It’s done! Ready, driveable and beautiful. I am so happy. Sure, there are things left to do but they can wait until the winter. Now it’s ridin’ time!

Now we’re getting somewhere. Just a few more things and it’ll be running in no time. Actually, make that 2 weeks time.

Yeah! Even better than I had hoped for. Actually, it was such a long time ago that I comsissioned this that I had, kind of, forgotten what it was going to look like. Back to the dungeon to try and make it all presentable for a picture then.

Progress is God damn slow and I am starting to panic, but slow and steady wins the game. Hopefully. Next week I’ll have a lot to show you so hang tight ’til then.

Do you live in Stockholm? Do you have a kick-ass bike you want to have featured in a fashion story? Is your bike a chopper/bobber? Does it resemble any of the following bikes whose pictures I have stolen around the Interwebs?

Then please contact me. jens @ thecartorialist . com (remove the spaces)

The shoot is Saturday June 5.

The pictures are “borrowed” from SouthSiders Motorcycle Culture and Wrenchmonkees.

James Hammarhead is my new favourite person, in the world. I just wish he worked a little closer to home. Or, perhaps it’s just me being in the wrong part of the world?

This scrambler called Jack Pine is spot on. It’s the bee’s knees, the dog’s bollocks, the cat’s knickers…
I have one just like this, except mine’s a 120cc single cylinder two-stroke Suzuki from 1970. Man I want me a Jack Pine! At $16,500 it’s actually pretty reasonable. Especially considering that Mr. Hammarhead is only building 8 until 2012. Time to start savin’.

As for the most part, I found it via the excellent Bike Exif.

I keep wanting more but I have no room. That’s the drawback of not being a millionaire and living in the city. There are plenty of bars and women to go around, but storing all the stuff you buy gets impossibly expensive. Although, it’s good that something is holding me back from buying everything.

It’s just fantastic looking! It’s just what I need to complement my German street tracker and ancient Japanese scrambler. I’d ride it as is, but I would perhaps get another set of handlebars. Perhaps a good thing that it’s a 4 hour drive just to take a look at it…

The ad for this Harley can be viewed here and that’s where I got the pic from.

I have decided to get rid of this beaut. I can’t handle two at a time, no matter how much I wish I could. It’s better to have one in perfect shape than two half arsed. Focus BMW R75/6 now. I am so close to getting it just how I want it. I have given free reign to an artist friend of mine to do what he wants with the tank. It is going to be awesome – I hope!

Wanna buy it? Let me know? €1300 and it’s yours.

The effin’ seatpan has been bugging me for weeks but I am finally done. Good thing I am learning. Now I know exactly what not to do next time. You’re up SR400!

It’s off to the seat-maker to get that beautiful custom Bratstyle look. Contrasting piping? I think so.

Too much?

The world’s finest, most glamorous, most colourful, most informative, global-reaching go fast, turn left magazine. All right, the world’s only go fast, turn left magazine. The place where every weekend is a dirty weekend.

Sideburn

So, I finally got that elusive piece of aluminium that I needed for the seat pan.
After some shaping, I realised that it wouldn’t be enough with just having it looking nice from on top, but that I actually would have to bend it to fit the frame. This is where the problems began.

Also, the wiring is bugging the hell out of me. How am I going to be able to sort that mess out and get the bike working properly again? It’s a nightmare.

Seat pan nice and done. It took an immense amount of time compared to what I thought it was going to take. I think that if I had known the amount of time and effort such a build takes, then I would never have started.

Turns out that I am not completely hopeless. Now I am just going to come up with a nifty way of attaching it. I’ve got an idea…

See the bike in the background in the second picture? I just bought it and am planning to turn it into this:

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.

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