Well, every now and again, people ask me about the Cafe Racer bikes I work on and sometimes the ones that I create etc.

 

So as today is windy as hell out side with Santa Ana winds and of course, a Sunday afternoon, I thought that before I close for the day, I would do a little video of the back of the shop on the Cafe Racer side and show you the stuff that I still work on, and yes, of course we sell all the Hot Rod parts etc but that video will be on the Hot Rod side and today I am working on My Cafe Racers.

So, the back of the shop we have a few machines in various stages of builds or service etc.

Some are just rolling projects that i have just sold on Ebay, others are some snotters I have had to pick up from mt neighbors back yard and they will remain snotters until such time as I need a donor machine for a New Cafe Racer build.

 

I have a couple that were in for a service, one just needed the air box removed, pod filters fitted and re-jetted, another also had a sticky throttle and one more wanted one of my gas tanks, my seat and rear fender, as well as the awesome sounding 4 into 1 exhaust system we have manufactured.

 

 

So, have a little look, the audio isn’t all that as it is windy as hell today, but, you may get a rough idea whats going on today, and I thought that today you would like to see what we are up to this week and at least that way, you have some insight to how I tick these days.

 

This bike above is a Customers, we used our Rocket 6 Hinged seat base, I hammered the tank and fitted Clubman’s and grips etc, along with new 2.5 Gauges and one of our best selling 4 into 1 exhaust systems.

This is a 1971 CB500 nobody wants, so I am going to strip this and maybe build a little street tracker later on, not right now as to be honest, I am sick of looking at it.

Just a couple of CB750F models, the Black one is for a cafe build for a chap on the East Coast and the other is a carburetor  job on a guys from Australia.

Above is a 1979 D.O.H.C. snotter, that we use for mock up of new exhausts and parts for these models, so stay tuned on the website for that.

This Bright Orange and Blue machine is going to be completely stripped down and turned into a Cool, classic Cafe Racer for a good friend of mine who designed my New Website that will be coming out very soon.

Something different for a change, so Me and my side kick ( Dakota ) are building this cool Street tracker style machine out of a 1978 CB750K model.

This was in rough stock condition, so we are now transforming it to a great looking ride, and yes you are indeed correct, they are Original Lester Rims I am going to be using on this ride.

 

The Black Stealthy Machine you see above is for a very good friend of mine that plays in a well known band, and I am almost completed but will still need to finish a few things this week on it and can deliver it to him, has a 915cc motor too.

 

Well, the ones you see above here is a bike I have almost completed, this bike has bitten me every day, it wants to fight, kick and scratch me with out fail, all the way, it has nearly beaten me on a few occasions , but I refuse to let this bugger beat me.

This has done everything you can think of to me, it cut me, it fell on me, it broke bolts, it refused to have things fit and then when I was 99% completed, it decided to catch fire on the battery and I had to take it all down to the frame and powder coat it again, so, this is and has been the hardest build of my life, although, after all of this, I believe the bike has come to terms with me and now is happy to be a Cafe Racer Motorcycle, rather than a snotty old stocker.

But boy what a trip and of course, when I have completed this build, I  will share it with you on the website.

Below is the video and it is about 8 minutes long, so if I start to bore you, just hit the mute button. Ha Ha.

 

 

 

 

 

Neon signs have always been an interest to me since I was a kid, not sure why, but I think the color and the warmth that it brings on a cold evening is irresistible.

 

 

 

I love old vintage Neon signs, and will eventually get to the old Grave yard up there in Las Vegas to sample some of its bright delights.

 

 

 

So, for this blog, I thought I would search the net and see if there are a few that I like and could share with you lot on here, let me know what you think?

These are such a great piece of American History and sure hope that many districts continue to use the original signage that made America so appealing at night.

Check out some more photos and see what you think of them all.

I love the Indian ones that sometime you see in books or if you are lucky, traveling around the States.

I will try and add more through out the day and evening, so this can really entertain you on here s we try and make the Blog as interesting as we can.

I love the old Plumbers style advertising as they seem to be great fun to look at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some more awesome Neon signs that I wish I could be at each place and check the whole area out.

 

 

 

Well, here we are again and this time, I thought it would be good to add some good old vintage pics from the internet that show classic iron that have had better days.

Plenty to see and thought that this may entertain you for a few minutes at least, as some are Hot Rods, some are just general classic rides that have come to their own misfortune.

You never get to see these vehicles much these days so interesting to look at the cars, and the backgrounds as the buildings, roads and whole lifestyle was different than from today.

This will take some time today as i have to of course work and get other things done, but when I get time, I will add a few more photo’s for you to have a look at and should turn into a nice long blog of unreal photo’s.

What some of us would give for these vehicles, even in this condition, but as we cannot, I guess just scrolling o down the page will at least get you to see some of the unsual photo’s that didn’t make the newspapers in your area.

 

 

I think the Sedan below asked the Carpenter, ” Hey what time tomorrow?”

The Carpenter said. ” Just drop it by the shop in the morning!”.

 

Below I believe is the Anchorage Earthquake?

Dream ride, 2 door Mercury, stoved right in.

” I needed a light down here, I think Joe was thinking a little ahead of everyone else?

” I figured this was the easiest way to change a flat tire”.

You never know what you may catch in that river.

 

” See, I told you I could park it in there”

 

 

 

 

 

ERGH! There is snot on the windshield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I for sure had fun trying to find some of these and keep looking at them when I can .

