JAMIE ROBINSON: This week's episode, we're at Born Free, a
vintage and classy motorcycle event, here to celebrate
everything motorcycle.
Topper, bobber, you name it, we'll find it.
Welcome to RideApart.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: Born Free is filling up.
There's thousands and thousands of bikes behind me,
loads of weird and wonderful machines, so let's go and
check it out.
I'm going to talk to some of the characters who ride them.
It says twist it, so I could.
Well, I have to talk to you.
Tell me about this fantastic machine.
MALE SPEAKER: It's a diesel motorcycle.
I was first inspired by an English diesel car magazine a
buddy sent back about 27 years ago, and there was a Robin
Diesel motorcycle in there, and I've
wanted one ever since.
JAMIE ROBINSON: People seem to enjoy the sign that says
"twist it."
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, I knew they'd get a kick out of that.
JAMIE ROBINSON: People are like a kid in a sweet shop
coming past this bike.
MALE SPEAKER: But I did it because of fuel economy.
When I first saw that in the magazine ages ago, I did the
math between imperial gallons and US gallons, and I realized
the mileage was incredible, and I already liked diesel.
JAMIE ROBINSON: So what can you get out of this?
MALE SPEAKER: 110 miles to the gallon on the highway.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Oh wow.
Fantastic.
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
It's a lot of fun.
I'm having a good time with it.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Yeah, it looks like a lot of fun.
And it gets a lot of interest from people as well, sparks
people's imagination, which is always great.
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Wow.
Well, fantastic, man.
I've never seen a motorcycle quite like this, so well done.
MALE SPEAKER: Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: What do you like about motorbikes?
MALE SPEAKER: That you can do this with them.
JAMIE ROBINSON: That's cool.
MALE SPEAKER: And you know what I like to do?
I like to put gas and drive it.
JAMIE ROBINSON: You want to put gas in and drive it?
MALE SPEAKER: Yep.
JAMIE ROBINSON: That's cool.
What are you going to wear on your head?
MALE SPEAKER: My motorcycle helmet.
My motorcycle helmet.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: This is a vintage
motorcycle, a 1964 Triumph.
MALE SPEAKER: Yes.
JAMIE ROBINSON: It doesn't really look like one.
Tell me what you've done to it.
MALE SPEAKER: The whole motor is completely polished.
I had this polished.
I think the best part of the polishing is the head, because
between the fins, it's like mirrored.
It went all the way down to the inside in there.
JAMIE ROBINSON: That's quite an angle
you've got going there.
What's the stretch on the front fork?
MALE SPEAKER: 30 over, and it's a solid rigid front end.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Wow.
MALE SPEAKER: No suspension.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Oh my goodness.
And tell me about this crazy exhaust.
What inspired you to make this?
MALE SPEAKER: Again, a lot of the custom bikes have gone--
a little bit of my trademark is to do all the high pipes
all the time.
And I really wanted--
I mean, some of the stuff with the trumpet tips, that was
done early in the '70s, but not so many people have done
it afterwards.
I really, this time, wanted to do something that nobody has
ever done before.
It's out in left field.
Either you love it, or you hate it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: I see you there with
your polishing cloth.
MALE SPEAKER: Right.
JAMIE ROBINSON: You have a wonderful motorcycle here.
Can you tell me a little bit about here?
MALE SPEAKER: Well, it's a 1971 Honda CB750 that I
acquired late last year.
It actually belonged to my brother.
He ended up in the hospital, so I ended up with the bike.
Now, when I originally got it, it had been parked for over 30
years in his shop or garage.
It had boxes and boxes of junk piled all over it.
It was all rusted and just a mess.
Anyway, I took it home to my garage and tore
it completely apart.
It really come out nice.
I'm proud of it, and it turned out a gorgeous bike.
I
JAMIE ROBINSON: So you're at the garage company.
You're surrounded by beautiful bikes every day.
MALE SPEAKER: Uh-huh.
JAMIE ROBINSON: You've build an astonishing example here,
so tell me about your motorcycle.
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, this is my own bike.
I built this one at my garage, no shop.
JAMIE ROBINSON: And what year is it?
MALE SPEAKER: 1970 Honda CV 750.
JAMIE ROBINSON: OK.
And you look like you've got some very interesting parts on
there, so can you tell me about some of the more
interesting ones?
MALE SPEAKER: You know, not interesting, but I changed
everything.
I used only motor and the frame, that's
originally from a 750.
And then front fork and the wheels, swing arm, shocks.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Tell me about the exhaust system.
Where did that come from?
MALE SPEAKER: That's an old Yoshimura replica.
