Motorcycle Roadracing
This has been a project that we worked on as time allowed since it wasn’t for a specific customer. But we are now basically finished- with the bike running fantastic and looking almost like it did when they took it out of the crate. We stripped it to the frame Read more…
So, there are lots of projects that come through the shop in a year. Some are complete restos and some are paint and graphics for someone else’s project. Here are a few of the recent projects.
So, my friend Ron Raven, who donated the Hejira we did last year to Barber, texts me a picture of him sitting next to the bike on display in the Museum! Because Barber has 1000’s of bikes, they rotate them in and out of the displays and we thought maybe Read more…
Well, we’ve been hard at work on the Bultaco and for now it will be done as a Metralla but easily converted back to an El Tigre if desired. The frame is done and painted, and all the bodywork is done as well. The bike is going to be stunning. Read more…
We’ve made a lot of progress on the El Tigre/Metralla and I’m now doing the prep for the paint. There are 2 tanks being painted and some fenders, tool boxes, etc. We’ve left all the El Tigre brackets on the frame so it can be either a Metralla or El Read more…
Just over a month away and the excitement is building among vintage bike fans! The weekend festival is always a highlight for motorcycle enthusiasts. Undoubtedly the best run event of it’s type- literally 1000’s of bikes, shows, racing, swap meet and of course the fantastic museum. It’s like drinking from Read more…
With the bodywork done and painted, the bike was reassembled and road tested. It really looks fantastic. I added period correct looking tinted turn signals and a tinted windscreen which look great on the black and yellow scheme.
With most of the mechanical work finished, I’ve turned to the bodywork. This bike has a black frame so it should have yellow and black Kenny Roberts paint and graphics. Several kits are available for the graphics and most of them are pretty good. I ended up painting the black Read more…
I bought 3 RZ’s from a guy last year and this is the first one I’m restoring. I restored a Canadian RZ350R a few years ago but it had been converted to a regular non-fairing model so that’s how it ended up… There has been a fair amount of work Read more…
A lot has been accomplished in the past few weeks. The bodywork is done- cleared, buffed and installed. The carbs were taken apart yet again to replace o-rings and gaskets that were leaking and while apart, a jet kit was installed for the Yoshimura 4 into 1 system I found Read more…
Lots of work accomplished on the bodywork- base coats, colors, decals and clear coat are on. The tank needs a couple more coats of clear and then it will be ready for reassembly and a first ride.
The Sherpa has been on the back burner for a few months but it is back up front now. The suspension, wheels, fenders and exhaust are now back on and it is starting to look like it might actually be back on the trails soon! My observation on these old Read more…
Well, with winter here I’ve put the VFR on hold but here are a few of the things that were done in the past few months- Wheels painted in original white with clear coat. The rear wheel is a CBR600F3 wheel, so a big increase in width. New tires, too. Read more…
VFR750… 2 steps forward, one step back. Time to put the front end back together after bead blasting and painting everything- stays, forks, brackets, handlebars, wiring, etc. Most of it can’t be seen when the bike is all assembled and the fairings are on but OCD takes over and makes Read more…
The annual Barber Vintage festival is just around the corner- Oct 6-8th. Honestly, there is just nothing else like this if you are a motorcycle fan. It is probably the best run and organized motorsports event I have ever been to considering the size and scope of all that is Read more…
With all the engine covers faded and scratched, we decided to repaint them in black wrinkle because the original gold wrinkle is simply not available. The black looks great and really makes the engine look fresh. The exhaust system was also repainted since it had a fair amount of rust Read more…
New in the shop- a real 86 VFR750F Interceptor with 22K original miles. The bike is cosmetically pretty dinged up but mechanically, in good shape. After rebuilding the carbs, and doing general maintenance, I took it out for a very short Mad Max ride with just a drip can for Read more…
We’ve been working on a couple Metrallas for the past few months and there is good progress to report! The frames are stripped, epoxy primed and painted the original gloss black. There are many other parts that have been either bead blasted and refinished or polished. We will soon be Read more…
What an awesome weekend for motorcycle fans! with over 73,000 people in attendance, it was the most successful event yet. Perfect weather helped, but the event it always well run and managed. Here are a few shots from the weekend- enjoy!
