Blower Fever

Joe Hurst won't rest until he builds a blown Shovel. He mentions it all the time. It's a disease he aquired from working with Nez at Phase 3.

I believe Nez took the blower from The Force and put it on this Sportster. 

Fake Harley Chopper

I found this on some blog. It was in the background from a photo of another bike.

Bolt on push rods! It looks to be made from a Yamaha Star 250. It's funny the trouble some people will go to.

The Elusive 12 Spoke

When it comes to motorcycles, I generally prefer traditional spoke wheels, but when it comes to mags, nothing beats the look of the classic American Racing 12 spoke mag. I've liked them since the early 70's for their 3 dimensional aspect instead of the flat 2-D designs of other early cast or later billet mags. It's also because of their drag racing heritage and how they impart that drag/competition look on any machine running them. 

With today's resurgence of vintage choppers and the increased re-interest in these wheels, I thought a few out there might be interested in an old article about the ones distributed by Performance Machine in the August 1978 Street Chopper.

Before we get to that, there's some confusion about their origins, manufacturers, sizes, and versions of the design.

 Looking them up on the web I found some info that kind of adds to the confusion. For example:the 1973 ad below ( posted awhile ago), says these were made by U.S.Mag Corporation of Long Beach. Now I thought I remembered U.S. Mags as a competitor of American Racing around that period, but a source (below), explains how U.S. Mags was started by Parnelli Jones and his crew chief Art Hale Jr. in the mid 60's. The idea was to sell wheels that would fit the large performance tires Jones was selling at Firestone tire stores. It then states that Art Hale and U.S. Mags bought out a bunch of mag wheel companies including a small bay area company called American Racing and combined all of them under that name.

For more details go to: http://www.hotrodhotline.com/pr/2011/mht_us_mags_story/

So, who was U.S. Mag Corporation? I know American was once in Long Beach. It, also states these are aluminum like the later Cal Mags (in the Street Chopper article below), not magnesium like the earlier Americans.

Jerry Mills of Cal Mag with Perry Sands. Over the years there were slight differences like ribs on the back of spokes or shape of the hub area . Note that the pattern in the back has the flower shaped center hub that many early ones have.

Although most folks associate these as being made by Performance Machine, both the caption and the article states that the wheels were produced and machined by Cal Mag and that PM distributed them along with brake kits.

An very unusual use of these mags.

Radir Wheels  introduced their own version a few years ago. There's two problems, they are only sold in pairs and only size 18"

There are different sizes mentioned from time to time. Most people know of the 15" and 18" sizes, but there was a 17" shown on Rigid Hips blog. Then there's this quote by Jesse James on the Jalopy Journal 2-21-2009 : "I have all the Original hand carved wood patterns and pour molds for 15" 16" and 18" American/Performance Machine 12-Spokes....."

Manuel's "Blue" Chopper

Tom Endres, who's bike is featured a couple of post down, writes: 

Manuel was Fats' runing mate. Another close freind of Manuel's, the Noriega's, and mine has Blue now in San Diego, and is an everyday runner. (the extra wheels/rods and cylinders from my most recent build are in Blue's power plant now). But Blur is in-tact as fats and Manuel built it in 1963-ish.

Looking good, but I'm sure Tom meant 1973-ish. 

Electra-Knuck

I have what you might call some swap meet friends. You know, friends that you pretty much only see at the swap meets. One of these guys, I've probably known for more than 20 years and we jokingly fight over parts every time we bump into each other. In the last year we've become closer and I finally made it over to his pad to see what he's been up to.

Arte is a somewhat quiet guy who keeps to himself. He's restored several bikes, but also builds customs that you might call Blend Bikes and does just about everything himself, including the paint. Once upon a time he had a few of his builds featured in magazines, but doesn't seek attention or need to be part of the 'cool crowd'.

His latest build is totally within his personal code. That is, to build bikes from mostly a blend of Harley parts from all eras. Parts he already has or happens to find a good deal on at the swap meet.

 If you knew Arte or his other bikes, you'd probably recognize this as one of his machines. Yes the style of the collector exhaust is a nod to Dick Allen. 

