Born free 6 and cannonball golden ticket resultd

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Brittney, lock and I headed west late last week for born free 6.  Here is a picture of us with the bike I built for the show.   This was the most challenging build that I have ever done.  I did a lot of the work ay friends shops while Brittney and I  were  living in Minnesota and waiting for our son to be born.  It's

Born free is the best show in the country and it brings some of the best bikes in the world into one place.  Here is a pic of us with our friend sin from Japan and his bike.  The bike is built around a koslow motor.  Andy koslow worked at excelsior and helped develop their ohv top ends.  When excelsior went out of business in 31 he went on to make his own motors And top ends.

We also drew the two winners for our cannonball golden ticket project that we have been working on. The first place prize is an all expense paid trip to go on the cannonball and ride my bike from Florida to Washington along with a 100 other old bike enthusiasts.   Scott from the southern us won  the first prize, and will have a great time riding an El coast to coast 

The second place prize is an all expense paid trip to go to Milwaukee and visit the Harley Davidson museum and give a behind the scenes look into the archives.    Kevin from Canada was drawn for that experience.   

Thanks to everyone that signed up and participated.  It's great to see how many people are excited about old motorcycles and riding them.   

There are only 2 weeks left to sign up for the CBGT!

 

In Two weeks we will pick the winner for the cannonball golden ticket project.   The cannonball golden ticket is an opportunity for someone to win an all expense paid trip to go ride my 1936 knucklehead on the 2014 cannonball.   My dad will be riding his 36 el and Brittney, my son and I will be running chase truck and supporting both riders.    Harley Davidson stepped up and donated a second place prize for someone from any where in the world to go and visit the Harley Museum and get a behind the scenes look at the archives.   

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Here is a pic of my bike from the maternity photos that I shot with  Brittney a few months ago.   I have owned it for over ten years and ridden it and pushed it to its limits.   It is the oldest Harley Davidson to complete an Iron Butt Run, and the oldest bike to do one with a passenger.  I am comfortable in saying that it is the only bike that will be running the cannonball in September that has been ridden 24 hours straight and  gone 1100 miles in less that 24 hours. Even though a 36 el is over 75 years old, it performs like a new bike.  and holds up really well.  who ever wins the Cannonball Golden Ticket, will have 2 of the best weeks of their life.

Surprisingly, I have not had very many people sign up for the a chance to win either prize.   I expected people to be doing back flips over this project, but apparently  it is difficult for someone to take 3 weeks off from their job.   This is a factor that I didn't consider when I came up with the project, because I wouldn't think twice about quitting a job to go ride a knucklehead from Florida to Washington state.  The odds of winning are really good for the few people who have signed up, and the odds are good for anyone else that has been waiting till the last minute to sign up.

   There are still 2 weeks to enter online and throught Mail,   Go to www.cannonballgoldenticket.com to find out more on how you can win the trip of a life time and the ultimate old bike experience.  

My son finally came out.

Our son- Lockheed Olsen was born on May 24th.   He is the most amazing thing that I have ever been a part of.  He was born at 3:45 am and weighed 9 pounds and 9 ounces he was 22 inches long,   brit had a beautiful and relatively quick labor that only lasted 5 hours.   We stayed with our friends Kevin and Amy on Minnesota for six weeks and change while we attended the rest of the prenatal appointments and waited for him to come out.   It was worth the wait and amazing.

Knuckleheads and baby bump

We have been in fin repair and valve seat removal mode at the shop.  It's amazing how beat up these heads can get over 60 to 80 years.  As you can see there are a few ways to get the fins back on.  Sometimes you cut them out of regular steel and weld them on, sometimes you build them yo with steel or silicone bronze rod or you can also use old pieces of cast iron fins and braze them to the cylinder.   The next hurdle is grinding and sanding all of them down and blending out the repairs.   

Brittney is 38 weeks and doing really good. She has just as much energy as when she wasn't pregnant.  We are going to have our son at a birthing center in Wisconsin in about two weeks. I am so excited to meet him.  It's crazy to think that I am planning having a son right now. 

65 panhead, 1955 panhead, 36 knucklehead and maternity photos

We got Jason's 65 finished and put about 300 miles on it,  my dad is driving down to the Texas road run and delivering it this weekend.  This bike is massive,  I didn't try to ride it with the buddy seat on it,  I am too short!  Jason is a lot taller than me and will do just fine on it.  

1965 didn't use a side cover on the battery,  I think it looks nice with out it.  The battery that we used is a champion battery and it is nice and black, some of the other modern batteries are clear or have a bunch of writing on them.  The mufflers are new old stock and sound great.  The tour pack is something that Jason supplied and it is really cool. It has an early latch on it and also a handle so you can Cary it with you

I got to take my 36 out for the first time this year. Sophorn put a windshield on it, which ended up being more of a challenge than we anticipated since the summer shields were designed for standard rigid bars and I have Flanders bars on my bike.   

I am making good progress on the 55 too it should be done and running next week.  This bike is phenomenal and I feel so lucky to get to work on such a nice pristine example of an original bike

The rear header pipe was missing when they brought the bike to us.  My dad had a nice old original superior rear header pipe in his stash of parts.  It fit up really nicely and matches the rest of the bike well

Britt and I did our maternity photos with the bike. It was fun.  Here is a link to the rest of the photos http://jaceejphotography.blogspot.com/2014/04/brittney-matt-maternity.html?m=1

South Dakota weather in less than 24 hours

Here is My dad took the 65 out for a spin yesterday and put over a 100 miles on it. It was a beautiful day and great for riding bike.   He came back with a small list of tweaks and adjustments to do and sort out

Here is a shot out the front door of the shop that I just took.  There is a full on blizzard going on and we are expecting 6 to 10 inches of snow.   This weather is good for working in the shop and have fun with wrenches. 

The 55 is going good. I finished up the wiring, hooked up the primaries and am going through the odds and ends on this bike.  

55fl update and photos

The 55 is coming together fairly easily.  It's a pretty unique experience to work on a bike that is so unmolested and complete.  Everything is just falling into place and working out pretty good.  It hasn't gone without its challenges.  I'm working on the exhaust and primary setup todayd

The biggest challenges have been worn out parts and corrosion from sitting.  It's going good and we have freed up almost everything and gotten it back to working condition.  I am having difficulties getting the toolbox lock freed up. This came in a box of parts that came with the bike and it was frozen shut.  I have even soakig it with ob blaster for a month and working the lock back and forth. 

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Here is a cool shit of the brake drum we replaced the sprocket and dust ring and left the original paint on the drum.   A lot of times the paint is burnt off if the drum from the brakes heating up, this one has really nice paint.  Which means ken either didn't like to stop or rode the bike on lots f rolling hills and prairie terrain