Hanging Out On Saturday Again!

Saturday a lot of folks made it over to Helen, GA for the "Ride to the River to Wreck Your Liver" with the BDAC crew. I was one of those who is too broke to pay attention right now. Us poor folks hung out at the shop and had a little fun. We spent the day helping Stewie with shop projects and by helping I mean busting his balls, getting in his way you know, all the usual stuff. One of the things he was trying to do was to get this flathead running. It started a time or two, but we couldn't get it to stay running. I mostly took pictures of Spenser fighting the bike and offering useless advise like I always do.

Spenser riding the kick starter. This beast is different from a 4-speed shovel or Panhead bike.

The Linkert that Stewie just finished rebuilding after sitting for 500 years. I wish I had gotten pics of the float that came out of this.

Kicking from the other side.

Trying to push start it outside. How many dumbasses does it take to get in Spenser's way? All of them of course!

The roll of shame back to the shop under foot power. Oh well, progress was made at least.

A Little Progress, But Mostly Just Better Pics.

I got my stainless in to finish the sissy bar, but once I got ready to work I realized I had to rethink my idea. This took up some time plus I helped Spenser with some other stuff around the shop so I didn't get a lot done. I did get the bungs made to mount the sissy bar to the fender and will get the rest of the set up done next weekend. I took a few minutes to roll the bike outside so I could get a few decent pics and get a better idea of how it's coming along. I'm happy so far and maybe I can actually get this beast on the road by Spring.

I think this is going to be sweet when I'm done. As I've said before I think it will end up with 6" over tubes one day, but 4" over works for now.

Damn that sissy bar is tall!

This is gonna be bad ass!

Making a big piece of stainless into a couple of smaller pieces of stainless. I actually did all my own machining today.  Maybe one day I'll try to make something cool.

Random WTT Pics....

Some pictures I like from my last visit to the Wheels Through Time Museum. If you haven't been there, you need to go before it is too late!

From upstairs looking down on the old shop building in the middle of the floor.

Looking over toward the military display and the Chopper Graveyard.

The Chopper Graveyard! There are a LOT of cool parts just laying in this pile of stuff.

A visitor's Norton. Sweet looking bike.

I'm not sure of the story on this one, but it was cool for sure.

The old shop display from the back corner of the museum. One of my favorite areas because of the cool Pan and Knuckle parts laying around.

Vintage Race bikes.

The inside of the shop building near the front.

XLCR, I'd LOVE to have one of these.

Vintage Harley sign hanging from the ceiling.


We're just a few weeks away from the Barber's Vintage Festival, you need to make it up for this fun filled weekend. I'll get a bunch of pics that weekend. Hopefully some fun stuff will come up so I can get back to daily posts.

Spenser's Shovel Version 6,752

If you know Stewie then you also know that he can't leave his bike alone. Whether it's his old Triumph or his current Shovelhead he is ALWAYS going to be changing it. He's got too many ideas rolling around in his head not to try some of them out. His latest change is a simple but truly dramatic one. He scored a super nice old Sporty tank off of ebay and it makes this bike into a work of art. I've liked all the previous gas tanks this bike has sported, but this one blows me away. Not much else has changed on the bike lately, but not much else needs to change. Check out the lower fork legs if you missed that mod last time I posted pics of this bike. Enjoy the view and stay tuned for whatever else Spenser comes up with.

That red tank really grabs you eye.

Still the clean simple lines that I love, but with a spot of color that makes you look again.

Timeless looks!

Now THAT is a profile!

Still a skinny little woman.

She looks so hot that Larry had to hop on. Something about that color just turns Larry into a little slut :-)

Another Great Saturday

Another great weekend in the books. Saturday morning I had to knock out my "honey do" list consisting mainly of yard work, then I was able to get away and head over to GarCo. I got there just in time for lunch and after a little arm twisting I convinced them to go to Nino's so I could get a meat lover's calzone YUM YUM! The ride was short but still fun. After that we all hung out working on projects until it was time to take off for a party at Alabama Joe's house. He's got a really cool little house on a wooded lot in an area of town you would never expect to see his spread. I really dig it and should have taken pics before it got dark, but I was busy talking. I tried to take pics of the party, but the tiki torches were messing up my camera so I gave up and just enjoyed myself. It was pretty tame for a party with that many Haints, but then again I did leave pretty early.  Enjoy the pics from the lunch ride, I'm trying to update as much as I can, but things have kind of slowed down a little. It'll pic back up soon and until then just enjoy what you get and give me time and I'll post more.

What do you do once a kicker has hyper-extended your knee???? Why switch legs and give it another chance to break you of course! Larry doing the goofy foot kick starting.

I don't know what he was doing, but I got a picture of him doing it anyway.

I was taking a picture of David riding his CB750 before he buys the Panhead Larry is riding, but Larry decided to photo bomb me :-)

Trying to catch up to Larry and Spenser, but they love to give them old bikes plenty of steam.

