An exciting Friday Night

I am sitting on my couch polishing my new oil tank for my race bike....and no it's nothing dirty hah! Thanks to Dan over at 7 Metal West, this tank is just what I wanted function and form. I will be mounting this tomorrow with some sleeves I machined to run through my downtube. Just another piece to the puzzle........

Some shop time on my 67 Boneville LSR project

One of the Speed Week regulations is everyone must run a steering damper. I used one of these fancy Pingel dampers clamped to my front fork tube and used a handy threaded coped bung to attach it to the frame. I can't tell you how great it is to have bins of these things in your shop. You can always use em!I also turned down some fork stops and welded a stop in place. No joke Tyler's DIY Tech Tip helped, and worked great. I did have to limit mine to only 15 degrees turning radius in either direction though! It's all about the straight line!

That's right US built...

Check out the pics Craig from WV sent in to us. Very clean classic lines! Glad to see some US customers sending us in some build pics for a change!

Tyler was right...lathes are awesome!

I needed a new axle to mate up a Ceriani front end with a mystery spool hub for my Triumph land speed bike, and instead of having to find a machine shop and give them my scribbled measuremnts on a post-it, I went back in the shop and fired the lathe up. After a ten minute crash course from Tyler (most of which had to do with cleaning up after myself) I went to it. I would say it turned out very well for my first time machining anything on a lathe before.

Of course it took me 8 hours and 2.5 feet of chromoly steel to make a ten inch axle....but the third try was the charm, perfect fit. Now just need to drill and thread the ends for the castle nuts and cut a couple spacers and it's good to go. I have a feeling the rear axle will go much quicker!
Oh yeah....got my Bonneville racing number too. I am excited as hell! Cheers, Kyle

English 102 Triumph DVD on Presale Now!

"The follow-up to the critically acclaimed English 101 DVD, English 102 is the next step in your British motorcycle education. Once again hosted by Wes White, the electrical system on your vintage British motorcycle is covered in depth with a concentration on identification of parts, troubleshooting, and tips to wire your bike from scratch. More carburetors, Amal, Mikuni and JRC units, are disassembled and discussed. In depth analysis of rebuilding hydraulic front ends, clutch center maintenance and cam bushing reaming is also included. A must for those of you with a true quest for knowledge."

$39.95, more info and 24/7 secure ordering here.

Shift / Brake Linkage just about done

I have been working on the shift and brake linkage for my '55 Triumph, got the brake side finished, all stainless steel. Shift side is about done, just need to cut the main linkage rod down to length and thread the one end, but I am waiting to do that until I get the seat made so I can make sure I have it right where I want it. I have a 4" 6061-T6 aluminum adjuster there that acts like a turnbuckle so I can adjust an inch or so of play to fine tune the shifter angle.

Tyler

Wes White on The Salt Ghost bike

Cool pic of Wes from Four Aces looking pensive on The Salt Ghost pre unit Triumph LSR bike.. He's so mysterious, the ladies love it..

Tyler

Now I won't be able to sleep...

So I am ordering some parts I need to continue my Bonneville project and looking at a video on you tube and I see this related video....Wes White over at Four Aces Cycle leaving the line last year at the Bonneville Salt Flats. I can't wait for August. G'Nite........

Swiss style.....

Christian from Switzerland sent in the photos of his badass Shovlhead. I am diggin the hell out of the yellow headlight and those pipes. Keep the pics coming in, we love to see your chops and projects!

Lowbrow Customs Roadtrip

Tyler and I took a trip this week out to Fall River Massachusetts for the Vanson Leathers Open House. On the way we stopped in Pawtucket RI and found this awesome little diner, a 1941 Streamliner diner. It had a super cool art deco interior, and great breakfast.

When we arrived in Fall River we had a bit of time to drive around and I kept seeing a sign for Battleship Cove and after discussion that it was probably some tourist trap or water park we decided to cruise by and check it out. Ends up there are 4 WWII battleships and a submarine docked and open to the public. We were pretty stoked especially when we found we could walk unaccompanied through all the decks, into the gun turrets, engine rooms and all over. It was a pretty rad way to blow some time.
After a fruitless search to find something good to eat(Fall River evidently lives on fast food, pizza and coney dogs) we found a pub had a couple pints and headed into Vanson for the open house and to get our measurements checked for our racing leathers. ( more about Vanson to come!)We also met up with the Choppahead crew up near Boston checked out their shop, talked some biz and took a look at all the chops they have underway. Big Truth took us out for some good grub finally at their friends joint No Problemo Taqueria. If you're ever in New Bedford check the place out. Killer food and great atmosphere.

Finned Aluminum Magneto Caps!!!

We got a shipment of these finned aluminum magneto caps in yesterday!! These are hand made in small batches so get them while you can! Every time we get them they sell out in a few days and I get emails for a month asking when we will get them back in!

Hell on Wheels MC MotoRally & Pageant

Check out the Hell on Wheels MC MotoRally and Pageant in Lake Elsinore, CA on June 5th. BF Josh, our west coast Lowbrow Custom rep is going to be there with a Lowbrow vendor spot set up as well, be sure to stop by. Hell on Wheels is looking for riders and pageant beauties so hit them up!

