6 of one 1/24th of a gross of the other

It's no secret choppers are everywhere. When I was a kid it was a rarity to see a chopper. Around my house however, it was all about cafe racers or actual racebikes. I've never owned a bike that wasn't modified in some way. I just can't do it. I rode my buddies restored Triumph tiger this past summer and all I could think about was how I'd change this and change that if it was mine. I'd like to do some restorations but I couldn't keep the bike, it would drive me crazy. Building a cafe racer is a similar situation to building a chopper. The end results are decidedly different but the idea of taking a bike and tweaking it, polishing, cutting, etc. is the same. With a cafe racer you usually want to make it handle, stop, and steer better. With a chopper it's not so much making it perform better as making it look better. I'm leaving out the aspect of engine performance, making it faster is a given. There is so much beautiful machinery exposed on a motorcycle. Parts that can be massaged to turn that mediocre motorcycle into a reflection of your skill and style. I did not care for the style of the choppers in the 70's. I saw way too many Nortons and Triumphs that had been ruined by longer tubes, 16" rear wheel, and ridiculous handlebars. On their own, the only thing those parts created was one ugly ass bike that didn't work well. I didn't know that there were people building choppers with the same skill and heart that going into the cafe racers.
I did not see them on the street and the biker mags of the day all had boobs in them and you couldn't just run to the corner and pick one up. Not that I'm anti-boob, I'm talking about when I was a kid here. Now, of course, with the chopper explosion going on I see the excellent work being done by bike builders. I've seen pics from those old mags and the cool pans and shovels did exist. I absolutely love Triumph choppers, done right of course. My point here is once upon a time I was ignorant to the coolness of choppers. I'd still rather build a bike that stopped and turned better than when I started but this is why I've been posting pics of choppers and why I'm doing a bobber style on the Sprint. There are plans to build more cafe racers but since I've seen the light I might as well bask in it, no?

Step #2 Wipe hands on pants

Remember those public bathroom hand blowers and the cool graffitti they used to sport? There was a time when they all had "Wipe hands on pants" scratched on the instruction plate. Anyhoo, I've had these two paper towel holders for ever. You need something in the shop to hold paper towels. The old Fort Howard selfold towels aren't neccisarily the best option, I prefer the blue Shop Towels on a Roll, but the big steel box makes a cool platform for painting or stickers or whatever. You can see that I painted this one to give to one of my buddies. He's a VW guy, having had a few busses and a sweet 60' rag top bug. I found the "dienst" logo on an old European V-dub service manual and thought it was appropriate to hang in his shop. I used fizz cans for the creme base and the blue stripe. I did the lettering with One-Shot. I new hand lettering was tough but I have a new found respect for sign painters. I think I'll stick to trying to laydown crappy pinstripes and leave the lettering to the pros. The old rusty holder in the pic represents what they both looked like before the revamp. I will blast and paint the other one for my garagemobile. I'll have to fit that project in among all the others. So there you have the top secret paper towel holder #1.

Harley news

I was driving past the house where the ratty FLH lives yesterday and the owner was outside. I stopped and asked him about the bike. He's actually still paying on it and he hasn't ridden it in four years. Up close it was pretty scary. He said he laid it down a couple of times and the bike sure reflected that. It is a 94' Electra Glide Classic if anyone was wondering. He was a very nice guy and seemed eager to talk bikes so I'll have to swing by some other time and maybe encourage him to get it runnin. On the home front, I cleaned and organized the garagemobile in spite of the Sprint's best efforts to derail that. Everytime I go in the garage I can't do anything but stare at the Sprint and that leads to ideas about the bike and I start wrenching on it . This would not be such a a bad idea if I didn't have half a wall with exposed insulation and a huge pile of boxes scattered all around. I pushed the Sprint over by the Honda and covered it up. Using the "out of sight, out of mind" concept I got the wall closed in, some peg board hung, put up a bicycle holder, and built one shelf and assembled some others. Wow, I can walk around both bikes now. The sun was out so I snapped a couple of pics of my mock up. I dug out the old aluminum fender I've been sitting on for years and trimmed it to fit. I scored a Bates style seat and pillion pad on ebay and I have a sparto taillight that I found at a swap meet a while back. The Chief dug out a couple of bars and the drag bar looks pretty okay, but that may change. I've got about four hunderd front fenders to try but it looks cool sans fender. I'm also debating which front wheel to use so the fender choice is dependent on that. The front wheel in the pic is from a TX650 Yamaha. The stock wheel has a drum brake. I took the gauges off and it really cleaned up the look of the front end. I have ideas for how to get a speedo to work on this thing. You don't need a tach on this bike so that will be saved for future, other Sprints. I may work on the exhaust this week. I'm thinking straight pipe, but who knows.

