This is the first of roughly one million snaps sent in by Rich of Mule Motorcycles. The bike belongs to American author and journalist Allan Girdler. It's a Wood Honda CRF450. Allan used to ride Harley XRs, and wrote a book about racing Harleys you can still pick up (Harley-Davidson Racing 1934-86), then decided he wanted something lighter and more reliable to race. So he flogged the 750 and built this. It’s neat. Wood make a lovely frame and the personalised 70s tinged paint and signwriting is dead right.
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That bike actually appeared in Cycle World magazine. Alan still has a bit of pull there I guess! I helped Alan with the bike and a couple of requests were to use the stock pipe and wheels/brakes.So the pipes was cut into sections twisted all around and then glued back together. Personally I think that's the coolest part of the bike.
ReplyDeleteThe other cool thing is the paintjob. It's a replica of the "Orange Blossom Special". That was a train that ran between Chicago and somewhere in Florida. The locomotive had this paintjob and Alan (as a boy-120 years ago), saw the train and wished to have a CRF450 painted that way someday way off in the future!