riding old bikes is the key to happiness

I taught sonal how to ride a motorcycle yesterday. She did a good job and only killed it a couple times! Once she was rolling she did fine.


Here is a pic of my daddy riding the same bike at speed. This bike is a cream puff.



Here is a pic of tim on his knucklehead. He flew home today. I will miss you tim,I am looking forward to your return at the end of July.




Here is a pic I took of the 39 while I was riding it. To take this picture you have to hold both of your hands as high up as you can and point the camera at the dash. It works well as long as your frame is straight lol






we went to the red rooster to watch the old people play music. I guess they do this every Tuesday afternoon. this guy sang a polka song the whole day was really magical. I just took some time to enjoy people and riding motorcycles. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in things that I don't take time to smell the roses. I recommend it to every one.

Here is a pic of my sears so far. What do you guys think? The project is coming along!!! woo hoo, I Just need a frame now. Should be kind of rolling next week if everything goes well. Wish me luck and have a nice night

knucklehead hill climber case repair

This case is for a 46 fl that was an old hillclimber. It busted the bottom out sometime over the last seventy years. Here it is after machining and lapping the mating surface.


Here it is after grinding and texturing. It is a good job and will last a long time!

knucklehead hill climber case repair

old bikes and birthday wishes

Here is a cell phone pic that I took last saturday at six in the morning. I went for a couple hundred mile motorcycle ride on our 48. This bike has all the fixings and is a real garbage wagon. I rode this bike to california when I was 18. I love it.


HEre is a pic that my friend Joe Mielke took of our 47 el at our birthday party earlier this month. This is a real deal south dakota bike and has never been owned by anybody outside of the 605! Tomorrow is my birthday and I think that I will spend the day riding old bikes and hanging out with friends. I hope that you guys have a great weekend!

late 47 frame almost done!

I welded the top motor mount and tank mounts on this 47 frame today. What a bunch of damn work! It turned out really well, I am going to go silver solder the neck casting now, and maybe make a new brake crossover shaft for it. The only original tubes on this frame are the rails going to the axle castings! This is hard work spelled f-r-a-m-e

passenger pegs!

My daddy got all excited to show me an old chopper trick that he used to do back in the seventies. Here is a set of repro anderson foot pegs that he milled a square out ofso that he could mount them in closer to the bike.


Here it is installed on the transmission plate passenger peg mount.



There it is all folded up! Every time I threaten to throw him in the retirement home he pulls an old trick out of his sleeve and earns the right to stay free for a while more. lol

fire calls and break in miles!

I started out my morning doing a bunch of grinding and welding. Then at 11:00 our volunteer fire fighter pager went off. There was a corn field and tractor fire six miles from the shop, so my dad and I hot footed over to the fire hall jumped in a grass rig and headed over to the fire. It was a four hour deal by the time it got contained and put out. I usually only go on grass fires and I am amazed at how hot old corn burns. Anyways, when I got back from the call, I took the new 53 out to put some break in miles on it. I went to the red rooster coffee house for a shake and sandwich and was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of old people playing music. I guess they do it every Tuesday afternoon.


Here is the 53 after the first 20 miles! I have a couple exhaust leaks to address, adjust the shift arm, and tighten up the head bolts. It runs great and I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Now I can move onto the next one!

1947 FL

I finally got a batch of stainless steel inline handlebar lock plates from the polisher. These turned out so nice. They are correct for 39 to 52 inline springers. Let me know if you need one.


I spent the morning getting this 47 up on wheels. I got the frame back from the painter on saturday and it is really beautiful! This will be a nice bike in a couple of weeks!



OOOO rear fender! I should have the handlebars pretty soon they are getting repainted.




Lots of nice details going on here. I love springers with shocks on them!

poison Ivy and circus peanuts

I spent all of last week out of commission because of poison ivy that I got on a fire call. It was a terrible experience and I have a new appreciation for anybody that can have a positive attitude while trying to figure out what type of illness they have. This is what my fore arm looked like, I had it on my knees and other arm as well. So consequently I did not get much work done.


However I did get a giant box of circus peanuts from Larry Medwig.

This is what a 20 pound bag of circus peanuts looks like. This is unbelievable! Thanks Larry!

Kevin Baas's open house and The dice party

My dad Tim and Joe left for Minneapolis today. I was supposed to be going as well but I got pretty sick and my doctor advised me not to do any traveling. I wish everyone the best and have a great time!

