StoriesofBike Website of The Month December 2014

Posted on December 20, 2014 by motopsyco

I have a confession to make. I love to watch hipster motorcycle videos. In fact they have to be downright stupid for me not to like them. Hell I’m even thinking about making one of my own, after all even though I am old as dirt I’m still so hip I have trouble seeing over my pelvis.

The website that will be brought to your attention today goes quite a bit beyond the typical bike videos normally produced by guys in small shops with custom wares to hawk or questionable skills to show off, and gets deeper into the personalities of the people who ride and love these motorcycles.

We all dream of riding

Based in Australia, Cam Elkins is the creator of Stories of Bike, with the aid of his brother Jack who creates the music that accompanies the videos. Yes there is a video or two involving your typical tattooed 20 somethings with piercings, flannel shirts, and fuzzy beards working on some variation of custom bikes. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and if that were all there is to it, watching these clips would still be a great way to waste a few minutes of your time on a fairly regular basis because of the strong production values the StoriesofBike.com team bring to the table .

But these videos blow right past that, talking to the riders and builders in depth about motorcycles, life, love and how they came to be the people they are today. Yes there is fine machinery in these videos, but there are also fine people in these videos too, from different places & backgrounds but all connected by a common love of riding motorcycles. When you watch one of these clips you end up feeling like you know the person or persons being filmed & interviewed, a very difficult feat to pull off in the short film format.

The video embedded below especially touched my heart, there is nothing better than love that lasts all the way to the end. This is my favorite video at StoriesofBike.com watch it all the to the end.

Love baby, it’s what makes life worth living, especially when you have motorcycles to go with it.

So is StoriesofBike Website of the Month material? I absolutely think so, let me know if you like it as much as I did

Peace Y’all,

Psyco

Cool Bikes, Wicked Cars, Cool Dudes, & Hot Ladies – Rockabillaque

Posted on November 21, 2014 by motopsyco

Considering this was the 2nd annual Rockabillaque event, color me very impressed.

Nothing else like a black 55 Chevy, especially with this under the hood.

Walking from our parking space to the event area, I just couldn’t resist snapping a picture of the artwork on this building.

The bike show portion was kind of small but there was really some quality iron on display. Since they had a rat class I decided to take the Assault Scrambler and even managed to talk this very lovely & gracious young lady into letting me take her picture next to it.

Good old fashioned Ironhead chopper.

some rats lined up

A lot of fine detail on this rigid Evo.

I love the placement of his lithium battery, the fender struts and of course the red wheels with wide whitewalls. Classy!

A shout out to Low Country Harley for sponsoring the show and thanks for the gift certificate I won.

No respectable motorcycle show would be complete without at least one Triumph.

some pretty shiny motorcycles lined up

This Bratstyle KZ440 actually won the rat class. Cool little bike.

Great music was available from different bands on different stages throughout the day.

…..

Had lunch at the Barbeque Joint, one of the events sponsors, great food.

The Mrs. & I took nearly a hundred pictures around the event and in this next section let’s look at some highlights from the car show.

Let’s start with a pair of evil looking Volkswagens!

Things were always cool, and this one looks like it’s literally been driven to hell and back, making it that much cooler!

Rat Hole Garage brought a cool old truck,

and even cooler a matching bicycle!

Ford Falcons were always a favorite of mine, ( I’ve owned a couple) and this sharp convertible is da bomb.

Details, details, details…

In addition to the usual assortment of fine hot rods, muscle cars, and rats there were also a couple of sweet British sports cars one being this nice white Jaguar,

and the other was this very sharp looking Lotus 7 replica.

As much as I love the whole “ratrod” scene it was great to see a traditional, painted with flames, polished & shiny hot rod like this ’32 Tudor.

How about a full on Pro Modified race car? Better still it’s a Henry J, with a blower and “Hillborn style” fuel injection.

The outside of this particular Dodge van was nothing special but when you swung open the side doors the interior was pure disco era rolling sin bin.

