reader submittal

UPDATE: The Latest from Travis at Iron Spade Cycles in TX

A fw folks were asking in the comments about the location of Iron Spade Cycles. I found this on a forum:

Hey guys, my name is Travis and I am the sole owner of Iron Spade Cycles here in Port Lavaca TX. I specialize in building cafe racers, street trackers and drag bikes from vintage British and Japanese makes. I tend to build only the bikes I would ride personally so I feel I’ve done most of my clients justice in building the perfect example of their expectations.

Travis Lawson (who’s bikes have been on these pages before) sends in his latest build! Outstanding!

Steve, here are a few pictures I took this morning about a half hour before my client came to pick up his bike. It’s a 1973 Honda CB350F with 5800 original miles on the clocks. It was in pretty rough shape when I started the project back around Christmas of last year, but the end result was worth the wait. Damn near every part on this bike has been touched in some way to make it better. A laundry list of parts were stripped, powder coated and or painted while others were polished or replaced. Rough estimates of weight saved from parts cut off or omitted is about 55lbs. If it wasn’t absolutely necessary to make the bike run, it was removed to save weight. The engine was left basically stock other than the hand made exhaust canister, the Dyna-S ignition and the pod air cleaners. We did bump up the jetting for the increased airflow but that is about it. I know these little bikes can go 100K miles with regular maintenance but any major mods would only hurt the longevity so we stripped her of excess weight instead. Just this morning I stretched her legs and ran up to 105 MPH before shutting her down to take these pictures. Pretty impressive considering I’m 6’2″ and 260lbs. My client is a bit younger, 75 lbs lighter and in much better shape than I am, he should have a ball riding her around the coastal area where he lives.

Anyway I just thought you’d enjoy these pictures. Now I’m back to focusing on another client’s cafe project, a 1979 Kawasaki KZ650 with a Wiseco 810cc big bore kit. Those pictures will be in a few weeks. Talk soon Travis

Some really excellent reader submittals (with a cool car thrown in)…

I know I don’t do cars but this one fits the post..

Reader Jim Jenne sent in some shots of a stretched Hyabusa that he saw at an Italian sh… well here his original e-mail and post…

A week or so ago I went to the Wheels Of Italy show in Minneapolis..There was lots of cool Italian stuff there, but at the back of the lot sat this thing, I do not know what it is or who did it but thought it was very cool and thought I would send it in…Jim, Thanks for the great site!

Now this is a cool bike in it’s ow right but I answered that “There is a big cult following for these bikes and I generally don’t cover them on my blog very much as there are already a lot of folks who do. No offense but I’d LOVE to see more photos of the Italian bikes.”

I suspected that if Jim wasn’t too familiar about the Busa that he must know his really old Italian iron.. And he was kind enough to oblige!

Hey Steve…I will have some photos for you in a year or so…I just picked up a 250 Ducati Scrambler…

… I also just sold my 28 year project a 1957 Stanguellini 1100 Sports Racer, which I miss… my plan, to build a Café Racer that looks like the Stanguellini…should be a fun project!…I have been collecting ideas and plan to start soon…Jim

Wow that’s a nice car… you must have really wanted that scrambler!

Anyway then we struck gold..
Here are a few shots of Italian stuff from a trip to Monterey 2010…Jim

Great Stuff Jim! Thanks much and keep us posted on you Scrambler project!

Really interesting Museum / Collection of bikes.

Thanks to Kenneth Pantling who writes in with an interesting album…

This place is in North Walsham, Norfolk, UK, about 6 miles from where I live. It is really the storage area/collection for a couple of guys who do restorations. They charge a very modest amount just to look around but it’s worth every penny.

Norfolk Motorcycle Museum

A Stunning Cafe (or Kaffee) Moto Guzzi!

I´d be very happy if you´d post my latest project on your famous site.

This custom cafe racer was built for an english customer- John Purser (JP).
The donor bike was his old T3 California. The wasted fat lady was reborn as a skinny supermodel (180kg dryweight)- only the frame lost 3kg of needless metal.
The engine was modified to LM 850 specs, ALL components on the bike are handcrafted. I even modified the few aftermarket parts, to match the optics.
Shocks are Ikon, fork is of a Le Mans 3 with new tubes and FAC dampers. I built a minimal electrical system including a motogadget instrument, electronic ignition and dyna coils.

“Kaffeemaschine” (coffee machine) is my company, building unique cafe racers and bespoke bikes, based on the classic Guzzi V2-engine and frame.
I´d be very glad if you would mention and link my webside “www.kaffee-maschine.net“.

If you have any more questions or need more info, don´t hesitate to contact me.

Best regards from Hamburg/Germany,
Axel Budde

Congratulations on a beautiful build and thank you for the photos!

Reader submittal. A nice slideshow from the UK.

I’m a newbie to the blog but I’m enjoying it very much. These pictures were taken at local meetings here in Norfolk UK on two successive years. I hope they’re of interest, I’m afraid I’m not much of a photographer.

Kenneth Pantling

Nice shots Kenneth! Thanks Much! I like the Scott Flying Squirrel! Well ahead of it’s time!

A nice reader gallery from the 2010 Mid Ohio show.

Vince Fyie sent in a collection of great pics from the 2010 Mid Ohio motorcycle show/races/swapmeet as well as some nice shots of his granddaughter racing on the Salt Flats for the first time. This is a bit of an experiment with the gallery function. Hope it works OK.. Please let me know if this acts up on any browsers or assorted phones and devices out there and I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks folks!