Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Panhead I Saw in Birmingham Back in the 90's

This bike was parked outside a poolhall on 20th st. Near 5 Pts. South. I never saw it again, but I REALLY dig the lines on this bike and would love to have it now!

Monday, November 29, 2010

More from Daytona 1994

Found some more pics from my trip to Daytona. Actually I found a bunch of pics, but these are the ones I really like from the batch. I'll add the others later as I need to. Basically a bunch of us rode down to Daytona in 94 and had a great time. I didn't get many pics from Main Street, most of them were taken at the Rat's Hole show. Enjoy the bikes!



Nice little Triumph I shot on Main St.



Stretched out Ironhead Sporty



Chromed out Shovelhead.



Looks like a Ron Finch bike, but I'm not sure. Sure looks like some of his metalwork on the rear.



Really nice little Flathead Bobber



Even better pic of it.

Friday, November 26, 2010

One Way Stu and the Rebirth of a Shovel!

Spenser started having some weird handling issues with the old panhead frame he had on his shovelhead so he decided that it was time to go all out and make it a rigid. Since the other frame was a little suspect right now he opted to buy a new aftermarket frame and go to town. Pretty much the only pieces being reused are the engine and transmission.

Here the bike sits on the work table in the fab room. It's mostly there and mocked up. Still some fab work to do, but it's looking like a badass already. You can see the sissy bar that we had worked on that day. Spenser did the work and I helped hold stuff and lent my calibrated eyeball to the effort. So far the really custom pieces are the handlebars, sissybar, shaved lower legs and a brake tab on the rear. You can also see the tin primary set-up that he's been collecting parts for. There will be more custom fab work, but that's how it sits for now.


Another view of the bike, you can see the shaved lower legs in this shot. The gas tank is an old stock Sporty tank that was used for years on my Triumph. Remember, if you have parts and a buddy needs parts you need to cough em up, don't let em sit there and rot, get em on the road!



Close up of the shaved legs. He's not using a front brake so this will really clean up the front end.



You can see the way the shaved legs helps make the front end look lean and mean.




Close up of the welds on the bars. Spenser is a artist with a Tig welder!


Close up of the details of the sissy bar. It's all stainless and it took quite a while for us to be satisfied with the way the bends in the pieces were coming out. I think this may be one of the most well shaped bars I've seen that wasn't bent with a machine. Getting that brace under the fender to follow the bend of the sheetmetal took forever, but it was worth it. The sissy bar will get polished all shiny and pretty before it is done.


Close up of the weld on the brake tab.


One Way Stu looking satisfied with the work so far.


Making sure it all fits is important, Looks count, but Spenser rides! He needs to be able to jump on and head for the hills anytime he feels like it.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Daytona 1994 - Blast from the past!

I was digging around looking for some of my old Army pics and came across a ton of other old pictures. I've been to Daytona one time, that was 1994. I may go back one day, but if I do it'll be to hang with the limpnickie crew NOT the rest of the yuppie assholes. Anyway, a bunch of us rode down from Alabama and had a good time. I rode my 89' Sporty that year so of course most of the pics I took were Sportsters and a cool Triumph tossed in just for fun. Anyway, here are the pics, I have more but haven't found them yet so I may revisit this subject somewhere down the road. Excuse the quality by the way, I used a cheap instamatic camera and the pics were fading pretty badly. I did what I could in Photoshop, but it's not great.


A cool red Triumph that I dug the hell out of. I guess I'm old, but I STILL love the old bobtail rear fender and a catseye light.


Very classic red Shovel in a swing-arm frame. I don't care what anyone says swing-arms CAN be cool.


Nice 2-tone paint and lots of chrome on this one. I could have used those saddlebags on mine that trip. My poor bike was loaded like a gypsy wagon, although my friend Craig had even more crap than I did ;-)


Timeless blue Sportster chopper. Apparently it was pretty popular since it had all those trophies. I have no idea if it ran or not, but it sure was purty!


Very clean XL. It had to be a very early Sportster with that tank, it might even have been a 57' I didn't know enough back then to check and my picture angle sucks for verifying the year.

Another nice swing-arm bike. Not too keen on all the white, but it did look good.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Halloween with Southern Culture on the Skids!!

Sunday night was GREAT! SCOTS played @ Zydeco to a fairly small crowd, but for me that made it even better. The band was able to interact with the crowd more and the feel of the show was just cooler to me. They played songs from the new CD and quite a bit of cool older stuff. One really cool cover they slipped in was Link Wray's "Rumble". I mentioned to Rick (the guitarist/singer) after the show that I loved that song and actually got to see Link play live before he passed. Rick told me about how cool it was to actually know Link and how he loved playing shows with him. This band truly understands how much their fans mean and I love that they are one of the few bands who actually LIKE their fans and enjoy talking with them after the show. As usual the band had members of the crowd get up on stage with them during various parts of the show and even had a married couple who dressed as Mexican Wrestlers have a contest on stage. The normal chicken was thrown at the crowd as well as Little Debbie snacks . I was dressed as an "extra from a 60's Biker flick" and was wearing a blonde wig with a real German helmet as part of my costume, apparently it stood out because Mary (the bass player) asked me during the show if it was real and told me after that I was her "focus" during the show (I guess she picks someone from the crowd to "focus" so that she doesn't just end up staring at the lights). After the show was over I stuck around and was able to get all the band members to autograph my CD (I don't usually do this but I REALLY love this band). They were all VERY approachable and happy to sign, the 2nd guitar player Tim was kinda staying in the background since he's not a "famous" part of the band, but he is a REAL member and I wanted him to sign as well. Dave the drummer is really cool (how many kick ass drummers do you know who stand up the whole time?), you can tell that Dave stays busy keeping stuff flowing for the band (plus he runs the Facebook page and I think the webpage too). Rick was great but he had a crowd the whole time and what can I say about Mary besides she's the greatest! She grabbed me from beside the speakers and drug me over to the middle of the floor because she said she "couldn't hear shit" by the speakers. We talked a few minutes and she gave me a hug and posed with me for a picture. All in all this may be the best time I've had on Halloween since I was a little kid. Thanks guys for making it such a great evening. The rest of y'all enjoy the pics and make plans to see the band when they get close to you. www.scots.com



Check out that guitar!


Mary


Dave came straight from his day job at Waffle House


Tim as the Wolfman



Kustom Jeff & Mary



8 Piece box



Peso Payaso


Mucho Dinero


AS you can tell the band was in costume too. DON'T MISS THIS BAND!!