to move up and down
Green Death Panhead
starting to look like a proper panhead again! Hard to believe this is what the heads looked like before I dropped them off for an acid bath…
finally starting to put humpty dumpty back together again!
Ed’s garage gets some amazing afternoon light, and it seems he’s got every tool on earth just arms-length away. If Shangri-La is an earthly paradise isolated from the outside world—I’ve found it.
Look ma, I finally cleaned something on my bike!
The rear gasket came of fairly clean when I removed the barrel, but the front one fought Me. Every. Inch. Of. The. Way. Two hours and four band-aids later it’s ready for reassembly.
Fingers crossed my shit comes in this week.
my grandmother told me that her mom is one of the ladies sitting on the motorcycle, but she’s not not sure which one…
and neither of us can decide if that’s snow or sand—it is in Wisconsin so it could be either!
it may be, on some days-but I am here to tell you
that fast is better. I’ve always believed this, in
spite of the trouble it’s caused me. Being shot
out of a cannon will always be better than being
squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made
fast motorcycles, Bubba…"
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
March, 1995
tried on some swingarm sportster fender options last weekend—obviously some are working better than others!
From this pic you can see how my father-in-law Johnny Martinez was the primary influence for my panhead’s ridiculous tank lift.
That’s Johnny on the left with his rigid Sportster, while his nephew Junior (R.I.P.) is standing behind Johnny’s green panhead. Johnny sold off his panhead to help buy that house behind them in 1978.
That pretty little girl on the right is Johnny’s daughter, and I’m lucky enough to get to call her my better half nowadays.
this thread on the adventure rider forum is freaking awesome.
the photo above of Kenny Erie blasting off is but the tip of the iceberg—you won’t believe what these maniacs were doing on their panheads back in the 1950s!!!
So yeah, this is what well-worn panheads look like underneath the pans…or at least this is what they look like when they get dropped off at Hannan’s machine shop for a much-needed refresh.
I can’t wait to see what they look like when they come out!!!
I should have done this a year ago, but I was having way too much fun riding ‘er…
#unplug #unscrew #unbolt #unseal #uncover #underneath #unleash the beast
Tramp XLCR Sportster…another one for my Crippler inspiration file…
Sick KR road racer…definitely inspirational for my sportster project, but I don’t think I’d go this cafe…
The Crippler was my first Harley, and the first bike I ever really wrenched on confidently thanks to the Moto 80 class I took at CCSF. This should be the second class every motorcycle rider takes, right after the safety class.
I became the caretaker of my panhead project a year ago, after owning and learning and fucking up and keeping this ironhead ripping around for five years.
I never meant to neglect my first love, but getting the pan running again and keeping her on the road did take up about 500 man hours over the first year…
Now that the pan is well sorted, I’m going to get back into the XLCH to sort the rear fender and fix all the shit I fucked up the first few times I messed with it. If you’re bummed to see Sportster photos on a panhead blog, you should probably unfollow now.
the video of how they created this poster is epic, go watch it now.
