Vindikta

Just a sample of some of the seat pans heading out this week to some of the leather workers that use our pans, and some extra for the upcoming Long Beach motorcycle swap meet. The pans are laser cut from 11 gauge steel and the stainless steel mounts are TIG welded. We don’t use carriage bolts or 5 cent bolts from the local depot store. Some people want the pans just bent with nothing welded to them and even a few go out just as the laser cut blank with no bend. We’ve done quite a few custom orders for customers that wanted a specific style or radius and some of these pans have had some incredible leather attached to them on a few award winning bikes. In the next few weeks, we’ll add the contact info for a few of the leather workers that use these pans and turn out some mind blowing artwork.

I will start adding into my blog posts some behind the scenes looks at what I do here in my shop. I field questions from people inquiring how things are done, so I will show some photos of various works in progress. Here are some photos of replicating a vintage bar for a customer’s bike. Here, I figure out the angles by laying out the bends.

 
A closeup of one side.

I finally got around to making a Facebook page for the business after I keep having so many people tell me that I should have one. It’s nothing too fancy, just a lot of pics of the shop, projects, customer’s bikes, recent trips and some friends I ride with. I’m going to try and keep it updated on a weekly basis with stuff, as time permits. But feel free to check it out, become a fan, or not, and add pics or comments, just search for Vindikta and you’ll see the fan page. I’m not using it to market or sell anything, just an easy way to keep things updated and to share some stuff. Thanks !!

Motorcycles as art? Any rider knows that this rings true and the Blacksmith Gallery in Orange is celebrating! A show of metalworkers, engravers, leather craftsmen and more in a show entitled, “Thy Will Be Done”. The gallery is located at 1014 N. Parker Street in Orange and will be in full swing by 6pm. Come and show your support to those who also see the beauty of bikes and the freedom of riding!

For everyone that skipped the Ink N Iron festival and the Bakersfield Thunder Run on Saturday and made it to the 2nd annual Born Free Show, you got to see some great bikes and lots of friends. Hopefully this event will continue to grow in popularity. The show was a big street party, with lots of great bikes, free food and sodas (just throw in a donation to support the cause) and a beautiful pan head that was being raffled off and an overall great time. Definitely make it out to support the cause next year. I took some general pics of some of the bikes and the event that I have on the MySpace and FaceBook. On Sunday I rode with some friends that took me to Vatos y Viclas event in Temecula, another good event. It was a different genre of bikes from Born Free, but a good party another good day and a great weekend of bikes, friends and riding.

Vindikta offers custom motorcycle handlebars!

Any style in 7/8, 1″, 1 1/4

All bars dimpled for stock controls

All 1″ bars are now available in Polished Stainless Steel for $145

Slotting for internal wiring available

Prices begin at $150 for RAW STEEL
Powder Coating add $60
Chrome add $80

Check out our popular Narrow Apes and Sweeper bars

http://stores.ebay.com/Vindikta

All Handlebars are 100% fabricated in house at our shop in Southern California

Please allow 2-3 weeks for custom orders
Contact: info@vindikta.com
Phone: (909) 215-9489

Here’s a pic of the latest project in the shop. My buddy Andy at Live Wire Fab Works is taking this on and making some adjustments to it. Nothing being done to the bike is from a catalog or “off the shelf”. Everything that is being added to the bike will be hand fabricated. The bike will have a custom set of hand built pipes, a sissy bar, modified “old school” passenger pegs and various other adjustments to achieve the look the customer wanted. The tag bracket is built by Andy and is 3/16ths steel, 100% Tig welded and comes in a vertical and horizontal frame. They are built to your specs whether you want it to mount to your ¾” or 1” axle or your passenger peg mount.
The black bike is a stock Harley soft tail Night Train. There was no cutting or welding to the stock frame involved in making this look. It includes a set of Andy’s pipes and his rear fender that he fabricated to achieve this look. This bike turns heads and gets a crowd around it wherever we ride.
I’ll post the completed pics of the project bike up in about 2-3 weeks. If anyone is interested in having Andy do some custom work for you or you just want to ask him a question, you can contact him at LiveWireFabWorks@yahoo.com, or get in touch with me. He also shares a booth with me at the Long Beach Cycle Swap/Show every month so stop by and say hi.
More bikes and more custom work will be posted in the coming months!!!

I just went out to the event for Saturday and made it to the Artistry in Iron event just after the show opened and as most people were heading for the vendors, I got the opportunity to have Kris Krome give me and a few other people a detailed overview of his Sturgis World Championship bike. Later I got to meet and ask questions to guys such as Bryan Fuller, Todd Silicato, Gard Hollinger and Christian Dotson. They were just hanging out next to their bikes and were all really down to earth and eager and friendly to answer the myriad of questions I had about their designs. That really made the trip worth it. When you have the opportunity to ask the “why” of aspects in the builds it really is inspiring.
For Example, Kris Krome’s bike was made primarily from polished stainless steel, the front end didn’t turn at the traditional head tube, it had two pivot points within the frame. The front axle was connected to the forks in what was essentially a hidden springer design that were two internal bearings. (he has pics on his site and U-tube videos of the build).

Most of bikes in the general show were the primarily the standard “theme” and “Easter egg” designs, with some exceptions. I liked the bikes from the guys at Sacred Steel Cycles, No flash, wild paint, just pure mechanical simplicity, design, form and function. I posted pics of a few of the bikes in the Artistry in Iron show and my favorite Sacred Steel bike that was in the general show.

I’m heading out to Las Vegas on October 3rd to spend the day at the Las Vegas Bike Fest. I will be going out to support some friends at their booths, have some fun, and to scope it out for next year when I will have a booth there. I am also planning on being at the 3 day CA Bike Week in the vendor village at the end of October. If anyone will be in Vegas for the event, or at the Bike Week, let me know. I’ll post some more info on Bike Week as it draws closer.

I had the opportunity to attend the 34th Bator Classic Motorcycle show at El Camino College this past weekend. I uploaded a few pics to the Vindikta MySpace page, of a few of the bikes that caught my attention. The one motorcycle that I really admired was the Moto Rumi. The owner of the bike was kind enough to take some time and he educated me on the history of the Moto Rumi brand and the intricacies of this particular machine. It was truly a motorcycle that when up close, one could see the simple functionality and how it was combined with beautiful Italian art. I have a few more detailed photos of the bike that were not uploaded. If anyone wants to see more pics of a truly beautiful machine, send me an email and I’ll post/forward them to you.