NY State This Weekend

Packed up and heading to NY state tomorrow! I'm use to riding rigids with back support from the sleeping bag so the ugly green afghan blanket is a nice back rest. Also a nice bed roll where ever I end up crashing for the night. I really didnt need to pack much with me since Ill only be gone for 3 days. See ya'll next week.

The Strange Days Sssssssisssy Bar!

Here it is gang! One lucky person is gonna walk away with this stainless steel sissybar. A small group effort between my ol man, benny, and me. My father bent up the bar and came up with the "S.D." design. Benny tig welded everything together and I hand sanded and polished the bar.

Now I will admit the bar is not 100% perfect. There some dings and stretch marks in the steel but that's because its HAND MADE. But it will hold up 100%. Its the same style of bar we made for the panhead and its great. If having a perfect chrome sissybar is what you want, then maybe pass it on to someone else and buy one out of JP Cycles. Its a pretty sweet simple bar that I so badly want to keep for myself but one lucky person is getting next weekend!!!

Got it back from my dad. Not too shabby way of transporting it!


Lots of sand paper and Wizards Polish!


Wizards is by far the best polish I have ever used for stainless or aluminum. I stand by it 110%. However do NOT use it on chrome. It will eat it up.







GET STRANGE!

Breakin The Wall Down!

The time finally came to take the wall down for more shop space. Both of those walls house smaller rooms. The room with the door was already holding 3 motorcycles so there was really no point in having the wall! The wall wasn't load bearing so it was snap to get rid of.

What a huge difference! We moved the bench and toolbox over to make a better work corner.

Even threw a little bit of paint on the walls.

We'll continue to fix the sheetrock finish off the walls and hang a few more lights. With the studs taken out of the wall I'm going to build a decent bike stand. All about recycling what you have!

I'd like to even move the air compressor into the old closet.

We just found out through a neighbor who has been living in the neighborhood since the mid 60s that the house really use to be a barn. At the time the owner of the house behind us was a pilot. He was into cars and built the barn to house them. It wasn't until the late '70s early '80s it was actually converted into a house. It's gone from car barn to bike barn!

Happy Birthday To My Dad!

Today being my dad's birthday we took a ride up to Milford PA to Shaun's shop, Golden Hammer Studios, so he could get some ink work done. He decided to get "Brooklyn" tattooed across his fingers. One, it was the right amount of lettering and two, its a way to remember some family history. Which also has a strange story.... (Ive been consistent with the "strange themes" the past few weeks!)




My father's grandfather Fritz Karl Rudolph immigrated to Brooklyn from a small village in Germany in 1910. He was sent with recommendation letters to work at a German chemical dye company, which today is known as BASF, one of the world's leading chemical companies.


Here he is on the far right. He was about 18 years old when he moved to this country. Karl took lots and lots of photos and kept a large album. Photos off all the places he lived in Brooklyn. I can see where all the photo documenting comes from. My father has albums upon albums of photos hes taken back in the day. And now I'm doing the same thing.


Now here is where things get interesting....
I moved to Brooklyn to continue college in 2009. Not long after living in the city my dad dug out some of Karl's paper work. He found numerous letters and envelopes with addresses. I looked them up and it turns out I was living only 2 blocks away from where Karl did! So almost 100 years later I'm on the same stomping grounds as my great grandfather.

This photo here I found of the Pratt campus. Ive been living in the large high rise to the left and Karl's brownstone on the far right. I had a hard time getting use to living in the city (I live in the most rural part in NJ) and finding out this information made NYC suddenly feel like home. So with me living there it has reconnected what has sort of been forgotten over time.


Karl was also responsible for my dad getting his Sportster (this bike came after the Knucklehead) Karl was the co-signer for my dad so he could buy the brand new 1969 Sportster. My dad took this bike many times into the city in the '70s. 2009 was the first year for the Brooklyn Invitational and that brought things full circle for me and my father.


Shaun and the ol'man


It was an awesome day for riding and the bikes were running great. We stopped at good Mexican restaurant on the way home. So what does Mexican food have to do with Germans and Brooklyn? Nothin! it was just good food on the way home!




There are many other strange parallels (that not even one blog post would cover) between me, my father, and my great grandfather Karl Rudolph. Even though this tattoo isn't on me, it still has the same amount of meaning. Don't forget your family history and embrace the good times.

Old Foto Friday: Inspiration

This is my Uncle's sportster he had back in the day. This is a serious machine. So serious in fact the guy he sold it to ended up killing himself on it. As you can see, I didn't have to go far for my inspiration.

