It's Kinda Cool, But At The Same Time Makes Me Scream WHY?????

It seems that sometime in teh past someone decided to take a mostly stock straight-leg Panhead and screw it up. This bike looks to be mostly stock except for the sidecar loops being cut out and molded and the rake in the neck. They also put a Flathead in here where the Panhead used to be. It's kinda neat, but a head scratcher at the same time. If I had this rolling chassis and a nice flathead motor, I would sell the flathead and buy a Pan or shovel instead. Oh well, the current owner is OK with it and wants to get it running so the guys at GarCo will come to the rescue and work their magic on it. Check out the pics and enjoy the bike for what it is. I just wish I knew the story behind it.

It looks nice from this view.

From here you can see the raked neck and the extended tubes of the front end.

Looks really good from here.

Yes, that's an original "Hydra Glide" headlight shroud.

Such potential in this one.

The Restoration Shop At The Wheels Through Time Museum.

Just a few pictures I took in the Restoration shop of the Wheels Through Time Museum. The place is a glorious mess and I could have stayed there forever!

Looking back at some of the work areas.

There are work bays all around the edge of the room and two work areas right in the middle of the shop.

Beautiful old motors like this are everywhere in this room.

Race bike project in the works.

Rear of a servi-car resto in progress.

The other end of it.

Really cool primary cover just hanging on the wall waiting for its new home.

More to come, just been real busy this week.

Shots from Saturday...

The Labor Day weekend was a mess! We had a good day Saturday, but the rest of the weekend was a wet soggy time. TS Lee came through and decided to rest for a while and dumped tons of rain on us for two full days. A lot of of folks around here still don't have power back and will take weeks to get completely dried out. In spite of that we had a fun time at the shop on Saturday and I'll share some of the fun with you.

Chopper Ed wearing his shirt from the greatest blog on the planet :-) Even though Ed is still stuck in 1980 and doesn't get on the computer very much, he still checks out the blog whenever someone will help him get to the webpage.

The barn find Pan from a while back is finally on the road. It's rough, but it's pretty much in "as found" condition. Larry added an oil tank, primary set up, new tire and a couple of other small things. Otherwise the beast is just like they found it, ugly stick welding and all.

You can see the primary spinning just to prove it was running.

They offered Brandon a ride and he was all over it. Said the bike rode great and it seemed to make him smile a lot so it must be true. That or he's tired of not having one of his bikes up and running .

Ian has a new headlight and mount. This looks SO much better than the previous set up. Good job getting the bike where it needs to be Ian!

The whole bike with the new light. Ed was still showing off his masterpiece....I mean blog shirt.

I took this while Spenser was doing a little machining. I love watching a lathe cut metal!

Spenser making sparks again.


More fun stuff to come as soon as I get over the blahs brought on by all this rain!

My Triumph!

I just realized today that I never really posted pics of the Triumph when I finished it. Since I'm about to make some changes I guess I'll show it to you now. Some may ask why I'm going to change it now instead of just finishing the Sportster. I'll tell you, Spenser offered to swap forks with me because he wants these for his Triumph project and I hate this front end. It's never felt stable to me. This way I get a set of forks I like and feel I can trust, he gets the correct parts for his build and no money changes hands allowing me to continue to save for the Sporty's parts. Enjoy the pics and I'll post more after the changes.

Sitting in the warehouse area where I work. NO, we are not a bike shop, just an internet company where everyone rides and we have a few tools to play with.

Outside in the alley, this is the one picture I did post before.

From the doorway of our warehouse.

Inside with my old shipping area in the background.

Another view with my Boss's old Street Glide in the background.

Progress on The Flyrite Sportster Chop

Once again I am making progress on the Sporty Chop. I got the sissy bar mostly done. I still need to make the piece to connect the bar to the fender, but I have some creative ideas I'm working on for that and cool stuff like that takes longer. I did get the bar bent how I wanted it then did the bends to make it clear the fender. Spencer tack welded the bar to the frame mounts. The finish welding will happen after everything else is in place. My savings account took a huge hit between going to the Bash and having to replace the stator and battery on the Bad Boy. I'll get there, it just takes time and money. Enjoy the pics!

Yep, that bar is tall ;-) I like it and if I decide later I don't I'll just cut off the top and mount something up there that will make it shorter.

Last time I worked on it I had the first bend started, but ran out of gas for the torch. Larry got some more and allowed me to waste some of it trying to remember how the hell to use a torch (it's been quite a few years).

I took a pic when I was grinding the corners off the frame mounts. Have I told you lately how much I love my new camera?

Did some more bending, of course I ended up bending the legs up as well as out, but that wasn't too hard to fix. Didn't get pics of Spenser standing on the piece of plate steel while I lifted up on the bar, but that's how we got it straight.

Spenser was working on a new set of controls for a VERY nice generator Shovel, I got this cool shot of the sparks flying so I thought I'd share it with you. I love to see burning metal fly through the air!

Finally got the right shape, then cut the legs off even and tack welded the legs to the mounts. Next up is the bar to fender mounts, but that'll happen next time.

The bar looks taller in these pics because of the angle I shot from, but it IS pretty damn tall.

I can't wait to ride this bike!

Still staying pretty true to the original idea. Now if I can just find a Bettie Page wannabe to pose on her when it's done.

Meet Hannah, My Favorite cheerleader!

One of the benefits of being an internationally known blogger is that people send you pics of themselves wearing your gear. In this case the most famous and fabulous cheer leader in Ohio shared pictures of herself modeling the best blog shirt on the planet. Some of you may know Ironhollie from the Quad Cam Bastards, well this is her daughter Hannah. One of the newest members of the Central Crossing High School Varsity Cheer-leading Squad. If you want to read a storie about what's right in this world instead of all the things that are wrong, read this article from the Columbus Dispatch. After that check out Hannah and her Mom's bad ass Ironhead Sportster. People like Hollie are one of the many reasons I am proud to me a member of the Quad Cam Bastards Forum. You will not find a better more stand up group of people anywhere in the world (although some of those BDAC guys come close and maybe a few Haints too )
Enjoy the pics and READ THE ARTICLE!

Ready to ride off into the sunset!

"Well, Hello Gorgeous!"

Stay tuned for more mayhem....

Sportsters Of The Bash (pt. 2)

Yesterday's pics were taken while we were at the "Wheels Through Time" museum. These are the pics I took after we got back from there. Lots more bad ass bikes and before you say that their nice, but must have been slow on the Dragon let me tell you that there are some real speed demons in this group and very few of these bikes held up traffic at all during the Dragon Runs. Enjoy the pics!

If you don't see your pic that's because you missed out on a great party. You need to remedy that next year!