A Family Affair

The family that rides together stays together

This doesn't appear to be done just for the photo. Note that everyone has a set of foot pegs and the youngster up front has a grab rail. The bike is a 1971 Electra-Glide.

Even More South Bay Originals

Angel Marc sent more photos awhile ago and I thought it's about time I shared them.

Lindsey(up front) and Alki Al trailing. I'd say it's near the Hermosa /Manhattan Beach border.

Angel Marc and Lindsey in front of the Club House.

Marc's photos are truly among the best historic chopper photos around. If you'e never seen them click on the label/link Angel Marc, or South Bay Originals just below this post. Even if you've seen them they are worth a second look.

The Mysterious Model Maker

This was sent a little bit ago by Dr. Sprocket with no explanation or any details other than the subject line 1912 H-D. Work like this blurs the line between model making and fine art sculpture.

From what I can read on the plaque: Dave Kafton 1912 H-D, 2010 Cannonball.

He also made a very cool trophy for Born-Free a couple of years ago.  Perhaps we are witnessing a whole new career is in the making.

A Wild One Favorite

One of the best scenes from The Wild One.

One of the coolest bikes in the film too.

More South Bay Coolness From Marc

Angel Mark sent these follow up photos of the South Bay Originals.

Filthy Frank wheelies while Marc (to the left), and others watch.

Marc says Big Chuck was not holding the bike up, just worried as the bike was firmly planted. That said, it does look a bit precarious.

Unknown Choppers Magazine T-Shirt/Decal Art

Once while doing a search I stumbled upon this unknown (at least to me), Choppers Magazine T-shirt art.

I can tell by the art's style it was done by Robert Williams. I don't think Roth ever made it available. Possibly because the ornate lettering on top of the art is so busy making it hard to read. Still it's a cool drawing.

The Adoration of Potential

There is a phenomenon that has come to past in the last 20 years or so. It's a phenomenon I call 'The Adoration of Potential'. This is the phenomenon of the potential being appreciated for it's own sake thus becoming the end instead of the means. For example. At one time it was only considered cool to have a full blown completely polished and custom painted chopper or hot rod. Then as works in progress and rats started turning up more and more at events, slowly but surely, rough cars and bikes (primer, bare metal customs, and survivors), became admired for what they could become. Or to put it another way, seeing the 'Beauty in the Beast'.

Mix in the emotions of nostalgia that creep in as one gets older and you develop an 'adoration' for the things you once admired solely as potential. Now a days, all kinds of old beaters fall into this kind of adoration. 

For me, this occurred in the form of a growing appreciating of old Harleys and since many a custom was born from them, especially old police Harleys. Factor in, when I was young, sometimes the only Harley you might see on any given day would be a police bike.  Then in 1975 I myself went to the CHP to bid on some cop bikes with the intention of building a chopper.

From Choppers Magazine. Roth's 'Oink' likely came from this adventure. Big Bike magazine also did it's own feature on buying police bikes.

Who among us doesn't dig this old dog?

So now I have a thing for old cop bikes (especially the basic blacked out versions as shown), and have collected the parts to one day put my FL Panhead back to it's believed police origins.

2 Out of 3...

... of these Goodies makes makes for a proper South Bay Chopper.

All 3 is even better! Love this Shovelhead.

Trailblazer

A cool photo from Steve Sharp's garage

A friend's father tears up a trail in El Segundo, CA aboard his VL Bob Job.

Space Shuttle LAnding

I like to keep it about motorcycles, but this was way too cool.

We really wanted to see the Space Shuttle landing close up, but wondered if it was possible without arriving super early and also to not get stuck in a huge crowd. This is L.A. after all.

I had heard that the shuttle would be using the south left runway, so I went on Google maps and found an area along Lennox Blvd. just east of the 405 freeway that lined up with it.  On Wednesday my wife and I scouted it out and it appeared very promising. We figured it was best to avoid Avation Blvd. near the Proud Bird restaurant since it and the lookout in El Segundo would be where most people would try to go.

We got to our location in only about 15 minutes and had no idea what to expect. Although a few others had discovered our spot, we had no trouble finding a parking spot. Most were using the area to park at and then walk down under the freeway to La Cienega Blvd. which we were told was a zoo. Later, when more activity started, many more people showed up and started to illegally park, but it still wasn't uncomfortably crowded.  

There really wasn't a firm landing time and it's exact flight plan wasn't told to the public. My wife's friend was in contact with her husband who was up by the Getty Center and was also following tweets. Then my wife was the first to notice the Shuttle several miles to the north heading east. People started getting excited.