Another version with a psychedelic paintjob. The little honda behind it is pretty wild too.

Another version with a questionable paint job that was done by my ol'man hehe.



How you park in the sand pits in Laconia, NH.




And a bonus. My uncle 16 years old on the '46 Knuck my dad had. My dad actually bought this knuck completely stock from my uncle's father.

If the chopper gods reunited the fender with my gas tank, maybe they can reunite me with this bike? please? pleaaaaaase?

The Slum Goddess Rebuild Is Complete!

The direction of the rebuild for the Slum Goddess changed over night. The main reason the bike was torn down in the first place was for leaky rocker boxes and a bad swing arm. I decided it was taken apart this far I may as well get my frame painted. Then one thing led to the next and I was cleaning and polishing every part that was going back on the bike. But I still had crummy spray bombed tins that I figured I'd have to paint again to try update the bike. Then one Sunday afternoon Ken and Chris stopped by to check on my progress....

It was Chris's first time by the house. I have a bunch of stuff hanging from the ceiling and junk on the shelves. Chris stopped dead in his tracks looking at an orange sportster tank with silver scallops, covered in dust sitting on my shelf. He asked where I got the tank from. (I got it from a swap meet a few years ago.) Then he said "I have the matching fender!"

This pic was taken in 2009 when I was putting the Sportster back together when the motor was rebuilt. Theres the tank on the shelf.


I couldn't believe it. Later that evening I rode up to Chris's place to reunite these long lost brothers. I purchased the super clean tank for $50 at Rhinebeck 4 years ago as a replacement tank for the Voodoo Child. The tank was leaking badly on the Voodoo Child and paint was a close match. I never got around to changing tanks and the tank I purchased just sat on the shelf. And now I'm glad it sat!


Chris bought the fender complete with Shovelhead struts on ebay. (So it could have ended up anywhere!) If it wasn't enough that we had matching tins, the Shovelhead struts were also notched to fit a Sportster frame!

The fender is an Arlen Ness fiberglass fender. The underside of the fender is absolutely spotless. No dirt, no mud, nothing! The paint on my tank has also just started to wrinkle around the gas cap. So I believe these tins were never run! Or they were on some crazy Ness style digger show bike. As seen in the above pic, the fender was never drilled for a license plate. Just the taillight.

I guess I was destined for this because I even had the proper taillight also just sitting on my shelf.


The Slum Goddess started looking like she was no longer from the slums!


I was fighting with finding a proper seat. Nothing fit right and I wasnt about to cover that fender with my stock 2 up seat. Greg gave me an old seat pan he had laying around. I reshaped it and with his help (hes made other seats for me in the past) we laid down some foam and I shaped it to fit the bike. The blue foam is an old yoga mat! Comfy and doesn't collapse!


Greg then made the cover for me with simple pleats wrapped tight. The vinyl was actually scraps that came from the roof of a 1975 Cadillac hearse!


I just couldn't run my wide handle bars anymore. I always wanted a bike with rabbit ears so I made my own out of split buckhorns.

The tabs were welded from underneath and then attached with a set "SS" bolts I found. Pretty cool! The jewels in the back of the light were actually holes for switches. I didn't need the switches so I plugged the holes with my oil and generator jewel lights. A slick solution instead of making new mounts for them.



I was finally able to get out tonight and take a few good snap shots. I have one last thing to do and its to fix my front caliper and put the new brake line on. Why the red bullet nut sack catcher lights facing forwards? I dunno, my old seat bracket was there and I didnt want to cut it off. Besides it looks cool at night. I also put the old struts back on as much as they suck riding wise. But it does the stance right.



I am in love! This bike has never looked this good before. I finally feel like I have a real machine, and a machine to be proud of.

Next thing to go is that dented oil tank. Whos got a chrome one?!

As the sun starts to go down the paint starts to change color. During the day its a bright orange, and during the night it turns red.

The silver scallops just accent the chrome perfectly! The more I look at this paint job the more and more I like it. Its so simple yet so unique.


The scallops on the tank also accent the rabbit ears and the shape of the exhaust headers.





Big thanks to Chris for the gracious donation, Greg for the seat, and Ben for making up the rabbit ears! If ANYONE has any info regarding this gas tank and fender please let me know! I would like to know more about the history behind them. It's a one in a million chance that these tins were reunited! Yes, Strange Days are certainly upon us...