Ripped these pics of this killer Shovelhead from Arizona off of ebay. Maybe you’ve seen it before… now you can enjoy it again. 100% ass kicker - dig it.

I have a “thing” for gas tanks - I know a lot of you have the same “thing”. I won’t go as far as calling it a fetish, cuz that just sounds totally fucked, and really - if this “thing” HAS stepped over that line into fetish land, I’d rather live in denial and ignorance. Life is easier that way sometimes. Moving on… here’s a small collection of photos I’ve collected over time of some cool tanks that have caught my eye. If you have the same affliction, you’ll enjoy it thoroughly - click read more to see all the tank-y goodness.
Read more…

You may have seen Jeremy Cupp’s last build - the Panster - from the many magazine articles it was featured in. A great bike for sure, but it’s his latest custom build - the TT Deluxe - that has had me completely floored since I first saw it at the Smoke Out. Built around a 2006 Triumph motor, this bike KILLS it on every level - over-all design, engineering, attention to detail, fabrication - it’s got it all.

Jeremy fabricated everything for this build in the back corner of his family’s machine shop, including the paint and leatherwork. It seems obvious to me that the family business has rubbed off on Jeremy in all of the right ways. The attention to detail - especially when we’re talking about custom fabricated parts - is mind blowing. From the front end to the jackshaft setup to the leather tank pads to a simple thing like the taillight - everything on this bike works together perfectly and just make you stand back and say wow. That jackshaft setup definitely blew a few minds - really ingenious stuff here. I say this with all respect to all the other builders who threw down hard with killer builds - hands down, this was my absolute favorite bike at the Smoke Out.

The success of the Panster and TT Deluxe has driven Jeremy to start up his own company - dubbed LCFabrications - where he focuses on creating custom builder parts. Check out his website www.lcfabrications.com or myspace: www.myspace.com/lc_fabrications for more info.

You want more? I’ve got more - hit the read more link below to see a tons more pics, including lots of details, as well as a full tech sheet.

Read more…

Holly Andeson gets big props from us. Pointed in our general direction by my man Kevin C. (thanks Kevin, you get props on this too) she sent us a whole bunch of photos from a trip she made out to visit Jason Jesse and his shop Automodown. If you know of Jason - from his skate fame, his bikes or his appearances in the Choppertown flicks, you know his madness & genius is inspiring, frightening, unhinged and beautiful. The shots Holly took around his shop capture a lot of that essence through composition and through the actual elements in the shop she chose to shoot. Killer stuff all around, so hit the read more link below to check out all the pics.

All photos are © Holly Anderson - many thanks to her for sending them out way.
Read more…

Our pal Patrick from Belgium sent in some new pics of his killer 1948 Harley WL. I’ve posted about his bike before here but is you his the read more link below you’ll get to check out a whole mess of new pics. Killer ride, looks fun as hell. Hit the jump below to see ‘em all.
Read more…

Mule Motorcycles aka Richard Pollock builds some of the raddest Yamaha XS650 Street Trackers around – actually most of his builds are pretty sick. Very few people are putting this level of detail into these bikes - at least here in the states. It’s nice to see someone more concerned with using this platform to build kick-ass bikes and not trying to cheap out on it. Check out his site here:

http://mulemotorcycles.net/

One question interview time - you know you’ve been craving it. In this months segment we asked all our favorite greasebags the following question:

What’s your favorite part about building a bike?

There seems to be a reoccurring theme when you look at the answers as a group, but I’ll let you figure that out on your own Einstein. Some answers are expected, some are not - good stuff to dig through.

As always, I love to hear you guys (yes YOU) answer the question as well, so use the comments section to drop some knowledge/sarcasm/humor/wit/etc…With that said, onto the show. (Make sure to click read more to check out all the answers).

Kevin Baas | Baas Metal Craft | www.baasmetalcraft.com
My favorite part of building a bike is seeing all the parts I’ve collected and scrounged through swap meets and friends etc. come together along with all the ideas in my head to a final running scooter. Each bike I build has cool stories of where things came from and memories of the build that will never be forgotten.

