Kevin Baas

The coming of summer means the end of another school year, including the school year at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, MN, home to the Build a Chopper Class with everyone’s favorite teacher, Kevin Baas. Before bidding all the students a nice summer, Kevin held his annual open house, which is a great opportunity for supporters and parents to view all the projects in the shop. The Open house also creates a chance for Kevin to give a little speech, thanking both the students for their good work and persistence, and the many supporters for their monetary and moral support.

The event turns into a mini bike show of sorts, as anyone who can, rides their bike. The bikes themselves tend to be a little out of the ordinary. This year the sidewalk display included a whole raft of Knuckles (hard to believe given Kevin’s fondness for Knuckleheads) including the ’39 his wife Amy rides, as well as his personal ride complete with side hack. Of course Matt Olsen, of Carl’s Cycle Supply Fame, showed up with one of his Knuckles, I think this particular bike is a veteran of at least two cross country rides.

The annual Kevin Baas Open House at Kennedy High School always turns into a very eclectic bike show – every thing from Knuckles and Pans to Donnie Smith customs.

The cast of motorcycle luminaries and guests included Donnie Smith, the man who Kevin thanked profusely for the phone calls that Donnie made ten years ago when the class was just beginning. By calling everyone in the industry Donnie not only helped Kevin obtain a bunch of parts for building motorcycles. He gave Kevin instant credibility.

The rainy day kept a few scooters at home, but did nothing to diminish the turnout for Kevin’s open house.

After the speeches the event turned into a good, old-fashioned BS session…. “they left me in the campground with a broken leg and rode to the bar for a quick beer. Well, an hour later I had to figure out how to start someone else’s Triumph with my hand, cause my right leg was the broken one. They were pretty surprised when I showed up on the Triumph with my crutches strapped to the handle bars, they all wanted to know, ‘how’d you start that thing.’”

Sometimes if you want to figure out how someone did something, you just have to get down on your hands and knees and have a good look.

The open house gave the students a chance to explain exactly what they did and why.

As Donnie Smith demonstrates, we can tell stories without alcohol, but we can’t do it without our hands.

First things first. The revised edition of the Kevin Baas book: How to Build an Old Skool Bobber, is in stock. All the pre-ordered books went out Friday the 15th of April. Free shipping means Media Mail so the books aren’t likely to show up in your mail box until this Friday, the 22nd of April. I do have to thank Kevin for getting everything in to us in a timely fashion and for always being a gentleman in his dealings with the Wolfgang Staff. Finally, as promised, the special $17.95 pre-order price is no longer valid and Jacki has taken that banner off our web site. One more thank-you is in order, to all of Kevin’s fans who took advantage of the pre-order special.

Just in case there’s any confusion, Kevin’s new Old Skool Bobber book is in stock! Pre-ordered books shipped out on 4/15/11.

Flood Run
The first big run of the year in my neck of the woods is the Flood Run, mentioned in earlier blogs. This year’s date, April 16th, turned out to be less than idea for a motorcycle event. Bikes normally congregate at a variety of shops and bars and then head down the river road to and through towns like Diamond Bluff and Nelson, Wisconsin – and a dozen more. Some come home up the Minnesota side and others just re-trace their steps on the east side of the Mississippi river.

The nearby photo tells the story of the day better than all the words I can dream up. No, I didn’t make it to the Beach Bar or to Diamond Bluff. I looked outside, rolled the bike to the spot seen in the photo, and decided it would be a good day to catch up on emails. I know, I wussed out, but so did a lot of other people.

This is as far as my Bagger got for the annual "Spring" Flood Run on Saturday.

King Cobra Bike
Tanks by Run, in Thailand, sent photos before of their shop and some of their bikes. When I turned on the computer today I found an email with photos of their latest King Cobra bike. The note explains that they couldn’t use a Harley motor “due to lack of funds” so instead used a Honda mill for power. I’m thinking they did a hell of a job, adequate funds or not. Maybe if we could all focus on something we have in common, like custom motorcycles, we could start a whole new peace movement. Today’s note came from Mr. Mana Wongprakornkam at customgastank@gmail.com.

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of details on the bike, I’m guessing the frame is their own and the rear wheel and tire are borrowed from a donor bike?

Apparently, riding choppers is approved by the police.

I’ve gone on at length about the re-birth of the Kevin Baas Old Skool Bobber book. The book is currently scheduled for an April release. Thrifty shoppers and fans of Kevin Baas have an opportunity to buy that book now and save a full ten bucks. That’s right, order the Second Edition of Kevin’s Old Skool Bobber book and pay only $17.95. But wait, there’s more! - FREE shipping to all U.S. addresses!

So don’t wait, order today and get the pre-publication price. As long as we have your email address, we will send back a confirmation of your order.

Order early and order often – and save ten bucks on each book!

Another Re-Birth

Way back when I was just getting started in this crazy publishing business, I wrote a book called, How to Build the Ultimate V-Twin Motorcycle. The book sold pretty well, and was in fact an early success story for Wolfgang.

Because there’s a trend to very basic motorcycles, and because a quality how-to book always provides the reader with good information, we’ve decided to re-print the book – without any changes. So if you’re looking to build a no non-sense rider, maybe a simple softail with a skinny (by today’s standards) rear tire, or an Evo powered FXR-style bike, then this is the book you need. Look for Ultimate V-Twin Motorcycle to come off the press in April.