And last but definitely not least the world infamous Trash Nova shown here cruising the not so mean streets of North Charleston. Hey it was given the peoples choice trophy for best of show!

The show had several great sponsors, here I am posing with the display for Guilty Pleasures. Hey you gotta love their business motto!

Some how the gentlemen at the Holy City Beard & Mustache Society talked me into entering the partial beard division of the beard & ‘stache event. It was great fun and after a bit of hairy competition I shaved out a 4th place finished and the fellows with the really gnarly beards took the top 3.

There were all kinds of things going on including, a puppet show, 50’s era fashion show, & a tattoo contest. Some of these were happening simultaneously so I was unable to get pictures from everything, but trust me this weekend if liked great music, wild tattoos,cool bikes, wicked cars, cool dudes, & hot ladies, Park Circle in North Charleston, South Carolina was the place to be.

<models from the rockabillaque fashion show>

Some of the beautiful models from the fashion show.

Now I have saved the best part for last despite only taking my pocket camera and standing at the back of the crowd I was able to get at least one decent picture each of the Miss Rockabiilaque Pinup contestants. I was a bad reporter and I didn’t get their names or anything, I forgot to take a notebook and the crowd was fairly noisy cheering them on so I didn’t hear all the names anyway. For a larger view click on the pictures below.

: Here is your winner! Miss Rockabillaque 2014

: a young lady with style & class>

: Love the shoes

My advice to you is to look for this event next year and try to attend, we had a great time & I am sure you will too!

Peace Y’all!

Rockabillaque

Posted on November 10, 2014 by motopsyco

Here’s a cool event to check out this coming Saturday November 15th 2014! Rockabillaque in North Charleston, S.C.

http://www.rockabillaque.com

So if you enjoy vintage custom cars, old motorcycles, rockabilly music, pinup girls, & Kustom Kulture in general you really don’t want to miss this show!

In addition to the main website you can check out their Facebook Page too!

An Enjoyable Compilation of Bad Ideas (a Custom Baja Minibike)

Posted on October 9, 2014 by motopsyco

compilation :

[kom-puh–ley-shuh n]

noun

1. the act of compiling 2. something compiled

Yes that sounds like the perfect definition for this little project, it was a compilation, and now it is a compilation. It started out as a little extra sweetener thrown in on a deal when I purchased an old motorcycle to part out. Originally I planned to see if it would run and do the bare minimum to get it rideable and flip it. One of the great things about the Baja MB165 & MB200 minibikes is the fact that they are actually big enough for a grown man to ride comfortably. The bad thing for a full grown idiot like myself is that they are slooow. This is great when your kid is riding it but kind of dull for daddio. Plus there was no dirtbike in my stable so I decided to keep it and have some fun with it!

The original gas tank was full of rust and the carburetor was gummed up but the engine was otherwise sound. It turned out to be so inexpensive to replace the Honda clone carburetor that was on it, that there was no point in overhauling it. The rusted original engine mounted fuel tank has been removed and tossed in favor of a motorized bicycle gas tank. Plus I decided to use an aftermarket air filter as much for the looks of it as anything else. The stock muffler was retained so that I could use it for driving to my deer stand without disturbing every creature for miles around.

The other really noticeable bad idea you see here is the addition of a large heavy duty sprung bicycle seat. This was accomplished by cutting up an old jack handle and welding it to the frame. The seat has been kind of a mixed blessing. the extra height gives an even more comfortable riding position and the springs do help a teeny tiny little bit on small bumps, but the padding is so thin on this particular seat, that the engine vibration will buzz your taint if you slide too far forward on it. No it’s not an enjoyable feeling either, sorry.

Of course, being me I kept as much of the crustiness as I could only covering the fenders and the crappy looking dirtbike handlebar with a thick coat of do it yourself truck bed liner.

