

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 ." 


Saturday, September 22, 2012

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




Monday, September 17, 2012

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!

Friday, September 14, 2012

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

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

This just in.........

After fighting fuel system grit and associated delays from Denver to Des Moines, IA, Part-timer Steve made it from there to NYC without incident, and then over to Kickstart Walt's Gypsy Run 6 in NJ. Steve was rewarded for his tenacity on this trip with the Gypsy Run Long Distance Award. I pulled the above photo from Steve's blog, it's someplace on the road back. Nice, Steve, see you in a couple days.......

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Mail Room - Sherry, and more Love Temple info, Part 2....

I promised I'd pass on "Sherry"s recollections of her time at The Sans Souci (aka the Psychedelic Love Temple), and here's what she had to say. Again, Sherry, thank you for taking the time to Email me, it was most appreciated.......

"It's only rather by accident that I stumbled upon your blog. I have a friend who is 10 years younger than I am and she's always been fascinated by the whole 60's thing. So one of her classes some years ago was on changes wrought by the 60's, or whatever and she kept asking me questions and the subject of the Temple came up. This last Saturday evening I was with friends and she brought up the Temple and mentioned that she'd been looking up info online about who lived there and such and I asked what site she'd found, because when I'd checked last a few years ago there was nothing except the Free Press mention. She didn't know which site it was. So I came home and found your blog. I called her the next morning to thank her very much for mentioning that because I wouldn't have found your site otherwise and it meant a lot to me. She said she'd never seen your blog."

"First went to The Temple with Buddha and Florida Dave.....Buddha (Hank Gardner) rode with The Misfits, Florida Dave with The Outlaws."

"Came across an online pic of Roland Burnett's high school yearbook pic and, I believe the spelling was 'Roland' ".

"Thrilled to see the pic of Tanker and Roland and Pai (Paisano). I remember Tank's bike being an electric start....said he got ragged on a lot, but he wasn't out there spending all his time kick starting".

"Roland died years ago in Ramona, perhaps on his uncle's property there. I believe Roland died in January of 1978....RIP...I heard about Roland's dying in Ramona from a friend via Narco Bob....last time I saw him was in Ramona."

"Tanker died years ago in the desert in Arizona, in his hearse, was cremated and some of his ashes divided amungst his bros...some of these ashes carried in a small receptacle clipped to a roach clip so he could always go along and party with everyone else".

"I came home the night Hendrix was playing there and was quite surprised...lol..I think it was the night before he played The Bowl and, as I recall was getting $60 thou for the Bowl...and we had him for free".

"Why more responses from women than men? Maybe because we're still alive. Roland's dead, Tank's dead, I don't know where Richard is, last saw him living in Pasadena. Who else? Blue? Leona? Bebe? Bebe's dead".

"The mention of the pants Roland was wearing being in two pics...yep...his fave. Red / green large houndstooth check pants, blue / green floral shirt with white collar and to top it off a light turquoise suede jacket".

"Lol....I see that someone else who posted lived in the front balcony apartment...I did also, earlier...Roland's room was on the roof...called 'Heaven."

Friday, September 7, 2012

Lookie here.....

You've probably seen the above photo, or "poster" (I've never seen an actual poster) by now. The picture has been traveling the internet, message boards, and people's blogs for years. Some have said that it's a photo of Terry the Tramp, or Freewheelin' Frank, but it is neither of them. I don't know who this Member is for sure, or what Charter he belonged to, but here's something I found that I thought was interesting.......
I was over looking at the Diggers site, and I came across some photographs that Chuck Gould took of the "Digger Family" in San Francisco and other locations during 1967-1968. The photos he took included several pictures of Pete Knell, then President of the Frisco Charter of the Hells Angels (seen above), as well as Billy Fritch ( Sweet William).