Confederate design

Despite the obvious reasons for choosing to own a motorcycle some of us also are drawn to the way they look, the style. This is aesthetics. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get all philosophical on your asses. I went to the Confederate Motorcycles website yesterday just to check if there was anything new. You may have seen one of their bikes on the cover of any number of motorcycle or design magazines and you may or may not have liked it. The look of the bikes is certainly not to everyone’s taste. I, personally, think they are gorgeous but what intrigues me about this brand is it’s not just another American bike builder using Harley-Davidson clone motors. They have cleverly named their particular flavor of powerplant the radial twin. I don’t think this is just to skirt the issue of ripping off the Motor Company from Milwaukee but another nod to the Confederate Motorcycles design aesthetic. They describe it as this –

“Confederate Motor Company's unique design aesthetic adheres to the industrial elegance of the Bauhaus and a deep history of Southern ingenuity that includes the invention of the first submarine the C.S.S. Hunley, the LeMat double barrel pistol, Jazz, and Rock n' Roll.The fastest and most luxurious American radial-twin motorcycles ever made, each machine is entirely crafted by hand to showcase evolved individual craftsmanship. Devoid of ornamentation, the minimalism of each machine illuminates the stark and elegant beauty of uncompromised American heirloom quality.”

This is the core of what excites me about this company. Not only am I excited; it also seems to leave a bad taste in my mouth. On one hand this is a company that builds motorcycles that seem to go, stop, and look cool-all the things a motorcycle should do. Pretty cut and dried. The other hand is a different story. I am no expert on industrial design, but I do enjoy the idea of making everyday items beautiful. I can appreciate a motorcycle that looks different than all the rest and still does not compromise the actual function of the item. Reading the above description I can see where they are going, however, it seems to drip with pretense. I get the idea of using industrial design and engineering to build motorcycles but are they using motorcycles to sell engineering and industrial design? After hurricane Katrina came and kicked the shit out of the gulf coast, Confederate’s building was destroyed. Determined to keep on kicking they have chosen to continue operations in Birmingham, AL. They chose Birmingham for a few reasons but it seems as though the choice was made more for cool factor than anything. I am quite torn by the duality of what I read about Confederate. The company’s founder Matt Chambers in a press release about the move said this about the bikes-“This is what we are about - celebrating a sense of individuality and reasserting fundamental integrity back into American motorcycles.” I really like that. The same press release also states that the bikes are “Owned by movie stars, rock stars and at least one foreign prince…” I’m not so excited about the latter little tidbit. Another small issue I have with these bikes is the cost. The Wraith model is $67,000. If you want to reassert fundamental integrity back into American motorcycles perhaps you could design a bike that someone hauling down a cool forty grand a year could afford.
Maybe that bad taste in my mouth is just sour grapes. I’ve never felt the astronomical cost of a new Ferrari was something to worry about. I feel the same about the motorcycling equivalents built by MV or Benelli. Perhaps it’s the fact that this is another Harley clone that, however cool looking it is, is just another custom bike. Maybe it’s just the fact that I know what goes into building something like this and the fact that they are marking it up like jewelry seems ludicrous. I like the way they look and I’m sure that riding one would be the most fun you could have with your pants on. What I cannot figure out is are they a motorcycle company trying to survive and stay true to a design aesthetic or a marketing company trying to get rich by selling a modern Crocker they talked you into believing was “most expressive of a sense of individuality”.

