35 Years Ago Today

... I bought my first motorcycle.

I was stubborn. Right or wrong, I wouldn't by a motorcycle until I could afford a Harley. I thought spending a few hundred dollars on a Honda would be a waste of money and would just make getting a Harley take longer.


The day I bought it. Not much to look at, but I was jazzed.
Special features: 6 over forks and no front fender. In the early seventies, probably half the Sportsters sold had extended forks before leaving the dealer.

In the mid '70's, Harley's were in big demand in the LA area, so prices were relatively high for the times (especially when you didn't have a big network of bike riding friends). My outlook was pretty much limited to the local paper's classified pages.

Several weeks earlier, I had gone to the CHP auction and put bids on three bikes for $1,200-$1,500 each hoping I'd get one. I didn't, so the day I would have found out, I bought my Sportster. It was listed in the LA times. I was in Downey and it was close by in Paramount.


More special features: Radiator cap and dent in tank, Posa (or Lake?) Fuel slider carb, Braided vinyl fuel lines. The stock Tillotson carbs had a push inner coil for the throttle, so with this carb, it meant you'd rotate the grip forward to go. It was awkward.

The hillbilly who owned it, was the second owner and kept it in a backyard full of junk. It was only a 4 year old bike and the motor had already been rebuilt. By today's standards, the way it looked, you'd have thought it was a 10 to 20 year old bike.

I think I paid a whooping $1,300 for it, which was likely way too much, but I was getting impatient. Keep in mind, in 1975, new Sportsters were about $2,300 plus dealer fees and taxes at this time. Also, I had a friend with a '71 XLH who wanted about $2,000 for his bike.


More Special Features: Custom seat and sissy bar, a piece of cardboard for a battery lid, and no horn. Bonus feature: A tendency to jump out of third when getting it on.

In any case, I was happy, had plenty of fun with it and nine years later in '84, it got me $1500 credit towards a big twin.

Two Today

That's not a peace sign... the blog is 2 years old today.

This Month's Header

This month marks a couple of anniversaries.


Thirty five years ago, I bought my first motorcycle, a 1971 XLCH Sportster.


September 19, 1975. Downey, Ca. This photo wouldn't exist if it wasn't for my friend Zach Ananias. I was taking pictures the day I bought it when he happened to be driving by. Also, In the background is my first car, a '71 VW Super Beetle. In many ways, the Seventies, for better or worse was my era.

I therefore dedicate this month to First Rides and that great feeling you got when you took your first ride or finally got a bike of your own.

...and oh yeah... it's 2 years for the blog on the 8th.

This Month's Header

The Candy Box
What do models have to do with Summer? Well, when I was a kid, if we couldn't go to the beach, or playing various games in the street, we built stuff. As a matter of fact, my brothers and I were fairly avid car modelers. Most of the time we just couldn't help but modify them to the extent that they rarely resembled what was on the box cover.


I built this model sometime around 1970-71. It was it's second build and was loosely based on Roth's Mail Box.

When my interest shifted, I stopped building cars and started building bikes. The first one I remember was Revell's "Chopped Hog". At first it was built as it came, but since it was a lousy depiction of a chopper, I quickly tore it apart and customized it. I added a hard tail, a molded in peanut tank, new pipes, sissy bar, rear fender, seat, and scratch built a brass springer.

The next victim was Revell's CHP model. I don't recall ever building it stock. Instead, it became the raw material for a chopper based on Jim Breo's trike from the first issue of Big Bike magazine. I posted Jim's trike here last January.

As in real life, a cop bike becomes a donor.


Here's how it looked the first time around. In someways I wish I left it alone.

Like most of my models, it didn't stay intact long, and soon it was apart for a new build based on Roth's Mail Box. Since, I had already modified the Shovelhead frame and engine to look like a 45 c.i. Servi-car. The new mods consisted mainly of stretching the down tube, molding a cut down gas tank, building a body, and adding a longer springer.

The Real Deal. The Crosley engine really only looks good from this side. Roth didn't want to use another flathead 45 since he had already built the Candy Wagon. Each trike project was built to gain more experience. The Crosley engine was an experiment for using a water cooled engine with the radiator mounted in the back and served as a stepping stone towards the later V-8 powered trikes.



Roth's original Choppers magazine used Ed Newton's Mail Box drawing at the top of the letter's to the editor page. For fun, I took a shot at replicating it.