It's a photo of Pete Knell working on the handlebar wiring of a chopper, in his garage. Look at his garage wall, in the upper left corner....what do you see?
That's right, it's the photo that was used for the poster. This print seems to be approximately 18" x 24" vs. the standard at the time 24" x 36" size most posters like this were. Also notice this print isn't as cropped as the one you're used to seeing . You can see another bike just to the right of the front wheel, and you see more of the street, too.

My guess is that this photo was taken by Eve Crane, and it may have been shot right out in front of Pete Knell's house, by the looks of the foreground. It most probably was made into a poster by some place like The Print Mint (other Crane photos were made into posters), right in San Francisco, probably not by Roth down in L.A., as some have thought. If anybody knows anything for sure about the history of this photo, I'll be glad to pass it on, and post up any replies.

Oh yeah, who's Eve Crane? Well, there's a really good story on her (along with her relationship with the Frisco Hells Angels, and others) by Sully Hake in Garage magazine #13, March 2007 issue if you can find one, or you can go here....

My poor camera......

I gotta apologize for the poor quality of these photos, my poor little digital camera is on life support now. Sometimes it takes great shots, other times it looks like I took the pictures with a $15.00 cell phone. Here's what we did on Tommy's bike today......
A little wiggling here and there with the trans plate, and on went the Softail inner primary, and the starter motor. It was a tight fit with the starter motor to the swingarm, but we have 5/16" clearance between the two. You could probably get away with 11" shocks (we're running 13" FLT OEM air shocks), and still not hit the starter with the swingarm at full shock travel. 10" shocks? No way. Next.......
...... in goes Tommy's old enclosed Softail BDL belt drive. No problems, everything fit as before, lined right up, and.......
Done! I'm going to wait until I get the 4.2 gal. flatside tanks, the 4sp swingarm OEM square oil tank, and the rear fender/bobbed fender rails mounted - each one of those components will need a little minor fiddling with to fit, then I'll post more progress pictures. I gotta get a new camera......

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Mail Room - Sherry, her Mom, and more Love Temple info, Pt. 1....

"Sherry" has sent me quite a few Emails regarding her time at The Sans Souci Temple (aka The Psychedelic Love Temple), which were most appreciated. She's given me the OK to pass on her recollections to you, so as soon as I can sit down and combine all Sherry's Emails into a good compilated post, I"ll do that for everyone. In the mean time......

Sherry was kind enough to send along this photo of her mom, Dee, taken in 1948, posing on (from the tank emblem) a '47 Knucklehead. Sherry also said there's another shot of herself and her Mom on the same Knuck, but she can't locate it right now. Sherry was 1 yr. old when this photo was snapped. How cool is this old Polaroid? From the other Emails she's sent me, bikes seem to run through Sherry's life. Stay tuned for the Temple post.......

Monday, September 3, 2012

Who says Softail 5 speeds don't fit in 4 speed swingarm frames?

We're going to use Tommy's old enclosed belt drive inside a Softail OEM inner and outer primary - that alignment is next on the setup list, then on to the rear wheel/trans sprocket/wheel sprocket alignment. So far, so good......

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Remember Tommy's "splice job"?

If you remember back on the blog, I started the conversion on Tommy's generic rigid frame to a swingarm a couple months ago. I would have buttoned this project up a long time ago, but if you'll also recall, Tommy decided he wanted to add in an OEM-style polished stainless neck and sidecar loops. The holdup was the polisher, we had to wait until he got the neck and loops back to us before we could go any further.

The parts finally arrived back here last week, so I thought this long weekend was a good time to get it welded up. If you recall, I grafted the swingarm section in about a month or so ago, and I had all the replacement frame tubing and slugs already cut, so it was just a matter of jigging everything up, and welding it all together.
Here it is, all finished. It was a difficult job, but worth the effort I think. This frame is very stock-looking, but only people who "know" will be able to tell it isn't - that's the idea behind all this work. I call it my 1957 1/2 FLXP frame. This will make a nice looking bike with the 5 gal. fatbobs and the bobbed stock rear fender and fender struts, and the frame powdercoated black, with the neck and sidecar loops left in high polish.