Some of the shit in Ry's attic.

In my attic I have a relatively complete clean titled basket case 1975 Z1 Kawasaki.  It would be cool and pretty simple to make a clone of the bimota in the top picture.   I love the Rickman kawasaki but I think it would cost a little more to do one right.  Not to mention a bimota anything is pretty fuckin exotic and unusual to see.  I've been hording the bike for years thinking of making a muscle bike out of it like this killer one on the bottom but I'm not in a hurry to decide just yet.  All in all, this is not something I plan on getting to any time soon but its on the books unless someone comes along with a flathead, panhead or whatever project bike to trade.

Gettin tight in here

My shop.  Or as Brad called it; "Ry's International House Of Choppering"

Have allot of irons in the fire at the shop.  This will be fun...
Far left, on the bench is a Buell belly pan that I'm molding for a email order.
Left hoist is the BF6 chop, mostly working on frame mods right now. Waiting for tubing.
In the middle of the picture back and left is a Guzzi tank getting prepped for paint.
To the right of the gas tank is the Kaw motor under a sheet. Pistons arriving any day now for that.
On the red hoist to the right is Boo Boo's VL chop.  Very rough now but not far off really.
To the far right is my garbage can over flowing..

These guys...

Are fuckin awesome! 

Brad and Boo Boo 

Lance is too, as long as he keeps his pants on.

Week end action

Brad and I stopped at the shop to gaze at John's killer Panhead for some inspiration.

Chopped on the BF6 Frame. 

Had a blast at Boo Boo's place, laughed so much that my face was sore the next day.  Mini-b brought his famous ribs and boo boo had some meat balls and sides not to mention a few drinks were forced on me.  Pretty awesome weekend.  

Somebody has to ride them in the cold

Nice shifter

I haven't seen it in person but this is built by my buddy Sully in Niagara Falls Canada. He has been riding and building rigid choppers for 60 years and rather that retire his choppers he just added an extra wheel.   Quite a few years ago he had his knees replaced and a made him a crazy metal art cane.  The cane was pretty heavy and not real practical, so he made it into a shifter for his latest creation.

See ya buddy

Davin's going away party at Magneto Rich's joint last night.  Mostly everyone made it up there.

Holey Fuck !

Long bike Matt is having some engine trouble.   Sorry buddy!

Nothing much really

So, My neighbor and I went for a scoot yesterday.   I was invited to Speedcult for Marcel's birthday extravaganza but I wasn't feeling very social and I wussed out.  We stopped at Cafe Racer for a coffee then I went home and continued cleaning the shop.   All and all it was a ok day.

Motorcycle bucket list , as of today at least

Big Twin Flatty in stock or period trim. My life will never be complete without one.  Would like to restore one to perfection and then ride it into the ground.

I really want to build a Panhead chop.  Chopper bobber doesn't matter as long as its low tight, light and rigid. I would like to do some cool engine mods, maybe 2 front heads or just alot of custom engine case mods. 

XB12S.  Small packaged, comfortable bike built to break the law and wake the neighbors.  I was on my way to buy one of these in 06 and they were out of stock everywhere. While I was on the hunt I fell in love with the sport classic Duc and took it home.  Sadly I parted with that when I bought my Mustang and Brad teases me with it once in a while.   

I still would like the Buell in my stable and its fun thinking of  the hell I could break loose with one. 

Vintage BMW's.  I know I'm not alone to say these are my first love of motorcycles. How could you not fall in love with the vintage simplicity blended with timeless lines and unique engineering that no other manufacturer has had the balls to produce. 

When I was a kid I spent allot of time at the airport with my grandfather.  One of his good friends was Andy Pelc that used to own Pelc BMW in Canton Mich .  One summer day Andy took me for a ride on his brand new, turbocharged 1980 ish light blue metallic BMW ( dont remember much else about it ) . First time on a motorcycle ever!  From there we walked over to his airplane hanger and low and behold his vintage BMW collection packed tight around  the tail of his Beechcraft sky cruiser.   Must have been 30-50 bikes in there that ranged from show room condition to parts machine, all of which captivated my dreams since.  This single event marks the very beginning of the sickness. 

Vintage inline 4 Indian, if I won the lottery, this is first on my list.

Want!  want want want!    Brick wall stopping power with arm stretching, wheelie, popping, pants shitting acceleration and comfortable enough to cruise coast to coast and back again.    Everyone should want one.  

Yamaha 360 Enduro   maybe 1972 ish   just wanted one since I started riding.  little brapper. 

1967 Honda 50  just like the one above but all white with hard bags.  This bike to me represents my first build, motorcycle, taste of freedom and my favorite memories of my grandpa.  I would like to get one, restore it to perfection and mount it to my living room wall.  Stu picked up a 64 last year and I tuned it up and took it for a spin, much smaller machine than my memory told me but I was half the size back then. 

Hope you enjoyed the short trip through my head! 

Not much

Met the crew up at Cafe Racer last night.  B had the XRTT sporty out, Greg had his aluminum sporty out and Gabby was on Greg's old BMW .  Marcel was there on his Softail and Magneto Rich was hangin out as well.  I rode the softy, mainly because it hurts my shoulders the least. It was nice to see everyone and its certainly nice to see Brad out on the XRTT .  We have some minor bugs to work out of it yet but all is well for the moment.

Scratching up the land rover

   Blazing some trails in the middle of the night in the middle of a forest in the middle of Michigan in the Middle of the U.S.A....   The wife, daughter, her two friends and myself trying to get lost in the woods a couple miles outside of my parents place.
The more I play around in the Rover, the more I like it.

Nice valve cap

Spotted this on Davey's shovel pan chop when we were out Saturday.   I think Terry makes them but it was up to Davey to load it.  Might be the only thing on the bike without oil on it.

First Cars

 

 

Top; My daughter informed me that her boyfriend just picked up a 71 Lincoln Continental for his first car. 

 It reminded me of my first car a bit , ( middle ) A 1977 Olds 98 regency 2 door.    I eventually had some slotted aluminum wheels, white letter tires etc.  I had cut out everything I could to lighten it up and tossed the back seats in favor of carpet all they way up.  Replaced the 60/40 front power seats with some buckets from a early 80's Toyota.   I drove the piss out of this thing and I wouldn't mind getting one today, although I would leave the original interior in it.

    I would prefer the bench seats getting torn out of the daughters boyfriends car but with fuel at todays price and that thing packing a 460 cubic inch big block,  he may have to live in it. 

 

Bottom;  My best friend at the time had a 1971 Pontiac Grandville. Same color as the one above. All white cloth interior, 3 ash trays in the dash , 4 in the back seat, no cup holders and a 455 under the hood.  I have many memories viewed from inside of that thing.

 

Kawboy

Brock is doing what he can to scrounge up sponsors to support his racing habit and I offered some of my fab services.   Without a real logo design to offer I told him to do whatever.  Looks ok to me until I have something official.   Come to think of it,  I still owe him some parts..... oops!

My Mother-in-laws Backyard

sunset

My girl and I took a short ride the other night and finished it off watching the sun go down.  Something that doesn't seem to happen often these days..

I accidentally bought one of these

Not as nice as this one .       Its a long story but I made a low ball offer sight unseen and I guess it wasn't low enough.    I'm pretty excited to get a sport beater for a short bit though.  

Not long now....

getting excited ....  the immediate future is looking pretty bright.

The Look