Can you believe year 7?
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One Week To Go
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Born-Free 7 Invited Builders Part 1
These photos are from Saturday. The semi cloudy weather was nice but made taking good photos a bit difficult while dodging the crowds of spectators.
This first post shows half of Invited Builders Bikes starting with my four favorites.
I didn't hear who won best builder but (to me), this bike pretty much stole the center stage. A lot of us have seen the David Mann Roth poster Building a Chopper this bike is based on, but what a great idea and really good foresight to actually build it. Looking at the poster I always thought it was a weird design with it's winged tank and never really liked this type of seat or a curved springer, but it all works when it comes together.
This is one wicked chopper! I call it a fifteen year old's dream since it's the kind of chopper that would rock your world if seen at that age. It goes against all my adult sensibilities but really re-kindles what's left of my dwindling teenage spirit. A big tip of the hat goes out to it's builder Arie Vanscyndel.
Big Scott's Banana Cream Dream (un-official name). It would be right at home at a sixties era show.
Scott is re-living his own teenage passions with it's Schwinn Sting Ray inspired elements. Besides the seat and bars, note the risers.
Jason Weber's Booger Sugar panhead was another sixties style favorite.
Despite being somewhat squeezed into a tight corner of the display field, I believe it earned 'Peoples Choice'.
Jeff Leighton's white Triumph rounds out my top four. Another jewel of a bike that would be right at home in a sixties era show.
It's also another bike that would have shown better had it been in the center of the field instead of at the end by a fence. I think bikes can get a kind of overlooked when on the end of the line up. I had to shoot over the end barrier fence to get this shot. In the future I'd suggest making sure the bikes on the ends get a bit more walk around space.
Bobby Middleton's blown Shovster digger didn't like it's picture taken. Every shot I took (except the one below), came out blurred.
Lane splitter?... Not... with that far out carb!
Dalton Walker's Panhead was another Digger that didn't like it's picture taken. While I'm not the biggest fan of the Digger style, I will say he was very sucessful at capturing that late 70's early 80's vibe. The fabrication skills are impressive.
Jon Rispante's Heavenly Blues. In my opinion the extreme high bars and the scalopped tank both distract from the bikes overall good looks. His builder video on the Born-Free blog is a clever take off of the Wild Angels film's opening.
Anyone who has seen Jon's bikes already knows he's a 60's Triumph show bike fan. The furry smokey display brings it home.
Jordan Dickinson's Knucklehead appeared to be unfinished. The bare metal shows off the metal fab skills but let's hope it gets painted.
The Show Class (People's Champ), by J.P. Rodman. Tons of work and fab skills but sorry... I don't get it... especially that seat?
Kyle Edgar's Flathead is nice but the pipes and narrow bars don't quite cut it for me. If the bottom pipe was longer it would look more balanced. Maybe I'm just an old coot but I don't get the obession with extemely narrow bars a lot of guys have these days.
That will do it for now. More Invited Builder's Bikes will be coming shortly....
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Born-Free 7 Invited Builders Part 2
Here's the second bunch of Invited builders bikes.
A very tidy Knucklehead by Matt Jackson.
Chrome frames seem to be back in style these days.
Mark Drews unusual take on using dual headlights. Unless it's a survivor it had a worn patina that may not be the best way to express this kind of show bike. A color other than black might have been a better choice for such a sculptured sixties style show bike.
On the other hand Go Takamine's Indian Chout (Chief in a Scout frame), had a faux aged paint job that worked because of it's old racer styling.
Since they have a dull finish the modern snow flake wheels seem to work. Some might say the rear disc brake doesn't fit in with the rest of the bike.
Oliver Jones high tech race inspired generator/alternator shovel. It's so much of a custom hybred there's hardley any shovelhead left in it.
Another high tech race inspired chopper was by Church of Chopper's Jeff Wright. This time using a Kawasaki KZ 900. It was one of only two Japanese bikes in the Invited Builders Corral.
Nick Zazzi's Shovelhead. While it likely took as much work as some of the other bikes, it's somewhat conservative styling probably made it less of a stand out to many. Except on a Cobra Trike I can't say I've ever seen a fat tire sixteen inch brakeless wheel combo up front.
It appears that Paul Cox's knucklehead was not finished. I'd say he learned more of what the Born-Free crowd likes from last year's experience.
Another Knucklehead. This time by Shawn Long
Uwe Ehinger's Speedway inspired Flathead/Knucklehead hybred. While I'm not into high tech/vintage combinations, I can appreciate the engineering and craftsmanship.
Trevelen Rabanel of SuperCo just descrides his machine as a custom motorcycle. You can take it from there.
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Born-Free 7 Part 3
Here's a collection of bikes from the show. Some of of these are from sort of a VIP corral of bikes belonging to friends of the promoters. A few of them are related to the Show Class-People's Champ venue, and a few others are from exhibitors/vendors.
Mike Davis exhibited some of his own machinery. If you throw a bike party like this, who's going to say you can't show your own bikes?
Classic Panhead Chopper.