The handlebar came from an eighties Honda XR250. It had a fair amount of surface rust that I knocked off with a wire brush before coating it with the bed liner. I am sure the rust will eventually come back through but that’s okay with me for now. Changing out the handlebar was the single best comfort & control improvement to this minibike. From the factory Baja installs what looks like a “beach cruiser motorcycle” handlebar on it. Very good for little people with short arms, not so good for long armed gorillas like myself. The foot pegs are a set of passenger pegs from another old Honda motorcycle and are much bigger & sturdier than the oem items that came with it.

Also missing was the original big round chrome chopper style headlight, but in all honesty it would have been ditched in favor of the evil eye shaped driving lamp you see below. Like the original this light’s a bit dim at idle, but give it some gas and it keeps getting brighter & brighter.

There is one really good performance enhancing mdification and that is the installation of a GTC Torque Converter. In my last post I did a quick installation overview & product review on this part. There is also a video of this mini running & being ridden on that page so that you can check it out. Click here to view it if you haven’t seen it yet.

The front end is still a little bit tweaked from an accident that is was in prior to my owning it, and will stay that way. It’s such a little thing & it doesn’t bother me or anyone else who has ridden it. It’s just that the handlebar is cocked about a half a degree to the right when the bike is going straight, & not really worth trying to fix.

Now that I have told you all about this custom Baja minibike, it is time to say that it is for sale. There’s a real running dirt bike sitting in the barn and I anticipate that this one will soon be sitting around more & more. So the first person to give me $350 bucks for it gets it. Although I would prefer to sell locally for cash, I am willing to crate it for shipping as long as 1. you make all the arrangements for the shipping. and 2. I get at least 3 working days notice to build the crate before pick up. and 3. I have been fully paid via verified USPS money order. NO online payment options available for this, as I have been the target of too many scams lately. If you do purchase this machine you acknowledge that it has been altered from its original factory condition using questionable & potentially unsafe modifications and that you the purchaser assume all risks associated with operating it including the possibility of severe injury or death. And for heavens sake if you’re gonna let a kid ride it, put a belt guard on it.

This minibike has been sold!

Peace Y’all

Attention Deficit Project Disorder!

Posted on October 3, 2014 by motopsyco

Well it was another rough week at that thankless job that I go to everyday of every week to keep the lights on around here until my web store catches fire & I can sell enough products to retire from everything but blogging. (go buy something, click on any ad here and help a brother break free!) My original plan for the evening was to go climb up in a tree & try to shoot Bambi’s father, but it was starting to rain kinda hard when I got home so instead I decided to grab a beer, & carry the forks that the mail carrier just dropped off from the house out to the shop and maybe work on fitting them to the CM400 bobber that I’ve been tinkering with for the last few months, but decided that the shop really needed cleaning up a little before proceeding so I pushed some of the junk bikes out into the rain for more room.

What’s under your desk?

Then I moved the two portable work benches back to the sides of the shop to clear up floor space. Then I decided to go ahead & start soaking my new to me,old pile of junk Suzuki with penetrating oil so that it would come apart easier when I go to replace the rear inner tube and the 40 or 50 other parts it probably needs to be trail worthy. Of course it’s a lot easier for an old fart to work on a motorcycle if he doesn’t have to bend over so I grab the old furniture truck ramp from the yard and dig through my lumber pile for a couple of timbers to set it up on since my motorcycle lift table is loaded down with my CB360T restoration project. For some reason as I was digging through my scrap lumber pile, a misshapen piece of wood that was left over from some long forgotten construction project jumped into my hand and said, “hey look at me, wouldn’t I make the perfect Plains Indian gunstock war club?” But by this time I had enough of a buzz going that there was no way you could ever get me near the bandsaw so I threw it back on the pile, got the timbers and headed back inside to prop up the dirtbike. Hopefully I can find it again when I am sober & have some time on my hands as it would go so well with my Hawken, powder horn etc. In fact it would look really sweet hanging up next to my black powder shotgun if I ever finish building it….