Read more…

S+S recently had their 50th Anniversary and to celebrate they invited 50 builders to build custom bikes using their engines. Some killer bikes in the mix (some really awful ones too), here’s my pick for the top 10. Photo’s by Michael Lichter Photography

Saw this one from Bill Dodge up close at the smokeout. Killer bike, looks fast standing still.
Lots of cool details, the paint straight up draws you in.

Click read more to see the rest…

Read more…

Caleb at Cro Customs built this bad ass shovelhead for his pal Will. Caleb sent me just a short note about it…

My good friend JD helped out in the final days, pulling together the light mount, pipes, tank and other odds and ends. This thing was thrown together from Will’s pile of parts in a week or so.

What could you “throw together” in a week or so? Exactly. Saying he nailed it is beyond obvious. For some reason this bike reminds me of thrash metal. Looks raw, fast and ready to mosh… that’s right, mosh.

Check out more pics by clicking read more.
Read more…

Rod Gibson gets to grips with the science of camshaft design, and enters a world full of ramps, overlap, lift and durations. But will it make the bike go faster?
We tend to take camshafts for granted, or at least I did until quite recently. Coaxing a little more power out of our project Katana meant that, like it or not, I had to get to grips with a little cam technology. But before we plunge too deeply into the strange world of ramps, overlap and durations, here’s a quick trip around the trusty camshaft and its place in the world of internal combustion.

Any engine has to have some provision to get gas in and out of its cylinders. In a conventional four-stroke engine the job of the inlet valve is to open to allow fresh charge into each cylinder, then close to allow it to be compressed and ignited. After combustion, the exhaust valve opens to let the spent gasses out, then closes to allow the whole cycle to repeat.

To read the rest of this article, download the pdf by clicking on the thumbnail below

With the never ending rise in gas prices, I think you’re going to be seeing a lot more small CC motorcycles on the road. Old cheap bikes that are reliable and get 70+ mpg, although I’m sure just like Europe, Scooters will have a stronger presence. But, with the increase in numbers, you’re going to see a lot more bikes like this one from German Karp - guys taking small displacement bikes and modifying the shit out of them. There will be a lot of crap on this front, but thankfully, we’ve got guys like German who just kill it and get it right. Cool little bike with a bit of brat-style influence, I bet it’s a blast to carve up the city roads with.

To see more pics and read all the details from German, click read more below.

Read more…

The one question interview is back this month after a hectic June. In this months segment we asked all our favorite greasebags the following question:

What sound in your shop - reoccurring or not - drives you crazy?

Lots of great answers as always of the short and sweet variety. Lots of new guys in the mix this month, which is killer. This is one of my favorite segments on the site, so I’m psyched to see it get bigger.

As always, I love to hear you guys (yes YOU) answer the question as well, so use the comments section to drop some knowledge/sarcasm/humor/wit/etc…With that said, onto the show. (Make sure to click read more to check out all the answers). Now, onto the show:

Fabricator Kevin | www.fabkevin.com/
My mechanical pressbrake. Every cycle emits an ear piercing screech, and at the end of a long day it makes me want to kill anyone that looks at my crossways.

Read more…

In this months segment of the one question interview we asked all our favorite greasebags the following question:

When it comes to building or customizing bikes, what’s the most important lesson you’ve learned:

Lot’s of great answers, tips and tricks to grab from all the answers, a great extended answer at the end by Ian Barry of Falcon, so make sure to get to that.

As always, I love to hear you guys (yes YOU) answer the question as well, so use the comments section to drop some knowledge/sarcasm/humor/wit/etc…With that said, onto the show. (Make sure to click read more to check out all the answers). Now, onto the show:

Wes • Four Aces Cycle Supply • www.fouracescycle.com
The most important esoteric lesson I have learned building bikes is that the bike will tell you what it needs and what it wants you to do if you listen to it. The perfect bike builds itself. If you offer up parts to the bike it will either accept or reject those parts based on your eye’s interpretation of the package. Forced bikes look forced.

