El Diablo Run 2011... Westward Bound!

My daughter Darly and I met up with Kyle and Greg at the shop this morning and loaded the bikes. Kyle left at noon, headed towards Indianapolis, then down near Dallas, Texas to stay at my Dad's house and get some sleep, then headed westbound for Murrieta, California and the start of El Diablo Run 2011! My bike and Greg's are in tow, his plan: get our bikes safely to California, drop the trailer there and do some off-roading in Baja while Greg and I ride the wild thunder and raise hell. Can't wait!

Lowbrow Panhead: Running & Riding!

Got the '59 Panhead running and riding yesterday! About to go split right now and get some miles on it...

Harpoon & His Kid's Custom Vans Shoes

Harpoon is well known in the motorcycle and hot rod world for his swanky paint work. He is also a teacher, and the kids at his high school (Diamond Bar High School in California) are finalists in a contest being run by Vans. If you feel like checking it out, click this link, and vote! If the kids win it will give their art program at their school a big help.

Crunch Time! EDR is coming up quick!

Tyler is hustling like a madman to get his Panhead done and try to get some mileage on it before El Diablo Run 2011! He roped Todd into helping with wiring, lines and other last minute details. Even though EDR doesn't start until May 5th we are 2200 miles away from the Biltwell crew and I will be leaving with trailer in tow this coming Sunday! It may not be painted all purty but I know Tyler will have this running strong (probably JUST in time, that's how he operates!) Hope to see a bunch of you guys down in Mexico, but for everyone else Katy, Todd and John will be shipping orders and taking care of business as usual. (Part of the fun in this post is as soon as Tyler reads it he will realize how close it is and start stressin' bad! Yeah, thats brotherly love right there.)

Bonneville Land Speed Racing Support Shirts 2011

Well we are several months behind schedule getting these done and out, but we now have Lowbrow Customs and Four Aces Cycle Bonneville Speed Week 2011 Support Shirts available! There is a black as well as a natural color Lowbrow Land Speed Racing t-shirt available.



As well as a black or a white Four Aces Land Speed Racing shirt! All money from sales of t-shirts goes to support our joint land speed race efforts, and perhaps a small amount of debauchery and hell-raising.

Weirdo Vol. 2 Is In The Works.. Your Bike Photos Needed!

We are down to the last case of Weirdo vol. 1 and are actively working on Weirdo vol. 2, due out in June. What we need from you are photos of your motorcycle for our Customer Bike Spotlight series, where we feature one American, one Metric, and one British / European bike per issue. We also may like to use one of your bike photos elsewhere in the catalog.


Please email me photos of your bike, several high resolution, good photos are best. If you want to you can also include a brief writeup or some specs on your bike, as some will also get featured on the Lowbrow Customs blog! We prefer photos of finished bikes, if your project isn't done yet, don't worry, there is always Weirdo vol. 3 ;)

Sneak Peek! Lowbrow Bonneville 2011 Support Shirts!

We have been busy and are way behind with these, but better late than never as they say!

The drilled winged cam wheel was drawn for us by our friend Alan Close, check out his site HERE! The best part about having a print shop in your building is you can walk over and grab the first shirt hot out of the oven! Thanks Greg! We will get these and the natural cotton versions as well photographed and on the site asap, and like last year all the funds will help us get across country and try and snag a couple records at 2011 Bonneville Speed Week! Cheers, Kyle

Lowbrow Panhead: Exhaust!

Just finished the exhaust up! Started with a set of side-by-side headers, some Biltwell Builder's Exhaust Kit pieces parts and some FMA ripple pipe (coming soon!). Stoked on how it turned out, next to get it polished and chrome, and on the quick! Tearing bike down tomorrow to do some finish welding on the frame, clean it, and paint it! I wrote up a DIY Tech Tip on making the exhaust, check it out here.

Lowbrow Panhead: Dual Amal Carb Setup

Dual Amal carburetors were a factory option from Harley-Davidson on Panheads, and I was lucky to secure this neat OEM manifold and carb setup for my '59 Pan. Now that I am done screwing around and a bunch of dudes are about to email me to correct me, check out this rad custom-made dual 930 concentric Amal carb setup on my Pan! Thanks goes to Nicholas at Trumpnut Cycle Parts for the manifold, he had made some for Shovelheads and Ironhead Sportsters, among others, and I contacted him about this and he knocked it out for me.

