I’m not a “Cake Decorator”!

I’ve always wanted a motorcycle, not the sport bike “crotch rocket” type.  Come on, does that type of bike really seem to fit my personality?  HELL NO!!!  I wanted an old school bobber or chopper, so like many things in my life I decided to build my own.  I picked up an old frame and started piecing an engine together, sure I could have bought a bike and changed out some things  like the front forks, handlebars etc but what fun would that be?  Part of the fun is the adventure of searching for old parts and having to restore them before I can actually put it together.  Ive dedicated my formal front living room to the rolling chassis and my kitchen table to the engine build.  Look its Chicago here and I dont exactly feel like crawling around on the ice cold pavement in my garage while freezing my (fill in the blank) to work on the bike so the comfort of my house in a room I don’t really use is perfect.

Many of my friends have asked what’s the theme, look this is not OCC or biker build off.  In order for you to understand because televison has taught us that you can’t build anything in life unless there is a theme or a trophy at the end along with tons of sponsporship money the theme is machine.  I want a simple bike that looks like a machine, I want to see the parts.  I dont really like all of the bikes that look like they are hiding everything, if you want that drive a car thats what the body is there for.  I have a very simple color scheme in mind, the frame & forks are all black.  The tank & fenders are a simple metalic pearl white.  There is a little bit of chrome like the spokes on the wheels, maybe the rocker arms but thats really it.  I dont want a ton of chrome, its a bitch to clean and keep polished, afterall I want to ride and not buff my bike all weekend in the driveway.

One of my first projects on the bike was the seat and since I tooled leather as a kid, its natural for me to tool the the seat.  I found an old king and queen seat, laid out my design and pretty much never looked back.  I’ve spent alot of my time actually watching New York Rangers games (yes thats my team) while just tooling & stitching the leather at my kitchen island counter.  Next up is the single seat pan, sometimes I know im going to want to ride by myself and no matter who I meet along the way your not coming along!   The fun part about the single seat pan for me is that I’m attempting cutting & bending the metal myself and then ill cover it with the tooled leather.   I’m not a big metal worker, but learning this craft is going to be fun, I get to practice welding on some fun small projects first before I start building the different brackets for the fenders, lights etc.

Well enough of this blog, I need to get back to the grease and fabrication.  Dont worry I’ll wash my hands very well before heading into the kitchen!