Well its almost February.

Damn this winter has been most unproductive so far. You can probably tell that by my postings of a bunch of old chop mag reprints here at So'full. I haven't been in the garage lately and I'm startin to feel it. I do have a bunch of cool parts I've gathered and have been lending a hand to a few members of the So'full crew here and there on their projects. But in the coming months I need to start attacking my "to do" lists for the bikes....focusing on the two runners and then dealing with the projects as I have time and/or feel like. The runners are priority, gotta keep reminding myself of that! But with a cafe project, a stock 'matic, and a hardtail in peices, its difficult to focus!!!

Before we know it things'll be turning green again and we will be able to satisfy our jones by straddling our scooters and rolling in whatever direction the front tire is pointing. There are a handful of runs already planned coming up and I am so ready to feel the heat reflected off the hot pavement as we slice thru the hot, humid Illinois air. The first run coming up is in April, the 9th. Its called the "Moonshine Run" and leaves out of Casey, IL to the town of Moonshine, IL population 2. There is a store that has been converted into a grill where the ride stops to wait for hours to enjoy one of their tasty burgers.

In June there are a few trips already planned as well. One is local, to the Belltown Bash here in Central IL. Its a Car/Bike Show with bands and booze that my friends family began hosting on their farm a few year back in 2007. Each year it has grown and is one of the highlights of summer here in the corn and bean fields, with attendees from all over the East Central IL. Then later in the month its down to North Carolina to the Riders Roost Motorcycle Resort for the World Honda Chopper Meet. Members of the hondachopper.com forum have been meeting up at that location since 2003. It is quite something to have 50 or so CB750-4 banger chops in one spot. It is conjunction with the Horse Back Street Choppers' Smoke Out East and many times there has been a run to the magazines event on Saturday.

Knowing these events are quickly approaching has helped me maintain some of my sanity so far during this long, cold winter. Now I just need to spend some QT in the So'full Garage to ensure that I'm ready and waiting when the snow melts and the trees begin to replenish their leaves!

click pages for readable version

Invader Wheels Article - Special Choppers - Sept. 1974

(click on a page for the readable version, then click again with the maginifying tool)

Between August and December of 2010 The Krannert Art Museum held an exhibit of Danny Lyon photographs from his infamous book, "The Bikeriders". In typical fashion, I made it just in the nick of time, viewing the show just a day before it was to be gone. I snapped some photos while I was there. Enjoy.

(click the pics for larger versions)

Chris' Grandpa

This is one of the coolest photos I've seen in a long time...our own crew member, Chris Robertson's (Car99r of TCU) grandpa, Allen Lee Robertson Sr.

The Chopper Underground Backyard Build Off 2011

Chris (Car99r) Robertson's 1996 Honda VLX600:

Beginning last year the TCU decided to host their own Backyard Build Off.

This year, site owner/operator Chris Robertson picked up this japper cheap and figured it would make the perfect platform for this year's BBO. A few weekends ago Chris invited a bunch of us locals over for some Italian Beef and beer....provided by his lovely wife Darla.

The intent for the afternoon was to hang out and b.s. a bit in the shop since we all hadn't seen each other since about October...but you know as well as I do when you get about 10-15 dudes together in a garage environment with some brews in their hand,  something is gonna happen one way or the other!

Roger (aka Falldown) and I were staring at the BBO donor and started talking "well if he hacked that and if he ditched that"....which of course led to sawsall's and grinder's being plugged in and started up, removing some uneeded bulk. The seat and plastic was also removed. After a bit of that action we wheeled the bike up onto the lift and proceeded to remove fender mounts, wiring, and any other uneeded mumbo jumbo.

The bottom few pics show where we left it that day. We got the rear fender mounted and after deciding NOT to retain any of the seating area, we hacked that away with the sawsall. Chris decided that he is going to reinforce the area as needed and run a floating seat on a leaf spring.

The fender is attached to the swingarm so that it will travel with the tire and we got that sucker low...I think it was in the ballpark of about 1/2". We flipped the pullback style risers around 180 degrees to allow the Whiskey Bars, that Chris has been wanting to run on something for awhile now, to clear the gas tank. After we offed the bulky ass intake for the carbs and bounced some ideas around on the air cleaner/carb situation, it was also decided that a custom manifold be made to run a single carb out on the right side of the bike.

Chris still has plenty of work ahead of him, but we accomplished a lot that sunday afternoon, all on a whim. It was great breaking the winter blahs with bro's, bikes and brews.

Check out the BBO 2011 thread on http://www.thechopperunderground.com/  to see all the projects involved in this years build off!

Reprint from old "CHOPPERS" magazine

Click Image to Enlarge