Cruiser News
So, there are lots of projects that come through the shop in a year. Some are complete restos and some are paint and graphics for someone else’s project. Here are a few of the recent projects.
We’ve been painting quite a few late model Z125 Honda Monkeys for The Speed Shop, who builds engines and customizes Monkeys to customer’s specs. These Monkeys usually have a 181cc engine kit and upgraded suspension- so they are much faster and handle much better than the stock bike. In terms Read more…
Well, we’ve been hard at work on the Bultaco and for now it will be done as a Metralla but easily converted back to an El Tigre if desired. The frame is done and painted, and all the bodywork is done as well. The bike is going to be stunning. Read more…
Just over a month away and the excitement is building among vintage bike fans! The weekend festival is always a highlight for motorcycle enthusiasts. Undoubtedly the best run event of it’s type- literally 1000’s of bikes, shows, racing, swap meet and of course the fantastic museum. It’s like drinking from Read more…
The annual Barber Vintage festival is just around the corner- Oct 6-8th. Honestly, there is just nothing else like this if you are a motorcycle fan. It is probably the best run and organized motorsports event I have ever been to considering the size and scope of all that is Read more…
OK, I haven’t posted on this bike in a while but yep, it’s all done and on the road. The owner is super happy and the bike runs and rides great! Here is the final product- click through to watch the first run video if you want to take a Read more…
We’ve been working on a couple Metrallas for the past few months and there is good progress to report! The frames are stripped, epoxy primed and painted the original gloss black. There are many other parts that have been either bead blasted and refinished or polished. We will soon be Read more…
What an awesome weekend for motorcycle fans! with over 73,000 people in attendance, it was the most successful event yet. Perfect weather helped, but the event it always well run and managed. Here are a few shots from the weekend- enjoy!
Getting all the bikes ready for the Barber Vintage Festival is always hectic. This year we are taking the 77 CB750F and the 73 Kawasaki S1. The 750 needed some carb work like most old bikes and I took the chance to rejet it at the same time. Runs fantastic Read more…
Mark your calendars folks, the Vintage Festival is fast approaching. Easily the most popular event that Barber holds each year, it continues to grow. Such a fantastic weekend! More bikes than you can possibly look at, swap meet for parts and bikes and vintage racing. I’ll be bringing the Kawasaki Read more…
We’ve made lots of progress in the past weeks… the engine is in, the carbs are on with all the cables (lots of cables!), the wiring harness is in and almost complete, The chrome handlebars have been swapped out for some matte black superbike bars, the chain/sprockets are on and Read more…
Well, lots going on with the S1… The wheels were corroded but solid and I decided that for the price point of this bike, the only real option was to bead blast and paint them. So, it was also a good chance to clean and blast the drums as well Read more…
Another great year at Barber for the Vintage Festival! Total attendance this year was up about 5000 to over 69,000 people. The bikes, displays and swap meet were all great and you always meet some interesting folks. The Vintage races were really fun to watch and it’s not just the Read more…
The customer I painted these tanks and fenders for has reassembled one of the Metralla’s and it looks fantastic! Such a great looking bike with classic lines. The 250cc 2-stroke engine was supposedly good for 100+mph. That is serious for the late 60’s. With modern tires and oils, it may Read more…
If you are on this site, you probably have already heard of the awesome Barber Vintage Festival and this year’s is fast approaching! Scheduled for Oct 9-11th, it is sure to be bigger and better just like every year so far. With rows and rows of swap meet parts and Read more…
One of my customers is doing a resto-mod on a 1976 CB550F and we painted the tank and side covers in the original Honda candy sapphire blue. On the candies, you paint a silver base coat and then spray layers of translucent color until you have the desired color depth. Read more…
With the CB750 done, I needed another back-burner job to keep me busy when I had time in between customer projects. So, I bought this old S1 triple and pretty much regret it at this point. But, hey it will be a super cool bike when it is done. The Read more…
With the yellow Bultaco’s done, we turned to the street versions, which are MK2’s. The styling and simplicity of this model is just excellent. The gas tank is a beautiful classic design and we worked long and hard to find original photos so that the stripes and decal placement is Read more…
Well, the CB750 is basically finished and running quite good. The seat was made from a 40mm sheet of race seat foam like you typically see on race bikes. It really looks perfect for the style of the bike. After about 40 miles of test rides, it continues to run Read more…
Work continues on the 750… the headlight is installed, most of the bodywork, and we fabricated a nice muffler from a spare Yosh round baffle and a piece of 2.75″ OD 304 Stainless tubing- but the important dimension was the header end that was a perfect 2″ and slid right Read more…
With the paint done, it was time to get the carbs tuned and the bodywork installed. Old carbs like this are a project! We used a standard set of mercury vacuum sticks and got them all drawing the same at idle. Then we adjusted the idle mixture screws and then Read more…
Well, the wiring is in and almost complete and all of the updated brakes are on and bled. The wiring included a new solid state regulator/rectifier, Dynatek electronic ignition to replace the old points, new coils and leads, and lots of minor fixes to the harness and switches. Probably 20 Read more…
Just in time for spring- This is a 1 owner Street Triple with 5300 miles. Never dropped, dinged or scratched. All stock except for the bar end mirrors. Both keys, books, manuals, etc. The Street Triple is probably the best all around bike I’ve ever ridden- great power, handling, styling Read more…
So, today we installed the new Dunlop 404 tires and we are working on the final fitting of the tail section. As soon as the new rear shocks get here, we will have a rolling frame and be ready to install the engine! The taillight is out of some 70’s Read more…
