I was elated to come across a coal forge unit from Buffalo Force Co recently with a hand blower. It had seen some years rest, but with a couple of hour’s work it was good as new. My blacksmithing abilities however, will be requiring a few more year’s of training.
Author: Mustari Brand
Mango’s 1962 Panhead
I helped a mate from Australia get into this incredible ’62 FLH. Originally picked up new at Albert Lea’s long-gone HD dealership, this bike spent its entire life in MN. Almost 50k on the clock – it saw a lot of good miles. After some maintenance, TLC and a brake rebuild, I dropped it off today at…
Copper Coasters – Heavy Duty 18 Gauge Handmade
These copper coasters come in a set of 4. Handspun on my Southbend lathe, they’re very heavy duty and combined weigh .65 pounds. They’ll acquire a nice patina from the sweat of the glass over time. You can find them on Etsy here.
February’s Chopper Trip to NorCal
In February one of those trips we generally just dream about came true. Uncle Charlie and his brother Eric Senior drove 7 bikes from Minneapolis to San Francisco where Chris, Charlie, John, Eric and myself flew out to meet them. There were breakdowns, crashes, fights and some open-mouth kissing…. overall, the best trip I’ve been…
Holy Z Handlebar Prototypes
A year or so back I saw these groovy bars on Joe Mason’s Panhead and I learned from Chris that they’re Holy Z’s. A style that was built by Drag Specialties in MN back in the 70’s when Jim Preisler was doing their marketing. Today there are a few places that are making reproduction copies…
Wild Ride 2013 Film Photos – Choppers, FTW, etc…
I picked up some new lenses for an older Nikon film camera that I really like and brought that along on the Wild Ride instead of my DSLR – I put up some info on the trip on the previous post. It was fun to shoot but challenging to manually focus while riding. Camera photos,…
The Wild Ride 2013 – Chopper Run to Hayward, WI
My friend, Brian from Speed Club, puts on a little annual chopper run called The Wild Ride through Wisconsin, which started last year. 2012’s was a pretty big turnout with a PBR sponsorship, a chase van, raffles and the like, but it sounded like it outgrew its vision by the end of that day. I…
Minneapolis Messaround 2013
MPLS Messaround this year was A-Okay. A good turnout of cars complimented by a bounty of rockabilly and greaser kids. Some women looked like pinup centerfolds and other women looked like men. Jordan from Union Speed and Style built an incredible Panhead for Born Free 5 this year and despite the fact that it didn’t…
The Chopper on it’s Own 2 Legs
Brad’s in Milwaukee at Harley’s 110th, others are in Davenport rummaging through piles of priceless springers for Wassell tanks and I’m at the desk basking under the fluorescent lights – so it seemed like a fitting time to resurrect the internet personality. Last entry was deraking this gnarly ’52 wishbone frame and something like 4…
De-raking a Panhead Wishbone Frame
I recently acquired an early 50’s wishbone panhead frame from my friend Eric for my winter’s shovelhead build. He set me up with a solid deal on it as it needed some work to bring back to life. At some point in its colorful past a few passionate drinkers and drug users decided to make…
Plans for a Harley Motor Stand
If you have more time and tools than cash make yourself a stand for your V-Twin before it comes out of the frame, if you don’t already own one. They also make great stocking-stuffers. The plans were put together by an e-human called Starbound on the Club Chopper forum… I don’t hang there and found…
The Shovelhead Chop Build – In Prep for Born Free V
I mentioned a few posts back that I scored a shovelhead roller earlier in the year and am building a bike before Born Free 5. It’s a cone motor sitting in a Paughco frame that had some accessories I wanted to run anyway like the horseshoe oil tank and open primary, which is a modest…
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