74″ of Love – part 2

Finally got the bottom end completed. Got that Andrews AB cam spaced out proper. Cone back on. Tappets and hydro lifters cleaned and neatly back in place. New rings on .060 over pistons. Cylinders torqued back down and I even took a minute to set the timing. For now Im shelving the motor and Ill come back to the top end when I have more free time. I’ve got a couple pairs of heads that I need to have blasted before I reassemble so I’ll just save up the extra scratch and service all of them at the same time. This thing is looking real good and should run even better. Much thanks to Gator and Bear on this one. They both really laid some knowledge on me during the entire rebuild. Learning shovels from the best in the biz is a humbling (and equally rad) experience. More from the chopper blog soon.

Garage Feature I – “Pinky”

If you’re even remotely serious about building bikes in the Twin Cities or Midwest for that matter then you probably know Rick. He’s a wealth of knowledge and quite a unique character. When I asked if I could get some pics for the site he responded with “I dont give a shit whatcha do.” Believe it or not, he and I get along really well. All the local bike and car guys gravitate to him when it comes to heavy duty fabrication work. He’s an all around motor man with decades of experience and experimentation.

I’ve heard him referred to as Handsome Rick, Fabricator Rick and my personal favorite… “Pinky.” Rick is one fine fella. He’s professionally or semi-professionally raced just about everything with a motor at one point or another. New rules have been written because he knows how to exploit the unmentioned details. He told me a little story about 3-wheeler ice racing in the 80’s. He asked what the widest wheel base allowed was. They said something like 3 feet. He went home and built a trike axle so narrow and with such narrow tires that you could canter around a corner like an 2-wheeled enduro. They showed up a couple weekends in a row. Won 1st place in their amateur division on every race they attended. The next season they introduced a minimum wheel base and that was that.

Rick’s really a bit of a living legend when I start to really think about it. I’m pretty sure he’s never had a “regular job.” At one point in his life he was racing 48 weekends out of the year at different tracks across the US. The last time I visited, the founder of House of Kolors Paint, Jon Kosmoski happened to drop by with a front end for Rick to work up. On top of it all, he’s a really solitary guy.

He’s good shit and he’s probably one of the most interesting guys I’ve met since my move to the Midwest. Who better to start off our first ever Garage feature than the one-man garage master himself. I shared all kinds of oddball ideas with him and he always says to me, “if you can imagine it, I can make it.”

welcome to the chopper blog Garage Feature I. More to come.

Motorcycle iPhotog

So yes, I do have fancy cameras for video and photography but fuck all that. I just don’t like being bothered with stuff. Stuff around my neck, stuff around my wrist, stuff on my back, you know… STUFF. I’d rather ride dirty and shoot from the hip when the mood hits me. Don’t get me wrong. Power to those with the dedication, addiction and passion to carry that stuff around with them (Zac D. – Kurpius).

Gimme the experience. Gimme the adventure and gimme something to write with.
– Pencils take better pictures anyway.

Outside Civilization

Almost 300 miles today. The sun hid behind the clouds keeping the temperature low. Never broke 55 degrees. On the outskirts of civilization, the Tower Cafe serves me the chili and coffee while the waitress tells us stories of her motorcycle and moose experiences. We blast off. Still headed north. 20 miles from the Canadian border without passports gives us good reason to come again. Headed south through the twists and turns along route 1.  Plenty of miles left with no reason to stop in sight. More to come – the chopper blog.