Classic Knucklehead Chopper.
Cool Gooseneck Flathead.
Clean Shovelhead Chop.
Looks like the S&S aircleaner shrunk in the laundry.
You don't see many 45's at Born-Free, especially given the complete show bike treatment. This one appears to be stuffed into a vintageTriumph frame and retains the Brit's transmission.
Copper Bear?
One Crazy Engraved Knucklehead. The details are amazing.
Ryan of the Vintage Dreams blog, specialty is resurrecting vintage choppers. Lately he's scored a few of Dean Lanza's frames and bikes. How he found them is a mystery...
...his blog can be found in the side column.
Ryan's rebuild of Dean Lanza's Quicksilver.It recievedthe MooneyesBest of Show award.
More to Come...
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Born-Free 7 Part 4 Out and About
More bikes from the general show
Chrome Frame Inspiration for Joe
Nice modern (Shovelhead), Bob Job.
Tight Knuckle?! Sportster.
Tight Triumph.
Guys are still building Geese.
Modern take on a Goose.
Clean Machine.
Gary Hetrick's old chopper. Except for the seat and the totally inappropriate ape hangers, it's pretty much intact as featured in Supercycle. I liked it much better as first featured in Street Chopper with a the springer, front mag, dual lights and pullbacks as seen below.
Coincidentally it was used as one of those big photos where you poke your head through for photos. Why it was made into a fictitious cover is a mystery to me. The original cover on the right was lifted from Irish Rich's blog. BTW, Street Chopper never cost 35 cents.
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Born-Free 7 -Part 5- Engine Art
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Born-Free 7 Part 6 Not Just Choppers
Here it is August and I'm still posting Born-Free 7.
While Born-Free is predominately a vintage chopper venue, there is always a good showing of vintage, racing and other styles of customs. Not to mention artistic types of various crafts hocking their wares.
This 1935 VD sports a 101 cu. in. engine along with a mix of parts from later machines. Fenders and battery box: Super-Glide. Front wheel/brake assembly: 1970 Triumph. 4-speed rachet top trans. Keihin Carb and dual WL mufflers to name a few. It all blends together rather well.
A really clean 1969 Electra-Glide with a decade later seat.
I'm always charmed by vintage stock Sportsters. This XLCH being from 1967. I saw on Born-Free's Instagram page that it was stolen about a week later in LA. F'ing thiefs!... are lurking among us.
Alan Luke Vaughn's art seemed very popular with the crowd. He's been an illustrator for Easyriders for quite some time.
I had a long conversaion with artist Jack Knight (in black). You might know him from his many illustrations in Supercycle magazines in the eighties. No, that is not me in red.
Cool '56
This racy custom's size is very deceiving. The Twin-Cam's engine large size plus the oversized (26''?), wheels make it hard to tell just how HUGE this bike is in a photo. My problem with it is, it's most likely to be all show and no go with those treadless tires and antique suspension. To me that's kind of a waste of such a finely hopped-up and customized engine.
On the other hand this tastefully done new Harley 750 custom looks like it's ready to GO!
A somewhat unusual high tech chopper-digger custom. I'm not too keen on hard-edge tanks and square fenders, but overall it's an interesting, creative, and finely built machine.
Is it just me or does the left side come off better than the right? It could just be the kickstand-lean induced stance.
While I've never really been a fan of Arlen Ness's bikes, his Ness-tique was a bit of an exception. It might have been responsible for a trend of antique-styled Sportster based customs in the late eighties/early nineties. Some companies sold complete kits (less engine), and even offered antique-style side-cars as an option.
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More from Angel Marc
Here's some more images courtesy of Angel Marc.
Marc's Panhead build circa late '60s. It featured molding and paint by Nez along with one of the first sets of Randy Smith's Finned Dishpans.
Marc first built his '46 Knucklehead in 1973. Here's how it looked in the late '80s. Marc says it still looks pretty much the same today.
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The Grass is Always Greener...
...with a chopper on it.
It's been awhile since I've posted anything and even longer since it's been something from Joe Hurst.
Joe's Green Bike. I'd say this is sometime in the mid seventies. Nobody liked it cause it was green. Joe didn't care.
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A Reader's Tale
Chris, I've been following the blog several years now. I'm now 70 and haven't ridden for decades. Had to decide between photography and bikes in the '70's, but I still have road rash from the '60's on my arms. Got popped by cars twice, but that's another story. I rode a 53 "Tin Can" we used to call them in CT from 67-69, and then rode some more in LA in the early '70's. First I fat bobbed it, leaving the tanks and dashboard, then after the first car hit. molded the frame, peanut tank, upsweeps, etc. This 1970 in Griffith Park with my buddy Charlie on his Turnip.
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I'm now a retired professional photographer who likes to go to shows and shoot beautiful cars and bikes. -Andy Adler
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South Bay Chopper @ LBSM
Spotted this nice South Bay Style Chopper at the swap meet last Sunday. Later, it's owner confirmed it was indeed a Fats springer.
