More than you may care to know about me:

Over the past few weeks or so Trent and I have been passing emails back and forth as well as a few phone calls in an attempt to put together a nice and somewhat informative interview. I can't say I made it easy for him given my mindless yet nostalgic ramblings at times. All said I think Trent put together a pretty fun interview. Thank you Trent, it was a pleasure!!!

. Link to: BikerMetric on Speed Shop Design... and bad hair!

Step #2

Set up your jig:

Merry Christmas Everyone!

... okay, now go wash the vomit out of your mouth :P

Choppers are Dead!

...or so they say ;)

Vegas Baby!!!

This past Friday I flew down to Vegas to set the Beezerker up at a new mens lifestyle store named Stitched inside the all new Cosmopolitan Hotel.





The bike is on display and consignment with a couple of bikes you may recognize.



This little KTM is pretty awesome!



Window side on the strip:



The grand opening of the hotel and the store is Dec. 15th with a New Years eve party to trump all Vegas parties.

I see you!

I have been busy going through and crossing things off a punch list of little things I wanted to tweak on the Beezerker. The biggest item was getting rid of the capacitor and replacing it with a small custom lithium-ion battery I had made. Now the halogen bulb lights up nice and bright!

Japan, Spring, Day 8

Step #1

Find yourself a motor:

Geeking Out!

I had a breakfast of champions yesterday...



Then off to the Sci-Fi museum where I saw the Battlestar Galactica exhibit.
Yes, I am a total geek and proud of it!

Sometimes Smaller is Better!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on the Triton frame. Lots of cutting and grinding to remove all the engine mounts and tabs as well as all the cross members.



I never really liked how unit engined Triton's look with all that space around the engine, not to mention the ridiculously large alloy plates used to couple frame and engine.

Before:



So I had this crazy idea to cut 2.5" out of the frame to tighten up the front triangle as well as allow me to lengthen the swing arm while maintaining the perfect wheelbase.

After:





I am very, very happy with how the proportions look now!

roundy round...

Spent some time working on the Triton today. The fork is an old school leading link design and I want more torsional rigidity out of the front axle so it can act as the bridge to keep the leading links aligned perfectly and kept from moving independently.



First step was digging out the old Sportster wheel I had laying around remove the stock bearings. Then I cut out the hub so I could chuck it up on the lathe to fit these suckers:


The bearings have a 2"OD and a 1"ID. Once the hub was out and on the lathe I bored out the through bore of the casting to accept the much larger bearing spacer.



Next step was to remove the existing flanges that held the dust seals



and face the brake mounting surface in preparation to re-bore the bearing seats.





Once the bearing seats were carved in I decided I wanted to sculpt the hub flanges a little. Gave them a little more of a bicycle hub look by rounding out the flanges. Not sure if you are even going to see these behind the duel discs but it is in the details, right?

Special #6 is looking for a new home...

Unfortunately it is time for her to move on. I recently upgraded her with a new lithium ion battery and a new aluminum battery box that not only holds the battery but now there is room for some tools... something I always wanted to add to the bike. I will miss her but I need to get moving on next years AMD World Champion ;)

Special #6 on Ebay

Bruce and Brandon

Went to visit Bruce and Brandon Lee and wish them well. They are missed!

Finally we have shirts!

I apologize for this taking so long but we finally have t-shirts. Our first order was totally screwed up and printed incorrectly but the second batch came out great. We ended up using a couple more colors than we first expected so there are some choices. The options are:

Medium in Light Grey only
Large in Light Grey, Sand, and Light Blue
X Large in Sand and Light Blue

For those who wanted shirts please let me know your preference. The cost is $18.00 with shipping for the first shirt, $15.00 each after that.

Please send me an email to reserve your shirt and receive my paypal info.

I will contact those that have already emailed me to confirm your order.

Thanks for your patience everyone!

Chris

the Beezerker captured

I know I have lots to catch up on for the past few months have been busy and my posts spotty at best. A month or so ago I rented a crazy big studio space and my friend Ron shot some absolutely beautiful images of the bike. We are planning on selling a
limited number of prints on the web site if people are interested.

Link to Ron's work

Side View

Front View

Rear View

It's nice when people find your work inspirational!

http://www.waboo.org

Chris on the hot seat at AMD :)

I just realized this video is on line now. While at AMD I was interviewed by the AMD crew about the Beezerker. I hate being in front of the camera like that because my mind goes absolutely blank. After all was said and done I realized I forgot to talk about some of the coolest features of the bike like the exhaust in the frame and the mechanical disc brake... oh well!? I think they made a nice little video.

