The Projects
THE PROJECTS
UP FRONT
EDITOR'S LETTER
JUST FINISH THEM, RIGHT?
They say the hardest part of the job is usually getting started, but I think finishing a custom bike build is much more difficult. At least, that’s how it is for me.
Being down at Mule Motorcycles’ San Diego-area headquarters in Richard Pollack’s suburban two-car garage in the last few months has given me a lot of inspiration for my own never-ending 1973 Yamaha RD350 custom. I started this two-stroke project with a rattedout and neglected bike I found on eBay and used for our “Grand Tour” feature (August ’05), the basic premise for which was $1,000 bikes on a 1,000-mile ride.
As can happen with eBay, the bike was much rougher in life than in photos, but I didn’t find that out until it came off the delivery truck from San Francisco. And how could I send the bike back to this malevolent Bay Area bike dealer who’d allowed it to rust and die so ingloriously?
Well, there was that and we had a deadline to meet. So I went with it. Turned out the bike was pretty ugly but essentially solid and functional with normal tune-up and rehab work. It ran great for the 1,000 miles except for that one time I ran the oil-injection tank dry... But I caught it quickly, poured more oil in, and it lived to finish.
That’s good bones, right there.
With the RD’s poor cosmetics, it didn’t make sense to rebuild this one to stock, so I decided to go with a TZ350-inspired build. First step was shipping the engine back to Kevin Cameron’s shop, home of how many thousands of RD/TZ rebuilds?
KC ported to his heart’s content, I located new transmission internals, and then Kevin disappeared into the shelving. He came back with fancy silver-plated big-end bearings, approved for race use, to replace those pedestrian “streetbike” parts. Sweet!
I located a longer alloy swingarm and bought some flat-slide carbs. New, wider alloy rims were laced to polished stock
hubs. I toyed with alternate fork ideas and shopped for bodywork.
And then I froze, daunted by the sheer amount of research and potential rework of components.
Which is why I so admire builders who work so hard to figure all the details out while creating stunning pieces of rolling art.
There is a lot that separates a builder/ finisher from a hobbyist welder/ fabricator/fiberglass chopper like me. While a dedicated shop, special tools, and knowing the right people to assist surely helps, it’s the mad drive to get it done that is so important and what is actually lacking in the “rest” of us.
As spring turns into summer, I hope to recapture the drive to go along with the dream of a custom RD worthy of “World’s Coolest Bikes.”
Along similar lines, CWhas a long history with customs dating all the way back to the 1962 founding of the magazine by Joe Parkhurst. Today, with customs and design-inspired production bikes and gear being one of the richest parts of our sport, I am delighted to announce the addition of Custom &
Style Editor Paul d’Orléans. I first met Paul through CW’s Rolling Concours in Sonoma 15 years ago. Since then, he’s built an excellent blog (thevintagent. com) and written several books including The Chopper: The Real Story, excerpted in this issue (page 58). He also hosts the Motorcycle Film Festival and curated or co-curated several worldclass motorcycle exhibits. You can see examples of Paul’s tintype photographs he does with Susan McLaughlin in the “Chopper” story.
He also rides the hell out of his vintage bikes, including a magnificent 1928 Sunbeam TT90 racer. Look for his work in our pages and on cycleworld.com.
MARK HOYER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
THIS MONTH'S STATS
50 HORSEPOWER THE RD SHOULD MAKE AFTER KEVIN CAMERON’S PORTING
12 WORLD’S COOLEST BIKES FEATURED THIS MONTH
0 NUMBER OFTIMES THE WORD “ICONIC” IS USED
