“You meet the nicest people on a Honda” was the 1962 advertising campaign launched to elevate the public perception of those who rode motorcycles. Ads depicted housewives, a parent and child, young couples and other respectable members of society-referred to as “the nicest people” riding Hondas for a variety of purposes.
It was a hugely successful campaign and of course it would have been a failure showing these same people riding this custom Honda seen in Panama City, FL during the 2010 Thunder Beach Spring Rally. I am certain that its owner is as nice as all Honda owners are supposed to be. (thank you WL)
I saw this bike, and it’s companion, which was very similar, but green instead of red, at sturgis last year. they were both really crowd pleasing builds.
Now that is a Rat Bike!
Over & Out,
Jeff
I’m not fond of rust since everything in the Northwest rusts even when you dont wish it to, like the floor board of my 68 elcam. Can we call these rust bikes?
Steve The Producer Johann
TODD FROM AFTER HOURS BUILDS COOL BIKES…IT RUNS GOOD AND HE DRIVES IT OFTEN..IT HAS FRONT AIR RIDE..VERY COOL
I never really got the rat bike thing…
I understand the concept of simple, service-able, ridable, that’s easy enough to grasp, or keeping an old bike limping along, or just not having the bucks to spend on fixing it up right & tight, etc.
But to work at building a bike that looks like a rat but really is a so-called custom bike? Nah, that’s just fakery… like suburban kids wearing tattered looking clothes to appear more genuine, or somehow more “from the streets”.
I’m not knocking you or your bike here, just not buying into the concept. It seems insulting to the real shoestring riders out there.
This guy is from my area. If you wondered, this isn’t a showpiece. He rides this one on almost every poker run, bike night,etc. It is a great looking bike & gets ALOT of attention. & yes he is a very nice guy.
I seen that bike at Red Lodge rally last year . Both him and the pretty woman with him were very nice people !
Not my taste….but the best thing is u dont have worry about wax jobs and chrome.
Damn! That’s the cleanest, coolest, tricked out Rat Bike I’ve ever seen!
I like it! I think Rat Bikes are cool
I love it…
Custom Rat? Can’t quite get the concept
you can’t build a rat bike , A motorcycle becomes a rat bike over time and lack of money . Even a wanna be poser like me knows that .
I realy like it,very radical rat style, loots of work in it.
Gee, and i thought mine was a Rat Bike because the seat falls off every time i get off it.
The first time I saw this I thought it was a cool rat bike. Actually the bike is very well put together, just has some rat stuff on it. RUB, my sentiments exactly. And the owner is cool. peace
Sidewinder and burnout. Next time you see him tell the owner I want to do a photo shoot of the bike.
Cyril has my email. I left a card on his bike in PCBeach but didn’t get a call back. thnx, wl
If you want to see a real rat bike , go exploring the mid-1970’s Easyriders mag. (1977-78) . There is a featured bike called the “Piney River Rat” with it’s owner Courtney Gordon , both from Virginia . It’s an old Panhead that he rode to and from California around the time of that article .
I’ve been looking for a bike to bob out and make it a rat bike, but after seeing this one, i realize i can only make it a bobber, i have to agree with RUB , only time and lack will make it a rat.
I’m still looking for that issue of ER look over those memories of Courtney . He was a true biker in every sense of it’s authority . He built other bikes to that were kick-ass in the day and would hold their own in todays styles. Help Cyril ! I’m pretty sure it was 1976-77-78 , c’mon that’s only 36 issues . One of us has got a friend out there with a serious ER collection , even I had a couple boxes of ’em until a buddy thought my closet was the “pisser” the uncouth asshole told me how sorry he was and volunteered to take the home and get them dried out , WRONG , he had some of them spread out in front of a space heater in his TRAILER and , well should I go on ? It starts getting painful ! let me here from you or post it in section of Cyri’ls Blog ,It’s not like” advice to the love lorn” for Christ Sake !!!!