Beezerker T-shirts in the works

It's been just over a week since we got back from Sturgis. Life is starting to get back to some resemblance of normal. Finally taking some time to work on little projects that took a back seat to getting the bike done. I had all the best intentions of getting some Beezerker t-shirts made before AMD but that just didn't happen. Normally I burn screens and print them on the kitchen table. This time around I will have someone else make them so I can focus on other Speed Shop projects. I drew this a while ago and thought it would make a cool shirt. Not sure what the final color selection will be but it will be basic one color printing on a solid color T. If anyone wants a shirt I'll sell them for cost plus shipping, probably between 10-15 bucks depending on the number I order. Just let me know size and quantity... I'll place my order in a couple of weeks.

No longer an AMD newbie!

After driving through the night we are back in Seattle safe and sound.

It was an amazing time and I met so many wonderful people from around the world.

We did really well and are very happy to bring home some big ass trophies.

The Beezerker won 2nd place in the Metric World Championship and 5th in the over all Freestyle World Championship. Even Special #6 had a great response and finished 14th in the Freestyle World Championship.

I will post images once I have a chance to download them but now it's time to sleep ;)

Until then check it out here:

http://www.amdchampionship.com/

A long but wonderful week end

It was a long road trip week end with a total of about 2500 miles covered and two days of motorcycles, great people, good food, and wonderful times. As I mentioned the show was as successful as we could have hoped for but what was most exciting for Lynn and I was being able to tour Chabott and Falcon and then go out to dinner with Shinya, Ayu, Ian, and Amaryllis for a little pre-birthday celebration. Yah, I turn forty on Friday and I am looking forward to having a nice quiet night out with my sweet heart Lynn after having such a crazy past week end. In a few weeks, after AMD, I think we are going to be able to relax a bit more and have a nice gathering with friends and family.

I am surprised how quickly news of the Beezerker spread on the net. I have even seen a number of write ups over seas. I knew this bike was going to push the boundaries of motorcycle design but I did not expect such extremes. Those that appreciate it and get it really dig it but those that don't agree with my creation hate it with a passion. I am finding it all very exciting!

This year at Long Beach

Lynn and I are back safe and sound from Long Beach and I am happy to say we did what we set out to do, win best of show. We had a great trip, a bit too hot and a bit long at times but well worth it. I'll spend some time sharing details with you later but right now it's time to get my PJ's on and head to bed, we are exhausted!

Beware the "Beezerker"

It's been 11 months in the works and it's finally ready to rear its head. I present to you the "Beezerker"

What you looking at is a 1965 BSA A65 motor, fully rebuilt. I designed and built everything else. Some of the interesting details are; the headers that enter into the frame under the motor and then exit out the very back under the tail light, the down tube is the oil tank, fabricated sheet metal girder fork, twist clutch, cast stainless steel grips from my Schwinn mag scrambler, aluminum tank and tail, killer leather seat with real tuck and roll by my friend Attila, SU carb, mechanical rear disc brake. As usual with me all the parts are free-style machined out of aluminum or stainless steel.

Lynn and I are heading to Long Beach bright and early in the morning for the LA Calendar show.... we are shooting for best of show this year!

I'll talk more about all the little things but I need to get some shut eye ;)

Thanks for all your patiance, I hope it was worth the wait. Chris

The Little Bits

Lots and lots of little bits! I have been wet sanding and buffing paint for what seams like forever and now I get to put the Beezerker together. Still probably have close to 100 hours of sanding and hand polishing on the tank and tail piece before we head down to Cali for the Long Beach show.

The old Yam is for sale!

I just got the heads up from the current owner of the XS650 I build years ago that it's on the chopping block.

Please pass the word!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_rdc=1&item=280525197027&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.com%3A80%2F%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp3907.m570.l1313%26_nkw%3D280525197027%26_sacat%3DSee-All-Categories%26_fvi%3D1&viewitem=

A body of work!

Today I finished the fabrication of the body work and I am so relieved! This is the first time I have ever made anything out of aluminum sheet metal and I have to say it was a bit of a challenge. I did something a little unusual in that I kept most of the edges really sharp. I like the stealthy look of it and it will really compliment the sheet metal fork as well. Originally I intended to make the seat and tank one piece all welded together but after experiencing how much stresses will cause some welded areas to crack I decided it would be best to fasten them together. The vertical seam matches a detail on the fork which will help pull it all together.