Three Fat Guys, a Body Builder and a German Walk Into a Racetrack

Well walking into is kind of a stretch. It was more like, drove a massive Silverado dually towing a dual axel enclosed trailer that housed a golf cart. I want to ride down every year but am voted down by the swap meet majority in our group. I go mostly for the motorcycles and a bit of racing, they go to buy metric tons of motorcycle parts, hence the moving van sized transport. Now including Big Toe's jacked up golf cart, easier to tote all that swap meet booty back to the waiting cargo hauler and make fifty passes through the swap meet. It also carted our asses to places we had not been to around the track in the past.

Curly and Big Toe

The weather was in stark contrast to the lake of fire that was last years Vintage Motorcycle Days. I thought we would be in for a repeat of last years blazing inferno, especially with all the drought and triple digit temps most of the country has been suffering this year. Much to all of our delight, the weather was about picture perfect, mid eighties, low dew point and partly cloudy. But this post isn’t about the weather.

The 2012 Vintage Motorcycle Days event was kind of a blur this year. The golf cart mentioned earlier made getting around a breeze. It also made missing a thing or two like a ship passing in the night. I think I missed as many bikes as I saw. But one bike I didn’t pass by turned out to be a wicked CB750 produced buy the talented boys over at Café Fabrications. Much like the chopper boom a decade ago, café bikes have made a huge resurgence. I really don’t need to tell you that, if you’re into bikes this is something that is readily apparent to you. Out of all the builders I have seen over the last few years, Café Fabrications hit one out of the park with their well thought out and ultra trick CB750. The hair stood up on my arms the moment I saw this bike. It looks great from every angle. And I have seen countless custom CB café bikes over the years and none come close to this one in my opinion.

They took a beater ‘78 CB and polished it into a jewel. They have a beginning to end pictorial of the transformation on the Bespoke section of their website. They are whipping up trick parts that you, yes you, can buy and bolt onto your project. Of course the whole reason they created this stunning CB is to have a functioning tool to showcase their top shelf products. Swing arms, velocity stacks, exhaust flanges and engine covers are just a few of the tasty tidbits they are offering up for your consideration.

The highlight of this years event for me was getting to meet Surly after a bunch of years of reading his stuff and collaborating on a multi author blog for around a year. We have developed a blogging kinship over the years and it was great to meet him face to face. Although we didn’t spend a whole lot of time talking, about a half hour or so, he turned out to be every bit of the nice guy I knew him to be despite his moniker. Along with his Uncle John, we were supposed to go for a ride up the Western coast of Michigan last August. Unfortunately for me, I had to pass at the last minute because of a large project at work. This is a trip I am always going to regret missing because John is no longer with us.  The good part of last years trip is, Surly and John still went and Surly got to make a great memory with his Uncle that he will carry with him the rest of his life. Like John used to say, life is too short, don’t let it pass you by. I have a sneaking suspicion that Surly and I will meet again and go for more than a few rides