Can you see the pattern here? It’s a serious disease that afflicts middle age men. ADPD Attention Deficit Project Disorder It’s incredibly dangerous, because the problem just gets bigger & bigger. You become an addict scanning Ebay & Craigslist for just the right item at the right bargain basement price. The problem is that you don’t need it, there are a dozen projects, plus your honey-do list ahead of it, and just as sure as hell your boss will start demanding extra overtime on top of what you already work, so your discretionary income is temporarily enlarged while your time to enjoy it is diminished, this leads to more shopping & less doing until your place starts to look like a salvage yard, and your neighbors start calling you Fred G. Of course this is also the time when everything in your house will break down too, so you have to take care of those things first. Sure you could pay someone to fix the plumbing or the light fixture but for two things 1; the guy you call can’t do it any better than you can & maybe not even as good. 2; You just scored the deal of the century on another old piece of shit motorcycle, gun, car, jeep, boat, plane or what ever your addiction is & spent the money already.

At any rate I got the TS185 up on the ramp so I can work on it, but since the weather is supposed to be nearly perfect for riding tomorrow, it was time to give the old CB650 a good going over & adjust the chain so I stopped to do that instead. Hey you got to look after your main squeeze if you want her to look after you! Well it’s been fun blogging with a little buzz going on, but right now I need to find a carb kit & battery for the 1969 CJ5 under the carport & figure out when I’m going to get time to fix my tractor so I can keep the wood lot clean & get the garden ready for next year. Then maybe I can relax, watch a little television while checking out the crack-list on my tablet.

Peace Y’all
//

Oops I Did It Again. A Junkyard Dog Double Feature. (updated w/ video)

Posted on September 27, 2014 by motopsyco

I went prospecting for rusty gold again. Brought home a couple of early 80’s Suzukis.

One is an RM 80 condition unknown, some parts missing, in fact I am not even sure what year it is. This one is truly a junkyard dog and it is for sale right now as is where is, to the first person willing to give me $50

The second one is a 1980 Suzuki TS185. It’s rough but will start and idle.

I really like the headlight assembly.

There are plenty of interesting crusty bits on this one.

Overall this old cycle is not the worst I I have ever tried to restore. At this point my plan is for a basic restomod as a woods bike, but if too many of the parts needed for that are not available, it may become a “brat style” custom scrambler.

Peace Y’all

Scout Versus Sportster ??? Not Really

Posted on September 10, 2014 by motopsyco

Well it looks as though Polaris has the new Indian Motorcycle Company revival going full steam. The new Chief and its variants seem to be doing well as they have a truly beautiful retro styled engine slotted into a decent heavy cruiser chassis with fairly unique looks. Not my cup of tea but I hope they do well with them.
Recently they announced the coming release of the new Indian Scout model with a 100 h.p. liquid cooled engine. This was certainly enough to make me take notice. Ever since then the internet has been buzzing with discussion about it. All of the Harley haters (and some of the “Big Twin” snobs) have popped up on Facebook and all of the forums predicting the end of the Sportster.

Normally I would not write about a motorcycle that I do not have some personal experience with and having never sat on one yet will not comment upon its performance as a motorcycle, but just by looking at the available specs and pictures I can say with absolute certainty that this new Indian is no threat to Sportster sales. I repeat the new Scout is no threat to the Sportster. Sure it may be a more modern engine, in fact when I first heard about it I really had high hopes, until I saw the chassis it was slotted into.
There is not anything really wrong with the chassis if it is what you like, the North Star company has some of the best engineers in the world, and it looks really good and probably handles very well for a power cruiser. But you are locked into what you have, sure there are different footpeg and handlebar options, but the frame & suspension are finished. To put mid controls or rearsets on this motorcycle would require extensive modification, possibly a whole new frame. Ditto for trying to chop it, rake it or anything else. This is a completely finished motorcycle with a high tech alloy frame, there is really not much left to do to it, and at present time not much you can do with it.

The new Scout is a power cruiser. Don’t think Sportster, think V-Rod, V-Max, & the dearly departed Honda Magna, this is the market segment that this new Indian plays to, and quite frankly it’s a rather limited market. Harley knows what they are doing with the Sporty, and they know that a big h.p. Sportster will not sell. They already tried with the XR1000 back in the eighties and they frequently collected dust on the showroom floors because they were unwanted and unloved.