Alternator left side case. Classic style with modern touches. The trick is...  make them blend together.

Another Keeper of the Torch

Tom Endres of Seattle has a few South Bay Choppers. Here's his latest unfinished Fat's inspired Shovelhead. Tom was a little late to the South Bay Chopper scene (1989), but became friends with Fats and his brother Ramon back when he lived in SoCal.

The bike will be now be broken down for paint and chrome.

Black Bear Resurrection

A few weeks ago I spent some quality time with Joe Hurst and Dick Doughty. 

So yeah, the black bike hasn't run for some time and desperately needs many details to be right again. That will be dealt with, but for now... get her running.

Adjust

Kick

 Running!

Don't Get Burnt!

I found this cool old CHP publication on the Vintage American Motorcycles website. The crude art work is both funny and an interesting view on how the CHP viewed choppers. I'm guessing a CHP officer drew it. The publication is probably from around 1970 and is available as a download. It has valuable information on how to detect bad numbers. On the other hand, you might say it tells thieves what and what not to do.

Some of the stuff in the glossary is amusing and really has nothing to do with the rest of the pamphlet. It's funny to see what definitions they chose to put in or left out (like Panhead). It really should have been titled as a glossary of Outlaw Terminology as opposed to Motorcycle Terminology.

Loco-Motion's Tank

Dick Allen's Knucklehead Loco-Motion still exist or at least parts of it. These are the original tanks that date back to Nez's purple knucklehead and later were on the Vincent experiment, the Rat Bike, and the Ratty build up of White Bear.  I've never seen this version of paint with script lettering with a train behind it. The former and more familiar paint was sort of wacky lettering with a hyphen, no train with wavy lines surrounding the indents. They are being repainted by Dick Doughty an old time South Bay painter and the current owner wants to retain the side panel's since this is how Dick last ran it.  

Not only is the left side different from the right, it's indent is smaller.

Note the unusual frisco mount at the front.

This is the best photo that I could dig up (previously posted), of the most famous design. It was basically a black version of Nez's design (below on the Vincent). Sadly there aren't any really good photos of Loco-Motion.

The Brothers Noriega

Last March I posted a photo of Fats on his chopper and explained how he was another important figure in the South Bay Chopper scene. Click Here to see it. I also mentioned that I had a magazine that featured his and his brothers bikes. Here's the complete article from Choppers Magazine December 1972. 

Though similar to Dick Allen's, the lower spring perch is the give-away that these are Fats built springers.

Joe Hurst says Ramon's Sportster was a fast one. I believe it's the only bike he ever lost a street race to.

This last image was found awhile back on the Jockey Journal. I believe it's from Street Chopper.  It's been enhanced and reformatted for this blog.

Born-Free 5 Part 4- More Bikes

 Oil's in the left tank.

Rigids are easy, Swingers are harder to get right. 

Dirt Bike? Sorry, I just don't get knobbies for street  bikes.

Keeping it simple.

I like grey. Except for the cool factor, the Evo is likely the best motor Harley ever made and actually quite a cool runner.

More Knobbies. I guess this time it's a Flat Tracker.

It's OK, I think it's hers.

More simple.

We'll end it in (South Bay), Style.

Born-Free 5 Part 3 "Choppers Not"

Although Born-Free was/is really about vintage choppers, Mike and Grant have always encourage attendees to ride in vintage bikes of all types. As for myself, I enjoy seeing them just as much as the choppers. Here's a few that caught my lens.

 

Vintage '48 Panhead? By the looks of things, this may be a wholly new bike. Check the heads and the tranny with the electric starter.

 Nice 1961 Harley in Hi-Fi Purple?

Whatever the case, it appears a bit pinker than usual.

1947 Kucklehead with great patina.

1949 or '50 Panhead... or just built from parts? Never the less, a clean machine.

It was nice to see Dr. Sprocket (aka Rich Ostrander), take home the trophy for "Best Bobber".

He originally restored his 1940 Knuck as a stocker then later Bobbed it.

An interesting blending of parts. 

Chuck Vogel took "Best Original" with his 1928 Henderson.

That's a wrap, time to go.