Wednesday, November 16, 2011

AM Garage: Check in #1


Today at work, Bandit and I took some time off to open up our new Custom Cycle Shop called AM Garage. We had three similar old UJMs from the 80's and we decided to do two radically different custom builds to show the true scope of our vision.

This was the unmolested donor bike.

Our first client wanted a Café Racer so to start we went to town chopping the rear fender, installing shortie pipes, a nice retro headlight, a custom racing stripe, rearsets, shorter fork angle, and some clubman bars. The bike was already Ferrari red so we didn't do a respray right off the bat. You'll see the client, Bender, was able to get into a nice tight tuck behind the faring to achieve the ton w/out hassle. Nay bother, mate!

Yes, that's a paddock stand.

Headlight by Pushpin Industries. A classic.

Ton up, me ol' lad. 
brap brap brap!
Our second client, Droopy, wanted to go the opposite route; he wanted a laid back retro chopper. We were excited to oblige so we got to fab'in! We started by raking out the forks, fab'in a custom sissy bar which we painted black, we had matching apes built and painted, chrome engine guards, and made some awesome chrome chopper pipes straight outta the Wild Angels. 

His mustache approves. 
The Man can't keep Droopy down. Not when he's riding this iron horse. 
B-b-b-b-b-bad!

The fruits of our labor are documented in the photoshoot seen here for the first time. Keep in mind, this was all done in less than one hour and there's more to come. We're contemplating swapping out the v-twin in the Café for something lighter and more period-correct. We're also looking at respraying the chopper to an even more radical color than the current pumpkin orange.

We're not sure what we're going to do w/ the third bike in our stable, but if the first two bikes are anything to go by, you know it's going to be one hell of a ride!
Stay tuned as we update the builds as they near completion...

Some spare parts we have lying around the shop. You'll see some sheet metal for bodywork, metal for pipes and bars, a couple monoshocks, and various other tidbits for us to work w/. It's serious stuff at AMG. This is grown men shit.

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