Thursday, October 31, 2019
From the archives. February 2013
A photo of the completed Rising Star (including the gas tank painted by Toni Raia), shows off the bike's low-slung stance:
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
From the archives. November 2010
The essence of the Rising Star is its custom-built frame, made in Missouri by David Bird.
Unlike more conventional choppers (if there is such a thing) where a normal motorcycle's frame gets "chopped" or unbolted, and the rear end is replaced by a hardtail, this is a complete frame made to measure for the A50 motor, and with a combination of stretch and drop such that the finished bike would see the exhaust follow the lines of the hardtail, and - as much as possible - a straight line from the steering neck to the rear axle.
The quality of the build is phenomenal, the welds are perfect, every line is straight and true, alignment is extremely accurate and the result is a motorcycle that handles like it's on rails.
Unlike more conventional choppers (if there is such a thing) where a normal motorcycle's frame gets "chopped" or unbolted, and the rear end is replaced by a hardtail, this is a complete frame made to measure for the A50 motor, and with a combination of stretch and drop such that the finished bike would see the exhaust follow the lines of the hardtail, and - as much as possible - a straight line from the steering neck to the rear axle.
The quality of the build is phenomenal, the welds are perfect, every line is straight and true, alignment is extremely accurate and the result is a motorcycle that handles like it's on rails.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
From the archives. May 2012
With all major components gathered, and a clear build plan for the following weeks, this pile of parts is about to be transformed into the Rising Star:
Monday, October 28, 2019
From the archives. January 2013
The recently completed Rising Star on one of its very first outings, one cold winter morning. Notice the tank isn't even painted yet.
Friday, October 25, 2019
From the archives.
Aeons ago, an idea formed in my head that I should have a hardtail motorcycle, and that it should follow the "chopper" template of starting off with parts from various existing bikes, fabricate other parts needed, find some tasty custom parts, and bring it all together to end up with a complete vehicle, stripped of all non-essential items (and possibly some that it would have been better to keep, such as a front fender or a decent seat).
My upbringing conditioned me - so to speak - to envision this as a British machine, and through a series of circumstances a BSA A50 motor came up, and it seemed like the ideal starting point for the project that would eventually become the Rising Star.
You can read through the beginning of this blog to see how the build happened, although you'll probably notice that there is very little about actual rides that I've gone on with this machine.
Two of my favorite happened in the year of our Lord 2017, and you can read about those here and here.
Since then, the Rising Star has been abandoned (with a cracked oil tank mount) in the dark depths of the Monolith, and those few precious times I've been able to go ride, it has been on the Fastback or the Sportster.
I had even seriously pursued the idea of selling the BSA, but thankfully that didn't happen. I say thankfully because I have found myself thinking about this contraption more and more in recent days, and I think I'd like to improve this bike in much the same way as I have done with my Commando.
Hopefully, though there is little chance of this happening, I will get to it during the winter, and tend to some areas of the bike that are holding it back from being truly enjoyable.
In the meantime, since there isn't much happening on the blog anyway, I thought I would delight you all with photos of the Rising Star from the archives. Nothing necessarily impressive, but just to have something to look at and motivate me to get on with it.
I'll try to do a few every week. Here we go:
My upbringing conditioned me - so to speak - to envision this as a British machine, and through a series of circumstances a BSA A50 motor came up, and it seemed like the ideal starting point for the project that would eventually become the Rising Star.
You can read through the beginning of this blog to see how the build happened, although you'll probably notice that there is very little about actual rides that I've gone on with this machine.
Two of my favorite happened in the year of our Lord 2017, and you can read about those here and here.
Since then, the Rising Star has been abandoned (with a cracked oil tank mount) in the dark depths of the Monolith, and those few precious times I've been able to go ride, it has been on the Fastback or the Sportster.
I had even seriously pursued the idea of selling the BSA, but thankfully that didn't happen. I say thankfully because I have found myself thinking about this contraption more and more in recent days, and I think I'd like to improve this bike in much the same way as I have done with my Commando.
Hopefully, though there is little chance of this happening, I will get to it during the winter, and tend to some areas of the bike that are holding it back from being truly enjoyable.
In the meantime, since there isn't much happening on the blog anyway, I thought I would delight you all with photos of the Rising Star from the archives. Nothing necessarily impressive, but just to have something to look at and motivate me to get on with it.
I'll try to do a few every week. Here we go:
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