The most important concrete lesson I have learned is that building a bike, for yourself or for someone else, costs money. At some point you are gonna have to spend some dough. If you grind your builder he is going to have to fudge the quality and that is going to bite both customer and builder down the road. Pick the right builder and pay him well. On your own build, don’t be afraid to buy quality materials and quality parts.

Read more…

I featured a quick pic of Greaser Mike’s killer scoot last month. He recently checked in with me and sent in a few more along with some info. The pic above fucking kills it; shot by Gregor Halenda for a Hassleblad camera ad campaign; make sure you click on it to see all the details. More pics after the specs:

Tech Specs

750 cc 73 T140 motor

Motor’s been ballanced, blueprinted & lightened (where applicable)

Megacycle cams, black diamond valves, 7 plate clutch, Jegg oil cooler….etc…(I’m not listing ALL my top secret goodies in there)

Cerriani front fork. Peter Hunstein made the cromolly front axel and spacers, Front is a stainless 21″ laced to a 68 hub, rear is stainless 18″x4″ tire is a coker re-pop of an old beck.

Headlight is a foglight of a 36 ford that I converted to high/low beam.

Tail is a 31 model A.

Detail photo shows the super secret stash tube oil filter. (uses triumph trident filters)
Stainless seat by Kevin Baas (nad is super comfortable despite its looks)

Alloy tank and fender are hand polished…and looked like the back of a stop sign when I started.

Bill @ Biltwell provided the clubman bars, exhaust tips and about 2 tons of stickers and shirts (I never need to buy a shirt again!)

60’s Schwinn bicycle Grips, Tomaselli quick twist racing throttle (helps me get the hole shot everytime!)

Mike wanted me to make sure he gave a shit on of props to Hugh Mackie @ 6th St. Specials, NYC for his help and mentoring.

Here’s the second installment of our one question interview feature, if you missed the first, check it out here: One Question Interview P1. Everyone stepped up their game this week; your gonna dig what you read.

As always, I love to hear you guys (yes YOU) answer the question as well, so use the comments section to drop some knowledge/sarcasm/humor/wit/etc…With that said, onto the show. (Make sure to click read more to check out all the answers)

Question: What is the earliest memory you have surrounding motorcycles and how did it influence you?

Trent | Atomic Customs | atomiccustom.com
The earliest memory I have of motorcycles…
Well, I was 4 years old and my Dad took me out the Elks Lodge parking lot in Billings, Montana to teach me to ride my own. Now the Elks parking lot was nice and smooth EXCEPT for the back way into the property, which consisted of a gnarly, rutted out hillclimb! Of course this is where my Dad took me to learn. He took me to the top of the hill and told me to stay there while he walked down that rocky, rutted out, two track road. A few minutes later he yells up, “come on down!” I was scared and yelled back “I cant do it!” He yelled back “come on, you can do it”. Well, after several minutes of this back and forth I finally went for it. I actually made it about half way down this hill, gaining quite a bit of speed in the process before crashing the rest of the way. Years later, Dad and I were talking about those old days and I was giving him shit for traumatizing the fuck out of me (that memory is burned in my brain to this day) He replied “you learned to respect motorcycles didn’t you??”

Yes, I did.

Read more…

Let’s open up April with a solid fist to the jaw shall we? Benny from boneshaker choppers sent in this sweet low slung zero engineering / chica inspired pan. Lots of killer details, some subtle, some right in your face - it’s a nice mix. No doubt it’s got the “looks fast and mean standing still” thing going on. Click the read more link below to see a bunch more pics and read the whole story, with tech specs from Benny.

Read more…

As promised, a legitimate shit-ton of photos of the new Choppahead modern Triumph build. Some lucky SOB in California is gonna get his grubby mitts on this. Dig it.

