Meet Me In Medora

North Dakota that is. I'll be there the night of July 17. Riding home in the am of the 18th. About a 7 hour ride. Get on yer bikes in the am of the 17th and meet me for a beer at the saloon. There really is a saloon. Some great prairie/badland riding. See you there.

For the whole trip see...


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inspiring minds

Amazing set of historical awesomeness at LOSERRULES

Frame work update pic.

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Tripoli Bike

Kevin Starke swinger Tripoli frame with an FXEF lump. Check it here

Ftw

Buddy's new tattoo.


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back in '92

The wife scored us some tix to Pearl Jam this morning. Who says the 90's sucked? check out those sweet 10 hole Doc Martens and woolly socks. Man, wrap a plaid shirt around his waist and I'm in Grade 10 all over again

Awesome

Late night for Lucas

Started working and Lucas's frame. Got the jig done and then cut the original frame up to salvage motor mounts and neck. And now its sleep time.



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DT250 *For Sale*

I know the Mule has become a bit of a centre for shopping Barbie lately, but everyone's trying to put some scratch together for new projects so here's another one on the block...

Good running 1977 Yamaha DT 250 2 stroke. Lots of power. Monoshock rear suspension. Good brakes, good compression, starts first kick, freshly cleaned carb and tank, new rattle can paint this year. New front tire and near-new rear tire. Could use to have the fork seals replaced. Great bike for the lake. Asking $690

Bike shop supplies

Found this brass connector in amongst the bolts and bits from the shovel project. Had a hell of a time identifying its purposefulness until I saw a chunk of weed sticking out of...the bowl of a bikie's pipe.

Josh and Pommie sittin' in a tree...

Happy new Pommie B owner, Josh, with bill of sale in hand. Ride safe, Buddy.

Bike Trip 2011

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The preliminary route for the Bike Trip 2011 (needs a better name). Aiming for Aug 26-29.

Day 1 - Stoon - Edmonton (526km) for the Sprint Car races Friday night! (Youtube it. 800hp=Awesome!!!)
Day 2 - Edmonton-Jasper (364km). A short ride so I'm thinking tour around the park a bit when we get there. Mt. Edith Cavell Glacier is a cool ride. So is Maligne Lake.
Day 3 - Jasper-Calgary (415km or 546km). Also a short day but those that are interested can add 130km by going through Peter Lougheed Park and Bragg Creek. A worthwhile detour me thinks.
Day 4 - Calgary - Stoon (613km).

I know it's longer than last year, but really, how many bike trips are you taking this year? And it's only 4 days. You didn't buy that thing just to look at it did you?

Thoughts??? Suggestions???

Brown...

...the new black

Proof

Sweeeeeeeeet!!!!

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Timing and carb tune.

Since the end of the world didn't happen does Anyone want to give a mule a hand? Say Monday.



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Shiny Unicorn amidst my Mules

Came home tonight to find a familiar bike nestled amidst the pile of mules. Brian busted a clutch cable near my place last night and rode through a few stop signs to find a safe place to stash his pan/shovel.

I don't want a pickle, I just wanna ride on my motor-cickle

Sun was up, I was outta bed, what was I to do? Morning run! Like a quick rip to Davidson-Lake Diefenbaker-Whitecap Reserve-Stoon? 300km of Bloody Brilliant!

One Little Indian

Sr.'s got one of these little Indian's out on the Sastard Family Farm hidden away in the barn of inequities. Never known it to run, but I'd sure like to steel the tank off of it.

Girls and Guns

Blog's been a bit short on girls lately. Especially girls with guns.

New Mule in the HamBone Stable

Lee's got his shovel home and is in the midst of identifying the pieces of his latest mutt mule. Lucky bastard. Have fun Buddy.

No seat post frame?

UPDATE!!!!! More pics.
Looks like I might be in a similar boat as ninja with id ing the shovelhead frame. In the serial number it has the letters fal and pro. Kinda a strange frame not having a seat post rather it has tubes on either side of the hard tail. Haven't done a whole lot of searching yet but thought I'd see what you all say about it in the mean time. The guy i bought it from said it was hard tailed by a place in van city but maybe he meant the hardtail frame was made by a place in van. Something cool is it has some of those fancy adjustable rake triples.



















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Logan's Run

Met Logan tonight. He's got a 77 FLH engine in a Kevin Starke frame. No shit. Good to meet you man.

Pommie Bastard *Sold*

Pommie is officially on the block. Come and get'er.

Homeward bound

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Kevin Starke Manufacturing co.

Turns out the Frame I picked up with my Shovel project is in fact a little piece of local history. I first heard the name, Kevin Starke, at this years Cyclemania. Some guy I was talking to said he had an old Starke Manufacturing frame in his garage and wanted to know if I was interested. I then started hearing the name again when I started looking for an ID on the frame that came with my Shovel. After doing some research and chatting with a few folks from the interweb forums I've started piecing together a bit of Starke's legacy.

In the late '70's Starke Manufacturing operated out of a small shop in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Far as I can tell they mostly built a few different rigid frames for big twins. These frames have a few unique features that make them identifiable.


First the positioning of the squished tube connected to the motor mount.

Second, the axle plate design and finally the necks are stamped with SM0xxxx (Starke Manufacturing co.). All accounts I've found suggest these were excellent frames and quite sought after during the '80's.

By the late 80's SM co. had closed it'd doors and Starke had moved one province over. In the early '90's Kevin Starke started a new venture out of Red Deer Alberta called Tripoli Manufacturing. Tripoli manufactured several frames including rigid and very popular Softails.


Tripoli sold a lot of frames through SUMAX in New York. My first responce from Sumax representatives simply said, "what are you looking for and why?" After removing suspicions that I was after some dirt or money owed on old Kevin Starke I convinced Max from SUMAX to shed a little light on their partnership with Tripoli.

Kevin made frames for us in the early 90's. He made an excellent Softail frame. At the time Harley had long waiting times to get a bike, dealers were building them with his frames. We were lucky to work with him on some one off exotic frames... some even went into production: Rubbermounted Softail, Rubbermounted Sportster Softail, Rubbermounted Rigid and a Shovelhead Softail. When he passed away, so did his business. He was jovial and had a keen mind for engineering.

Max

Kevin Starke died in the late '90's, but from the fragments of his life that exist on the web it sounds like he had a passion for his work and knew how to have a good time. I'm pretty pleased to find out that my Shovel project has got a little more local flavor than most and I'm looking forward to putting a Saskatchewan made frame back on the prairie highways in the future.

Colins softtail

Some work I did. Mounted the shortened fender to the swing arm and fabbed the sissy bar.








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Dale's on the road.

Watch for sparks

Firestone Deluxe 325-19 *For SAle*

Brand new Firestone Deluxe CHampion 325-19 tire bought and never mounted.
For Sale - $125.00 Super rare around this neck of the woods.



contact ninjas at "jordanepp at mac.com"

1minute job 3 year achievement

Dale's new rotor.