Found a fella 3 blocks away who was getting rid of a couple snow throwers. This one he had for the last 35 years! 8HP, 26″ auger, First pull – MONSTER blower. Only cost me $30 bucks! I admit, most readers from outside of the northern Midwest probably wont get it but if you ARE from round these parts then you probably understand that $30 is honestly unheard of for ANY snow blower. By Minnesota standards, this thing is GOLD. Took me an entire weekend of smooth talking the guy to finally make the deal. Now if I can just figure out how to throw some lights and a sissy bar on it???
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.
Much thanks and appreciation to Diamond Dave who was kind enough to let me stop by his garage last night for some much needed advise and inspiration. Dave’s a real cool fella. He’s got style and an endless stash of killer chopper parts. He knows his sh*t and is willing to share some knowledge. All you gotta do is listen. That’s good people.
Last seasons CHOPOUT 2010 unseen footage of Super-Bry in a hardware store parking lot remounting his rear fender. A little smooth talking at the parts counter led to borrowing a few tools free of charge. Some dude eventually strolled up and gave his kid a roadside lesson in good karma. Many thanks to that fella for rolling around on the ground and lending a helping hand to a stranger.
This video was sent in form a fella on Youtube as a response to a video we put up a while back. I’ve never been to heavy into illustration but this is pretty cool. Hope to see some more soon. – enjoy.
Welcome to the chopper blog.
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October 10, 2011 9:50 pm | 
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