Cafe racers, custom motorcycles and classic motorcycles

Don’t any of you read?

“The tank has an inner steel vessel with an outer cover hand-carved from Lucite—”

Sure sounds like the lucite IS A COVER and not actually holding the fuel.
Also if you bothered to watch the video footage you’ll see that the primary cover is run dry indicating seals at the crank output and clutch shaft…so no oil to contend with either. The fellow that carped about Lucite engine mounts….I think that’s just a reflection and not clear plastic. Does anyone have a clearer image to prove one way or another? Since the video DOES show it being ridden one can only imagine that they are in fact metal mounts and not clear effing plastic.

I’ll echo another poster’s question though…..what’s with all the pointless bitching and moaning here lately? Is it just a factor of extended readership? More people reading raises the percentage of whining? I suppose it’s possible.

Beautiful work. Amazing craftsmanship.

I, in general, hate built for a show trailer queens.
Plastic parts and bicycle tires, with no real brakes?

At least it will look good while sitting somewhere.

@el vencejo, I don’t feel i should have to post my bonafides, but here goes any ways, check hot bike magazine in the next month or two for an orange chopper called hellbent,I have owned it for the past twenty years and have “traveled many a weary mile” on it.in case your interested.

@Rockyo:
You questioned the “bonafides” of pretty much everyone who criticised the practicality of this “bike”. The fact you have owned the same bike for a long time is pretty meaningless. Did you build it or buy it?

Mission Accomplished. It caused a reaction, as show bikes do.

Now lets turn to the whole Japan deal…..actually if you are not part of the Socal custom scene and dont get what is shaken with the Japanese guys, stick with store bought bikes and Icon pleathers. You wont get it.

As far as going in a straight line on a smooth road, THAT IS THE POINT. Its called “Profiling”.

sorry if anyone was offended by the old timer comment,just speaking in generalities.a lot of these young builder just dont get the credit they probably deserve with their innovative ways of spinning an old recipe without making it look tired.mark drews built his vision of what he likes.our opinions are really a moot point.and to @ el venjeco I am out, so not take any more thunder away from this very cool bike by talking off topic about someone else’s resume. semper fi……..

Mule
Without access to specifications such as rake, trail, wheel size etc. it is not feasible to make any conclusive inference about the chassis and how it performs. Likewise any certainty about whether the ergonomics are correct can not be determined without further information about diamensions, materials and so forth. Granted assumptions can be formed regarding this or any other bike based on a photograph but definitive accurate conclusions can not be drawn.

Harry Farquhar, A couple facts you may have overlooked.

Hardtail = no rear suspension = harsh ride. Definitive conclusion.

Seat with max 1″ padding mounted hard to the fender and frame = Harsh ride. Definitive conclusion.

Micro-width handlebars. NO leverage. Definitive conclusion.

Please stop me if I make a mistake here.

Judging by the rear tire tread, I’m thinking it’s a 19″ Goodyear DT, really old (70-80′s), making it at least 15-20 yo which means hard as a rock, making the chromed steel rim 20″ O.D.. Using that as a guide, this bike has 85mm of trail and a 26 degree head angle. To get ANY bike to not have headshake at speeds above 50mph, you need a minimum of 95-100mm of trail. The 26 degree part on this bike is probably borderline too, but might be alright with 100mm of trail or more.

If this in fact has a bicycle tire/ rim on the front as has been speculated here, they have an ugly habit of tires popping off the rims.

So here’s what I would say in summary and I’ll be the first to admit, I’m no genius. If you took this bike on a quick blast up to 70mph, you would first go into a violent tank-slapper which would quickly peel the tire off the rim and get wadded up into the pretty chrome springer as the tiny bars were ripped from your hands. What happens after that I will leave up to your imagination.

All that said, I would bet money on the “Accuracy of my conclusions” without ever riding this bike.

But it’s pretty! That’s just an opinion.

I just wish I owned one bike that does everything like all the naysayers here. Until then, I’m stuck with my motely collection of bikes that do one thing good, and other things so so.

Ah Rockyo, you bought it finished.

Quite a different spin on the norm, definitely sparks the conversation. I like it, would not own it though. Great for the builder, He will sell it and start another. Hope he sells it to some rich ass artsy dude for 100k, on 6k worth of work and parts. That is what most cats aim for when building from this scene anyway right? Needs to drive his form more towards function, I would want to pimp that bitch with a head/tail light at least…… Form up some crazy ass Lucite/crome enclosures for lighting the front and rear?

Mr. Drews’ bike is so rad. I’m jealous.

Science?…..perhaps you should have stopped riding after the 100th or so ‘tossing’.

I’ll put it another way. To me, a motorcycle is, or should be an extension of the rider. Riding a motorcycle requires skill and control and the motorcyle’s roll in this relationship should be to at the very worst, be a nuetral player. In every type of competition, bike shapes and set-up will be tweaked to get them to be as much of an asset as is mechanically possible. There are physical laws that are applied and these are well known, well documented and there are a jillion books available that explain these in detail.

However, in the world of “customs”, these rules are cast aside, disregarded, ignorantly ignored, overlooked or most likely not even known by the builders. This tweaks me to no end. There seem to be a lot of car builders that have built lots of cool cars that decide to build a bike (usually a bizarre custom). Since they don’t really understand what makes a bike “work”, they head down the path of weirdness or coolness. This makes their bikes exotic, ground-breakingly different and in most cases a contortionist’s dream (almost, if not completely unrideable). Compromises required of the rider start stacking up against him in order to conform to the bike’s peculiar style of operation. Seating position, leverage, arm height, reach, foot position, shifting, braking (if there’s enough), seat padding, basic suspension travel over average road conditions, not to mention basic bike geometry, etc., etc..

When none of these factors make good sense any more, then the bike becomes art, a chopper or cool. It somehow becomes legitimate again and naysayers become old timers that just don’t understand. Sometimes the bike is even “Pure sex”.

So, Harry, if you think 10″ wide bars have a place on any bike ever in this lifetime, I’m preachin’ to the wrong congregation. I can say no more that would make any difference or penetrate the shell.

Man all you morons are COMPLETELY missing the point here.
It is amazing. It is a 60′s style showbike. It is what it is.
If you are just gonna be negative all the time, why even bother looking. Sheesh.

These photos don’t begin to do the bike justice. Ian and I watched in awe as Mark and his buddy, Gabe, dropped this bike off to be loaded into the Mooneyes Crate, destined for Yokohama. Mark had that look I recognize in Ian all too well – the ‘hasn’t slept for months because his imagination and hard work has carried him to the limits of time look’. He rolled it out of the back of the van, and I can’t remember a time recently, where I’d seen a bike that made me feel so happy. It is imaginative, beautifully executed, original, cool… so many of the things that a custom bike aspires to be, and that sound ‘muted’ compared to the real thing. All the shoulda woulda coulda’s from people passing subjective judgements are just that, at least in my subjective opinion. Me and the rest of the Falcon team are honored to say that we heart Solitary Confinement, are psyched to have studied it up close, and can’t wait to check it out again in December…

i think this bike is one of the most beautifully executed bike builds in years…bikes like this inspire me to build better bikes and im sure countless other people in the world as well. it requires much thought, much skill, and much much of everything else and im thankful once again to a very talented builder for taking the time to do such a beutiful job…thanks mark.