Hey,
Last week was Smoke Out Action on the east coast. This week it’s Born Free Weekend with builders coming from all over the world.
Dave Polgreen and his almost finished Knuckle. Beautiful!
Mike Lichter, shooting for Easyriders, and I hit it over to the Vard Manufacturing shop in Santa Ana where guys from all over the country and even a builder from Sweden put the final touches to their bikes for the show.
Jeff kicking Dave’s scooter to life.
Some were actually assembling their bikes on the spot. I was edgy about being in this organized but small shop when guys are trying to concentrate on their annual goal. Most were invited builders. Three of the bikes were big twins (two Knuckleheads) in modified single loop VL frames. Dave Polgreen, partners with Jeff Leighton in the Wretched Hive Bike Shop (also Vard). Dave pored fluids in his beautiful Knucklehead for the final start up with dual chromed Linkerts, while we were there and on hand. Amazing bikes and a couple of years ago folks said choppers were dead—Never.
Mike Silvio, Cycle Mos, in Tennesse stopped by to deal with a 45 primary chain issue.
Swedish builder finishing up.
Martin Carlgren of Ringo Chop Shop, Gothenburg, Sweden worked assembling the one-off Husgarvana engine from the ’40s. It still wasn’t done, but he smiled while pushing forward on his amazing build. Andy Carter from Pangea Speed, in Salt Lake City with 80-inch ULH flathead tuned his slick chop for sea level riding.
His handmade custom narrow glide reminded me of Andy Hansen’s first full-on custom in 1970. He rough engraved some of his components and I quizzed him. I’m thinking about engraving something on my Panhead with the help of my grandson who can make a tattoo template. Hang on for more reports.
Click here to read the full news. This week we have news from the Coast, the NRA, Le Pera, Vard, Brass Balls, Top Gear, Avon, Barnett, NCOM, and far, far, away.
