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Courtesy of Allen Kip. From Choppers Magazine, April 1976

Árpád checks in from… well, I’m not exactly sure, but it’s definitely not an English speaking country. That - in and of itself - is pretty rad. I love the fact that weirdos from all over the world check in with the crazy 2-wheel death traps they get wind of. So Árpád checks in with a couple links to the Hungarian version of Total bike. As you might guess, my Hungarian is pretty awesome, so deciphering the intimate details of the article was a piece of cake. I’ll boil it down for you - this crazy looking hessian dude runs a shop in Budapest called Art Deco Motorcycling. He takes shitty old Polish motorcycles (Junak’s… of course I’ve heard of them) and turns them into these incredibly gorgeous motorcycles. Oh, and he has the biggest polishing wheel I’ve ever seen. That pretty much sums it up… the article is a good read. I lifted these pics from their website, you can see all the photos and read the incredible article for yourself by clicking the links below.

http://totalbike.hu/magazin/kozelet/emberek/szakal/

http://totalbike.hu/tesztek/2009/08/11/junakracer/

One of the cool things about running this site is I get to hear from small shops and fabricators from all over the world. What’s exciting is that every once in a while these guys come out of seemingly nowhere and blow me out of the water with the quality, design and style of their work. LC Fabrications is a great example of that. I’ve known Jeremy (via email) for a while now and he continues to impress. My introduction to his work came at the 2008 Smoke Out when I was blown away by his modern Triumph, dubbed the TT Deluxe (previously mentioned here: TT Deluxe on Knucklebuster ) - the bike is simply stunning. Jeremy has continued to rock the mic over the past year - finishing 2 complete builds and introducing a bunch of new parts to his product line.

First up is the bike up top - another modern Triumph Bonneville, stripped down, hardtailed and given a dose of So. Cal style. It’s look of simplicity and clean lines is what pops this bike for me. You can read more about the build and it’s specs here, and check out some more pics of it below.

Oh, and if you’ve got a modern Trump that you want to give the hard tail treatment to, LC Fab has got those, so make sure you check them out.

Next up - the Birmingham Bee-liner. All the trick little bits on this one are part of Jeremy’s build signature. That’s a 1967 BSA A65 mated up to a modified 73 OIF trump frame - or I should say GIF. That’s right - the backbone is filled with petrol, not oil. Like I said - trick. What else? The custom fabbed front end and exhaust jump out - but that’s just scraping the surface. You can read more about the build here and check out the pics below for more details.

LC Fabrications just launched their new website (much improved from their last) so go check that out to see more of these builds as well as some of the others they’ve done in the past: http://www.lcfabrications.com/

Photos by Bessie Black / http://www.bessieblack.com/

You can’t deny the awesomeness of a Harmon Spirder. From Japan, via flickr.

Couple shots from the 2009 Cool Breaker posted to Flickr by Dan, webmaster over at Biker Radio Magazine.

The turn out for the bike show this year was incredible. A total of 33 bikes entered and the competition was pretty stiff. As I explained at the show, the judging rules are pretty simple: my favorite 12 bikes got a trophy. No classes, no people’s choice, no judges panels or other bullshit - my favorite bikes win, end of story. Picking the 12 this year was definitely harder than in the past just because the quality and character of the bikes keeps going up - that, in and of itself gets me stoked and psyched up to do it next year. Without further delay, the winners of this year’s Greasebag Jamboree Bike Show:

Dave Schlitter • 1970 Triumph TR6C • Trophy Sponsor: Acme Choppers

Bob Caiado • 1948 HD EL • Trophy Sponsor: Chop Shop

Chris Bernardi • 1956 Triton • Trophy Sponsor: Lowbrow Customs

John Mansun • 1973 Honda CB450 • Trophy Sponsor: Kickstart Cycles

Lock Baker • Speed Fetus • Trophy Sponsor: Cycle Source Magazine

Clark Perry • 1968 Triumph Bonneville • Trophy Sponsor: Licks Cycles

Chris Balan • 2002 Sportster • Trophy Sponsor: Troy Fab

Rob Merrill • 1979 Yamaha XS650 • Trophy Sponsor: 47 Industries

Krazy Karl • 1950 HD Panhead • Trophy Sponsor: Limpnickie Lot

Brian Haskell • 2002 HD Softail • Trophy Sponsor: Biker Radio Magazine

John Donahue • 2009 Acme Choppers XS650 • Trophy Sponsor: Tanks By Tigman

Nate Burke • 1993 Sportster 883 • Trophy Sponsor: E-Fab

Swissmike on the JJ has a rad bike. Here’s some info:

