March 2010
Many of you know that I was in a pretty bad accident back in 07. I lost my leg when a young lady tried to cut my Magna in half with the front bumper of her Neon. It is almost insulting to say I got taken out by a Dodge Neon, but I guess I am lucky that it was not something bigger. It is important only because that is what brought me to cb750 choppers. I needed to get a bike together so that once I was able to ride again, I would have something to ride. I wanted to build a cool little chopper for as little money as possible because I was not able to work. I looked around for a while and decided that this is the way that I wanted to go. My father found me a running, titled, 78 donor for $500 and I started cutting. He helped me get it up on the lift and I started a little at a time. I still was not walking, so I was wheeling around the garage in my wheelchair, standing up and holding onto the bike as I worked, then moving and doing it again. I did more and more as I progressed physically. I had been going to therapy and learning to use my prosthesis. I was starting to get pissed at the time I was losing from the build when I was at the hospital. I figured that I was getting a workout limping around the garage, so I quit going to therapy. The bike is actually called Physical Therapy for just that reason although I just usually call it my black bike. I have other bikes, but this one is special just because of the crap I went through while building it. It really means a lot to have it chosen for Bike of the Month.
I have a small custom business and do custom paint and powder coating, but I decided to skip all of that for this bike. I went with Krylon just to get it on the road that much sooner. The front of the frame is stock with a hard tail section done in the garage. I had ordered one and was not happy with it, so a lot of work was done to it to make it useable and safe. The exhaust is just something that I saw in my head and started cutting and welding tubing until I got what I wanted. The rear wheel came from a 600 Shadow. It was kind of a pain, but I had it already, so I made it work. The tool box, battery box and oil tank were fabricated for the bike. The cap for the oil tank came from an old 2 stroke mower tank that my neighbor donated. I just thought that it was cool and decided to use it. The gas tank is a Sportster knockoff from eBay. The carbs are from cyclex as well as the offset sprocket. The ignition is a Dyna S with Dyna coils. The original version of the bike had a foot clutch, but I was having a lot of trouble with it using my leg. I ended up putting the clutch on the shift handle and it works so much more easily. The perch is still there on the foot peg if I ever decide to change it back, but I am pretty well used to it now.