Engine and frame mod details. The cam cover was cut down and the timer centered. The barrels, heads, and push rods were cut down and filed to resemble flathead cylinders. Drag pipe were fashioned from other pipe pieces. This is the second oil tank and was made from a rear shock capped on each end with a spotlight. Now, the only part of the frame left intact was under the engine and trans and the seat post. The drive chain was moved to the right side. Rear fender mounts were used as 45 brake and clutch side straps. Some parts, like the kicker, brake pedal and foot pegs, have broken off over the years. A top engine mount was never made.


The finned heads were scratch built from sheet plastic. Cutting and fitting each fin and the bolt pattern was the most tedious chore. The carb was moved to the left and a working choke was made from a pin. The primary cover was also reworked to resemble a 45's. The left side engine case was the biggest omission, it should be finned. The spark plugs wires and coil have since come off.

The body was made from balsa wood and the interior is covered with vinyl. The gas tank is from a Triumph kit. To create the indents, the knee pads were cut off and glued inside on the opposite sides. The fork was scratch built out of brass and was from another model I built. I don't remember ever seeing a color photo of the real trike back then, but read it was fogged in various colors. My attempt at custom paint was fogging some red over the green Testors metal flake and was never very happy with the result.

The Candy Box. Another fun exercise, a Photoshoped Candy Wagon/Mail Box combination for comparison. You can definitely see the Candy Wagon's influence on my model.

I still have remnants of other chopper models but, somehow this one survived. It was tossed around and stored in a box for about two decades but has since been on display in my studio for about the last 6 years. I'd like to rebuild some of the others, but that will have to wait for a future Summer.... perhaps in a second childhood?

Happy Re-Birthday Jesus

Redeem Yourself, Build a Chopper!

From July 71 Custom Chopper magazine.


Cool tank and art if your into this stuff.


I saw this bike at night back in '71, when a group of us went to a coffee house in Santa Monica to hear some beat poets rap. If my memory is correct the music and words spoken had a Christian slant. I got to say, seeing a chopper with that taillight was quite a sight, but I was already converted ....to choppers that is.

This Month's Header

The photo for this month's header was the second post on the blog and was posted before I knew I'd be doing a monthly masthead. I felt it's just too good not to use this way, plus some of you may never have gone back that far to see it.

That's me on the left. Greg's mom took the photo in their backyard. For more on it, click this: Some History We really need to recreate this photo again.

This Month's Header- We're One Year Old!

All together now. The first two headers were done before I knew what I was doing or had settled on a design. I don't think they ran all month... who the hell could remember?

Since I was out of town last week, this month's header was a little late in the making. As it turned out, it went up exactly one year to the day since my first post last year.

In many ways it's hard to believe it's now been one full year of blogging.

So let me take this opportunity to say thanks! to all of you who have sent emails of support, follow, make comments, or have sent in contributions to the Blog. It's great to know you are out there and I really feel like I've made some new friends.

From what I've heard, a lot of you like what you've seen so far. With that in mind, I'll do my darn best to keep the blog interesting and perhaps even better. So keep sending those comments and emails. - CK

This Month's Header, Fast Times at Downey High

To many, August means Sturgis. I chose this month' art since it's a group of riders on a run.

It's hard to recall exactly how things went
The year was 1973, I was 17 and a senior in high school. We were given an assignment in the senior art class for a PTA contest called, "This is Our Country".

This page from the Jan. 1973 issue of Street Chopper served as the basis for the art.


Our Art teacher first assigned us to do a pencil drawing, then it would be done in watercolors.


This is probably the oldest painting I have. Up until that time I mostly drew with pen and pencils. I did several chopper themed artworks in my art classes that year.


April 6,1973. This photo ran on the "Women's Page" in the local paper called the Southeast News. Our school's principal is holding my art yet they put me in the back. It's hard to see but the award (shown below), is attached to the art.


April 1st. Not exactly the best day to tell somebody they won something. I thought it was pretty cool of the PTA to give an award to art depicting choppers.

Revell's Chopped Hog

Cool box art. I bought this model when it first came out in 1968-69?


A corporate idea of a chopper? The design of this bike wasn't exactly spot on.


At first I did build the kit this way. Later I built it into a proper chopper with molded rigid frame and peanut tank. I still have the engine trans and a few other pieces of it.

Millar, Roth, and Robert Williams Patches

Stuff like this was "kick starting" my interest.

As stated in an earlier post, Pete Millar was a hero of mine. Since Pete and Ed were friends there was always something in Drag Cartoons about Ed, and many issues featured his ads. As Roth's ads began to increase their emphasis on choppers, so did my interest.


