There were a variety of stock bikes to choose from as the basis of a build and Ray picked this unusual 2300cc in-line three. “I wanted a Triumph, I wanted to be different. Everybody told me not to do it, but I did it anyway,” said Ray. “You can’t buy a thing for it; everything’s got to be handmade. It’s tough, it’s so huge.” Grandpa Ray, who also happens to be a talented artist,...

    I can’t say I’ve ever seen that on a Harley or any other bike I’ve ever seen and the closest we ever get to it is maybe wearing a T-shirt of another brand of bike we own, but there’s no passive/aggressive bragging going on. Motorcycle people just love motorcycles and a lot of Harley riders also own other brands besides the big H-D. We just don’t make a big deal about it like...

    Okay, you’ve had a few seconds to think what that “twist” was. If you hadn’t noticed it the second you saw it (without even knowing there was going to be a quiz), you probably figured it out by now. No big whoop, but it is a big deal of a twist in its own way. This is not a vintage Bonneville., but an early version of the re-introduced Triumph Bonneville of late. There’s a...

   Some of you just might know of Evan for things other than the Artistry In Iron invite or his shop, Speakeasy Motors in Wallkill, New York. For those that don’t, he did a fairly long stint on OCC’s American Chopper during its CMT era. His shop began before that bit of CMT TV and continued on through until today. All of that only shows how driven this young guy is to succeed in...

    If it’s a custom Triumph from the pre-John Bloor years and it’s clean as a whistle, there’s a much better than average chance it came from Lucas Joyner of The Factory Metal Works (TFMW) in Salisbury, North Carolina. This is certainly not Lucas’ first rodeo on Barnett’s Magazine Online as we’ve featured him many times before including his lovely Nine O’Clock Gun Triumph custom...

    That’s pretty much what we’ve got going on here with this Smoke Out 18 Honda CB750 chopper that was once a staple of the chopper world. Back when it was new over 45-years ago so like it or not, it’s a modern Old School build in the true spirit of the times. I will admit that most of the (mildly) chopperized bikes of the day I saw were someone’s Harley, Triumph and a dare to be...

   As 26-year old Mick Jagger sang back in 1969, “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need.”  That’s what was going through my head as I looked at Jack Cofano’s photos of this lovely woman getting about at Smoke out 17 on her bobbed CB550 Honda. She looks confident enough to me just riding that bike that I wouldn’t be...

    Emily, the British lady owner, starts telling me about the ground-up restoration done on this Isolastic frame (rubber-bushing mount engine) Norton. Sorry, people, no, Harley did not invent the rubber-mounted engine, Norton-Villiers in England did. This 1969 750 Norton Commando was the successor to the venerable Norton Atlas.      The entire sheet metal is painted a shade darker...

       But the boy sure could keep them running and the boy sure could ride the living hell out of them. Even when mirrors and other various body parts kept falling off, he’d just pop them back while he was underway and charge into the next turn very smoothly I might add. He could make a POS BMW go like stink while I wouldn’t want to ride it around a block. When I pointed out what...

       Okie and I meet for coffee everyday to straighten out the world’s problems and it’s an excuse to get in a ride early. Lately, though, Okie had been driving his truck and when I asked why he said, “I don’t want to wear out my bike just riding here and not even really warming it up. Besides, it’s too big for these tourist-filled back roads.” Made sense to me. At his request, I...