Narrow Bike

Rearsets mounted, still have to do the linkages. Clip-ons in place as well, though the gold anodizing is going to be polished off.. basically it is coming along but this is still all rough.





I will likely take an inch off the end of the clip on bars still, keep tucked in nice and tight.

Tyler

Rootbeer Helmets and Bonneville Support Shirts Back In Stock!

We have been out of Biltwell Rootbeer helmets and Four Aces Bonneville Support Shirts for awhile but we have them back in stock! Get 'em while we got 'em!

1953 Indian Motorcycle Promotional Film

I came across this old promotional film on Indian Motorcycles from back in 1953 and just thought it was worth sharing. It has some great factory footage of motor and motorcycle assembly. It must have been a cool thing to see in person.

Sometimes the small things are the most fun

Had a couple hours today and made a spacer today for my rear wheel, for between the hub and the brake drum. I have something to get off my chest... I am in love with both step bits (unibits) as well as my lathe. Step bits are just awesome time savers and also are great for center drilling on the lathe. The lathe is great because a hand shaped and filed spacer would never look so good. There is so much you can do with a lathe that there is no good way to do otherwise. Like make aluminum bangle bracelets for your wife. I can't wait for tomorrow.

Tyler

Check out Adam from the UK's bobber!

Adam from the UK sent these pics of his freshly finished bobber for us to check out since he was running a few of our parts. Lookin good man!

Lowbrow Customs Shop Profile

We had a write up on our shop a couple weeks ago that we were pretty stoked about but alot of people may not have seen. It'll give you a pretty real view to the inner workings of Lowbrow Customs. It was written by Bill Bryant from Biltwell on the Chop Cult forum. If you're not familiar with it you should check it out, we are fully behind it and it's become a great resource. Cheers, Kyle

Check it out HERE

It's a Roller

Got the hardtail section all done and rebuild the front end with the cut-down fork tubes. Next up: mounting fender, steering damper, oil tank, and getting the motor and trans done!

Tyler

WFO lsr gets something special today

I got a couple packages in the mail today, a set of universal rearsets that will do the trick nicely. Cast aluminum with knurled fold up pegs.

The next box I saw really excited me! I put up a wanted add on Chop Cult and Tom Rose over at Mountain Legacy Inc. out in WY. responded and with just what I had in mind for this project! Not only that he talked with me for an hour gave me some great feedback and info. Very cool dude.
For a 67 Triumph land speed bike what else could you want? A NOS Ceriani front end.He wasn't joking when he told me it hadn't been mounted before and the steering damper parts were still bagged.
Just a quick mock-up photo but this is just what I had in mind! Do you think some new Akront Morad rims will look good with this front end?

Hippy Killer Hoedown 2

Last year, the first Hippy Killer Hoedown brought over 450 riders to Hemet. It was a one-day event thrown on a Thursday! This year we can only see the numbers rise, as it will be held on a Saturday. Kutty has secured a sweet location for the 2nd Hippy Killer Hoedown for April 17, 2010. It will be held at the Wild West Arena in Winchester, Ca. He will also be providing a few live bands & Danny G will be spinning through out the day. (borrowed from hippykiller.com)

Some of you already know BF Josh, he is the Lowbrow Customs West coast rep and he will be set up at West coast shows including monthly at the Long Beach Swap Meet, The Hippy Killer Hoedown, as well as others. Make sure to swing by and check it out if you're there.

Respect

Took a weekend off from the blog and spent some time with the family but I didn't forget the anniversary of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's passing. I can't look around my house or the shop without seeing something related to Big Daddy or something he has influenced.


Just a couple photos I snapped of Orbitron, one of Roth's creations which was found down in Mexico and restored to it's former glory. A really cool story, look it up if you don't know about it.
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth you still are missed.

Some shop time, and Christmas gifts! Errrr... I mean Easter!

It's been a great week, we had record highs the last two days here, mid 80's today, it's feeling like summer! When UPS showed today Tyler and I tore into the box marked Bob Newby Racing like kids on Christmas morning. This is what we found, a Triumph pre-unit and a Triumph Unit belt drive with racing clutch discs and drilled alloy pressure plates. Tell me it's not a beautiful thing!
Tyler spent some time modifying the frame rails on his pre-unit hardtail what is this the 3rd or 4th variation so far?! It's gotta be just right.
And speaking of just right the other tank wasn't just what I wanted so I sourced this wassel re-pop out, drilled the frame welded in some bungs (check out our tech article if you haven't seen it), and there it is. That is the look I had in mind for "WFO".
Everyone have a great holiday weekend! Cheers, Kyle and Tyler

New Shop Equipment.. Old Atlas Craftsman Lathe

I picked up this 1950-something Craftsman lathe yesterday. Made by Atlas in the USA. Real nice, it was in storage for a long time and it came with several boxes and such of tooling, attachments, and lots of calipers, bore gauges, dial indicators etc. Most of that I don't know how to use, but it sure will be fun to learn. I like the fact that I bought this big, American made lathe for a fraction of what I would paid for a new import one. This one is probably more accurate anyway.

Tyler