Like the Yoshimura original style, but it's not perfect,
so I chopped again and then remake it like original
Yoshimura pipe.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Wow.
MALE SPEAKER: And then I got original sticker
that I put on it.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Even better.
Beautiful.
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Food.
I've seen your motorcycle there across the way.
Looks fantastic.
MALE SPEAKER: Oh, thank you.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Can you tell me a little bit about it?
MALE SPEAKER: Oh yeah.
This is 1972 Norton Commando, 750 CC.
It's on a 1971 oil-in-frame Triumph and a front end-- the
Yamaha front end.
The headlight is a Harley Davidson Sportster.
I removed the bucket.
The backseat is a cheap gas tank, like a $5 gas tank,
chopped up the tail section and welded in--
so it saves you like three or four days--
to form the seat.
So modified pretty much almost everything.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Yeah.
And does it sound good?
MALE SPEAKER: Oh yes.
Let me try to start it on for you.
JAMIE ROBINSON: This is where a real man gets on his real
motorcycle and has to kick-start it.
MALE SPEAKER: Oh, I crashed about three months ago.
You have to earn this, right?
JAMIE ROBINSON: Yes.
[REVVING MOTORCYCLE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MALE SPEAKER: There's nothing like dropping your knees in
the breeze.
I don't care if you've got the coolest old lady in the world,
like you're going to lose her for three to five [BLEEP]
days.
That's when I [BLEEP]
strap on my boots, and I say, I'll see you later, baby.
You know what I mean?
I drop my knees in the breeze, and it clears my head.
You can't describe it to somebody,
you know what I mean?
It's a real sense of freedom.
It's a real sense of zen.
JAMIE ROBINSON: What are you doing?
FEMALE SPEAKER: We are at Born Free in Irvine, California,
and we are selling tickets for the two bikes that they're
raffling off today.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Two bikes?
They're giving away two motorcycles?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Two of them.
JAMIE ROBINSON: No way.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yes.
JAMIE ROBINSON: What are they?
FEMALE SPEAKER: '69--
FEMALE SPEAKER: Shovelhead.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Both of them.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yes.
JAMIE ROBINSON: So you can actually come here in your
car, buy a ticket, and ride home.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yes.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Or if you're lucky, if you bought a ticket
from us, you ride home, and we ride on the back.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: I couldn't help but notice your
motorcross tire on your rat bike here.
You've got an adjustable wrench as a kickstand.
You've got what looks like a crazy,
two-stroke engine in there.
Can you tell me a little bit about your motorcycle?
MALE SPEAKER: This bike is a 1969 Santee.
It's a rigid frame for a Shovelhead
Harley Davidson, 1969.
So we cut it up and put a Suzuki TM 400 in it.
The pipe is homemade.
It's like a YZ 390 and a Suzuki TM 400 pipe.
The rims are off a YZ 490.
It's a wide-glide front end.
And it's 44 horsepower, five-speed transmission.
Here, I'll start it up for you.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Yeah, let's hear her.
[REVVING MOTORCYCLE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MALE SPEAKER:Time to finally pick the Best Panhead.
You picked the Bones Legacy Panhead from [INAUDIBLE].
Thank you very much.
Yoshi picked the Best Cafe.
As many of you know, he has a really neat [INAUDIBLE]
collection with really rare stuff, and he picked Roland
Sands AerMacchi M50 Arapaho.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Roland Sands, we're at Born Free, and you've
turned up with something that's kind of
very different, man.
Not very Roland Sands.
What's going on?
ROLAND SANDS: What do you mean?
It's a two stroke and it's clip-ons.
This is more Roland Sands than any bike I probably ever built
in my life.
JAMIE ROBINSON: There you go.
Tell me about it.
What year was it?
ROLAND SANDS: It's a '73 AerMacchi.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Oh, wow.
ROLAND SANDS: Yeah.
JAMIE ROBINSON: A beautiful machine.
ROLAND SANDS: It's just this little lightweight-- it used
to be like a little high-bar scooter, and then now we just
kind of turned it into a little cafe.
We put vintage Morris magnesium wheels on it, so
these are like really authentic Morris mags that we
be had about the shop.
It's just a fun little bike, man.
JAMIE ROBINSON: It is a fun little bike.
ROLAND SANDS: Yeah, it's cool.
Should I fire up?
You want to hear it?
JAMIE ROBINSON: I do.
Let's hear it.
[REVVING MOTORCYCLE]
[MUSIC PLAYING
JAMIE ROBINSON: That's it.
Born Free's over for another year, and as you see, it means
so many unique motorcycles and definitely their riders.
[MUSIC PLAYING]