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Psychobilly Honda-Davidson

July 19, 2022

There are many motorcycles that exist only in stories and legends that cruise the highways for years evading the public eye but exist as one of a kind bikes that survive simply because they are just too wild to die. These kinds of "one off" survivors are usually reserved for custom choppers but what about a custom hybrid Harley Honda full dresser? A Honda Davidson or quite possibly a "Harlonda?" Well, we met a gentleman, Paul Atkins, one year at AMA vintage days who owns not only one, but three of these incredible machines and he brought his 1966 Harley Davidson with an SOHC CB750 motor powering it to our Old Bike Barn crossroads bike show and the rest is history and an interesting one at that. We sat down with Paul this year to pick his brain about the origins of his blue beauty which he affectionately refers to as "Psychobilly" and also get some info on the other 2 of these wild hybrid machines he has chosen to own over the years.

The Bigger Minibike: The Honda Trail 70

May 10, 2022

To those that grew up in the 1970s, and loved motorcycles, this meant amazing creations from the legends at Honda like the Z50 mini bike and its bigger brother the Trail 70. See, Honda knew they had a hit on their hands when the “monkey bike” that first debuted as a children’s ride in Tama Tech park was a hit with not only the kiddies, but the adults as well. Within a few years of this concept, the Z50 was a hit in not only the home market of Japan but in markets all over the world.

1974 Amen Savior CB550 Chopper

March 22, 2022

We often attend many motorcycle events and truth be told, seek out any custom builds or survivors projects that have vintage Japanese motors but we dont often see 550 motors in choppers. So when a good one comes along we take notice. The company "Amen" made plunger style chopper frames for many different inline four motors back in the 70's including the Honda CB750 and CB550 but the 550 frames were much more short lived and rare than the 750 ones. So when we met Steven Rodriguez at the Cooks Corner bar in Trabuco Canyon before last years Born Free show we took notice of this awesome Amen chopper he had built and been riding for some time. The bike was obviously a "daily rider" with tons of style and some really cool functionality. So we took a chance to snap some pics and talk with Steven about this neat piece of 70s chopper history.

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Water Cooled V-Twin: The Honda CX500

March 08, 2022

For a company to make a splash in the motorcycle world, they either have to make a big claim or have a revolutionary new design.

Taking a place in the Honda lineup from 1978 to 1983, the Honda CX500 did a little of each. Rocking the nearly hyperbolic headline “First into the future”, they were actually pretty serious about having a new vision for what motorcycles should look like.

This article examines the history of the Honda CX500 from its development and initial reactions to its reception by motorcycle driving audiences.

"Chicago" Honda CB750 Survivor Chopper

November 02, 2021

The idea, to hand build a one of a kind show stopper that wasn't a Harley Davidson. An idea that Bob Hannon of Schaumburg, Illinois had beginning in 1981 when assembling a team a various Craftsman all over the Midwest to build the “Project: Ultimate Honda.” “The goal is to build the show bike of show bikes, a machine that could not be beaten” said Bob in a Choppers magazine interveiw in 1982. The build was picked up by the publication Custom bike - Choppers magazine as an ongoing feature in multiple issues during the full build process and the hype really began to circulate about this one of a kind machine. Once completed Bob traveled the show circuit in 1982 winning award after award under the bike name “Chicago.” After a couple of years of racking up trophies, the bike laid dormant only to end up changing hands a couple of times and was then finally discovered again around 2005 by chopper enthusiast Jim Tigner. The bike at that time had been completely disassembled repainted bright purple and crated in a custom crate leaving Jim with the daunting task of collecting all of the 1980’s magazines and figuring out a blueprint to restore “Chicago” to its former 80’s glory. We caught up with Jim and the fully assembled masterpiece CB750 chopper at this year's Wauseon swap meet and he shared with us a little back story on how he came to restore this one of a kind show stopping Honda survivor chopper.

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