Publish Post

Nicholas used a an S&S Cycles Super E manifold that I had and shortened it and used that as the basis for the Amal manifold, which he made and flow tested to get good velocity and ensure it not only looks cool but runs strong as well. The starting sequence will be a bit different without an enricher, tickle the carbs like crazy and kick it fast as hell, no lazy kicks allowed. Should be interesting to fire it up (next week??)...

Customer Bike Spotlight Update: Rob Watt's '53 Pan Chopper

You may recognize this bike from a blog post a while back of Rob Watt's 1953 Harley-Davidson Panhead in-progress. Rob and the guys at American Cycle Service in in Alexandria, Ontario, Canada did a killer job finishing this build up, and Rob has to be super stoked on this bike. Thanks for sending the new pictures along for us to share Rob!

Lowbrow Customs: Now Stocking KustomTech

Lowbrow Customs is proud to now be stocking KustomTech parts. KustomTech is based out of Florence, Italy, and as far as I know we are the only source for their parts in the USA. If you haven't seen their parts before, you are in for a treat. Their cast and forged line of brass and aluminum parts have a lot of class and soul, and we now have their Deluxe Kill Switches and Deluxe Throttles in stock in brass and aluminum, and in the case of the throttles, in 7/8" as well as 1". High end stuff, the quality is top-notch, I am running one of the 1" aluminum throttles on my Panhead project.

Lowbrow Panhead: Coming Together

I haven't done a ton of updates because I am too busy every night busting my ass to get this bike done and broken in for EDR 2011. Which is in less than a month. I will go over some of the progress in broad strokes, leaving out the countless hours of thought and minor details that I had to go over, the boring stuff that isn't as obvious as the early 50's Triumph forks getting rebuilt the other night after I got the lowers and trees back from the chrome shop.


Or the stainless steel handlebars bent for me by Craig at Front Street Cycle. He makes bars to order, contact him for your handlebar needs. Add some Barnett levers and a Kustomtech throttle.


I spent the last two evenings getting the dual mount headlight mount done. This would have been easier if I had a plan but I basically dove in and started making it. The first evening I did the actual light mount, so both lights were in position relative to eachother, but I still needed to sort out the mount to the forks. I wanted to make it adjustable so the light could tilt, as I have only ever seen fixed mount ones with the typical chromed steel bracket that bolts to the lower tree pinch bolts. I was dozing off and the idea popped in my brain and this evening I went ahead and finished the mount. I am stoked on how this turned out, sturdy, functional, and all stainless steel so it will polish up nicely.


Wheel is in place though I still need to set up the brake shoes, arm, cable, etc. One main thing on my list to do still as far as fab work goes is to finish the damn exhaust. Still want to make a custom top motor mount and carb support.. More updates coming soon..

Meet Lowbrow Customs: Katy-Bear

Name: Katy-Bear
Likes: Cheese
Hates: Being hungry...Grrrrr!
Loves: Lowbrow Customs

Partner in crime: Bluey a.k.a. Blue-Dog
Likes: Eating paper and cardboard
Hates: Laying down
Loves: Lowbrow Customs

I have been with Lowbrow since March of 2010. As far as I am concerned this job was made for me! Lowbrow is the best family I could ask for and everyday I am grateful for the opportunity to work here!!!

(Note from the Editor: Katy rules, she runs the shipping department and she is the reason you can order something and it is on your porch waiting for you a couple days later.)

Customer Bike Spotlight: Brett Logan's '06 Sportster

You may not know who Brett Logan is but you have surely seen his design work in action. Brett runs Logan Design Works and has done logos and ads for such names as Fab Kevin, Imperial House 71, Cleveland Cyclewerks, Old School Helmets and Front Street Cycle, to name a few. He is not only good at designing web and print work, but apparently has a good eye for motorcycles as well.


Here is Brett's story in his own words from turning his stock '06 Harley Davidson Sportster 883 into something to take a second look at:

"There's one that shows the bike the day I brought it home ... it was originally an 06 883R. I spent a lot of time on Craigslist trying to find the right Sportster to start a build but ended up having to drive from Kansas City to Tulsa, OK for this bike. The seller wasn't asking too much plus he had done some nice work to the motor ... This bike is crazy quick.


