beyond vintage

Been an interesting few days.  I picked up a donor, but it wasn't what I intended, it just all came about at once. 

I was bound and determined to build a nice sporty hardtail.  I had it all worked out as well, but days of fretting and figuring ended up playing against me and I decided to let it go.  There were a lot of reasons.  I love sportsters but messing with chopping something new and expensive is sometimes a bit daunting.  I'm sure it would be no big deal, but it just doesn't seem as much fun. 

So I was sitting pondering how I was going to make this sporty thing work when I just decided it wasn't going to happen.  Too many factors.  One of the big factors was that no matter how you look at vintage Honda CB750 choppers, they are just bad ass.  Nothing says chopper more than a stretched, chopped, CB750.  Nothing like the contrast between long skinny bike and that huge, wide engine.  That fat heavy but nimble, powerful mill.


So all this time, it's like "that Sporty isn't REALLY what you want".. no matter how cool you make a sport custom bike, it is still a sporty and they are pretty common.  What I wanted was still the anti-harley.  It's been the theme continuously and why I have a Triumph and a Moto Guzzi.

So instead of thousands to buy a Sport to tear apart, I spent a couple hundred. 



I wasn't expecting much for the price.  The owner said that it ran, but that there were problems with the charging and battery ... blah blah blah...

I didn't expect it start, esp after he had to put another battery on it to crank it.  But it fired up immediately.  And it was music.  Not many bikes have that much character out of the box.

So now it is home.  Waiting for the time I can devote to getting it going into something.  I know what I want and it is lurking just about.  I just have to get it to that point...

Speaking of vintage.  Some people were posting cool photos on the Jockey Journal, so I thought I would add a few.  These are beyond vintage and really demonstrate what even the early motorcycles could do.  I thought I would add a couple because they are interesting and great shots of the detail of the bikes to a small degree.  These were in Mexico chasing Pancho Villa...




And of course, to give equal time, the great guerrilla himself....



Be good






















Technorati Tags: honda, cb750, cb 750, vintage, harley, pancho villa, villa, pancho, mexico, pershing, indian

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Custom chops, bobbers and knobbers

First, I promised a picture, this one has always been popular.  I called it the world's ugliest Indian.  I caught this at Smoke Out West I.  It has subsequently been featured in a couple magazines, I believe Cycle Source, but hey, I was mistaken once before.



This one pic has made my server go over quota more than once on traffic, so much so that I had to move the picture and change my web server plan.  Too cool.  The bike is an awesome example of the clever use of parts and the marrying up of diverse parts from "incompatible" (?) bikes.  Not to mention a good dose of style and a little humor.  I dont know how far he rode it to get to Cottontree/Cottonwood (WTF) AZ, but it must have been interesting.

I hear SOW is going to be in Santa Rosa NM this year?  Somebody did a WTF comparison and noted that Santa Rosa was 1000 miles from LA and 1500 miles from Rockingham, NC.  How is that WEST?  I mean are they trying to make it easier for the Easties to show up?  West is west.  Needs to be in AZ or CA.   Just they way it is.



 


Technorati Tags: indian, ugliest indian, smoke out, smoke out west, SOW

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