history lessons on the road.

now here's a riding history lesson with HD's!

all BT engine types from the late 30's until the early 80's!
Flathead, knucklehead, panhead and shovelhead....
and to top it off... an old indian!

funny fact... i was at a ratbike meeting when these shiny old bikes came by...
(more about that meeting later)

Robin

Robin, a friend of mine who is a great tattoo artist and airbrusher his Dragstar is finaly finished!

his first ride was to work and to show off!

8 cams of fury!

dragrace sporties are always sweet..
but drag race sporties with 2 ironhead motors..
well.. they are the bomb!

the old stuff

old HD's always look great!

"X" marks the spot.

"American eXpress" strange bike, but i love the effort and details!

found it on the interwebs.
if you know more about the bike shoot me a message.

drag speed sportsters

smoking machines, build for the strip..
i like it!

this first picture was taken by KustomJeff. here's what he had to say about it:
The top pic is Shannon Graham and his son back when the Alabama Thunder team was together. That was one bad ass ironhead until a $5 axle adjuster broke and let the chain wrap around the front sprocket and break the cases. Not having a sponsor at the time killed the team. I took this picture at a school fair/carnival we attended to help raise awareness and find a sponsor. This was around 1995 I think.

Thanks or the reply KustomJeff! it is always nice to hear the story behind a picture!

heaven...

should look like this:

yes, a fine stable of KR's..

add some more and put in a few XL's and XR's

damn... wet dreams!

i didn't find heaven though... just found the pics omline and stole them..

quadcam hybrid..old and very old collide!

yes! a WL bottom with XL topend!
nice! i'll stash this idea in my head... you'll just never know when i might pop out again!

XLCR replica stage 1.

Ben van Helden has been on a divine mission to make a XLCR replica.
his approach to the build was in an angle not much used. when most people who build replica's would settle for replica parts, Ben's idea was to use as many original parts as possible (and affordable) for the replica.
the best canvas to start an XLCR replica is offcourse a '79 IronHead. this is basically the same frame and engine as the XLCR. (for those who don't believe me, i still have my '79 frame hanging on the wall and the part number  for the frame is the same as an XLCR frame but with one character more)

here's what he started with:

a butt ugly '79 XLCH with good frame and engine.


here's the finished product with all the trademark parts like seat, exhaust headers, headlight mount and fairing and lots of more parts being real (not replica!!) XLCR parts.

now why is it called "Stage one" you might ask? "it looks like the real deal right?
well.. ben is somewhat of a purist, but sometimes in a little rush to get a bike on the road.
the bike is now fully functional, but lacks a few details which he will attend to do to get to "Stage 2" like making the engine wrinckle black, put on the rear controls (which he already found! very very rare part) 18" rear wheel and some more little things..

but the 79 engine has a "normal" 1 down, the rest up shift pattern, and a XLCR has it backwards (1 up, the rest down) because of the rear controls. these shifter cams are rare and expensive, so it was out of the option.
but after some brainstorming sessions on the SON Forum, the answer was found, since it is a Harley, parts should be recyclable and reusable in a simple way.

an XLCR shifter cam:

and a stock IronHead shifter cam:

if you would look closely you see some differences and if you look a lot better you see that the differences are actually similarities!
so Ben took the stock ironhead shifter cam and removed the cam axle and turned the cam and re-lined the axle.

(XLCH stock) axle and cam apart:

cam and axle in new position:

and there you go! one reversed XLCR type shifter cam!

if you want to see more (and i know you want to see more!!) about this sweet build and more bike goodness by Ben check out these links:

the XLCR replica build.

Bens Bikes.

Both links are in Dutch though, but if you can't read Dutch there are still plenty of nice pictures to drool over.

told you so!

at the Mooneyes Expo in Yokohama, the real cool stuff for the biker cult and hot rodders is shown.
what is on display over there in Japan is the stuff that is cool or will be cool in the cult. no 330 tire OCC style crap, but real bikes and real cars.
remember i told once i started my digger build (Daddy Cool) that the diggers are back. well look what draw a lot of attention at Mooneyes.

be prepared! a lot of diggers are being build right now!

purpose build Buell

at Zen Motorcycles they are making a Bonnevile racer.
they want to break the 1000 A-PG class land speed record, this is the class for less than 1000CC gas powerd pushrod engines.
basis is a Buell XB 9 engine in a single loop rigid frame. the engine has no gearbox, just the engine and a clutch.
the bike isa tribute to Masayuki Morimoto’s boardtracker Harley.
and the bike looks actually killer!

big hands?

how big are the hands of the dude who rides this thing??

just look at the distance between the handlebar and the lever...

except for those andre the giant levers it's a nice bike though!
is it just me or are those Husky style tanks more and more used on customs?

a teaser that should give you goosebumps!

even without the music, you have to get a warm feeling inside.
if not..
dude, you shouldn't be here!
(still thanks for visiting though)

6 Over - Teaser from Wild Honey Productions on Vimeo.

i got to see the short film they are making!
sweet life!

well i'll be damned!

there's actually an appealing V-Rod in the world!
i have to admit, it still is a V-rod, thus not a real Harley, but it's a nice custom!

this pretty nice machine was build by MR. Mechanik in Germany.



before the rant starts about V-rot's being real HD's.
sink your mind in this:
a real HD has 2 cylinders in a 45 degree V configuration. a V-rod has 2 cylinders in a 60 degree configuration.(yes, this rules out the XA to (that's just a 1-1 rip off/copy of the BMW boxer)
a real HD has his powerplant  designed in the USA, a V-rodengine  is designed in Germany(for more than 50%)
a real HD is air cooled, a V-rod is watercooled. (yes, i am aware the MOCO tried water cooled heads before, and did not go that route)
a real HD has pushrods, a V-rod has overhead cams.

case closed!

yes, some people make killer XJ900's!

Carlo Romanin made a sweet cafe style XJ900.
he took a 86 XJ and a Benelli gastank combined the two and did some chopping and rebuilding on the bike.
what a sweet result! (although the left side with the mesh triangle is not that nice in my opinion..)

more can be found here at halfway motor cycles.

chopperstyle bling bling show. ijsselstein.

last saturday i'd gone to the first chopperstyle show and expo.
not to many bikes came but in the contest (best low budget chop) were some nice creations.
i came with Daddy Cool and entered the competition, but i guess it was outclassing the rest.. so no prices for me! LOL. next time i bring Toxic, that bike is more the right kind of style for this show..
here is a little overview of the bikes.

a slide show of all the pics is here.