One of our first how-to books will be available again. Ultimate V-Twin Motorcycle should be available in April.

A few years back we did a book with one of our local motorcycle celebrities: Kevin Bass. As you probably know, Kevin teaches shop class at Kennedy high school in Bloomington, Minnesota, just south of Minneapolis. Of course, the class that Kevin teaches isn’t just any class, the class Kevin teaches is the one I wish they offered when I was in high school – Chopper Building.

Kevin’s book, introduced in 2006, sold well enough, but like all books it eventually went out of print. And that might be the end of this story, except that used copies of Kevin’s book are currently selling for as much as eighty dollars on ebay. Which made my entrepreneurial brain think that maybe it would be a good thing to bring Kevin’s Bobber book back, with some updates and revisions of course.

Back by popular demand, look for a revised Bobber book in the spring of 2011.

The new and revised edition of How to Build an Old Skool Bobber will have at least 2 new assembly sequences, some new and simplified wiring diagrams, and new bikes in the Gallery section. I’ve given a long-time employee, Deb Shade, the job of organizing Kevin’s images. Early in December Deb and I took a trip to Kevin’s house to pick up some digital images and to talk about what else we need to bring this book together.

Kevin’s personal shop looks a lot like a two car garage. The kind where normal people park cars, kids’ bikes and lawn mowers. There are some bikes in Kevin’s garage of course, but these are bikes for big kids. And the walls are “decorated” with more old motorcycle stuff than you can imagine. While Kevin and Deb worked on an inventory of new material, I spent my time scanning the bench and walls, admiring everything from complete Flathead and Knucklehead motors to the proverbial head gaskets hangin’ on a nail.

Editor Deb Shade and Kevin Bass, hard at work on the revised edition of Kevin’s How to Build an Old Skool Bobber book.

Amidst the chaos of parts and motorcycle stuff, there’s a Shovelhead Chopper, almost finished, a bike Kevin is assembling in his spare time(?) for an overseas customer. Apparently teaching full time, fabricating part time, attending a whole raft of events each year, and raising a family with three small boys, just isn’t quite enough for Kevin.

Check ‘em out, two genuinely old and genuinely made-in-Milwaukee V-twins, with a nice backdrop of very interesting old motorcycle parts.

At any rate, Deb and I enjoyed a very productive visit with Kevin along with a couple of bottles of Grain Belt. We did collect most of the material needed to assemble the revised book, which means that with any luck this one might be one time – something new and different for Wolfgang. Look for Kevin’s new book in April of the New Year.

In addition to teaching, fabricating, attending events and raising three boys, Kevin does complete bike builds – this Shovelhead chopper is his latest project.

The Tom Rad Rumble on the Deck bike show (mentioned in the last blog) came off without a hitch on the evening of July 8th. As always (with rare exception) Tom was able to call up a perfect evening from the weather gods. It’s hard to argue with 80 degree temperatures, clear skies, free food and a lively blues band.

If there was one downer to the evening, it was the fact that the trophy girl, Ma Rad, could not attend this year – Ma made it to 14 Rumbles and the age of 90-something before checking out for the big bike show in the sky.

This is why we live in Minnesota – because on nights like this, there is no place better to be.

Tom was forced to rely on the shapely and beautiful Rumble Girls to hand out the trophies, for classes that ranged from Big Twin and Radical Big Twin, to Antique and People’s Choice.

The nice thing about a local show is the fact that it’s local. You can complain that not all the bikes are new or radical, but then on the other hand you also get to see a whole raft of your old biker buddies. There is nothing like telling and re-telling a few lies while sucking down a cool one and gazing at a long row of gleaming two wheeled hardware.

Rumble Girl Anna waits patiently while Lenni from Krazy Kolors and Tom Rad ham it up for the camera. Maybe it was the free Schlitz beer?

Old Bikers like Donnie Smith (sorry Donnie) were in attendance, along with fresh faces like that of local high school teacher Kevin Baas and his lovely wife. Donnie rolled out a nifty digger/Shovel from back in the day, and Kevin brought one of his trademark Knuckles.

If you check the calendar, you will notice that July 8th is a Thursday, which means that by 10:30 PM the decks at the Freight House Saloon in Stillwater were empty and all the bikers were headed off to the next whiskey bar.

Celebrities everywhere you look, including Donnie Smith, and Kevin Baas and his wife.

Production
The Classic Triumph calendars for 2011 are in stock and ready to ship. The cover bike is a TT bike photographed in Nevada. Also from Nevada is the Tiger 100 and T100C, though the TR6 seen in October was photographed in Iowa. There’s also a Blackbird and a Speed Twin from the balmy state of Florida. It’s a nice variety of bikes this year and the calendars are sure to go fast, so order your Classic Triumph Calendar today.

Don’t wait to order your calendar, we actually ran out last year.

Sheet Metal Bible

Part of our fall lineup of new books, Sheet Metal Bible is off to the printer. A full 176 pages of sheet metal how to projects, this new book will look good sitting on that small cluttered book shelf in the shop, right along side the magazines your wife won’t let you bring in the house.

In stock shortly after you read this, Sheet Metal Bible is a compendium of sheet metal projects.