More Uncles and motorcycles

Over the past weekend Mrs. Surly and I went down to Seymour to hang out and went to a little party in honor of my Crazy Uncle who passed away last year. We had a great time and with the help of my Old Man, we dragged back Unk's 1971 BSA Lightning. He wanted us to have it and now we do. Not sure how joint ownership is going to shake out but this would be the third BSA twin and fourth total BSA I have been the proud (or partial) owner of. One of my friends is a motorcycle savant and has a set of sleeved carbs for this baby. With those and a little TLC, I could have this thing running in a weekend. If only I had a weekend.

The Beesa in STB's pickup.

In an unfortunate coincidence, another uncle passed away a few years ago as well. He had a 1969 XLH Sportster. I eluded to it back in June of 2011. There was a bunch of stuff that we helped sell for my aunt but understandably, she wasn't ready to sell the scooter at the time. I respectfully asked for right of first refusal and long story short...I'm picking it up on Sunday.

There's a sporting motorcycle hidden somewhere in this picture.

So I've been trying to keep the garage and my life uncluttered and I wind up with half a motorcycle and a Harley. Well I suppose that since it's Independence Day here in the good old U.S. of A the purchase of some Milwaukee iron offsets the partial ownership of the BSA from jolly old England.

This would be the target. Pic lifted from The Zon

It certainly warrants it's own post(s), but this is what I'm thinking I'll do with the Sporty. The blue bike is what it would have looked like originally. The Old Man thinks the hardtail is a bad idea. I don't know why that would make any difference to him considering he has about 10 bikes and only one is rideable. If it's parked, what difference would it make if it's uncomfortable? Just kidding Chief. I think making something like the above would be pretty attainable without too much money being spent. Of course, I've said that before.

Happy Independence Day!

Green Flake

Image by Gary Griffin, used with permission

I had an entire post written about the inherent coolness of green metal flake, or sparkle if you will. I think this photo illustrates my point better than I could ever write. When it comes to custom bikes, you could do worse than a paint job like this. This would also be the appropriate use of green metalflake grips for you negative commentors. I'm pretty sure that when the time comes to paint my Sprint it will look something like this. Bike built by John Collins of Houston, TX and photographed by Gary Griffin.

New links

 Photo Copyright 2011 Matt Mengel

I added a few new links to the photography section. They happen to be folks who photograph motorcycles.