Turns out that the welding really needed to get done by a pro. It cost me about €100 but it was well worth the money.
Now it’s time to start building the seat.

This bike is old news now but it’s a text I wrote for James Spotting a while back. Good for those of you that don’t plow through 15 motorcycle blogs daily like I do.

The noughts is the decade that made custom accessible to the mainstream through TV shows on various cable networks. Looking back at the most significant custom builders of the 21st century so far, Danish Wrenchmonkees sets the tone and the pace of an industry that normally thrive on catering to the wannabe outlaw. However, Wrenchmonkees’ custom motorcycles are to hipsters what ‘roid-rage is to OC Choppers, showing that you can be skinny and listen to electronica and still be into the custom scene.

Wrenchmonkees monochromatic, likeable and simplistic take on the idea of freedom on two wheels is a refreshing sight from the country that gave us Arne Jacobsen and Scandinavian minimalism. The devise of less is more has rarely been more appropriate when studying Wrenchmonkees’ designs; however they don’t just settle for stripping it off but actually add substance to otherwise bland bikes. With nifty ideas like hiding the electric wiring in copper tubing and solid wheels this iteration of Monkee love has been exhibited at various prestigious museums and design studios throughout Europe during 2009.

Called Gorilla Punch (Monkee #11), the bike started out as a Honda CB 750 and has been seriously worked over to become the coolest café racer the world has ever seen. Taking into account the current popularity of all things custom, Wrenchmonkees deserve a lot more attention than they’re getting and considering the fame Discovery Channel has propelled OCC to, the world needs to see that custom doesn’t necessarily have to entail elongated forks, bulging muscles and massive amounts of chrome but rather subdued and clean designs that, in themselves, are powerful enough to get the right message across.

Wrenchmonkees can be studied in detail on their website.

Today I ran into my first real problem. Since I don’t know how to weld, and I have no one to teach me right this second, I have decided to leave the frame to a pro for welding. This is too big a job for me, getting it completely straight and symmetric.

Going to order me some flat track handlebars from Wrenchmonkees, and an order for a pair of minizoom mufflers have been placed too, albeit not with WM. I’ll be scouring Moto-bins for parts as a complement to FlatRacer. I’m definitely upgrading the front brake disc. Perhaps I’ll get all new wiring too? We’ll see.

It’s like a rite of passage, doing it yourself. I am so proud of myself for making that grinder my bitch. Well, not really but you get the point.
The tank is off and again, wires, lots of them. Any mountain looks big before you climb it but this is going to be epic. At least for me.

There are ups and downs in the garage. The problem isn’t really the work that needs to be done but the tools I don’t have. Thinking you can rebuild a bike with a basic tool set is madness. The lack of torque wrenches, jacks, pliers and plenty of other things I don’t have names for are making for slow progress.
It is now decided that instead of making an entirely new subframe, I’ll just modify my existing one. If that end up looking terrible, then we’ll see.
What worries me is the wiring of electrics. That actually scares the bejesus out of me. I spent a full ten minutes just looking at the wires for the rear turn signals before cutting them.

It’s an open faced, white metallic, bubble visored beauty. It’ll go perfect with my BMW tracker.

One of the few red cars I approve of! Ulf Hanses’ Playsam.

Ok, so I’m nuts. I’ve just convinced myself to modify, or make an entirely new rear frame! Thing is, I can’t handle half measures so I have to do it properly. If I don’t do it I’ll kick myself, but I’ll probably be kicking myself while doing it too.
In the words of Barney Stinson, “This will be awesome!”

Progress

It’s not even easy taking things off so it sure won’t be easy putting it back on. However, hanging a full evening in the garage with likeminded fellows is good for the soul. It may not be the speediest procedure but it sure is fun. This may be child’s play for many but it’s a daunting task for me. Next step will be making a new wiring system.
I also need to unload all that I am removing so there are quite a few things up for sale:

BMW original seat. Shows some wear and there is a small rip on the left side in the front.

Original mufflers. Good condition.

Dashboard for r75/6

Mirrors. Original BMW. Shows wear and one deep scratch on the right one.

Side panels. Right one has a small crack in it.

Aftermarket miniblinkers/turnsignals

More to come so stay tuned.

First day at the garage went well although it’s scarier than I imagined it to be. When looking at pictures it’s easy to get carried away thinking “how hard can it be”? I’m just hoping that I’ll be able to ride it as soon as the snow’s gone in mid March. Baby steps…
Anyone interested in purchasing the mufflers, crash bars or original mud guards?

If you’re going into the desert, you definitely want a trusty companion with you. Nothing that’ll leave you stranded or give you trouble. As Top Gear proved, a Toyota Hilux is indestructible so that would naturally be your choice.

