Friday, July 31, 2009

Long Beach Swap 7/26/09

Some shots from Sunday's swap meet.

Kaptain Knievel. It would be fun to have a Sportster street tracker.


Hot Chicks?... Sexy Pipes? Proof that at least one set of these were sold.


What do you call a bike like this? Sort of a Fat Bob Dressed Chopper. You tend to see these types of bikes at swap meets. Bikes that have all kinds of little custom features and touches of creativity.


Note the kicker cover type electric starter. While I appreciate the engineering, I don't totally see the benefit of this set up. This starter system was featured on Bikernet.com a bit ago.


Shoot'in the breeze while shopping for shovels.


That's one "S" load of shovels. And I thought they all left the country.


I overheard that this was a Von Dutch piece. Sure seems like I've seen it somewhere before. I believe it's steel. Possibly from a Beemer or Brit bike?


I'm sorry but, sometimes I get more of a kick from what's in the background of a photo. That defies gravity! No Photoshop folks. My apologies to the bike's owner, I was truly just shooting the bike.


Cool color. Hard tail stretch is a tad long for my taste.


In a sea of newness. Yet another example of an old swap meet blend bike. Bike served as an advertisement for the owners engraving skills.


Along with engraving, it makes use of bullets, horse shoes, chains, and barbed wire. It just doesn't make sense (to me), to put a great old mill in a after market frame.


I like it.


Noot will appreciate these. Trivia question: Can anybody tell me (besides Noot or Dr. Sprocket), what's special about the bags? Just some stuff I bought.

10 comments:

Irish Rich said...

OEM Sportster 2/3-sized bags?

drsprocket said...

Chris, you should have put Rich on the list of "no can answer" folks like Noot and me. Chopper Dave does. You should be on that list as well.

Chris K said...

I basically knew it as I wrote it. Sort of thought banning all three of you guys sounded harsh. Also, didn't expect he'd jump right in. I've learned my lesson.

I have another trick question I'll post sometime but, you guys probably know it.

The big trick will be coming up with some trivia or question that stumps all three of you.

Irish Rich said...

Haha! Well, you didn't say I couldn't answer, so.....

Yeah, it's true - Dave was the first guy to "ban" me from the trivia posts that he offers a prize for the correct answer to. That's cool, I don't mind that there, or here, or anywhere.

Hey, did you ever see the '63-'65 XLA Sportster for the Army, that was painted glossy olive drab, with FL Royalite guppy saddlebags on it?

Chris K said...

I.R. You smart guys spoil all the fun.

Yes I've seen it. I also kept some pages from an old Easyriders where a guy sent in the Army's instructions on how to paint it camouflage. I should post that sometime.


On a similar note. Here in the south bay of Los Angeles, the Torrance Police Dept. used Sportsters in the late 70's-early 80's. They were one of the only P.D.'s that ever did. They used this type of bags. Several years ago a restored one was at the El Camino Vintage show.

Noot said...

Hey Chris - You got keys for those?

Chris K said...

No keys, but at least they weren't locked.

Grumbler said...

Seeing those Shovelheads on that trailer reminds me of an episode out on I-10 near Blythe back in June of 1990.

Was hauling my old '68 Triumph 650 with Morgo 750 kit back home to San Jose from Mesa, AZ that day.

We (myself and a bud) caught-up with a black dualie with CA plates hauling a flatbed trailer loaded with maybe a dozen older Big Twins with TX plates.

If memory serves, the truck had Bartles HD on the sides, but that was 19-years-ago.

We speculated that they were buying used HDs in TX which were then reconditioned and sold for higher prices in SoCal where the demand was much, much higher.

Chris K said...

That was probably the case. Since then shovelheads value has really gone flat or down. I sold my first shovelhead in 1995 for $7,500. Today even with inflation I would probably get the same amount. Just saw one the other day that sold for exactly that same amount.

Grumbler said...

My old 1975 FLH1200 had 18K on the clock when I purchased it for $2800 as a used bike in Dec/77 over in Castro Valley. Had 33K when I sold it on consignment for $2500 a little over two years later in Sunnyvale. By then it was averaging 180 miles per quart!
Here's a link to a pic of that bike in Vallejo: http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee300/tvrides/75flh74.jpg