Saturday, June 30, 2012

Stussy x NEIGHBORHOOD - Boneyards II: Conspiracy with Trevelen

I met Trevelen back in '04, when he had his shop on 5th St. in Downtown L.A., near the toy and garment districts, and right on the edge of Little Tokyo. Shortly after that, that whole area was going through a "gentrification", with art galleries, coffee houses, and clubs moving into the area. Subsequently, Trev's rent on the shop went from $.75/sq.ft. to some astronomical amount, like $5.00/sq.ft. in the space of about a year. I remember walking with Trev from that shop over to this killer deli for lunch one visit, and he was giving us (Part-timer Steve and Frank Kaisler were with me) the "guided tour" of the neighborhood - "Yeah, man, this used to be a whore house....this was a crack house.....this was a shooting gallery....".

Shortly thereafter, Trevelen relocated his shop to another Downtown location, right near the corner of 15th and Santa Fe. If you've ever seen the movie To Live And Die In L.A., the big car chase scene goes over the Santa Fe overpass, and right down 15th, past Trev's alley, the steel scrap yard, and the Blue Star Cafe, where we'd go for breakfast every morning when I was visiting. Trev even had an omelet on the Blue Star's menu named after him - The Superco Omelet. While he was at this shop location, Scott Craig and Michael Berrigan were also subletting some shop space, too, that's how big of a shop Trevelen had. It was during that time that Trevelen's dad Benji came from Hawaii to help out at the shop. I could sit for hours listening to Benji's stories, and I did a piece on him several years ago for my blog, you can read it here:

Also, right down Santa Fe from the shop was the boxing club Trev supported - the L.A. Boxing Club, to give the young kids in the neighborhood something positive in their lives. Trev was always big on programs like this, and did public appearances at the schools and youth centers stressing the "no drugs/no gangs" philosophy. Trevelen was the perfect positive example for these kids, himself having gone through the very same things that these kids faced every day, taken a couple heavy falls in the process, and having turned his life around for the better.

Trevelen was a pretty successful guy in the bike biz, and had a lot of feature bikes in the magazines, and I'm sure you remember those - El Guapo, El Jefe to name a few, and his Discovery Channel Biker Buildoff winners Pelegroso (vs. Scott Long) and Crazy Horse (vs. Paul Cox). Trev also had his hands in a bunch of interesting projects at that time - films, clothing, and books to name a few.

Well, Trevelen reached a saturation point (read philosophical disenchantment, and burnout) in the biz about 4 years or so ago, and decided to take a break form it all. He closed up the Downtown shop, married his longtime companion Liz (who's a total sweetheart), and bought a house in So. Pasadena, right near Occidental College. The house had a pretty big garage, and Trev didn't totally stop building bikes, only now he was building for a select few, at a much more sedate and creative pace, which fit him just fine.

The above clip is part of an ongoing project Trevelen has been working on for years. It involves a film and a book on the history of the Chicano bikers in East L.A., and their place in the whole biker history of So. California. I'm really ashamed to say, I haven't talked to Trev in over a year, and I have no idea if he ever finished the project or not. Matter of fact, I'm going to call him right after I post this, to just say hello and find out how he is. It's a terrible thing when you let work and life get in the way of friendships.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Anybody have a set of these?

Anybody know of a decent workable, repairable set of these Buco Twinmaster saddlebags for sale? I always loved the way these bags were shaped, and they actually look good on a rigid framed bike, too - not too big, not too small.
These bags found their way onto not only Harleys, but Beemers, Hondas, and a bunch of other makes/models. There are quite a few "surviving" sets out there, repops are available, and the guy on Ebay that wants $999.00 for a NOS set (without hangers) is out of his fucking mind!
They don't have to be as pristine as this set (actually, these examples are currently available repops), but a set that could use some TLC - by that I mean not a set that somebody smashed the side out of with a hammer, or slid on them for 50ft down the highway. They don't have to have the hangers, as I'll have to make my own anyways, and the lights aren't a necessity, either. But, as complete as possible as far as latches go, although there are repop replacements available, on those, too. Let me know what you have.....Fatbob, got a line on any?
irishrich@shamrockfabrication.com

Going through some old papers.......

......trying to straighten up this firetrap a little, and ran across this article. Forgot I had it.
Oh, that whackey guy.......

Monday, June 11, 2012

Remember Tommy's rigid frame to swingarm conversion?

It's been a while since we did any work on Tommy's frame. Tommy has been working along with me on this, and he's been in and out of town on business the last couple months, but he'll be back here for a nice stretch now, so we're on the project again.

It all started a couple months ago, when Tommy was saying his back injuries over the years weren't liking his hardtail frame anymore, and wanted to know if we could transfer his Evo and 5 speed into a 4 speed-style swingarm frame from Paughco. I told him I had a swingarm section out back, and we could splice that into his frame, and he could keep his title and registration intact - his VIN #'s are stamped across the front engine mount.

Tommy had seen a couple frames I'd replaced the necks on with the OEM-style necks from John @ Hardtail Choppers, and wanted to know if we could replace his custom neck with one. I said "Sure, and while we're at it, let's get John to do one in stainless, and we might as well throw in a pair of his stainless sidecar loops while we're at it!". Tommy said "Yeah, why not?". That started the whole thing rolling......
If you want to catch up on how we got to here on the frame, see these previous posts:
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2012/01/dalai-lama.html
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2012/01/boo-yaaa.html
Shot of the new stainless 30 degree neck and sidecar loops, new 1 1/8" dia. downtubes, and a short section of new backbone, all in place. We kept to "stock" dimensions on everything - no "up and out". Now we can take it back apart, drill the plug weld holes we need, then send the neck and sidecar loops out to Jose' at Mile High Metal Finishing for a super high polish before I weld them in.

When we go to have the frame powdercoated, Taint Paint will mask off the polished neck and the 'loops, and when they're done, the neck and loops will still be a high polish, with the rest of the frame coated in glossy black. Tommy plans to do the 4.2 gal. fatbobs and bobbed hinged fender in a deep maroon and black two-tone. Should look killer!
Here's a good shot of Hardtail's sidecar loops. They're made to fit the Harley 1 1/8" downtubes on one end, and the 1" lower frame tubes on the other. They mated up pretty well, only needed to turn down the "plugs" on the castings slightly to fit the tubing ID's, and they slipped right into place.

Sissy bar.....

Over under loop-de-loop for Elliot.
I've never bent a sissy bar top exactly like this one before.

Monday, June 4, 2012

More awesomeness in my mailbox from Fire Star.....

Got this in my mailbox this morning. From Fire Star, that brought you the Doggie Helmet, comes the Skull Adapter, a solution to a problem that never occurred.

Check out their line of indispensable road gear and helmets HERE . The site music is killer.....

Saturday, June 2, 2012