Before we can put the engine back in the bike, we need to have a rolling frame and before we can do that, we need the wheels in their final configuration… These Comstar wheels are a bit difficult to work with since they are an aluminum/steel hybrid- the rim and Read more…
The stock peg brackets are huge and heavy but I am committed to using as much of the original bike as I can, so we are trimming and drilling to lighten them and remove the rear mounts. While I had the die grinder out, I trimmed the front fender to Read more…
With the engine ready to install, I got to work on the frame and misc parts we need to get ready. The frame was media blasted, epoxy primed and painted in orange basecoat/clearcoat for durability and show quality looks. Frames are a lot of work since they have lots of Read more…
My friend Rob at Tapeworks has been working on this project for several months now and it is in the final stages before production. Make sure you head over to the Kickstarter page and get in on the action. He needs to raise funds to have all the molds made Read more…
Well, I’ve been seriously lazy about updating the website but here is the latest project- a 1985 BMW K100 with some later bodywork pieces. The owner wanted metallic orange similar to what Lamborghini uses and it really looks great. Digital cameras struggle with colors this rich but the front shot Read more…
Well, I haven’t been totally unproductive for the past month but I haven’t exactly been setting the shop on fire with activity either. However, now that it is warming up, I’ll be spending more time working on the bike so it should progress more quickly… As “old bike people” know, Read more…
Well, I think I’ve decided to go in the direction of the Street Tracker that Airtech has on their site. The tail plastic on this bike is cracked and pretty beat up and the Street Tracker tail looks great so we will probably use it. But, I’m going to stick Read more…
One of the first things that needs to be done on this bike is a brake upgrade. Actually, I need brakes of some sort just to move it around since it is so heavy. The problem is that the original brakes are in pretty bad condition- rusted calipers, frozen master Read more…
Well, there is a new bike in the shop and I’m still undecided about what direction to go with it. It is a complete stock 750 right down to the turn signals- although the muffler has been changed. The stock seat is in excellent condition and the bike only has Read more…
So, a friend of mine owns a Harley dealership and sent me a few pictures of the the new Harley line of smaller bikes that was introduced yesterday in KC. For a lot of people who own Harleys, customization is one of the main draws. We all like to make Read more…
Well, this years vintage festival was another great success and the weather was perfect. As usual, lots and lots of restored and original vintage bikes and some great racing too! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
Don’t forget to plan on attending the 9th annual Vintage Festival October 11th-13th. You can get all the details and buy tickets over on the Barber website. I’ve been going every year since it started and it is always an awesome weekend with thousands of vintage bikes, racing and the Read more…
I’ve added some pages under the “Galleries” tab that chronicle the RZ350 restoration process from start to finish. Feel free to link to the pages, but please don’t just link the photos since it totally misses the whole project and the point of posting them. Enjoy…
Well, the big day came and I moved her from the shop to the garage- and then rode all afternoon! It runs great and it really a blast to ride. Here are a few pictures of the finished product but I am working on a page under the “Galleries” tab Read more…
Well, after fixing a small leak around the petcock, she started on the 3rd kick. Pretty sweet. Runs great and sounds awesome… I’ll finish the buffing tomorrow and get it all assembled for it’s first road test.
We are moving along with the paint and after the pearl white, I painted the red. After the base red, I mixed a pearl top coat to give it the sparkle of the original color. On the factory bike, the red was painted on some panels like the tank and Read more…
The bodywork is moving along and the epoxy primer, polar white base and diamond pearl is on the parts. The tank was in decent shape but had some dents, dings and lots of scratches that needed to be filled and of course, all the old decals had to come off. Read more…
The mechanical stuff is about as far along as it can go without getting the bodywork done since I will need the gas tank (with gas!) pretty soon. The brakes are on and bled. All of the bodywork is done to the point of paint. The white epoxy primer is Read more…
Well, progress continues and after fighting the old DG pipes which really didn’t fit well, I’ve got them installed and not contacting the frame anywhere. The radiator is back on- had to get the pipes on before the radiator… The brakes are ready to be hooked up and bled and Read more…
Today I’m hooking all the electrical back up and also doing a bit of bodywork. I’ll post that later, but here are a couple of pictures of the frame with the motor installed. Such a cool old bike…
The motor is back in the frame… it ran fantastic and was well set up when I got the bike. It only had a couple of thousand miles since it had been rebuilt although that was a few years ago. But after looking in the exhaust ports and seeing how Read more…
The front end is back on and progress is being made on the hundreds of small items that will need to be refinished if the bike is going to have a “restored” look versus just a “repainted” look. While I’m not replacing every nut and bolt, I am cleaning and Read more…
Both wheels are now painted and clear coated. The brake rotors are bead blasted and I think I’ll leave them like that instead of painting the centers gold or black. The rear shock is actually in very good condition and cleaned up nicely. I did paint the spring by hand Read more…
The frame and swingarm are done- clearcoat on the frame and a medium sparkle silver on the swingarm. I will say, you better be on your game when you are clearing a frame as complicated as this with lots of tubes, tabs, cross members, and 360 degrees of coverage needed. Read more…
The frame has been epoxy primed and base coated. A few people have asked why I just didn’t get the frame powder coated. Several reasons- 1st, they can’t match it to the paint I am going to use on the panels and I want it to match. 2nd, The bike Read more…
The previous owner had welded some lugs to the frame by the steering head to mount a modern style Yamaha R1 steering dampener. Not a nice clean job and they were rusting, etc. The bike really doesn’t need a steering dampener and I want it basically stock looking, so I Read more…