Bob Johnson: Vintage MotorBike Replicas

Bob has an interesting approach to taking an old bike frame and making something interesting of it. He turns it

into a near-replica of an early motor

bicycle. This requires a more comprehensive set of skills, and considerably more time than the average kustom job, but the results are well worth the effort. There's no more interesting detail that can be added to a bike than an engine and its associated bits and pieces, especially if it's done as well as this.

Yes,  motorcycles are cool, and older

ones are very interesting. But the very oldest ones- when they still had pedals, are the most charming of all.

Our favorite Harley is the legendary

"Silent Grey Fellow" of 1904, for exactly this reason. Brute force has its appeal,  but the more sporting nature of minimalistic power assistance is much more interesting.

"The Indian is a similar story. It is a mixture of bike frames using the various components that were the right size. My Dad found the engine in a barn sometime in the early 60's. As I was growing up, it was always there in the garage tucked away in some corner. the right-hand case half was broken into about five pieces, and some farmer had tried to repair it using lead, zinc, or some kind of soft metal. It didn't work. When I decided to make something out of it, I talked to a welder, and he said it would be easier to make a whole new case than to try to repair this one. that's what I did.  I cast a new case half using the old one as the pattern. The whole project took about four years."

E-Mail Bob Johnson

"The Evans engine was given to me by a friend in an antique engine club; he thought it was a bicycle engine, but it had been sitting out under a tree for about 35 years; it was one big rust ball! It took about a year just to get it apart. In the meantime, I was building the frame and tank. The engine is called a Cycle Motor. In the 'teens you could buy it as a bicycle engine; then later they also sold a complete motorcycle called the Evans. My bike started out as a '40s girl's Schwinn. The bottom tube stayed in place, and the top tube ( the other curved tube) became other parts of the frame. The rear stays are from a Dayton frame that was otherwise junk. The front fork is a Schwinn B-10. The fenders are NOS from the '20s, both are rear fenders, so the front would be longer." 

1903 California Replica

Bob's current project is a replica of George Wyman's motor bike. In this case he is also having to replicate its engine. Below are some photos of various stages of construction.