Garage Feature II – CT is NE

I met CT a couple years back at the Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show. To put it to you straight… CT is North East. He’s involved in a little bit of everything. CT was part of the the once mighty Track Stars. He’s a regular fixture at Blue Cat. He runs every year at the Salt Flats and CT is one of the guiding forces behind the Bearded Lady. He runs a lot of bikes and is real big into his vintage Italian and Japanese stuff. Especially his Suzuki 2-stroke triples.

CT spends his winters keeping busy in his garage.  A couple cans of Hamms, crank the heater, a few touches here and there on the ratrod and the snow keeps falling. Eventually Bearded Lady plans start up as the snow and ice start to melt.

I asked a little more about how that (cycle show) whole thing got started. CT is always quick to pass off the success to his other partners in crime who lend a very large helping hand. In fact, he’s one of the most humble dudes I’ve ever met. “Truth is” he says, “the whole thing was sorta started out of spite.” Apparently, CT and some friends attended a few vintage Japanese bike show years back and unfortunately, the judges never quite knew how to judge their whips. It started to get pretty obvious that there were a lot of custom classics in the Twin Cities in need of an event where they could get a little appreciation. “Fuck it, I’m gonna start my own show for the kind of bikes that deserve it.”

Years later and here we are. The streets have to be shut down. Vendors and sponsors line up in advance and the permits need to be legit. The Lady has really taken on a life of its own. Everybody… and I mean EVERYBODY attends.  See you there this July 23rd. Speed Club will be out with booth overhead and beer in hand as usual.
Dig it. Thanks CT.

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.