A bit of history and a few pictures of my latest "project"...
As far as I can remember, I've always wanted to ride a
motorcycle... maybe because my father was leaving to work every morning
with his and so was my brother (10 years older). I must have bugged the
Hell out my folks, cause on my 14th birthday I got the surprised of a brand
new moped in the garage! (A moped is the only 2 wheels you can ride at
14 in Europe)
Of course, I was not too thrilled about the model...
[ ingrat bastard you're gonna say! But let's put things in perspective for a minute... imagine you're in High School, dreaming about getting some wheels to get around and your parents (bless their heart) surprise you with the latest Volvo Station Wagon model! (Although I have to admit that Volvo made some major improvements on their looks, but it still ain't a corvette!) ]...and because of the model, I was not thrilled about the bright red choice of color! But hey, it was on 2 wheels and it had a running motor. A couple of embarassing remarks gave me enough courage to buy some spray paint and give "Rudolph" a nose a bit less noticeable. My parents were furious (I guess black was not their favorite color...???), but my wheels looked much less like an "eye-sore"! (If you actually own a station wagon and are in High School, you should try it... black makes everything look good!)
It was the 80's ... so forgive the white rabbit fur seat!
An encounter with the hood of a car in 1982 put an end to the life of that baby... and gave me my first broken leg!
I got a couple more mopeds before I had to leave for military duty in 1985, right after College.
Sent to East Africa after the initial 3 months training
in the French winter (that was a 75 degrees F jump in case you care to
know!) it did not take long til the bug of riding took me again. I first
got a small 125cc (yea, yea a jap! No HD in that neck of the woods!) to
ride around the desert, but I soon realized that you can't go very far
with a 2 gallon tank! So I got serious and bought a 600 Tenere with a 9
gallon tank... and started to do some real riding, crossing the desert.
I brought that bike back in France when my 2 years of
"fun" ended, but it did not fit right in the city. So I sold it and got
a brand new Honda VT 500, black and chrome... still a jap, but a V-Twin
this time. A color blind jerk, ran into me as I crossed an intersection
one evening and destroyed that pony.
I sold the "remains" and bought a used Honda 750 CB with
the intention of building a chopper... but an unsuccessul try at cutting
a car in half took care of that idea in a jiffy.
Finally... my first real bike came along! An 84 Sportster Evo shined its way to my heart (and my wallet... this is Europe still!).
This was the time I joined what was gonna become the CENTAURES... but that's another subject.
In the Winter of 1991, I sold my baby to one of my clan brothers and used the money to buy my ticket to the US...
After many moons spent on the land of the free, I came accross what this page is all about (about stinking time ain't it?), a 1965 Sportster in the rough (to be polite), and decided to make it my new ride.
I was in Colorado at the time (1997) and I rode that thing "as is" for a while before bad weather helping (lots of rain in the winter/spring/summer of 1998), the dirt roads to my ranch became unrideable. By the time the roads became rideable again, my wife and I decided to move to Florida...
After we moved to Florida, the gorgeous weather inspired me to give the old Sporty a face lift and an engine overall... and get what I always wanted: A black Harley!
I found just the right guy to help me realize my dream:
Dallas "Ray" Cason, proud owner of "Thunder Bay" Custom Cycles, Inc.
We discussed my ideas and he gave me about 35 LBs of
catalogs to start looking at parts.
Here is the end result, after $12,000 worth of labor and parts:
