Thematic break: Daytona Bike Week 2006

I'm on vacation at Daytona Bike Week. I've been every year since '98 but this year I'm going to make an effort to actually post Florida photos while I'm down here so I don't end up with a huge glut of them that just sit in the folder like last year. If you're here for Lower Manhattan photos, there may be a few mixed in this week, but otherwise you have to either scroll down to the archives or wait until I'm back next week.
Thanks for your indulgence,
Will

Cool high beam indicator in top of headlamp. the next three are on a bike from NYC Choppers.

Nicely done switches.

Very clean rear brake light.

One of the challenges of custom motorcycle design is where to put the oil tank. Usually it's below the seat, so it's fun to find it elsewhere. In this case, it's behind the seat in the fender. I saw a few bikes today with the rear fender doubling as a tank, so there may be a trend going on here.

Crazy bike. I didn't note the shop it's from. Clear cylinder head cover, weird plastic LED rear light, gear drive primary... the list goes on.

Dual chain drive

Right side drive has this weird sprocket arrangement.

Cylindrical oil tank on the front like a St. Bernard. Cool.

Gear drive primary, crazy, and that's the rear view mirror there ont he side of it. Crazy.

Oil tank as cannon ball.

Oil tank as rocket-looking thing.

This is another one with the tank in the fneder. I think that's the gas tank, since, as you can see in the background, there's no gas tank where you'd usually find one.

Not having a tank gives the bike a weird face.

Hiding the cables, hoses and wires is another challenge in custom bike building. This bike is so clean it looks like it was made by Playskool.

This bike's seat is about a foot off the ground. The gauge placement is pretty cool, if impractical.

Meanwhile, this bike was just silly-tall...

...and this is why, a blower on top of the engine. Crazy.

The new "world's largest Harley dealership is ridiculous - even a little embarrassing. If you're down here this week though, the scene is pretty good, it's not just the store. All of the above photos are from their chopper show.

Window shopping. (That's I-95 in the background.)

Racing on the dyno. The Big Dog beat the American Ironhorse, 2 out of 3, although the Ironhorse won the last race with the highest top speed and horsepower of the session. (I think it was 131 mph)



Nice engraving all over this bike in the Perewitz tent. I love the leather cover on the tank and forks. Indian Larry has something similar.

Best overall tent so far is for a shop called Tempest Cycles. This is a soft tail swingarm, not a rigid, and it's a production bike that sells for 39 grand. If you're looking to buy a production chopper, I'd come here before going to the bigger names.

This bike had a lot of cool touches, including wooden hand grips, but I really like this lift-plug in the gas tank.

Amazing, the fork has no suspension, instead it's on a hinge with springs running under the gas tank, attached to the frame. It's like a springer, but the springs are horizontal. This and the above, still Tempest.

Interesting tree trunk. What? (P.S. It was in the low 60's today, these girls, and there are many of them, were all goosebumps.)

I'm not a big fan of purely decorative features on a bike, but this is cool. The whole bike has a dragon theme. In the S&S tent at the speedway.

This is the best part of that bike. A talon hand lever with the clutch cable running inside the handlebar through the end of the grip.

It's a little hard to see what this is, but it's a pretty amazing design for a shifter. You can see where it connects to the linkage in the background. What you can't quite see is that it pivots like a hinge even though it looks like a single horizontal bar. Very clean. Also in the S&S tent.