SHOCKING!?... more like WOW! At age 12, This was my only glimpse of the art and lifestyle. A Williams' biker holds a David Mann poster.

I had no idea who was drawing this stuff but I knew I liked it. At some point I learned of Ed Newton and David Mann. Many moons passed until I realized Robert Williams was another important Roth Studios artist.

The DC Roth ads from Jan. 68 and 67. I'd peer at these little images with awe and wonder. For many years, I only saw this stuff at this scale.


A whimsical Williams character pitches his patches. Only Robert could come up with such fun weirdness.


Robert aboard Roth's evolving "Oink", the coolest swing arm of them all!


Once familiar with his style, there's no doubt Robert's the artist.


The effect on my small brain. The influence of Williams' Devil's Chopper patch (above), and Newton's art (below), is evident. At that time I had no real knowledge of a Harley's workings. Note... push rods on left side. Most clues were gleaned from ads or the drawings by a school chum.

Ed Newton's art, also helped me get my head straight

Friday's Flashback

Some more old stuff.

Inspiration. Ed Newton's Knucklehead art from the November 1968 Choppers magazine prompted me to do the drawing below.


1969. Not bad for a 13 year old kid. This was the first time I did a color drawing of a chopper. I purposely got wacky and exaggerated the engine, frame, and forks. As for the riders, that's another story.


Mind Blower! I haven't seen this for 40 years. All my old drawings have been kept in plastic sleeves in a binder since drawn. I had no idea this sketch was on the back until I pulled the art to scan.

Single Loop Bike 1972

More Black and White Art.

I did this art not long after seeing the Ed Newton art of the last post. Since Ed's art was in the Sept. 72 Big Bike, it helps me put a date on this drawing.

The influence of Ed Newton's art is clear in this piece. I remember deciding not to take it serious and to just have fun drawing it as sort of a cartoon. I knew that his legs were too long but, what the heck?, keep going. It ended up having kind of a Robert Crumb feel to it.

At that time, Custom Chopper magazine was featuring a bunch of single loop (VL style), frame bikes from northern California. Some other signs of the times: dual Posa injectors (slide carbs), and highway pegs.

I was and still am a fan of the big flathead.

Toy Run 70's Style

Since this time of year tends to be a time of reflection, I decided to post some Toy Run pictures from Dec. 10, 1978.

Our local group of hooligans from Downey met others at U.S. Motorcycles in Lynwood CA.

In those days the Modified Motorcyle Association held Toy Runs in two stages. First, small groups from shops and homes would meet for the ride to Griffith Park. Then, once everyone was gathered at Griffith Park, a parade of bike would ride to Pasadena's City Hall.

The ride from the shops to Griffith Park was always cool. As your small group rode down the freeway it would hook up with other groups coming up the on ramps. To the surprise of many a caged motorist, bikes began taking over the early morning road. With the number of bikes growing so large you felt like you could do what ever you pleased. That translated into wild riding and the passing of beers (stashed in saddlebags), from passengers to riders and from bike to bike.

St. Nick greets bikers entering Griffith Park.

And they just kept coming.

Once at Griffth Park, it was time to check out the bikes, people watch, drink beer, and line up for the parade of bikes to Pasadena.

Each bike was given a yellow run flag.

Bikes and Bikers filling the spaces between the trees.

I believe the estimated attendance was 15,000 -20,000 bikers.

My crew.

One of the few bikes I shot that day was this well ridden chop. The sweeping sissy bar brace, long narrow springer, Sportster headlight and 15" radial car tire all scream Dick Allen/South Bay (beach cities L.A.), style.

The cops escorted and held back the cages at the lights and freeway ramps so there could be an unbroken 10 mile chain of bikes two abreast parading towards Pasadena. It was said, as the first bikes arrived in Pasadena, many bikes still hadn't left Griffith Park.

We parked on the outskirts of city hall to watch the non stop parade of bikes.

Your young author. It was the 70's. A time when everybody wore a mustache and nobody wore a helmet!

Plaid, denim, and bell bottoms ruled before the black t-shirt brigade completely took over.

Long bikes were still hip in 78.


The growing bounty on the steps of Pasadena City Hall. Stuffed animals are clearly the easiest toys to strap on bikes.

A few years later the MMA stopped the hard to coordinate two stage events. Instead they just became big gatherings (not really runs), that took place in a designated parking lot, like at the Sports Arena in Exposition Park.

They were all good times but, the two stage runs were the best.