A Decade I Hope Never Inspires Nostalgia!

The early 90's were a sad time in Biker history. Don't believe me just check out these pictures from Daytona 1994. It was a great time to be a Biker, but a sad time to see cool bikes. We hadn't rediscovered the cool craftsmanship that is seen today. It seems like everyone who knew how to work metal back then was inspired by old Gypsy wagons. Anyway, a few folks have told me they like when I post these old pics from my early Biker days so here's some more for you. I hope you enjoy them. Most of them are Sportsters, that I wish I could have rescued and made into cool machines. I hope they've all been reborn as bad ass choppers, but sadly I'd bet most are sitting in a barn somewhere looking like a sad worn out version of what you see here.

WHY?!?!?!?!?!?! I mean c'mon a Ness/FL style front fender and a useless extra wheel in the back????

A poor XL being forced to imitate an FXR. If you want a big twin then BUY one, don't try to make a sporty into something its not!

Once again WTF!! Look closely and you'll be amazed at so much craftsmanship to make such an ugly bike.

Another view of this monster.

This bike is a nice clean little Sporty except for the damn hyperturd.

This one was kind of cool. I liked the paint and sidecars are always neat.

Where to even begin with this one??? Look at the fringe, the old EL/FL front fender and TOO much white.

A nice Shovel. One of the few bright spots of the trip. Clean and rideable.

Even better FX. I'd love to have this bike today.

I hope you enjoyed these pics. I'll keep diggin' and see if I can find some more to share.

More Pics From The Ride!

Just some more pics from the ride into town.

Whitey and what USED to be a Triumph Bonneville America. Now it's just a bad ass bike.

Pickett and his Nightster

Sweet Shovel ready to leave the parking lot.

Bad Ass little Sporty, the helmet says Speed Demon and the bike looked fast for sure!

Sweet little bike rolling on its merry way!

Going into the old files.....

Since I haven't gotten out much because of the pollen I thought I'd post some older pics I've had laying around the harddrive. This old Sporty was built on the cheap by one of my old customers back when I worked at the dealership. It's a 75 XLCH and came out REALLY nice with almost all of the work done by the owner Tommy.

This was my old brake caliper and it had a stripped out bleeder. Tommy said he could make it work so I gave it to him. Not only did he repair it and make it work he took an ugly grey worn out looking brake and cleaned it up and polished it until it sparkled.

I know purple is an unusual color but it works on this bike. You can see the beauty from a mile away.

Yeah, I know my finger got in the way. It was my phone's camera so what do you expect.

Good view of the funking shifter arrangement made necessary when the Feds mandated left side shift for all bikes in '75.

Tommy used a skull derby cover on his A/C. Kinda neat in a weird way.

75 XLCH From Back in the Day

This bike was built 20 years or so ago and then kept through the years to be given to the builders son recently. I haven't met the owner yet but I got the story and wanted to share this beautiful bike. It still runs after all these years and other than a shifting issue (bent shift fork?) it is ready to ride right now even after all these years. The bike is a 75 XLCH with a bolt on hard tail, springer fork and of course my favorite upswept fishtails. Hopefully this bike will stay in the family and see many more miles of fun on the road.

Classic style!

Diggin" those pipes!

Doing Some Photochoppin Until I Can Do Some REAL Choppin'!

I can't get over to play with my new project until Saturday so in the mean time I've been putting my Photoshop & Illustrator "skills" to work. I think I like this layout so far. Of course the colors will be different, but I like this overall look. Not sure about the handlebars, I like the set that is already on there, but that may change. It looks like I'll end up with 2" over forks to have the angle and seat height that I like. The battery will most likely end up behind the seat post and Spenser says we can make a modified horseshoe oil tank to fit the frame. I'll bend up a cool sissybar and top it off with a king & queen seat. I plan to ride this bike to the Bastard Bash in August if I can pull it together in time and the tall back of the seat will make a nice backrest for my old ass. Let me know what you think of the ideas so far.

I Have A NEW Project!

This Saturday I went to GarCo to finish tearing the Triumph apart so I can get it painted and back together. I never got started on it. First off there were a bunch of folks hanging out and playing with various projects and two, Ed was there dropping off his latest bike restoration (killer shovelhead FL that I hope to get pics of later) he started talking about getting rid of some of the Sportster projects he's gathered over the last year or so. We got to talking and he said he wanted to sell this one so I did some serious thinking and financial computations in my head and after Nick threatened to change my nickname from Kustom Jeff to Contemplating Jeff for taking so damn long to make up my mind,  I decided I could make it work. I called Ed today and we worked out the details. I'll meet him one day this week to exchange $$ and paper then I can get to work on this beast. The bike is a Flyrite Sportster Scorcher frame, with a '93 883 motor. It has a set of stock XL forks that will need to be extended 6 inches or so. The wheels that are on it are not part of the deal, but I do get a set of stock XL cast wheels with damn near new tires on them (less than 100 miles). The tank is not part of the deal, it belongs to Nick, but the bars do come with it and I think I dig em.

The bike is sitting on a large block of wood, but it's almost where I want the bike to sit. I'm going to get the frame height right then measure for new fork tubes. It's hard to see in these pics, but the front wheel is about 4 inches off the ground.

I will be wheeling and dealing for a set of wheels just like these so basically it will end up with these wheels in the end.

The engine is just BEGGING for the cam cover to be chopped. It doesn't have a sprocket cover so I won't have to worry about trying to find a cool way to chop it.

Look at those glorious lines!

I'm diggin' those bars!

Sweet Ironhead Chopper

Last weekend a guy brought this bike in. Unfortunately I didn't catch his name, but I did get to talk to him for a few minutes. Basically he picked this bike up in NC and has since added the chrome rear fender, sissy bar and this BADASS tank painted by Shane who is a tattoo artist at Non Stop Art here in Birmingham. Shane just started painting not too long ago and is already doing some incredible work. This was actually only the 2nd tank he has painted. Check out the pics and enjoy!

The sissy bar was made to work with an old style bobbed fender. Spenser cut off the mounts and made it work for this style set up instead.

Nice clean lines on this bike for sure.

I think the bars are from Biltwell, but I can't remember for sure.

A nice clean example of a '75 XL done right.

Look Who Made The Cover!!

Found out recently the the guys at Garage Company Customs made the cover of Cycle Source magazine. They are also nominated for Builder of the Year, Top 10 Bike and Larry's girl Ashley is nominated for 2010's Motorcycling Woman Of The Year. Go HERE to vote for them. In honor of all this I decided to post some pics I took of this bike a while back. So check out the pics and go vote!






Not much to describe in the pics, just some photos I snuck in one day while hanging out at the shop. A couple were out of focus so I used "unsharp mask" in Photoshop to make them look good. See if you can guess which ones.