New Book
Our ambitious schedule for this fall includes another Triumph book. This one, Triumph Restoration, focuses on the restoration of the 650cc unit twins produced between 1963 and 1970. The book grew out of conversations with Bobby Sullivan, long-time friend and collector or many, many very nicely restored Triumph Twins. Most of Bobby's bikes are repaired and restored by a certain Mr. Gary Chitwood, and it's Mr. Chitwood who I managed to talk into co-authoring this book.

While some restoration manuals resemble black and white text books, with detailed text descriptions of the changes that occurred year by year, I've taken a different approach with this new book. In place of simple line drawings, we've chosen to give the reader detailed photos of two complete bike assemblies (a 1963 and a 1969) and one complete engine assembly (the 1963), using a wealth of color photographs.

The photographs were taken during an earlier road trip, when Gary, Ryan Bisset and Bobby put together the two bikes and one engine. Though I'm responsible for the photos, the copy and captions are written by the guys who did the actual assemblies.

To cover the differences between the various years, we've decided to provide the reader with left and right side views of all the significant 650cc models from 1959 to 1970. Look for Triumph Restoration sometime this fall.

On the Road
I first met Dave Perewitz in 1990 at Sturgis. In those days I made much of my living providing free-lance articles and photos to the various motorcycle magazines. When I first asked Dave if he had a bike I could shoot for one of the magazines he said yes, and over the next few years, Dave always "saved" one or two of the bikes he brought to Sturgis or Daytona for me. About ten years ago I came up with the idea of photographing 8 or 10 of Dave's latest bikes during Sturgis and using the photos to create the Sturgis' Best Customs calendar. I'm pleased to say we still do the calendar every year, sponsored by various companies like PPG and TP Engineering.

What does all this have to do with road trips? Well, I've just completed a trip to David's shop just south of Boston, where I spent a week planning the 2008 Sturgis Calendar, and shooting pictures for a future paint book.

Perewitz: Hard to tell, but the guy inside
that space suit is Dave Perewitz

Anyone who's seen David on Television or met him at a show might think he's got the world by the ass. And I suppose he does. But like everything else it comes at a price. When I arrived at the shop at 9:00 AM on Monday morning, Dave wasn't there yet, because he didn't get home from a bike show in Pittsburg until 6:00 AM that same morning. Something about a blow out on the way home, which wouldn't have been too bad if the spare tire hadn't blown about 10 minutes after Dave and Susan bolted it onto the trailer and headed back down the freeway. Despite Dave's sleep deficit we worked hard all week, usually from about 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning until 8:00 or 9:00 that same night. On Wednesday of my week's stay is was 7:00 AM to 2:00 AM. I joked with Dave one night at dinner, explaining that while most of us have a job, and a home life complete with various hobbies and assorted pastimes, Dave just has "a life." It's exciting and demanding - and consumes about eighteen hours out of every twenty-four.

The trip to the Boston area also included visits to some of David's co-conspirators and friends, like artist Keith Hanson, and the infamous Shadley Brothers.

Keith is the man responsible for most of the airbrush and pinstripe work seen on David's bikes, and a contributor to two Wolfgang how-to books. Keith allowed me to look over his shoulder while he completed the pinstripes on two recent Dave Perewitz paint jobs, and he will be part of the future custom painting book.

HANSON: Focused on his work, Keith
Hanson is equally at home with an airbrush
or pinstripe brush.

PEREWITZ-HANSON: Dave and Keith
discuss the stripes on a new custom built
for Brian Gould.

Toward the end of my week I managed to sneak over to the Shadley Brothers' shop in Whitman, Massachusetts and take spy photos (you saw it here first) of a new custom bike built by the work-hard, play-hard team of Mark and Paul Shadley. This new gem is a Boardtrack-style racer created by combining an early-style Arlen Ness frame with a flathead, 900 CC K motor manufactured in 1956. Mark and Paul always take a unique approach to building custom bikes, and in typical fashion, they've side stepped both the fat tire pro-street bikes and the bobbers to build a very cool and runnable boardtrack-style custom.

CUSTOM: With help from Jimmy, Mark
slides the rear barrel down into place.

The project started when Mark found an old K model Sportster in a local warehouse. After disassembling the engine, Mark considered scrapping the whole think, "except that these motors are just too hard to find." Rebuilding the engine meant first welding up the cracks in the case, and then milling the mating surfaces so the engine would be oil-tight. To ensure the bike would run, and run well on today's gas, Mark installed stainless steel valves and hardened seats.

JIMMY - MARK: With the rear cylinder in
place it's time to slip the front cylinder down
over it's piston.

Because this bike isn't a restoration but rather a special recreation, Mark could, and did, over detail the motor and fabricate his own shapely brackets. Reassembly of the motor included a lot of polishing and chrome plate. Items like the headlight stand and brackets for the pegs are one-offs crafted from tubing or bar stock. Mark promised that the bike would be ready for Sturgis, so if you see an especially appealing old boardtracker parked in front of a watering hole in Spearfish, you'll know Mark and Paul are inside taking a well-earned break.

HEADS: Note the chrome plated heads and
the fabricated engine mount.

FROM SHADLEY BROS.: Nearly finished,
one very trick and unique boardtrack racer from
the Shadley Brothers.

More bad phone news
As mentioned in the last blog, we signed up a few months ago with SunRocket for "internet" phones. One month ago I announced the fact that the phones FINALLY worked. Well, guess what? SunRocket went out of business. I hate to whine, but this phone deal really sucks. Luckily, the Qwest people just showed up to give us 3 new phone lines - the old-fashioned kind that carry voices over phone-lines that run from our office to your house. What we don't know at this point is whether we will be able to get our old phone numbers back. Please watch the notes at the top of our home page for the latest on our continuing phone woes and join us in our prayers that the principals from SunRocket go straight to hell and rot there for eternity.

So at Wolfgang it's more of the same. More new books. One more fun and fatiguing road trip with opportunities to see old friends. One more blog, turned in just a few days late. And, of course, more phone hassles.