Rode the Triumph This Weekend!

Got to put a few miles on the Triumph this weekend. Not too many, but enough to lose one of the front tank mount studs and rubber as well as the nut from the front seat mount. The bike rode pretty good and the engine ran GREAT! I had a blast, but I will need to redo all the gaskets up top because of leaking from the pushrod tubes and rocker boxes. At least I know I'm getting oil to the top end. :-) Oh well, the bike did sit for a few years waiting for me to get over a broken leg and then to get enthusiastic again. Here's a couple of pics I took after the ride, I managed to NOT capture the oil drips in all their glory. Now to get the paint squared away and do some riding.

Even More Bash Pics!

I still have a bunch of pics from the Bash so I'll keep posting them until I run out or take some more pics to add.


After a day of waiting out the rain in the morning and then riding all over the for fun, it was time to grab a beer and relax while we waited for the others to get back.



Duane reads from the "Dark Custom Handbook". Later that evening this little piece of corporate marketing crap was sacrificed to the Gods of the bonfire. I love the halo that just happened to appear as he was reading.



This is Joe, he was in the middle of a ride around the US and had to make sure he hit the Bash. We were at the parking area near the top of the Dam where they filmed a scene from the fugitive.



Us Birmingham folks stayed in tents (sort of) so we parked our bikes under the tree to help keep our stuff as dry as we could.



Spenser had to be different and skip the tent. This is a cool little nylon hammock with a tarp over it for rain protection. He put the rest of his stuff in my tent and he actually stayed amazingly dry.

The Bash was GREAT Vol II!

Here are some more Bash pics, hope you like em!



The Dragon Slayers coming back in from a run up Hwy 129 through Deals Gap. This is also a pretty good shot of Hollies Ironhead and her husband Big Fink's killer Evo Sporty chop on the right.


Pyro's bike. He had a keg of home brewed beer on the back of his bike, but I didn't get a picture of it. It was a really cool set up and even used an old Ironhead Sporty oil tank to mount the tap. Very cool set up and Pyro is a great guy. He's especially handy when it's time to build up the bonfire ;-)



This is LTB's bike, believe it or not this nice long Sportster chop was the king of the road on the Dragon. He was tearing it up and even giving some of the sport bikes a run for their money.



This bike belongs to Buttas, the newest member of the Quad Cam bastards club which is different from being a member of the Quad Cam Bastards forum. Congrats to Buttas for making the team.

The Bash was GREAT!

We had a great time at the Bash, gotta love an event small enough to supply all the beer for the weekend with the purchase of a $10 raffle ticket AND then have enough raffle prizes that everyone who bought a ticket won a prize. Some prizes were a custom seat pan, a custom exhaust and a beautiful custom painted helmet. Most of us won t-shirts, hats, patches and stickers. The coolest thing was the shirt I won in my size and it was one I had planned to buy soon anyway, so I scored! Here are some of the pics, hope you like them. I'll be posting more in the next day or two so be sure to keep checking back!


IronHollie's bike sporting the new STP sticker I gave her :-)



Alvarez's bike. We spent HOURS Sat. night around the campfire talking about old punk bands from our youth. Check out his blog at Flat Broke Customs



Justin brought this bike came all the way from Canada to play! He was extremely happy to be there and was great to hang out with.



This is Rob's bike, he is the master of the Quad Cam Bastard forum. You can check out the forum's blog here and look at Rob's classic punk blog here.



Check back, I have plenty more to post!

Going to the Bastard Bash Next Weekend!!!!

I'll be heading out Fri. the 20th for Deals Gap to attend the Bastard Bash put on by the guys from the Quad Cam Bastards forum. Basically a weekend of hanging out with guys who love to chop Sportsters. I've been a forum member over there for quite a few years so I guess they're letting me slide for a bit while I work on getting another Sporty. I'll be riding up with Spenser and Nick from the Haints and maybe a few others if they can get it up to ride with us.

In honor of this party I thought I'd post some pics of the various Sportsters I've owned over the years.


The latest bike was a 77 (click the link for more details) that I picked up cheap and stripped to the bare frame before building it back. I had to let it go to pay some $$ to Uncle Sam. Not happy about it, but that's the way it goes.



This is my 75 that I bought while I was home on leave from Germany. This pic was taken in Cherokee NC while I was on my way to report in at Ft. Bragg. You can't see in this pic, but the back of the bike was COVERED in duffel bag and a ton of other crap. This trip I'll be traveling lighter.


This is the 75 after I got out of the Army and finished chopping it. The pic sucks, but it's the only one I took while I had this one on the road. (more pics here)




This was my very first Sportster a 1989 XL Hugger! I bought it in Germany through the PX and rode the hell out of it while I was there. Put over 36K miles on it in about 2 years. This pic was the very FIRST time I ever threw my leg over her. It was a great bike and I wish I still had it.

This is what the 89 looked like by the time I got it back stateside. The tank was painted in a shower in the barracks by a buddy of mine using auto touch-up paint. Then he hand pinstriped the flames. I added the older ironhead front fender to keep it from looking too new. This was the early 90's so I didn't have to means to do the kind of chopping to it that I would do these days. Hope you enjoy the pics and I KNOW I'll have fun next weekend ;-) (more pics)

Congrats to Larry and Spenser @ Garage Company Customs.

Just found out that Larry and Stewy were named one of Cycle Source Magazine's NEXT GENERATION AND BEYOND BUILDERS for Sturgis 2010. These guys work hard and create some beautiful machines. If it wasn't for them I sure as hell wouldn't have my Triumph as close to riding as it is. At lest we forget the ever present Nick has been a big part of my experience at the shop as well. He may be really weird, but he has good taste in bikes and is working hard to learn everything he can. Y'all go by and check out the shop and if you need any parts or work performed give them a shot at it. You won't be sorry!

Damn Nice Ironhead Sportster Chopper!

Took this at a BBQ fundraiser/bikeshow at Riders HD a few weeks ago (same time I took the Panhead pics). It's a really nice Sportster chop. I love the old 60's Ironheads! The cam cover has some really nice lines and the primary cover is just pure class. Not much to say about the pics themselves, just a little saturation and level tweaking plus I blurred the guy walking in the background of one of them. Enjoy!

Nick's Shovel And My New Phone's Camera

I just got a new android phone and decided to try it out this weekend at Garage Co. It's not bad for a 5MP phone camera. This is the picture I took with the software that came with the camera. It's not too bad, the bike is Nick's generator Shovel in a nice reproduction wishbone frame with an ORIGINAL 1941 springer front end. This bike will be freaking gorgeous when it comes together.



This picture I took with camera software I downloaded. it's called Camera 360 and is pretty cool. It took this sepia tone type picture AND seems to also increase the resolution of the camera itself. I'd post the pic I took with the natural setting, but I shook the phone and screwed it up. At least now, if I don't have my good camera I know I can get a reasonable shot with this one.

54 Panhead

Last Sat. I rode out to Riders HD with some of the Haints to check out their BBQ fundraiser and bike show. Not a whole lot worth looking at really, just 3 cool bikes there (besides ours ) The first one was this 54 Pan. It's a great looking bike and is always in the shows at both local dealerships. It was pretty cloudy that day so I had to bump up the saturation a bunch and play with the levels to get the pics looking the way I wanted them to. Not much else to say about it except "Nice bike dude!"

It's Alive!!!

Got the Triumph started today and actually even took it for a short ride up the block and back. The best thing was that it started on the FIRST KICK after sitting for 3 years. I have to swap out the rocker box oil feed because the new cool one sucks, then wire up the taillight and get the damn handlebars to stay in one place. After that it'll just be cosmetics and few other little details.