 

But look at this, How the hell did you get that jammed in there?

 

 

 

 

RIP: Bob Hansen
by staff
Monday, February 18, 2013

Bob Hansen (center) works the gas on Ralph White’s Kawasaki at Talladega in 1971. The WWII vet and legend of 1960s and early 1970s AMA racing died yesterday. image by allen ivings

A true legend of American racing and a pioneer during the push by Japanese companies into the American racing scene, Bob Hansen died yesterday at age 93.

Hansen ran one of the first Honda dealerships outside of California, and was the manager of Honda Racing when they won the Daytona 200 with Dick Mann in 1970. Honda and Hansen split after that win (or, as legend has it, during the race) and Hansen then took up with Kawasaki. He ran Team Hansen Kawasaki for years and enjoyed success with riders Yvon DuHamel, Gary Nixon and Hurley Wilvert, among many others.

Hansen was very active on the vintage motorcycle and racing scene until his death.

 

Bob Hansen	INDUCTED: 1999
Racer, Team Manager, Tuner

Bob Hansen was a key figure in motorcycle racing during the 1960s and ‘70s. He is best known for running the American racing teams for Honda and, later, Kawasaki. Under Hansen’s direction, Honda won its first Daytona 200 in 1970 with Dick Mann at the controls of the CB750. A few years later Hansen headed up Kawasaki’s successful racing team during its early efforts on the U.S. racing scene with riders such as Yvon DuHamel, Paul Smart and Gary Nixon. Hansen had been a well known Midwestern racer during the 1940s and ‘50s and went on to become a much-sought-after tuner before going to Honda in the early 1960s.

Born in Racine, Wisconsin, on Oct. 15, 1919, Hansen first became interested in motorcycles when he was in high school. A school buddy was a motorcyclist and Hansen decided he wanted to try the sport as well. At 16, and with little money, his solution was to buy a 1931 74-cubic-inch Harley-Davidson totally disassembled in a bushel basket. Hansen and his buddy never quite completed the restoration of the old Harley, but they got close enough that Hansen was able to work out a deal with the Racine Harley-Davidson dealer to trade in the partially completed bike on a newer 45-cubic-inch model. At times, his motorcycle was his only form of transportation and Hansen rode year-round, even in the brutal Wisconsin winters, by mounting a sidecar on his Harley.

Hansen joined the local motorcycle club and became quite involved in the club’s activities. One of the primary activities was racing. By the time he was 18 years old, Hansen was competing in just about every form of motorcycle racing, from hillclimbing to TT and flat track races.

“Those were the true early days of Class C racing,” Hansen explained. “We would ride our motorcycles to the races, strip them down for the race, then put them back together afterwards and ride them home.”

After serving in World War II, Hansen resumed racing and earned a national number. He raced mainly in the Midwest, but occasionally ventured farther, such as the annual trek to Daytona every spring.

By the late 1950s, Hansen was tuning for and sponsoring several racers primarily on BSAs. By 1960, Hansen had opened a motorcycle dealership in Racine and was one of the first dealers in the Midwest to sell Honda motorcycles, which were being imported into the United States for the first time. Hansen became a Honda dealer and was soon asked to set up a regional parts warehouse, which he did in Racine. For a time, Hansen was in charge of setting up many of the earliest Honda dealerships in the Midwest. Still in love with racing, Hansen, without Honda’s knowledge, built a few Honda race bikes that were successfully raced in Canada as early as 1962. Honda politely asked him to quit building the race bikes when customers began calling Honda to get these Japanese-only models for themselves. He continued to move up the ladder at Honda and he eventually moved to the company’s headquarters in Southern California to head up the service department.

While with Honda, Hansen headed up several racing efforts with the company’s lightweight and middleweight motorcycles. Most notable was a semi-factory Honda effort at Daytona in 1967 with a trio of HRC-prepared CB450s.

When Honda introduced its revolutionary CB750, it wanted to prove the speed and reliability of the new machine by racing in the 1970 Daytona 200. Hansen was given the responsibility of heading up the effort on the American side. Hansen recalls that the CB750s (of which there were four factory entries) had plenty of speed, but there was a problem with the cam-chain tensioner on the high-speed Daytona circuit. After the problem was discovered, Hansen made the decision to keep Mann off the bike during the final day of practice so that the machine could be totally rebuilt. Mann’s bike was the only factory Honda to go the distance and he won the race over the Triumphs of Gene Romero and Don Castro despite the Honda having less than a half-quart of oil left in the engine at the finish.

Just a few months after Honda’s victory at Daytona, Hansen accepted an attractive offer to work for Kawasaki. That company wanted to establish a name in racing as well and felt that Hansen would be the right person to coordinate its racing efforts. It proved to be a good decision. Under Hansen’s guidance, Kawasaki won its first AMA national with Yvon DuHamel, and became a powerhouse in U.S. racing.

While at Kawasaki, Hansen also served as vice president of the AMA’s competition committee, the rules-making body for racing. Hansen was also the U.S. delegate on the F.I.M. road racing committee.

By the mid-1970s, Hansen had moved out of the motorcycle industry. After a short stint with the Italian manufacturer, Laverda, Hansen made his living in real estate.

When inducted in 1999, Hansen kept up with his interest in motorcycles by restoring collector bikes and acting as a consultant for Heritage Racing, Honda’s vintage racing division. He also is in demand at various racing gatherings to give talks on his days in racing.

Bob Hansen died Feb. 17, 2013. He was 93.