We all figured there was at least an hour to go since we thought it still needed to fly over several landmarks. Minutes later, we were all shocked to see it coming in from the east.  I thought, WTF? We blew it! It was way earlier than the estimates plus it appeared to be using a north runway. 

When we saw this, I thought I blew it and were in the wrong flight path! We noticed the wheels weren't down and were really relived. It had to be a north runway fly over. Some didn't know and started to leave.

It turned out to be an LAX fly over. No one had mentioned that would occur so some folks left. Then once again, much sooner than expected, we were surprised when it showed up for what we thought was it's final approach and landing.    

Coming in from the southeast with a hard turn caught everybody off guard.

It was moving at a pretty good clip and it all seem over way too fast, but wait.... the landing gear wasn't down! We also noticed that planes that had landed earlier, came in at a much slower speed. Once again, some folks started to split too early.

                             
Note the gear is still up. Another fly by! How cool is that?

Again, a sort time later, it flew back gear down and ready to land. 

Third time's a charm.

As It turned out, it used south runway right, not left, but we were still fairly close.

  

It was exciting and actually kind of an emotional experience. To see people from all walks come together, be proud, and in awe. The Space Shuttles represented the best of the best for the USA. We really need something positive like this to help inspire and motivate the people of our country again. Later on the news, I heard it's impact on the children who saw it. I only hope that the politicians would take note.   

A Different 45 Magnum

Normally I don't like posting photos from other blogs but you got to see this 45 that's on magnetozoo.com

When was the last time you saw American 12 spokes on a 45?... or at least what started out as a 45.

There's no info on the build so I'm going to guess at a few things. The frame is a WR or has been modified to look like one. Same for the WRTT oil tank. The top end sure looks like it's from a factory overhead hill climber but is likely Sportster with fabed up exposed rockers. I also noticed a small thing. The guy who built it, used chain links for the clips on the exhaust springs. My buddy Ironhead Ron likes to use them in such ways.

Use the link at the top of the post to see more neat details of the bike. Stuff like a Linkert mounted on the left side and a belt drive.

Random Radness

More good stuff from July 71 Choppers Magazine

Young Punk

Ruby Duby Doo! I wasn't aware of this early Hopper film until seeing some images on the Nostalgia on wheels blog. A quick search turned up this cool poster. That's DH on a glide fitted Knuckle.

Finding Ben Hardy's Shop?

After putting up the last post I thought, why not look up the spot where Ben Hardy's shop was located? Could the building somehow still exist?

I knew the address since the article in Roth's Choppers magazine gave it at 1168 E. Florence in Los Angeles. A lot has changed in the last 40 years, but I figured, Google Map it with "satellite view" and see what comes up.

The letter "A" marks the spot, but it didn't look good. It sort of looks like a parking lot. I hoped (as sometimes), Google's addresses are off by a little bit. The place to it's left looked promising, so why not take look with the "Street View" option?


Boy was I surprised when this came up! What I thought was an empty parking lot turned out to be the roof. The place next door has the much lighter roof when seen from above. Ben's old shop's roof is darker but is reflecting the sun at this angle.

This place needs to be declared a National Historical Monument... of the MotorCycle kind.


For kicks, I tweaked it in Photoshop for a side by side comparison.


Afterwards, I looked up another Famous Monument. I erased the street name so as not to give it away too easily. Any guesses? I.R., I'm sure you'll know, and Moldy, If you read this, don't tell.

It's too bad places like these can't somehow be preserved for what they once were.

I wonder, do today's occupants realize their significance?

"Keep on Chuckin"

Big Scott gave me these. They came with the '70 custom dresser he had. To refresh your memory go to:

http://motorcycleart.blogspot.com/2009/05/1970-nok-new-old-kustom.html

Helmet Collector

Robert Williams with some of his collection of WWI Pickelhauben.

The Pickelhaube (plural Pickelhauben; from the old German Pickel = "point" or "pickaxe", and Haube = "bonnet", a general word for headgear) was a spiked helmet worn in the 19th and 20th centuries by German military.


As a kid, I was obsessed with these helmets. I always made sure I saw this one featured in the ending credits of Hogan's Heros. I would still like to have one.

Camo Stahlhelm

Modern Art?
This old WWI helmet's pattern would be cool for an old bob job's paint. The Germans were probably the first to use camouflage. The colors makes me wonder, where were they hiding?