Now THIS is a badass Harley!

Motorcycle magazines are another source of the speculation; normally they tend to treat U.S. manufacturers with kid gloves but are getting a kick out of fanning the flames of this potential rivalry. If it sells magazines more power to them.
But I digress let’s get back the Scout versus Sportster. As mentioned earlier I have not ridden a new Scout yet, but I have ridden dozens of Sportsters & believe it or not really like the way they ride and handle with the standard size wheels & tires, and some reasonably tall rear shocks. At this point in time the Sporty is still in a class by itself, Yamaha has made a good go of it with the Bolt but it still lacks street cred in some circles. It’s a cool bike but all of the other road pirates will pick on you for riding Jap crap.
Remember I mentioned earlier that the Scout seems to be a completely finished bike? Well the Sportster is not, and that is a very good thing. Sure you can buy your Sporty and leave it bone stock and have a nice enjoyable ride which will run on reliably nearly forever. But what fun is that? Here is the real advantage the Sporty has over every other motorcycle on the planet including the Motor Company’s own big twins, it is the most versatile two wheeled customizing platform to ever exist on the planet. You can make it into a chopper, bobber, street tracker, café racer, dual sport adventure bike, add bags & fairing for a touring bike, throw a wad of cash at the suspension & engine & create a canyon carver or a muscle bike / power cruiser, you can even race the damn thing if you want to. The factory has realized this and the have created several variants of the Sportster to take advantage of those wimps that don’t want to bleed on a bike in order to make it their own.
The new Scout look ready to kick ass & take names right out of the box but the Sportster is still the ultimate blank canvas for the garage artist.
Advantage Harley Davidson…

You see a motorcycle, I see art waiting to happen!

Please note any pictures not taken by yours truly were listed as “free to use and share” by Bing image search. If I have inadvertently used your copyrighted image please let me know & I will be glad to replace or remove them.

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride! September 2014 Website of the Month!

Posted on September 7, 2014 by motopsyco

Did you know that about 500,000 men die annually of prostate cancer? Or that globally more men are affected by prostate cancer, than women by breast cancer? I didn’t either. Now we’ve all seen the pink ribbons that say save the ta-tas, in fact you can hardly swing a dead cat anywhere without hitting a “Warrior in Pink” attempting to raise awareness of and/or funding for breast cancer treatment research. Now this is a very good thing because I really love ladies, some more than others, but still love them all & wish nothing but the best of health for them and their boobies.

Don’t forget we need to save the guys too.
Gentleman’s Ride.com

Let’s face it, people love titties, men love them, babies love them, and women love them too. So while you are writing out the check for breast cancer research take a moment to see if you could spare some change for a less attractive body part. Sure the prostate is not up in your face drawing attention to itself the way a nice pair of knockers will, but prostate cancer is still a deadly killer. My own father has & is still dealing with this evil scourge & its lingering effects, we are still waiting for the resolution of his treatment and hopefully he will be in complete remission soon.

Please take a moment and check out the website for The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, and sign up for an event, or just make a donation to the cause. I would love to see a 100% cure developed for this in my lifetime.

Get yourself looking good for the ride!

Mark your calendar for September 28th 2014, there will be 235 rides in 56 countries, so no matter where you are there is bound to be one near you. Check out the Gentleman’s Ride website for the location nearest you.

The organizers did ask me to remind everyone that this was an event for Classics, café racers, bobbers, trackers, customs, modern classics, classic scooters & undefinable 2/3 wheeled machines. So break out the good vintage stuff, and leave your plastic fantastic, crotch rockets, and your big inch, late model, fuel injected cruisers at home please.

P.S. If you are past a certain age, don’t forget next time you get a checkup, to be sure you get a PSA (prostate antibodies) blood test, and if necessary an actual physical exam. Trust me it’s a lot less painful than dying from the cancer.
Peace Y’all

A Wammo Update

Posted on April 27, 2014 by motopsyco

Just thought I’d share what’s going on around the barn a little bit. Getting the fender, seat and battery box figured out now means that it is time for the real work to begin.

