Once upon a time in the mid-nineties, there was an article on a bike in Iron Horse magazine (not to be confused with the off-shoot magazine The Horse). Iron Horse magazine was the modern chopper magazine of the time, years before everyone saw Jesse James on Discovery Channel, back when choppers were still dirty and NOT welcome at many motorcycles shows.
Personally, I thought nearly all issues of Iron Horse magazine which had David Snow as the editor pretty much fucking ruled. Then there was this guy named Flynch who wrote for the mag as well and built this 4speed swingarm framed shovel HFB, Hell's Fuckin' Belle:
This was some years before we starting seeing this similar style being done overseas (and influenced many stateside to do the same). I mean, I ain't saying Flynch "made it up" or some shit like that, English Don had done something along those lines with the Babylon Taxi (especially after the tall apes were taken off of it). But man, back then and still today, originality really made this bike stand out. Tight package, swing arm mounted rear fender, sprung solo seat, homemade foot controls out of round stock, etc.
It's still stuck in my brain. Lines were being crossed, cultures were starting to clash and ever so slightly mix. This wasn't biker-bro stuff, I didn't know what it was but it felt pretty punk.
So I don't mean to be magazine scanner guy, you don't see too much of that going on here at COC, but I just thought I'd throw this up because Flynch been popping his head up again around these parts. Hi Flynch!
18 comments:
Babylon Taxi! Wasn't that that fuckin cool yellow-black bike? Man, loved that bike. Got any photos of that?
Maybe this post will influence modern builds.
I appreciate metal flake and the 60's show bike thing when done on, well, 60's show bikes. But what still comes to mind when I think "chopper" is a bike that's tough like this thing.
I'm not going to claim I knew to look to the Flynch year's of Iron Horse before you pointed them out to me 6 or 7 years ago, but I sure agree; a lot of the bikes he featured and Flynch wrote about are those that still speak loudest to me.
Have to agree, was riding with a bunch of folks last week on all kinds of head turners but the one that blew my mind was a simple black dirty pan that said so much more than all the bells n whistles.
One could even buy used/complete narrow glide front ends (35's and 39's!) for $100 all day in the 90's. Kinda like how wide glides aren't so popular now.
Yeah, this bike is neato! I got pictures of the Babylon Taxi - of course! I have every copy of Iron Horse that David Snow was the editor of... all neatly kept!
Flynch was/is the best.
Total hero.
flip that patch!
Flynch asked me to post this for him:
Fuck I can’t comment without being a Google Blogger…Fuckkk I know been meaning to start the end all of be all motorcycle blogs…add that to the list….right under take time to set down to shit…next time…
Right before I built that version of that bike, was my favorite version…or most functional anyway…it had short shocks and a cut down Superglide fender that was mounted to the swingarm. I had been running the small Superglide tank but it leaked around the petcock…the Pingle petcock vibrated and caused miniature leaks that couldn’t be seen or fixed; no amount of tank sealer or JB weld worked…the moving swingarm and superglide fender kept cracking. But it was fast and handled better than Four speed framed bike should have. (I had no clue about setting up suspensions, just got lucky.)
I built those forward controls based on my Buddy Mike’s (black and white Shovel chopper featured in ih….I painted it twice more since then…he still has it…he makes knives in Wilmington Ohio now…kinda famous for it too..) Mike’s bike was originally a Factory Wide Glide and the foot controls set up and farther back with more ground clearance…so I liked them…but a bike that low rubbed everything anyway…I just got used to grinding…and hanging off the bike Sport bike like…it was no wonder I took to sport bikes so easily…I was always looking for that metal to blacktop connection….
I remember riding with Pete and his buddies and his buddies being shocked that such a dirty bike belonged to guy who wrote for a magazine…Pete got it, and thought it was funny…Pete would say things like, “try to keep up with him!” Well except when I broke down….I sold that bike, (bought my house, ) and that bike didn’t break down anymore…it still looks like that except I painted it for the current owner…
I keep thinking about building another Shovelhead, that bike was such a hill climber…it felt faster going uphill than down. I would do many things differently…but I always have a fond memory of the HFB…(my wife cried when I sold it….my MiL was in shock when she saw it…it looked gnarly and it was…I parked it under a car port at my house and there was huge oil spot and booger welds on the rear exhaust bracket because I kept knocking it loose on The Beechmont levy exit ramp.)
There were no one doing anything cool then...no scene, no home fabricators, no cool music scenes, no novel named parties... just Custom Chrome, Pat Kennedy, Grizz Beerepoot and ih. Hell Indian Larry, Steg and Englishman changed shops and names of their comanies every other month...those fuckers who have signed autographs of Indian larry now wouldn't have pissed in a cup for him then. The NYC bikes were my favorite...those beat up hard ridden rigids...mis-matched wheels and narrow glides!
BTW, I am using Mike Seates front fender off his superglide as the rear fender on my latest bike...will be posting them soon on Bird's blog.
Flynch
Nice!
Flip the patch!
"the blog to end all blogs!"
Loved and not....RIP Iron Horse.
perfect
The old Iron Horse was the catsmeow, man. i have a big ol box full of them. all the way back to the late 70's i think.i think my fav bike from those days was Joel Otto's FXR with the big weber carb coming out of the middle of the gas tank
Joel's FXR feature was actually requested by another! I was planning on posting it in my FXR and Dyna series of stuff. You'll all see it soon!
Well, since you're taking requests... let me put in a request for the featrure of Tom Roses warpig then... I never got a copy of that issue!
I really miss the old "Biker Lit Crit" they published shredding all other bike mags. Ruled.
v.m.o.t. forever
The NYC bikes were my favorite...those beat up hard ridden rigids...mis-matched wheels and narrow glides!
god damm right nyc for life
dude! i was gonna ask if anyone remembered joel otto's insane FXR. that thing ruled on so many levels. that all chrome panhead that they featured was pretty rad too.
i recall that FXR, it that had a downdraft, 4-barrel WTF carb - that went through the damn tank...ha!
I talked to Chris Pfouts at the flat track race last night. Apparently after some legal wrangling Dave Snow is out again at Iron Horse and Mike Hendrix is gonna be the new editor. Magazine politics are weird.
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