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MLK and the man
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Twin Cam Patina
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Dick Allen's Time Machine/ The Chrome Frame Chronicles
I've been sitting on this photo for some time and it might just be the oldest known photo of Dick on the chrome frame. But I kind of hesitated to post it.
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A Time Machine you ask? Well, I've seen the photocopy on another site stating that it was taken in 1959. Well if it was 1959 then Dick must of had invented a Time Machine since the gas tank is from a '66 Harley Sprint. It's much more likely that the photo is, at the earliest, from 1966.
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In Sept. 2014 Dick Allen's daughter Darcy came to visit the South Bay and brought along a scrapbook. Inside was this photo, only it wasn't exactly a photo. The original was disintegrating and too fragile to transport so Darcy brought a color photocopy. I was pretty bad with bits missing, cracks and lines everywhere, plus purple colored ribbons running through out. She let me borrow the copy to scan and later I spent many hours (off and on), restoring it the best I could.
It's pretty cool to see this early stage in this bikes development. It still retains the Sportster fork boots, alloy wheel and brake. After working on this photo so long, I wonder how many times it will be copied and re-posted all over the internet without anybody realizing what a pain it was to restore? I guess I gotta share.
A Time Machine you ask? Well, I've seen the photocopy on another site stating that it was taken in 1959. Well if it was 1959 then Dick must of had invented a Time Machine since the gas tank is from a '66 Harley Sprint. It's much more likely that the photo is, at the earliest, from 1966.
Here's a 1966 H-D Sprint for reference. 1966 also happens to be the first year for this style of bar and shield logo which is faintly visible on Dick's bike.
Around the same time, I also scanned an original print of this now famous photo. My archives have it marked as 1967 which may be correct. I never really thought about the paint's design origins, but clearly Dick liked the basic design from the 1966 tank.
The high res scan reveals some details that are interesting to see up close.
It also revealed this message on Dick's button.
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Loco-Motion #1
In the chopper world, mention Loco-Motion and people will usually think Dick Allen. But Loco-Motion was first a knucklehead chopper owned by Nez. He gave Dick the tank and let him use the name. Most people think it comes from a train but Joe told me the name actually comes from the 1962 song The Loco-Motion sung by Little Eva. It was co-wrote by Gerry Goffin and Carol King, yes that Carol King.
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Here's where it gets interesting. From what I've found, the above photo is not the record's first release cover art, but likely from a later release. It has Loco-Motion in a jumbled type similar to the way it's written on the tank, so I suppose the Nez got the idea from this cover. It does also have a train on it. An internet search will show several other versions of the cover with trains on them too, so in a round about way there is a train connection.
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Photo of Nez on the original Loco-Motion in front of Joe Hurst's house in 1969. That kid was probably never quite the same. photo courtesy of Joe Hurst.
These are the best photos I can find of both versions of the tanks. Nez's original paint on the left (on the Vincent experiment), and Dick's on the right.
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Kern River Run
The 22nd Kern River Run was last weekend. It's an annual South Bay event honoring Fats. I'm always out of town when it's happening, but my art made it on this years T-shirt.
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A Crazy Idea... or A Loco Notion
Our story begins about a year and a half ago when Arte accompanied me to the Dick Allen Memorial party.
First up was the exhaust. Arte had made a few collector systems before but it had been with existing mufflers. A friend was throwing out some stock 3" dresser mufflers so he took them to play with.
A Goldilocks tale. From the bottom up: A collector he had laying around. At about 3 1/4" It was a bit too big in diameter. The middle one was an experimental first try with an improvised turn out (it's since been refined with a proper one). Top: I gave him an old muffler with a good turn out and he got the next try just right.
Moving on to the tank. Dick's tank rested high on the backbone Frisco style... so out comes the tunnel.
Tunnel relocated and front filler piece ready for welding. After welding, the sides were indented
Arte chose a Kraft Tech frame to stay within his budget. While he's not crazy about the thicker 1 1/4" tubing, Kraft Tech's $400 swap meet price made it easier to live with. Also, since the frame will be black the larger diameter won't be so noticeable. While at the swap meet, he ordered a seat from Bar Enterprises. While Dick used a very thin cobra, Arte being a senior biker made a concession for a little more back comfort.
With a frame in hand work began on a South Bay Style Sissybar and the fender mounting. The swoop bracing was made as a separate bolt on section to make chroming and installation easier.
Tabs were added for passenger pegs and at the rear for some turn signals and running lights. This was done to keep it legal (easier to get pass the CHP inspection), and to be seen on the busy SoCal streets.
Stay tuned for part 2.
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Even More South Bay Originals
Angel Marc sent more photos awhile ago and I thought it's about time I shared them.
Lindsey(up front) and Alki Al trailing. I'd say it's near the Hermosa /Manhattan Beach border.
Angel Marc and Lindsey in front of the Club House.
Marc's photos are truly among the best historic chopper photos around. If you'e never seen them click on the label/link Angel Marc, or South Bay Originals just below this post. Even if you've seen them they are worth a second look.
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Anything Goes?
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A Family Affair
The family that rides together stays together
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