Ryan's A.M.C.A. Giveaway bike build!

[c.o.]

Congrats Ryan!!! Your grin says it all!!!

[Bills37]

Sweet. She looks like she's gonna be a blast to ride.

[sludge]

I plan to have some fun with my '51 FL this year and your efforts have inspired me to put aside restoration and do the custom thing.

it's the right thing Eric, bobbers forever - restorations never.

[Slojo]

Ryan
Let's thank all those who donated time and parts for this project especially the Olsen twins Matt and Carl. Most importantly we all would like to thank you for sticking with this project and doing a fine job. You make everybody proud of your accomplishments. Congratulations I knew you were the real deal when I read your essay a year ago. Welcome into the club kid. Now find some of your friends to get involved in the AMCA.

Joe

[Ryan Mackey]

It's obvious you really have a talent for bike building Ryan. I like the attention to detail and the no compromise attitude for quality. You have had great mentors with Matt and Carl but again, you posess a native talent for this stuff. I plan to have some fun with my '51 FL this year and your efforts have inspired me to put aside restoration and do the custom thing.

Thanks, thats awesome, make it your own its your bike nobody else's.

awesome Ryan, simply awesome. can't wait for you to get it back home so i can come check it out and we can go riding.

thanks man, definitely need to go riding when I get back.

Ryan
Let's thank all those who donated time and parts for this project especially the Olsen twins Matt and Carl. Most importantly we all would like to thank you for sticking with this project and doing a fine job. You make everybody proud of your accomplishments. Congratulations I knew you were the real deal when I read your essay a year ago. Welcome into the club kid. Now find some of your friends to get involved in the AMCA.

Joe

Thanks, it still amazes me that people all donated so much to this project...this club is awesome! I'm already working on getting some kids into it from back home.


Well I figured out the problems yesterday and got her running great! It was a combination of an electrical issue causing a weak spark and carb problem but all is good now. This thing is a blast to ride! A bunch of people rolled into Carl's last night and we are all headed out to Sturgis in a couple hours. Can't wait!

[tomcat1]

Great bike! I hope you will do a photo shoot. I would like to see detailed pic's. I hope you send it to this site.
http://www.flathead-bobbers.com/


Did Matt get the Sears done in time for Sturgis? I've been watching his blog, and don't see any new pic's of it coming alive.

[Ryan Mackey]

Great bike! I hope you will do a photo shoot. I would like to see detailed pic's. I hope you send it to this site.
http://www.flathead-bobbers.com/


Did Matt get the Sears done in time for Sturgis? I've been watching his blog, and don't see any new pic's of it coming alive.

Thanks! I will post some more pics of the bike.
Matt got his Sears all together for Sturgis, he wanted to keep it all fresh for the show that it was in so it has not been run yet.

We got back to Aberdeen last night and all I can say is WOW! What a week! I met a ton of awesome people, rode a lot, and saw a bunch of sweet bikes...what could be better?...oh yeah and a lot of girls too!
The first show that my bike was in was the AMD world bike builders show. People from all over the world come and put there bikes in the show. There was some crazy stuff there. I didn't win anything in that but once it was over I booked it back to the Limpnickie Lot at the Broken Spoke for Cycle Source's show and I got best bobber!


Since my bike isn't broken in yet and I still have some things to work out on it, the Olsen's lent me their '47 knuck to ride for the week. I put over 1000 miles on it and it ran strong the whole time. I only had to make a couple minor repairs the whole time.


The coolest thing I did the whole week was we rode out to an Indian Reservation on Thursday about 150 miles away. This reservation has a really high teenage suicide rate...about 2 or 3 a month. To try to help the kids, the Limpnickie Lot decided to get a bunch of baseballs, bats, and gloves and ride out there and play some ball with them. The roads on the way out there were some of the hardest ones I've ever ridden on, but everyone made it there and we had a blast hanging out with the kids. At the end of the day all the kids got rides on the bikes and they loved it!



By far the coolest person I met is 85 years old. Her name is Gloria and has been riding since her 20s and rides to Sturgis from New Jersey every year. This year she rode to Daytona and had to shovel her street in order to make it there. How cool is that! She was at a burnout contest at the Broken Spoke Saloon and was convinced to get on the back of a bagger that was in the contest. This was her first time ever on the back of a bike!!


It was pretty crazy the number of people that recognized me...I even got back stage passes to the Doobie Brothers!


I am already planning on riding out next year, it was a lot of fun!

[Ryan Mackey]

Here are some more pics of the bike.

[exeric]

it's the right thing Eric, bobbers forever - restorations never.

Whoa! That doesn't mean I won't restore my '51FL, I just want to have some temporary fun with it. Historical preservation and restoration is what the AMCA is all about.

[Ryan Mackey]

The last few days I have been riding my bike and working all the bugs out. I ended up making a new longer clutch pedal to make it a little smoother. Since it was so short before, it was really hard to press down but all fixed now! That has really been the only major problem so far.

My dad drove in this afternoon and we will be leaving tomorrow morning and heading back to Ohio. It was an awesome trip. I had a blast! I'm really looking forward to Davenport and meeting everyone again. My bike will be there so be sure to stop and check it out! I'll be around somewhere looking for my next project.