Getting all the bikes ready for the Barber Vintage Festival is always hectic. This year we are taking the 77 CB750F and the 73 Kawasaki S1. The 750 needed some carb work like most old bikes and I took the chance to rejet it at the same time. Runs fantastic Read more…
Mark your calendars folks, the Vintage Festival is fast approaching. Easily the most popular event that Barber holds each year, it continues to grow. Such a fantastic weekend! More bikes than you can possibly look at, swap meet for parts and bikes and vintage racing. I’ll be bringing the Kawasaki Read more…
We are moving along on this project since I’ve had a bit more time to devote to it lately… The seat is done, the electronic ignition is installed, tiny little intake manifolds are back on so, the engine is ready to be put in the frame. Lots of little details Read more…
Well, the paint is on and looks fantastic in diamond pearl white and blue. The wheels have the white and blue rim stripes on and assembly is progressing. The old steering head bearing were destroyed and one of the races was cracked all the way through so I’m guessing the Read more…
With the tank stripped, it needed to have the inside cleaned out before it was sealed. There are several types of acid that will clean out the inside of a rusty tank but the easiest and safest is white vinegar- acetic acid. It is mild and you need to let Read more…
With the frame stripped, blasted and epoxy primed, it is time to get busy on some of the other components. Notice how nasty the welds are on this bike- really just typical for a 70 vintage machine. Next, I need to rebuild the front forks, order the electronic ignition, bead Read more…
Well, I’ve actually been pretty busy on other bikes but a few things have been accomplished on the S1. The motor is reassembled, the carbs are done and look great and a few small items have been bead blasted and painted. The cylinders are bored 1mm over and new pistons, Read more…
Another great year at Barber for the Vintage Festival! Total attendance this year was up about 5000 to over 69,000 people. The bikes, displays and swap meet were all great and you always meet some interesting folks. The Vintage races were really fun to watch and it’s not just the Read more…
The customer I painted these tanks and fenders for has reassembled one of the Metralla’s and it looks fantastic! Such a great looking bike with classic lines. The 250cc 2-stroke engine was supposedly good for 100+mph. That is serious for the late 60’s. With modern tires and oils, it may Read more…
If you are on this site, you probably have already heard of the awesome Barber Vintage Festival and this year’s is fast approaching! Scheduled for Oct 9-11th, it is sure to be bigger and better just like every year so far. With rows and rows of swap meet parts and Read more…
With the CB750 done, I needed another back-burner job to keep me busy when I had time in between customer projects. So, I bought this old S1 triple and pretty much regret it at this point. But, hey it will be a super cool bike when it is done. The Read more…
With the yellow Bultaco’s done, we turned to the street versions, which are MK2’s. The styling and simplicity of this model is just excellent. The gas tank is a beautiful classic design and we worked long and hard to find original photos so that the stripes and decal placement is Read more…
Well, the paint is finished on the GTS’s and looks great. As with all old bikes that came in lacquer, picking a shade of the original color is tough since it yellows and fades pretty bad. We had one pretty good side cover that had a bottom section that was Read more…
A client has several ultra rare Bultaco Metralla’s that he is restoring and we are doing the paint and bodywork for him. 2 of them are the fiberglass GTS models and 1 is the steel tank street version which we will do later. Very cool bikes. The fiberglass tanks were Read more…
Well, the CB750 is basically finished and running quite good. The seat was made from a 40mm sheet of race seat foam like you typically see on race bikes. It really looks perfect for the style of the bike. After about 40 miles of test rides, it continues to run Read more…
Work continues on the 750… the headlight is installed, most of the bodywork, and we fabricated a nice muffler from a spare Yosh round baffle and a piece of 2.75″ OD 304 Stainless tubing- but the important dimension was the header end that was a perfect 2″ and slid right Read more…
With the paint done, it was time to get the carbs tuned and the bodywork installed. Old carbs like this are a project! We used a standard set of mercury vacuum sticks and got them all drawing the same at idle. Then we adjusted the idle mixture screws and then Read more…
Well, the motor is in! With a freshly painted frame, I was stressing about getting the motor back in without scratching everything up. It is a very tight fit that requires some twisting and turning, so I lined all the frame tubes with pipe insulation and duct taped the lugs Read more…
Well, the shocks arrived and are installed… these RFY shocks are Chinese look-a-likes of classic Ohlins or Penske shocks. Obviously not the same quality as Ohlins but not bad. This guy has taken them apart and looked them over and they really are pretty good for the money- about 100.00/set Read more…
Before we can put the engine back in the bike, we need to have a rolling frame and before we can do that, we need the wheels in their final configuration… These Comstar wheels are a bit difficult to work with since they are an aluminum/steel hybrid- the rim and Read more…
The stock peg brackets are huge and heavy but I am committed to using as much of the original bike as I can, so we are trimming and drilling to lighten them and remove the rear mounts. While I had the die grinder out, I trimmed the front fender to Read more…
With the engine ready to install, I got to work on the frame and misc parts we need to get ready. The frame was media blasted, epoxy primed and painted in orange basecoat/clearcoat for durability and show quality looks. Frames are a lot of work since they have lots of Read more…
Its coming up quickly- October 10-12 and I suspect it will be even bigger and better than last year. Every year it gets bigger and I don’t really see how they can get more people in there on Saturday or Sunday but it will be awesome. From the earliest Harleys, Read more…
I stopped over at one of my customer’s garage to pick something up and had to take a couple shots of the bikes I had painted for him. It is a very nice and rare collection- Yamaha RZ500 with the Japanese aluminum frame, A 75 Can-Am 250 that was converted Read more…
Well, the Ninja is back together and looking awesome! The owner still has some small things to finish before it is ready to ride but as you can see, it is almost ready. The bike had a Kerker pipe on it but the stock pipes are in just about perfect Read more…
Well, I’ve been busy and not posting updates but here are some progress pictures. After getting all the repairs and bodywork done, everything was primed with epoxy primer and then the Firecracker Red base coat was sprayed. After drying for a day, I used the new decals to layout the Read more…
One of my customers recently bought an 85 900 Ninja with only 7000 miles on it. Mechanically, it is in good shape but cosmetically, it is rough. It was repainted at some point in the past and done very poorly so we are starting from scratch and painting it in Read more…
My friend Rob at Tapeworks has been working on this project for several months now and it is in the final stages before production. Make sure you head over to the Kickstarter page and get in on the action. He needs to raise funds to have all the molds made Read more…
Well, I’ve been seriously lazy about updating the website but here is the latest project- a 1985 BMW K100 with some later bodywork pieces. The owner wanted metallic orange similar to what Lamborghini uses and it really looks great. Digital cameras struggle with colors this rich but the front shot Read more…
Well, I think I’ve decided to go in the direction of the Street Tracker that Airtech has on their site. The tail plastic on this bike is cracked and pretty beat up and the Street Tracker tail looks great so we will probably use it. But, I’m going to stick Read more…
One of the first things that needs to be done on this bike is a brake upgrade. Actually, I need brakes of some sort just to move it around since it is so heavy. The problem is that the original brakes are in pretty bad condition- rusted calipers, frozen master Read more…