Technorati Tags: Choppahead, Triumph

Listen jack, we all dream of building or buying a dream garage to pack full of greasy bits, future projects and a shit ton of room to wrench in. I can see the thought bubble above your head right now… 40′ x 60′ aircraft hanger style building with a dedicated parts section in the back, boxes full of tools, lathe, mill, english wheel, giant air compressor, 220 power, maybe a car lift for that hot rod project you want to do on the side and a fully stocked fridge for when the bro’s come over. We’re all got dreams bubba, and maybe someday we’ll get it…then we’ll want something bigger - them’s just the hard facts. In the meantime, we make due with what we got - and some of us got more than others, but the pics in this gallery are proof that you don’t need oodles of space to build that sickle you’re dreaming of. Seriously, some of these guys are building bikes in spaces the size of a closet, so I don’t want to hear any bitchin’ about that 1 car garage you got on the side of the house. When I put the call out for pics and info a few weeks back, I wasn’t sure what I was going to get, but I sure wasn’t expecting the great response. These pics are pure inspiration, and prove the point that with the right amount of determination you can build a bike pretty much anywhere.

As a side note, the photo gallery programming that I did below took me a bit of time to figure out, which is why the feature is running a little late, but it’s a much better way to dig into the pics. Any notes or comments from the shops owner is attached to the photo and will pop up anytime you roll your mouse over it. Cool stuff.

So there you go, I’ll run another segment of the small workshop series in the future, so if you’ve got one, make sure to send pics my way (email to grail21@gmail.com). And don’t forget to leave some comments on this post after you’ve checked out the pics.

Technorati Tags: garage space, photo story, small workshops

A bit of remembrance for the man, the myth, the legend - Hunter S. Thompson. Easily one of my favorite writers of all time. Went out on his own dime 3 years ago today - can’t say I agree with his methods, but it was part of the madness that made him who he was. Here is a reprint of one of the greatest motorcycle reviews ever penned.

Song of the Sausage Creature
by Hunter S. Thompson

There are some things nobody needs in this world, and a bright-red, hunch-back, warp-speed 900cc cafe racer is one of them - but I want one anyway, and on some days I actually believe I need one. That is why they are dangerous.

Everybody has fast motorcycles these days. Some people go 150 miles an hour on two-lane blacktop roads, but not often. There are too many oncoming trucks and too many radar cops and too many stupid animals in the way. You have to be a little crazy to ride these super-torque high-speed crotch rockets anywhere except a racetrack - and even there, they will scare the whimpering shit out of you… There is, after all, not a pig’s eye worth of difference between going head-on into a Peterbilt or sideways into the bleachers. On some days you get what you want, and on others, you get what you need.

When Cycle World called me to ask if I would road-test the new Harley Road King, I got uppity and said I’d rather have a Ducati superbike. It seemed like a chic decision at the time, and my friends on the superbike circuit got very excited. “Hot damn,” they said. “We will take it to the track and blow the bastards away.”

“Balls,” I said. “Never mind the track. The track is for punks. We are Road People. We are Cafe Racers.”

The Cafe Racer is a different breed, and we have our own situations. Pure speed in sixth gear on a 5000-foot straightaway is one thing, but pure speed in third gear on a gravel-strewn downhill ess-turn is quite another.

But we like it. A thoroughbred Cafe Racer will ride all night through a fog storm in freeway traffic to put himself into what somebody told him was the ugliest and tightest decreasing-radius turn since Genghis Khan invented the corkscrew.
Read more…

Sepia Photo Series
Part 1 of 5
Artsy fartsy photo goodness.

Photos taken from my 2007 travels:
Smoke Out, Chop Shop Open House, Lars Anderson Euro Day, Nardi’s BSA photoshoot

Photos will be posted 10 at a time, click on read more to see the remaining 8.
Stay tuned for the remained 4 segments.
As always, all photos can be clicked on to view a larger version.

Read more…