1953 panhead dilemna!

Tim and I spent the day working on a 53. Here is the fender all trimmed up and shiny. This is what a stock fender looks like. This 53 is getting a little decked out! I spent most of the day drilling holes in the fender for different rails emblems and lights! What a garbage wagon!


Here is the fron fender with the deluxe ohv emblem and the old home made hydra glide emblems. My dad has had the aluminum hydra glide emblems since the seventies. Some guy made them by hand with a needle file! What a maniac, I do not have the patience for something like that. Anyways, Check out fender light and the bottom rail on the fender. Pretty neat stuff. We are not sure if we are going to run the horse medallion or the one below it.



I personally like the cast elephant more than the horse, my dad wants the horse. Which one do you prefer. Please leave a comment and let me know.




Unfortunately we will not be able to run this bitchin muffler:( It interferes with the og buco bags that we plan on running. There isn't much left to do on this bike, should be done tomorrow, then I can move onto the next bike!





Check out the buco bag! we have one for the other side as well. This is such a neat decked out 53. Anyways, fill me in on what you think elephant or horse, that is the question!

parkerizing!!!!

We did a big batch of parkerizing today. It turned out really well. Jesse has been blasting old junk parts for weeks in preparation and his hard work paid off!


This stuff has great color and I am very happy with how it turned out. Now I can get some rollers up! well at least as soon as I get my frames from the painters!



Duke was cold so we did the humane thing, and gave him a cape and a hat. It isn't his fault that he was born with short hair.

Kittens and Parts

Here is a picture of a set of primo matched 44 cases that we just decked. Next step is to line lap them then send em out next week. Look out Warren!


Here are some baby food jars that we just got from V twin, these are better than the old reproduction ones which is really great. The lines are the correct diameter for 36 and 37. Thanks for doing a good job! Now we just have to get them painted



Our shop cat Smudge had kittens yesterday they are very tiny.




I think the head count is at seven right now which is pretty neat. Let me know if you need any guard cats for your house, if they grow up to be like their mom, they will be vicious killers.

woooo hooo

Igot a box from the foundry today. Lots of good stuff.


These are probably the coolest pieces in the box. I love tail gunner lights, but the og ones are made out of pot metal and always break, so I sent some off and had them made out of steel. This is a long term project, but I am moving on it which is so cool.



Here are some waxes that I got from my friend Dan, do any of you guys know what these are?

motors and anchors

Tim finished up his flat bed and mounted it on his bike this morning. It turned out really nice. I had forgotten what it was like to drive a bike with a sidecar on it. What a bunch of fun.


My daddy knocked out a 37 el bottom end. The cylinders are repro 4 fin cylinders and are pretty nice, the rear one had a small problem that needed to be addressed. The sleeve that slips into the case was .010 to big, so we set it up on the mill and took of .010 so that it would fit.



And the finished bottom end. well, I guess we still have to set up the points, but that isn't a big deal.

My dad and I celebrated our birthdays together this weekend. We had a great time hanging out with the 35 ish people that showed up. It is so cool to have so many great friends.


Here is a shot of the garage where we put all of the bikes. It was packed tight!

HEre are all of the cars. My parent's property was packed.

Here is a picture from the day after. All of us fit on a knucklehead while it was moving. Check out the pic below.

Normally we let people that visit our shop ride five knuckleheads in a day, well we mixed it up a bit and decided to try and fit as many people on a knucklehead as we could. Our first attempt was six people, then we squeezed two more on and had a total of 8 people on a knucklehead. I am going to use this picture for the cover of our new parts list. The bike is our original paint 46 EL
Thanks everybody for taking the time to come and hang out and share an amazing weekend together!

strange brew

Kevin had a small problem with his hollow axle sleeve so we all pitched in and switched it out. When you only have one brake, you have to make sure it works at full capacity.


After Kevin, Chad, Ole and Andy left, we got a call an hour later that Kevin shredded his 11 mm belt. We didn't have a spare, so we packed up some tools and a chain drive set up and went to go swap it out.



Here is kevin with the STRANGE BREW knucklehead. This is a really great bike and fun to ride.




Here he is all fixed up and ready to head home, which happens to be the direction that he is pointing.





Here he is hill climbing with his new chain drive. It worked all the way back to Minneapolis. Thanks for coming kevin!