The Triumph Is Getting Close To The Shakedown Ride

Here is my favorite shot for now. It's getting close, I'm taking it over to Garage Company Customs Saturday so that they can help me with some welding (got a mig welder, but want this stuff done with tig). Hopefully we can get the tank mounts added back to the frame and make some new seat mounts to move the seat back where it needs to be. After that it's just a matter of getting the petrol tank connected to the carb, replacing the top end oil feed and redoing the wires. I'll save the paint for later this year when I can afford to get a "real" paint job done to it.


The other side


Here she is from the top, you can really see how much nice the lines with the new tank are. Baby is going to be a blast to ride and I can't wait to take her down the road!

Couple more pics from last years Vintage Festival

Nice little pre-unit Triumph sitting near the Lowbrow Customs tent. I love these guys stuff, especially the shirts and the cool little odd bits to make your bike actually work. Check em out here


This sweet beauty I believe is the work of Rick's cycles in Rainsville. I want to get up there and check the place out, but so far I haven't gotten around to it. This is a very badass little Ironhead Sportster. I wish the weather had been better so I could have gotten some better pics of it.

Classic style never goes out of style

Nothing fancy here, just a couple of pics showing two classic style bikes created decades apart. The first is an old HD Knucklehead Chopper and the second is my 1995 Springer Softail. Both bikes have the same stance, both have beautiful springer forks (although the Knuck's is lengthened a bit) and both have upswept fishtails. Soon mine will have apehangers similar to the ones on the knucklehead, but for not it looks like this. Timeless beauty, decades apart.

(Both pics taken Oct 2008 at/near Barber's Vintage Festival)

Harley?????? What do you think?

(Pics taken at Barber's Historic Weekend 2008)

This is a Rikuo Motorcycle, made in Japan in the 30's I'll post a link to some pages with more info about them....

You can see some of the differences between this bike an a Harley if you look close. The springer fork is close, but not exact, the rear head has some kind of funky cover. Keep looking and see how many you can find.




From the rear you can see that the tailight looks like a beehive, but the bottom is round instead of flat. Also, the dash is flat on the rear instead of pointed like the early HD's. Obviously the muffler is not original so don't pay any attention to that.


This is a very unique bike and I can promise you won't see many around or find many people who even know what it is.

http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/Motorcycle-Review/Rikuo-V-twin.aspx

Wikipedia

Update on my Triumph

You can see I have the new petrol tank. Got it off ebay for a good price, but I still have to finish getting the bondo out of the badge mounting holes. THAT'S gonna be a lot of fun...NOT! I have another top triple tree that will go on soon so that I can use better risers and I found a great shop in CA to get the small parts at a decent price. Had to go to the UK to get the riser bushings at a reasonable price though.

In the top pic you can see some of the changes I'm making. I used the center cap from a Crager SS wheel that I found in the road as a timing cover. I'm working to get the 60's Sportster coil mounted to the front engine mount cleanly. Got some more ideas I'm working on, but will show those after I get them started.

Close ups of the Four Horsemen Triumph

Here are some detail shots of the Four Horsemen Triumph that Blaine built. Now you see why he was afraid to ride it. If he dropped it this cool piece of history would be ruined. This is some 70's art for damn sure. The bike is now owned by someone who will take good care of it and make sure it gets out where folks can see it at least once in awhile.

In Memory of Blaine Smith at the World of Wheels

Blaine's friends and family got together 4 of his best bikes and put them on display at this years World of Wheels. It was great to see these bikes on display together again. It's also great to know that Blaine has not been forgotten. I was really surprised to see the sign that I had made for Blaine to display the 4 Horseman bike was still with it. It gave me a warm fuzzy ;-) I'll post some more pics of the individual bikes later this week.

Spritz by Fritz

Great Panhead built by Fritz. He used to write for the OLD iron horse magazine and still helps out on the new form of it. He also painted the cool car behind the bike that was inspired by Big Daddy Roth. I'll post pics of the car later. The pics from this show are not great quality because the lighting inside the show is really bad, but I wanted to share what I saw there.

Herbie Rides Again!!!

I saw this car at the World of Wheels this weekend. It was a little smaller show, but there were some really cool cars there this year. How can you not love a VW beetle with a blown V8 engine in it??? I thought it was cool the way they let it stay beat up looking, even the hole in the nose where the blower is sticking through was cut out roughly to keep up the effect. If you look closely you can see the shifter is sticking up through the roof. Really good job bringing a Big Daddy Roth image to life ;-)

That skull above the car is the shifter sticking out of the sunroof.

Check out the wheelie bars. This bug is serious ;-)

Bright Colors!

I really like the intensity of the colors in this one. It was taken a few years ago outside the place where I was working then. What I really like is that it shows that colors can be bright, intense and deep without having to be in your face and end up looking like a gypsy got run over by a train.