It’s been a 3 year journey to get to this point. I bought a pretty sad looking 68 bonneville chop rolling basket case. Upon closer inspection I decided to junk everything except the motor, frame, frontend and hubs.

The cases had chain damge and were replaced with a set of nice ‘67 cases which came without any hardware, which turned out to be a bitch because most of the hardware changed from ‘67 to ‘68.
The late style head was rebuilt by MAP, countryside cycle installed and sized the cam bushings.

All bearings were replaced throughout and the frontend completely rebuilt.
I shortened and rethread the fork tubes 1″. New rims (stock 19″ front and 16″ rear were laced with stainless Buchanan spokes on a homemade truing stand built out of 2×4 pieces.

I machined the oil tank, engine plates, headlight bracket and fabricated most all of the parts and brackets on the bike.
The taillight lens started out as a truck cab marker light, for which I built a bezel and the interior bulb holder.

The fender is an aluminum aftermarket ebay item.

The electircal system consists of a Sparx regulator /rectifier/capacitor with a Boyer electronic ignition module and a 2.2Ah gel battery to make starting easier.

I “untunnelled” the Wassel tank slightly to make it sit level and added new outlets.
The paint was my first attempt at a flake job. It took me two tries to get it right (it helps to read the label on the bottle before using reducer instead of hardener…).
Pinstriping was done by local talent Anthony White.

Killer little XS650 Chop - really dig the lines on it. Can’t remember exactly where I found this, but if it belongs to you, post in the comments.

Beautiful every time you see it. Photo by Cliff1066 via Flickr.

Modern Japanese style by speed & noise

Caleb over at Cro Customs consistently builds killer scoots, and this one is no exception. 2000 Indian Chief, goosenecked with all sorts of trick bits, but what really does it for me is the front to back flow it has… the bike has soul. Some folks think that modern Evo’s can’t attain the same kind of soul that an older powerplant can - for a while I bought into that, but it’s bullshit. Bikes like this, as well as many others prove that theory wrong. Of course the engine plays a big part, but it’s not just about the engine. It’s about the overall design, the attention to detail, the vibe that the builder infuses into the bike with every choice they make. Cro gets it and every bike I’ve seen come out of his shop kills it like that. Undoubtedly one of my favorite builders out there today.

As for the bike… Cro has a great write up about the build on his blog….

Two Drunk Injuns, Build an Indian for a Squaw
Where do I start? About 6 months ago I was approached by Cary “Carrot” Larouche about doing something with his wife’s 2000 Indian Chief. ” She wants a kind of Zero style thing”. Second red flag for me. The first red flag was that the bike was an evo. Cary had already pulled most of the bike apart. I thought for a second and said ” Well, it’s really not my thing, but my buddy JD is a fan of Shinya’s and is totally in to the goose neck deal. Let me talk to him and see if he is down for it” Red flag three. I generally work alone.

Go read the rest here: Cro Customs Blog

Steve at britstockers.com sent these lovelies in. Lovely.

We need a better term than “Brat Style” to call these style of bikes because it’s not just those guys that are building killer examples of these Japanese road bombers. Case in point: Crazy Orange - their bikes are the sweetness. Check em out: Crazy Orange

Paul Peters from the Netherlands made by day when he sent this looker in. Beaut of a bike and you don’t have to be a god-fearing man (I am not) to appreciate that paint job.

Dave has the madness of the best variety. Go check his site to see this beauty hand built fron the ground up. http://boardtracker.blogspot.com/

Sold on ebay a while back

Billy’s new Shovelhead… rockin’ as usual

… is going to be the next big thing.