Thursday, July 31, 2008

Morning E mails from My friend Steve Crandall

Kim,
Heres a picture from my tricked out customizing garage...jetting the carbs at 10 at night in my driveway on a bike that probably costs less than my bmx...
one of the most notable mods done in that driveway, is the cup holder in the basket of the schwinn.
working on my chopper blog scene points.
the bike ran like shit this morning by the way.
stoke
-steve

It's an X-Games weekend.

The only thing better than being there is watching it on the tube &  you don't have to give & receive "The Knuckles" all weekend.

Just one of my favorite photos.

John Paul @ The POW House.

10 steps forward 3 steps back.

Somehow during reassembly we lost 4th gear.
Sorry Bob...

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Scott Towne & The Bottema forks

In 1982 my father got a wild hair and moved my family to Phoenix, AZ for exactly one year. To this day I have no idea why? We left in the middle of August 1982 and returned to Oil City, Pa one year later in the middle of August? At that time my friends and BMX were my life. Well I left my friends behind but took my bike which made me a whole new batch of Arizona friends. Back then you just rode your bike there was no " I'm a racer, I'm a freestyler. Well what happened when I was there was the Freestyle side of things took off & that's what we did. 
Right around Christmas 82 I talked Mom & Dad into helping me out with another type of BMX bike, A freestyle bike. After making them crazy, delivering papers and whatever else I could do I ended up with the bike pictured below. My mom drove me to Bicycle Harbor, a very good shop in chandler AZ and there I purchased the holy grail of frames, a Haro Freestyler, I need a frame & fork. No Forks(which sucked because those Haro froks had Badd ASS dropouts), so the next best things at the time was a set of Bottema skate park forks, Beefy as hell, high drop outs, I'll take them. Looking back the coolest thing about that set up is/was that the serial number on my Haro frame was 0005.  A year later(back in PA) it was cracked all the way around the headtube gusset and the local shop took it as a trade in on a new Redline RL20II.
However the forks made their way around the local BMX scene mostly in trade for other bits and parts.
In 1989 I was working for GT Bicycles as the freestyle Team manager ( I had made it) and on a Christmas trip home to PA I was hanging out in a bar with P. Scott Fornof a good friend and old BMXer and some how he mentioned he still had the Bottema forks, I probably trade the next beer for them, a couple of weeks later they showed up on my desk at GT. I took them out to the warehouse and Asked Gary Turner, Do you have anything going to chrome today and I showed them to him, he basically said yeah whatever throw them on the rack. he wasn't impressed? They came back looking pretty good but I didn't know what to do with them.
I had met Scott Towne a few times and those times we had fun. He had recently moved it all back to MI and he was the only guy I knew that had a passion for the older bikes, parts, whatever. I got his info from Lew and sent them to him and he was stoked, mission accomplished/appreciation. I think he bent them or something? Either way in 2002(I think) Scott and his wife helped us out with the X Games downhill event and I asked him about the forks, He forgot I had sent them to him? We laughed, Blah, Blah, Blah,. Yesterday we touch base for the first time in a while and  he writes "Bottema forks forever(and  still feeling like a dope for forgetting you hooked me up with those).
Well Scott I had forgotten that you forgot.
Good to hear from you & your Honda Rocks!

Frijolito

According to Oscar there is a "J" in Frijolito, 
Who Knew?

#5 1960 FLH Dou Glide

I bought this bike from my friend Bill right before Christmas 07. For some reason I just didn't feel like taking a bunch of photos & posting them everywhere so not many people have seen the direction it's taken. I think I just wanted to build this bike the way I wanted it with no outside opinions and such. Anyone who asked I'd just tell them to stop by and have a look. I guess I'm over that because here it is? 
Not being a Harley historian I think the first photo is how it sat on the dealer floor. 
Currently, Brandon @ Mullins Chain Drive is finishing the tank & Christian @ Xian Leather the seat. I need to finish the mid controls and a bunch of other bits here and there. I'm in no rush.

1960 FLH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARRI

Monday, July 28, 2008

ON DECK
72 CB450 Rob picked up a while back. We'll see where this one takes us.

# 4 The little SR500

My Daily was a 02 Ducati Monster it was my first "Project" I grew kind of bored with it & my Good Friend Paul liked her, now She's his. So now I needed a new neighborhood rider.
I've had a thing for the 500 single for a couple of years now. After hunting for a few weeks I found a nice 81 w/low miles in Vegas, Made the arrangements, drove out picked it up and a nice overnighter @ the MGM.
 I made the mistake of trying to make this a rush build, fix up whatever you want to call it. The short of it 5 weeks later I was riding around Chop Meet in Wright Wood, Ca & I've been having a blast on it ever since. I really wouldn't have finished it in time if it weren't for, Well, Bob, Wes @ Racerton, Pat over at Cutting Edge Machine, & My Friend Brandon up at Mullins Chain Drive.
Thanks Guys
I don't have any of my own pics of the nearly finished bike so all of those images are lifted from Rouser Robs blog.

# 3 Bobs 76 FLH

Rob, Robert, Bob, Picked this bike up a little under a year ago. What started as a little spit shine and ride it turned into a complete project that turned out to be exactly as Bob wanted. currently she's going through some shake down issues but nothing that wasn't expected and should be seen on the road real soon. 

The Beginning

It's a Blog, everyone's doing it.
Just some things we do around here and or like.