I had been collecting parts and wanted to see what I could do myself since I never really grew up wrenching on anything. I'm creative by nature and profession so I had a certain vision but at the same time I really had no idea of what I was capable of doing. I got some of the parts on trade ... trading my time doing design work for their time doing their craft ... like the shaved fork legs (Mr. Crown's) and the seat (Iron Horse Leather). Image One (Joel) hooked me up with a bracket to help mount the CCW tank ... I called him with some measurements and he spun up a nice little piece and shipped it, pretty cool of him. Juan Carlos (John) helped me to get the cowbells to work. I had previously picked up a wrecked Nightster then sold the frame and motor to this guy who was really thankful for the price so he came by one day and welded up Joel's bracket. That Nightster's wheels ended up on this bike although I had to have a shop fab up some spacers to make the rear wheel work ... SAE changed to Metric, thanks HD. Bars were done on trade from Craig at Front Street Cycle. Pegs were on trade from Taber at Nash Motorcycle but weren't clevis style so I had to figure that deal out. As everyone knows who's done anything like this, each thing you want to do that's outside of the normal catalog purchase creates a problem to solve, which is part of the fun of it. Bunch of other trade went down but not sure if those (somewhat large) companies want me talking about it, ha!


This was a lot of fun but once finished I realized I had just built a bike that only I can ride ... my wife was less than happy. We went out for a ride with her family, them on shiny new big twins and us on my little, unpainted Sportster. They were already giving me enough grief for running with no turn signals, no speedometer/odometer, and barely any suspension with my wife riding a p-pad. Then of course I run out of gas ... man did I hear it after that! I love the bike and if I could have two I would definitely keep this but as it is that's not a possibility to it's about to go up for sale."

Dealer Spotlight: Lazy Jo's

One of our newest International dealers Lazy Jo's in Vasteras Sweden sent us in some pictures of their shop, looks like pretty cool digs to me! You can check out their website www.lazyjos.com which is under construction, but the picture galleries are pretty rad! Thanks Guys!

Lowbrow Panhead: Bates Tail Light Redo

My Panhead is coming along pretty quickly, and it has to, a month or less til we are headed to California for El Diablo Run. Worked on the tail light today. Here is the final product, sans license plate. I have to run to the hardware store and get the proper hardware to flush mount the screws to wrap it up. Read on to check out some of the tail light fab stuff.

I had a Bates cast aluminum tail light housing that takes a stock Lucas tail light that is commonly found on Triumphs. I didn't want to run a fender mount light due to space constraints so here is what I came up with. I also enjoyed cutting up a cool period chopper piece and making it cooler, in my opinion.

Five minutes later I had cut the light into three pieces.


Apparently I was having too much fun and didn't stop to take photos. I went ahead and welded the original flange for the license plate back to the backing plate but lined it up straight to work on my sissy bar.

Some 3/16" 304 stainless steel plate to match the sissy bar, drilled, cut, and welded for the mount. I would have to say my new favorite metal is 304 stainless, so nice to weld and looks so good, can't wait to polish this whole thing up!


While I was at it I took a scrap of fender and made a doubler, welding it to the underside of the fender where I will do the sissybar-to-fender mounts, which will be through-bolted. These are beefy fenders and I don't think it needs it, but it can't hurt. I like overkill, I would rather spend the time fabricating now then fixing it when it breaks on the side of the road.

Customer Spotlight: Brooklyn Nick's 1967 TR6R

Thanks for sending this in Nick, it looks great and I am glad we could help in any way!
From Nick: Hey Tyler and Kyle, Just wanted to send a few pics of my 1967 TR6R, as you and your site were incredibly instrumental in the completion of this Brooklyn stomper.Gotta give a big shout to Dennis and Steve over at TT Cycles in Berkeley Heights for taking me under their wing and helping fab out the tail section and mounting the springer. Too many Lowbrow parts to count, from the fuel lines to the bars, you guys have been kick ass! New York’s own Hugh Mackie helped me get the motor squared away while Dave Perewitz nailed the paint.
Next project up is a chopped T100 bar hopper. Got a beer in one hand and my Wes White DVDs in the other! Say goodbye to that swing arm!
BTW your posts and DIY tips have been invaluable!
All the best guys – Love that sky high sissy bar on the new Pan.

Thx
Nick
Brooklyn NYC