A few days ago I dropped the engine out but since then most of my spare time has been spent elbows deep in the severely damaged engine of some guys atv. Today I caught a little break since I have to order more parts for the Brute Force, it gave me a chance to finish tearing this one down to a bare frame.

Now the previous owner of this fine mosheen was a true rat biker and whenever he felt the need to attach something else to it that could not be tied or glued on he resorted to that favorite motorcycling custom trick of using self drilling screws to tack shit to his motorcycle. So I spent a couple of hours brazing up small holes in the frame, before it was time to break out the angle grinder and safety glasses and remove all of the unwanted tabs from this frame.

Some of the tabs were saved and will be reused on this and other projects, but most of them were tossed into the scrap bin to be recycled. Now its time to soak it down with oven cleaner and get it completely clean so I can do a little more welding then clean it all up and prep for paint.

By the way, I have been documenting the crankshaft replacement of the Kawasaki Brute Force 750 and will be posting a ton of pictures in the days to come so stick around.

Peace Y’all

Custom ABS Plastic Battery Box

Posted on April 13, 2014 by motopsyco

When I last posted the last picture was of sheet of plastic with my cardboard pattern lying on it. After tracing around it with a marker I used my bandsaw and a Dremel to cut it out to shape. Be certain when cutting plastic with any high speed rotary tool the you use either a saw blade or the router attachment. Do not under any circumstances try to use a metal cutoff wheel for plastic and of course always wear eye protection.

This next step involves extremely high heat, possible hot metal & molten plastic. It is your responsibility to take all reasonable precautions to see that you don’t get hurt.

The first piece to get bent is the lower brace. It will get reshaped even more later but for now let’s just bend it to a nice 90 degree angle. First you clamp it into a vise sandwiched between a couple of metal angles and start heating it.

When it gets warm it will bend very easily. To get a really good square corner take a slab of wood or another piece of metal and press down on the corner and hold it for a minute as it cools.

After this I bent the tabs in for the sides. These tabs my not really be necessary but I like the security of having large bonding surfaces to hold parts like this together, especially in a high vibration environment like a motorcycle.

Bending the sides up to form the box takes a little more thought. If you have enough equipment and desire absolute perfection you should carefully clamp each corner to be folded and follow the procedures shown above. In the interest of time and since this motorcycle is going to be another deliberate neo-rat, I simply heated the plastic along the bend lines until it was bendable and then used two blocks of wood to form it to shape. Hey it works for me.

Before moving on to the next step you will need to test the fit and make sure that your battery fits properly. At this point you can reheat the plastic and adjust things somewhat, once you glue everything together it’s not so easy

When you glue it together be sure to use plenty of ABS cement. Do not use any other type of cement with ABS plastic.

One of the nicer things about working with ABS is that the cement is very thick and you can use it as a gap filler to seal off cracks and imperfections and then sand it down after it all dries.

Here is a quick shot of it in the frame with the bottom brace glued into place. At this point the battery box is pretty well done except for sanding and painting.

The next steps for Project Wammo is going to be a complete teardown to the bare frame to finish removing all the unwanted tabs & finish up the welding. Then it’ll go back together as a roller with new bearings, fork seals, brakes, tires, etc. Then it will be time to freshen up the engine & paint the sucker. Stick around & enjoy the fun.

Welcome to the Asylum

Crazy About Motorcycles!

Tag Archives: custom

StoriesofBike Website of The Month December 2014

Cool Bikes, Wicked Cars, Cool Dudes, & Hot Ladies – Rockabillaque

Rockabillaque

An Enjoyable Compilation of Bad Ideas (a Custom Baja Minibike)

Attention Deficit Project Disorder!

Oops I Did It Again. A Junkyard Dog Double Feature. (updated w/ video)

Scout Versus Sportster ??? Not Really

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride! September 2014 Website of the Month!

A Wammo Update

Custom ABS Plastic Battery Box

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