A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

...or, A Boring Post.

I hate to admit it... yesterday was our first ride of the year. Lately things have conspired to keep it from happening but, knowing it was probably going to be a nice day, I just had to get the bikes out.

Now, there's a Big Dirty Secret here in SoCal. Whenever it's warm, the local news will ultimately say, "it was a beautiful day out today!". What they don't mention is, that when it's warm, it's usually very dirty, as in smoggy and I personally don't see the beauty in that.

Yesterday, was one of the rare warm but, cleaner days we get. Like the day after it rains.

To the west you could see the rarely visible San Nicholas Island and Catalina was so clear it looked like it was only 10 miles away.

My big mistake was that I didn't take a camera along so, I took a few photos upon our return to personally log and remember the day.

New Rubber...

...for the road.

A long over due tire change. The old Continental sucked and was on borrowed time. I've had the new Dunlop for about year. Don't know why I put off the most simple things? Getting stuff like this done gives peace of mind.

My '65 and More About Sissies

Another shot of my '65 survivor. Vilmino commented in the previous post that it's a S.I.E. sissy bar.

One cool thing I found out right after buying this bike is that the rear fender is an old knucklehead front fender. It's been molded smooth but I first noticed they left the holes where the original fender's supports were riveted, then I spotted it's three piece construction on the inside.


A combination one piece fender strut/sissy bar is a clean way to set up a swing arm bike. Makes for pretty good lines too.

The last owner had it since 1970 so the bike probably took on this form fairly early on. The oil tank must have been swapped out later, as the original tank (chromed), along with the stock battery box came in a box of extra parts.


Mark Schauwecker sent in a similar constructed sissy bar. He says it's NOS and has Munch Choppers Chicago stamped on the inside. He got it from a friend who bought out an old dealer (Banta's in Lancaster, Ohio), in '91.

These Are a Few...

....of My Favorite Things

His n' Hers


I've put my bike on a diet. Next to go will be the spotlights and rear crash bars.

Metal MC 1988

20 years ago today.... My 3 degrees of separation to Sargent Pepper.

My old shovel on the CD cover for my brother's band. The photo shoot turned into a rowdy beer party that made the model nervous and pissed off the art director and photographer. They also used my bike on another record's cover.

My brother, Johnny Go-Go (on the right), was the leader of the pack. It was a strange combination of stuff. The Biker themed (Huh?), hard rock/rap group's music was similar to the Beastie Boys, and ahead of it's time.

Rusty Anderson, guest guitarist on this CD, had previously been in the band The Living Daylights with my brother. Rusty went on to play as a studio musician for many famous bands. He has been lead guitarist for Paul Mc Cartney's band for sometime now.