Spenser changed his bike AGAIN! This time he got a beautiful old AMF Sporty tank off ebay for a good price. It's amazing how much of a difference just changing the paint color of a tank can make.

That tank really pops now.

Making the turn.

One more turn to go.

History Of My Triumph

I bought this bike back in 1990 (I think). I've been through a lot with it and I plan to keep it forever. Sometimes I think about selling it, but I've been through too much with it. Since I've posted so many pics of it recently I figured I'd give you the history of my 1970 Triumph TR6C Chopper/Bobber/whatever the hell we're calling them this week......

This is how it looked when I brought it home for the first time all those years ago. I paid $200 for it from a high school girlfriends ex-husband (yes, he was an addict!). The motor had never been started since it was rebuilt because the guy was too cheap to get a new carb. The tops of the pistons were even still shiny.  I fabbed a hinge pin for the float and fired it up, rode it down the road and back and parked it because of water in the oil blowing out the vent.

I sold it to J.D. Foster for $300, he added the hardtail and extended Triumph front end, but decided he REALLY wanted the old Ironhead Sportster I had out back with the blown motor so he traded me even. I added my kickass sissybar with a REAL WWI Trench Shotgun Bayonet welded to it  a solo seat and a set of Apehangers and was on my way. This bike was my only wheels for a few years.

I was on my way to school (I was an older college student on the V.A.'s dime) one day and was rear ended by a semi. His front bumper was right on the top of my tire. If I hadn't heard him coming, stood up and leaned over the tank I'd have a broken back at least. You can see how the seat is folded in half. I keep that seat on the wall to remind me how stupid some people are.

 I played with a few different configurations while I was rebuilding it.

Got it finished fired it up and took it down the road only to hear a nasty squealing noise so it got parked in 2000 because of a lack of funds. The insurance you say? Well, I was a newlywed and of course I had to take care of the wife and 2 kids I married into first. This pic is in the basement den of our house. Somehow I convinced the wife that it was an Art piece and I was able to keep it in the den until it was time to rebuild her right.

This is how it looked as of January 2, 2006 I still need to work on the gas tank, replace all the wheel bearings, reassemble the rear wheel, mount the rear fender and a bunch of other stuff.By this point I've had the motor completely rebuilt by Born Again Bikes in Texas and was well on my way to getting her back on the road.

Mar 5, 2006 She's almost done this time around. The rack on the back fender was made by my great friend Blaine before he died of a heart attack (way too young too). The rack is meant to look like a scaled down version of the old parcel grid that Triumphs had back in the 50's & 60's on the petrol tank. I scored the original Wassel fender at the Barber's Vintage swap meet back when the Wassel stuff wasn't well known and before they got expensive and copied by everyone for $20.

The springer turned out to be too short and the bike handled really bad. I added a Sportster front end and things got better. About this time I was hit by a truck while riding my Honda Shadow and broke my leg. This caused me to put the Triumph on the back burner while I recovered and then while I enjoyed my time on my '95 Bad Boy I bought with my settlement.

I got serious about getting her back on the road late last year and ended up getting her finished in time for the Dixie Round Up where the bike took the "Best British" award. By now I had changed the gas tank back to a stock Triumph tank and added forks off of a '67 or so Triumph.  Now to get some real miles put on her. Bikes are meant to be ridden, not looked at!

A Nice Sunday Ride!

One of my best friends (30 years now) has been dealing with a lot of crap lately and she asked if I would take her for a ride so she could get her head straight. Of course I said yes (with the Wife's approval even). Last Sunday ended up being the day and the weather was perfect. I headed over to her house and off we went.

I took this one over my shoulder. Christina isn't used to me taking pics of everything so she wasn't sure what the hell I was doing.

Headed on down the road. I was actually by myself when I took this one.

We stopped for a break and I noticed our reflection in the paint so I set the timer, hung the camera from the handlebars and got this neat shot.

Riding through Springville, I love old towns like this. I wouldn't be surprised if every building in downtown was 100 years old.

My favorite building in town.


All in all, it was great ride. I got to spend time with my friend, let her vent and enjoy a nice ride though some great countryside.

Randoms From Saturday....

Just another fun day hanging out Saturday. The shop closed up early for a Bama game watching party and Ashley & Larry's house. We had a great time even if the game was pretty lopsided. I did get around to riding the Triumph around the parking lot a little and let Bill run it down the road and back. Of course as he was coming back it acted like it was out of gas. I think the charging system isn't charging though and it ran out of battery instead. Oh well, one more thing to fix when I put the new forks on. Enjoy the pics and hopefully I'll get to feeling more energetic and can set up some good posts for ya.

Th Triumph outside in the beautiful sunlight. This would have been a great shot if SOMEONE'S damn car wasn't in the background and they were not there to move it.

Customer bike getting a few things done to it.

Nice little cafe racer being modified for a customer.

I love seeing beautiful engines sitting around waiting to go in their new homes.

Another shot of the Triumph in the sunlight.

Spencer working to make a twin cam Crossbones into a much cooler bike than when it left the factory.