My article on
Austin's Handbuilt Show, put on by
Revival Cycles (full disclosure; my
Cannonball partners) is up on CycleWorld.com, with some great photos.
Here's a teaser, you'll have to click on the link for the rest...
"By now, everyone’s heard that Austin is an oasis of cool in the middle of Texas, but to this seasoned bi-coaster, visiting for the recent Handbuilt Show was a very pleasant surprise, and a little humbling. While busy growing our beards, Austin stole the mojo once animating Williamsburg and the Mission District, which are now dominated by people with, like, real jobs. The Handbuilt Show, in its second year under Revival Cycles, is planted in East Austin, a Hispanic neighborhood with rings of gourmet food trucks circled like wagons in vacant lots every quarter-mile, or even closer.
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| Jeremy Cupp, whose LC Fabrications '#7' Speedway custom won People's Choice; a crazy-clever machine mating a Buell Blast crank with a Ducati cylinder head, plus a ton of clever details, like a foldaway kicker for the Triumph gearbox (with hydraulic clutch adaptor) |
The Show’s in a large warehouse with an open yard beside, but the interior is air conditioned, while the yard features two excellent food trucks and the American Motordrome for atmosphere—visual and sonic. The food and drinks aren’t free, nor are the T-shirts, but everything else is. Anybody could enter the wide-open doors, and it was still never too crowded, day or night, to slip in amongst the Wall of Death revelers and feel a 1928 Indian rock the boards under your feet, as horizontal rider Charlie Ransom snatched paper money from extended hands. That just never gets old."
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| The late Bud Reveile's Triumph chopper - an Austin legend, owner of Bud's Motorcycle Shop, an amazing place of a type increasingly rare these days... |
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| A tidy Ducati flat-tracker |
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| Presentation! A sectioned Norton Atlas motor at Herb Harris' home |
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| Who knew a Honda 250 needed a monococque chassis? |
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| Lovely and Rudge-y |
