BIKE BUILDING CREATIVITY

Aside from the old chrome and stainless steel components securely attached to welded and painted structural tubular steel, was just an old shovel head engine that had been carefully polished to a mirror sheen that understandably shared space with slight wear pocks and a cast iron texture that spoke of fifties technology. The only color on the entire machine other than chrome and black was the color of the spark plug wires.
“Make the design yellow to match the wires,” My bearded customer commanded, “with a little bit of gray.”
A small “bobber” was before me. The Ape Hanger handlebars and coffin gas tank echoed old school fun that I was about to make complete with a retro pinstripe design. I shared looking at this home spun building project with many others who came through the din of engine noise, dust of the festival grounds and the glare of polished metal to stand, stare and appreciate yet another nice bike.
Laconia Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, is wooded mountainous country next to postcard pretty Lake Winnepesaukee. The roller coaster roads that curve through this beautiful countryside are perfect for the eager bikers that accumulate here each year to ride through and roar around. Letterfly has a home here, during the annual event, at the top of the hill at the Lobster Pound.
While I created old school pinline designs and hand painted images of all kinds, I couldn’t help but notice the amount of creativity that exists on many of the visiting bikes. Others would notice and appreciate the glory of building your own bike too. While they feasted on the smorgasbord of two wheeled apparatus that went past, the activity of naming the plethora of essentials that made up the bikes was very popular amongst these admiring bikers. Due to her finely tuned ear, my sidekick Susan was able to accurately identify many of the components of the endless parade of bikes thundering past the booth all day and night to the amazement of the guys that waited at the pinstriping station.
Her teens as a flat track racer sensitized her ear to the sounds of high performance engines along with types and sizes of the many tuned exhaust systems. Her years at the parts counter at several Harley shops makes her accurate appraisal of these components often top the guys that take great pride in their accumulated knowledge of the subject of carburetion vs. injection, and advantages of certain suspension systems and other topics ad infinitum. Innumerable combinations of parts, both custom made and off the shelf makes the variety of possibilities immense. The congregation attracted other like-minded aficionados and our corner of the venue became a pivotal place for the allocation of motorcycle revelations.
Letterfly Pinstriping at Laconia Lobster Pound had become “Creativity Central” for the backyard build-off’ers. These underdogs, unable to compete with the high profile chopper builders that attend functions like this to sign autographs and the lucrative corporate limelight with huge sponsors like Budweiser and Dodge, none-the-less accumulate a following, albeit much smaller, in the midst of the throes that are everywhere.
With bikes being wheeled in and out of the pinstriping area, personal painted touches often qualified as the task that brought about the magnum opus of the builder and the completion of a truly unique combination of mechanical components that states American ingenuity all the way.
We at Letterfly salute the dedication, precision, passion and creativity that the basement bike builders possess in admirable quantities and thank those that found our friendly “think tank” as a haven to congregate, dream and connect. I feel privileged to be included as a contributing brush-holding member of this elite group, those that build and ride the endless creativity of “home built USA”.

Photo by Memories in Motion