JW in Death Valley with the Clan MacGregor MC, 1997
OK, first things first. Check out these pix of my favorite little midget, my daughter Melody. Born Aug 10, 2002.
Well, I thought it would never happen to me. But fate has it's way
of screwing with us, and I guess I'm no exception. So, what sits
in my garage now but a god-damn twin cam Harley! It was tough parting
with Old Blue, but like everything else in life, you need to move on.
I'd say 170,000 miles on a bike is enough, don't you think? Anyway,
this new thing is pretty cool I must say. Still have lots of work
to do to it, so who knows. It may turn out to be a worth replacement
for Old Blue after all.
UPDATE May/07: Well, this thing is now quite the animal from hell. I've made it 113 cubes, with the following:
It was dyno tuned at 120HP/127ft-lbs by RC Cycles in Hayward, CA.
Suffice it to say, "it hauls ass"!! So much so, I sadly had to part with my beloved 16" apes, just to stay on the thing when ya whack the throttle WFO. I think the next step is velcro on the saddle and the seat of my pants!
This here's my '45 Indian Chief.
Ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I wanted
an Indian. Ain't it a beaut! It's got 74 cubic inches
of throbbing flathead power, so watch out! It probably
pulls 40HP or so, so it ain't exactly a snail. On a
cool day it'll hold a good 70mph, which is plenty more
faster than the brakes can handle. I've had it up past 80,
but it takes a few bottles of beer to get the courage up
to do that!
This bike is not 100% model correct. Since it is a '45,
and built during WW2, it was most likely a military or cop bike
at one time. The war year Chiefs did not have skirted fenders,
and definately no chrome. I wanted to build this one to resemble
a prewar '41 Chief. The tank logo and fender light are
from a '47 Chief, though. OK, so it's a cobbled up pile of shit
from multiple years. So what? I like it. And check out that leaf
spring front suspension. How cool it that? It's a bit bouncy,
but on smooth roads it handles quite well, actually.
Some guys insist on restoring old iron to 100% factory condition. OK,
fine, that's nice and all. But I had planned to actually "ride" mine,
so I restored/modified/upgraded it such that on the outside it looked
mostly original, but on the inside I took advantage of what the modern
world of engineering had to offer.
the Indian
Here's the specs:
The Chopster
This here is the incarnation of my mental model of what choppers are all about. Back when I grew up, dude's didn't make choppers out of big twins. The whole point was light weight and fast, and that pretty much rules out big twins, now don't it? Choppers were built from either Brit iron like Triumphs and Nortons, or they were Sportsters.
This thing was conceived and built with the following guidelines:
Here are some more pictures of it:
This bike was built from a 1980 XL that I had built into a cafe bike. This is what it used to look like:
The specs are:
This is a sweet little Ironhead I picked up from my bro and fellow MacGregor, Surfer Bill. It's currently in pieces, I'm in the process of fitting an FL front end from a Softail to it, and use Softail sheet metal and tanks. Sort of a 7/8 scale Shovelhead? Hehehe. Have a look at the progress as of March 08:
Here's Valerie and her 1971 BMW R/60. It's been fitted with
750cc cylinders, so has a little more poop than stock. I restored
this thing spring of 2001. Was more or less a rolling basket. We
did a frame off, and did mostly paint/power coat. Relaced the wheels,
new rims, brakes, wiring. Motor/trans/diff seals, that kind of thing.
We had to round up an original /5 headlight & spedo for it. Can you
say $hee-it thi$ old beemer $tuff i$ expen$ive! Oh well, Valerie loves
it. Can you blame her?
Photo was taken at junction
of Hwy 25 & 198, on our way to Death Valley 2001, it's first road
trip and shake down cruise. Ran like a champ.