Up to mah ears

I have alot going on this week so not much real time to post. I made some progress on several projects. The one top secret project is done so I'll post pics when I can. No news on the ratty FLH from around the corner. I haven't made it over there yet. I got some parts for the Sprint and mocked it up a little. I actually did some metalwork on it. Because of the winter here the Honda has been getting neglected. I need to do some maintenence on the old girl and continue with the never ending spiffying up process. I started on the bodywork a little and I've narrowed down the color scheme to two choices-black or black. I'll either go the factory correct gloss black with new blue stripe decals and new emblems or the piss everyone off, flat black with gold metallic racing stripes and figure out a way to paint the old crappy emblems. Anything is better than brown. I also need to stop the chain from rubbing the centerstand before it saws itself in half. I've also got some issues with my job that I'm sure will work themselves out soon.
Rock on.

New Year's revulsion

A while back I posted about the disease alot of us have. The acquiring too many projects disease. It comes in many forms-for some it's cars, for others it's guitars, for me it's anything with two wheels. While I've resisted the temptation to inquire about the shitted up sportbike, I did see my buddy Bug on New Years and asked about the 650 Yamaha he had. It's sold. I could have had it for almost nothing. It's probably a good thing it's gone. This brings me to my New Year's resolution. I think New Year's resolutions are pretty much a waste of time. If you need to lose weight or quit drinking or masturbating or whatever why wait? Just do it. That being said, I rarely make resolutions based on a calendar. I am a firm believer in setting the bar low and just keep jumpin over it. Setting a deadline or a goal-fabulous. Setting a time to start-stupid. As usual, I digress. Around the corner from my house is another house-go figure. In the driveway is a Harley Ferguson bagger. I don't know my Hardley models real well but I think it's an FLH. The poor beast has been sitting outside uncovered (I'm near Chicago, mind you) in all the elements for quite sometime. In front of the garage. I pass this thing twice a day on my way to and from work. I can see that the garage is empty enough to pull the bike inside but it sits alone outside rusting. What a shame. Every time the wife and I are together in the car I bitch about how can someone leave a perfectly nice, albeit ugly and huge, motorcycle sitting outside to rot? In the last week or two a tarp was draped over it and the wind blew it off within hours. No attempt was made to re-tarp it. Before X-mas there was 6" of snow on it. My resolution is to stop bitching about that bike, at least temporarily, and go see what the deal is. Ironicaly, Gymi posted something about perfectly good mototrcycles being left outside to die also. Not much of a resolution, but like I said, I think they are stupid for the most part anyway. I think the worst that can happen is the guy will tell me to go have sex with myself. What will probably happen is he will say, "I'm gonna work on it this summer" or "My kid's supposed to get it runnin". Same old shit we've all heard before. It will sit there until all the chrome is junk and the rings have become one with the cylinders. I'm gonna try and get over there this week. I'll keep you all posted.

Bicycle project update

I've made a little progress on the bicycle front end. It's all welded together and fits quite nice. Now it just needs a little grinding and filing and a coat of primer. The next thing to do will be bob the fenders and add a flare on the ends. The rear wheel needs to have the dish corrected and do a little work with the cogs. Once the mechanical stuff is figured out I can pull it apart and blast and paint it. Most of the parts are in pretty good shape so I don't need to buy much. Some new bearings and paint and I should be good to go. The headlight needs alot of work too. I may have to trash it and get a new one. I think I can salvage it. I'm still trying to figure out a color for this thing. I've had several ideas, but I can never decide on paint colors. I'm open to suggestions. If think it needs to be a certain color please chime in. Rock on.