Taking the Funk Stickover to Jordan at Union Speed this week. We’ve got plans for a potentially brand new Speed Club product. Jordan is the man when it comes to pretty much any hand fabrication. Dude is young and he’s got serious skills. Midwest do it best. We’ll try to do a garage feature on Union Speed sometime here very soon. Stay tuned.
Big order came in today from Lowbrow Customs for Reinhart. We sat down for some viet-grub and a dick-load of Trump parts! Brand spankin’ new Amal carbs, shirts, velocity stacks, wiring, and looks like the Lowbrow boys threw in a sweet LB scarf for us frozen midwest folk. We still have a Bird loop hard tail coming in in the next couple weeks. We’ll definitely get some pics of that thing to share. Born Free – look out.
NOTE: Reinhart does not always look this way… he just got a haircut.
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.
It’s hard to keep the vibes going through the Midwest winters. Videos like this get me hyped up all over again. Screwing off in an abandoned parking lot on a hot summers day. Gimme some sunshine at least.
Midwest Shops & Garages Series. A new little feature we’re rolling out this winter. The idea is real simple. If you’re from the Midwest (or anywhere cold for that matter) you know that when the snow falls, the cycles, projects, shops, garages and hide outs are the place to be. We’re gonna visit some friends, check out their digs, and see what projects are in the mix.
No where to go and nothing to do but tear it down and put it back together. The first garage in the series will be coming up soon so be sure to check back.
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March 30, 2011 12:06 pm | 
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