I thought so!

Everyday I love her more, just how it’s supposed to be. I will never relinquish her after what happened today!
After having been buried in snow for over six weeks, in temperatures down to -20 degrees, she started right up after having tugged on the starter for five seconds. Absolutely mindblowingly fantastic!
This has now given me the crazy idea of trying to cross the North American continent with my beloved Katarzyna. Now that would be something!

I want you all to welcome my first ever BMW to my growing park of motorised vehicles. It’s an R75/6 from 1974, runs strong and sounds deliciously. Despite being 36 years old, I intend to take this all over Europe. Scour some proper performace parts on eBay and FlatRacer and I will be good to go. But first I am going to strip it down, get it painted and then put it back together again, a little differently.

My first proper attempt to get my some grease on my elbows as I will try and make it look similar to something the Wrenchmonkees would build. On my own. With my two hands. Well, others have done it before me so how hard can it be? In order to be properly structured, I promise to chronicle the build here on The Cartorialist, which now will start featuring motorcycles!

Wish me luck!

The Syrian desert is filled with rocks and the occasional Roman city like Palmyra. Out there, next to an old Arabic fortress up on a mountain, one does not really expect to see a classic Pontiac. If you know the model, please let me know.

Yes, I am doing social media now. That’ll make up for me only posting here once a fortnight.

Enjoy!

http://twitter.com/TheCartorialist

The emotional bond you form with a car during a long journey can be either of two things; you hate it from the bottom of your heart or you end up loving it, there are no in-betweens. You can never be indifferent towards it. My newfound bond with Katarzyna has left me scouring sites for parts wanting to upgrade her to 21st century standards. I found some amazing sites listing all kinds of upgrades from sport suspension to entire engines that have been rebuilt and tuned by some Italian man with magic fingers.

So, my thought on the event I just finished. I loved it. I really did, however, as an experienced organiser of car related events, I can point to a some of flaws that I believe should have been dealt with in another fashion than what was actually done. For example, there should have been CLEAR rules from the get go of what could and could not be done. Instead every such thing was very vague and no one seemed to know what exactly the going rate was for anything. There was an immense amount of reckless driving, almost to the point of danger and luckily no one got hurt. There was one minor fender bender but that was not related to any of this, just bad brakes and a lack of ABS. This seemed like a free for all with the organiser washing his hands by just being far enough away.

If one is to organise a road race, which this clearly was, one needs to make certain what kind of category one wants to adhere to. There are namely two: the gentlemen’s race and the mad man’s race. For next time I would like to see clear rules so that one can make a distinction between the two. To check possible mischief, offenders need to know they will be punished by threat of disqualification for body contact, risky overtaking, not observing traffic rules etc. I am not talking about speeding here but rather crazy manoeuvring. Everyone properly interested in cars know that speed limits are stupid and not relevant to modern cars. In a race one speeds, naturally, however for it to be called a gentleman’s race, one can never have crossing the finish line as number one as the only rule as some are always willing to risk it all in order to secure that place. No, one has to get creative, or have strict rules of what one is allowed to do to obtain that first place.

I think Peter Ternström did one hell of a job scouring through Poland to find the proper cars, getting the right mechanics to work with only two hours of sleep per night, having the proper back up in terms of spare parts and cars and getting the project off the ground in the first place. Where he can improve is by just setting some basic ground rules for the event. I don’t want to participate in an event where I am scared of what the others might do. The 126 is a frightfully small car and extremely fragile, especially at the speeds we were travelling. I do however want it to still be a race of sorts because it is possible as the car won’t do more than 125km/h. It is the perfect car for a road race. Even on a race track you have rules. The same should apply here. It’s just common sense. To sum it up, thank you Peter. I had a great time, now make it even better for next time.

After 45 kms of driving at 90 km/h in a convoy into central Stockholm we’re finally at our destination and 3 kms from my bed. Write-up coming tomorrow. TC over and out!

18:15 – Crossed the finishline in 13th or something place. We weren’t last and Katarzyna took us all the way. Now we’ll be doing a défilé with all the cars into the centre of Stockholm, convoy-style.

17:37 – Engine is running strong but we’re maintaining 100km/h because of the rattling from the exhaust. We’ve passed two Fiat wrecks in the last 30 minutes but didn’t stop to help. This is no gentlemen’s rally.

15:30 – We were in the top five when we stopped for petrol 10 kms outside Jönköping, 355 kms from Stockholm. Naturally we check the engine to make sure it’s doing fine. That’s when I notice the brackets for the muffler has cracked and come undone.

Again, steel wire came to the rescue. We’re now doing a measily 100 km/h in order to bring Katarzyna to Stockholm without further ado. Damnit again!