42 pictures

1965 sheetmetal

Brittney met with Gilby to pick up the 65 sheet metal today. It turned out very nice.It is hi fi red and birch white.
Gilby did a good job on this one, most of the paint will be covered up by goo gaw chrome stuff.
cool deal!

post wauseon pictures

here is a picture of Brittney and I on a Ruckus, these bikes are amazing. We took this bike off road in some trails and had an absolute blast.

Joe took us over to a friends house that is restoring a round case ducati. I was told that Ducati only made 72 of these bikes. The workmanship on this bike is flawless and very impressive.

After Wauseon we hung out with Joe Gardella. Here is a picture of us with the work horses

Here is a cool hill climber that I saw at the Gilmore museum. It was a pretty amazing bike. There was a really cool variety of bikes and cars at this place and I would recommend it to anyone that is interested in old vehicles.

Here is a side shot of a tucker. These cars are so stylistic, I wish the company would have worked out.

This pierce four was in the pierce arrow room. There were probably 15 or 20 pierce arrow cars at the Gilmore museum. I can't wait to go back there some day.

One of the impressive parts of the museum was the hood ornament collection. There were three walls of these emblems. They were so artistically done.

The next stop was Michigan Chopper fest. Here is a picture of a 60 something sportster that John built. He has been racing and working on the bike for forty years. This was one of the most tricked out bikes that I have seen in years. What a beautiful thing.

Check out the steering dampener set up on this bike. He raced it later on in the weekend and it was running low 10 second passes.

Here is some random road that we went on. The roads in Michigan are so amazing. I love that state. I hope that one of the michigan AMCA Chapter's has a road run there some day.

Brittney raced a 71 rupp black widow in the mini bike races. She got second place in the mens class and 2nd place in the woman's race.

I think one of the coolest things about Michigan Chopper fest is the location. It is held at the 131 speedway. Here is a picture of me taking my36 out on the strip. I popped a wheelie with it the first pass and went through the lights at 66 mph nineteen seconds later. I needed another mile to get up to speed lol.

This was one of the coolest bikes at the show. I am not really hip on British bikes, but this one was really special. This 1947 tail dragger plane belonged to LD's son. He took Brittney and I up in it for an hour and a half. It was amazing. It is the first plane that I got to prop start. I will post a video later on.

This is Harley and his 42 knucklehead. This bike is so cool. He is 22 years old and was one of the featured builders at the show. I am doing an article on him for an upcoming issue of the AMCA's magazine.

After Chopper Fest, we went to Toms house and talked old bikes. He has a 51 wr that he races AHRMA in. He is a very entertaining guy and sharp as a tack.

After Toms we rode up to Luddington to catch the ferry. This is the sister ship to the one that we took.

once we got to Wisconsin, we went to hang out with my friend John Davidson. I have known John for five or six years and have been trying to coordinate a play date. The stars finally aligned and we got to hang out. We spent the morning looking at his bikes and old family photos as well as his son's amazing farm animals. His great grandfather was Walter Davidson/founder of the moco, so there were some pretty interesting stories and pictures to check out. This is his 40 knucklehead which his dad traded a brand new super glide for back in the seventies.

We went to a couple of different family houses. This was Emma's play house. Emma was Walter's wife. Apparently this was the place to hang out for Emma and her friends. They would play games and do girl stuff here. After they passed on, the house and property was donated to the town, and turned into a historical place. Several neat old buildings and a train depot were moved on site and it is all nicely maintained and kept up for viewing pleasure.

Here is a picture that Miss Brittney took of Eric, Garreth, and Tony riding through Milwaukee.

This is Brittney, John and me in front of Walter's house that was built in the thirties. He lived in this place until he passed away in the early forties. The place is right on the lake and is absolutely magnificent. Walter designed the place and took as much pride in designing architecture as he did in designing world class bikes.

st,w

We are off to Wauseon and Michigan chopper fest

I have not had much time to update since Lonnie's Crash and the resulting work, and I Will not be doing very many posts for a little bit because Brittney, Scott and I are just about ready to hit the road. We are riding to Wauseon then around ohio and Michigan and then to the Michigan chopper fest. If you are going to either of these events Lets hang out. If you need any help with orders, Jesse and Deb will still be at the shop. Have fun.

Smokey came out to say good bye, What a great cat.

a series of unfortunate events

sorry for the lack of updates. My dad and I were planning on riding to Milwaukee with our friends Lonnie and Jason. Lonnie flew into aberdeen on Tuesday and hung out for a bit and helped me in the shop. After a while I asked him to take our 46 for a ride which also happened to be the bike that we were going to loan him for the trip. He went west on the road in front of the shop and turned around after a bit. He hit a pot hole on the return which launched him into the air, unfortunately, he came down and crashed. He broke his collar bone, his nose and 4 ribs but is alright. My girlfriend and I stayed in the hospital with him and my dad and Jason went to Milwaukee for the knucklehead reunion on the 42 and 39.

This was a pretty eye opening experience for me and put a lot of things in perspective. I love our 46 and it is one of my favorite bikes that I have ever worked on, but the bikes sentimental and personal value does not even come close to how important my friends health is. This crash could have been a lot worse for lonnie and the bike. I battled over whether or not to post this and I realized that it is a good eye opener for everyone involved, and hopefully someone else will be able to take something away from it. Please be careful when you are out riding around on motorcycles and wear all of the proper safety gear. This is serious business.

The muffler is pretty beat up. This was our prototype muffler that had over 22 thousand miles on it. Now we can say that they have been crash tested.

Happy Fourth Of July

Here is a picture of my friend Joe Gardella's 1914 twin. He built this bike for the cannonball last year and almost got a perfect score. He was 8 or 9 miles short due to a magneto failure. Joe and I have been talking about a cool project together lately which will end up being a ton of fun.

Here is a picture of Joe on his "Gray Ghost" This bike works flawlessly and runs like a sewing machine. It is an amazing machine.

Happy fourth of July!

36 knucklehead in a field pictures

Here is a picture of my 36 in the weeds. I tried to capture how tall the grass was.

some weeds that my brake caught.

I used to cruise around on my little honda fifty in these same fields. It was a blast to ride my 36 through them, it made me feel like I was seven years old. These weird little grass things are in soggy muddy ground, the sun was setting and they were glowing. It was really cool. The pictures do not do it justice. I am impressed with the extra ground clearance that you get with an xa fork. They are so cool.

Brittney practiced riding the 36 yesterday. here are some pictures of her kicking up grass.

She did laps in the yard for a few hours, then we went out on the road. I am so proud! Good job Brittney!