The Bike

I became motorcycle obsessed when I was about 6. I bought my first "project" bike, with the help of my older brother, when I was about 8 for $130. The same brother bought and started restoration on his first car, a 1933 Plymouth, at 13. He has been a huge lifelong influence on me.

I continued to ride and race both BMX and motocross until I got married and had the first kid (who is now 18). Parenthood quickly made me realize I could no longer responsibility ride at the level I was previously accustomed to. I switched to mountain bikes thinking under my own power I was a little as likely to let the quest for speed get me into any real trouble. Eventually a herniated disc and it's requisite surgery slowed me down even a little more.

Then the previously mentioned influential brother bought and restored a 1941 Harley Davidson WLA a few years back. Riding it for the first time, particularly given it's wacky control layout, made me feel 8 all over again! Nothing about the WLA made me want to ride the piss out of it though. It's effectively a two wheeled tractor. I also realized I missed having something to wrench on that I didn't have to rely on for daily transportation. I was hooked!. I had to find an old bike.

From day one I wanted to build a relatively conservative bike with almost a factory built look. I also hoped to make it look a little older than it actually was. My Dad owned a Velocette in the early '50's that was definitely an indirect influence. For example he mentioned he used a Ford spare tire ring as an improvised fender for functional reasons way before they became a somewhat cliche trend. I incorporated a few other semi era appropriate parts with the same period in mind. The Filcoolator flathead Ford oil filter canister as an oil tank is something I first saw on Jeff Decker's Crocker bobber. My brother came up with the idea of using an Astatic JT-30 microphone body I played with a lot as a kid as a taillight. I liked it more for sentimental reasons than because I thought anyone would ever recognize it was a microphone. It looks kind of Deco and I'm also a musician it seemed like a pretty cool fit.

This project has been a bit of a challenge financially, I have a family and 3 kids. Two are driving age, one in college, one in private school and one in pre-school. My wife was initially not too stoked about the motorcycle project but she eventually became really supportive. I'm not complaining as all are life decisions I happily made. I'd just like to make it clear how excited and appreciative I was to win this raffle. I've been trying to save paint money for over a year as it's one of the few parts of the build I can't really do myself. Progress has been slow, damn kids always want to eat or something. My wife convinced me to drop $100 of my saved paint money on raffle tickets knowing Lucky's 7 was way at the top of my dream painter's list. I just can't express how cool this all really is.