I'm Beau I live in MN. I like anything with wheels. My life and p***ion is in bicycles. But I also enjoy pre-80's motorcycles, and pre-80's auto's. I grew up in Brainerd, MN just a few miles from the race track. I spent many Summers on the strip and strolling through the docks looking at cars and cycles. I saw it all up there. I started driving old VW's until I was about 22, and then bought a 75' Mini Cooper. The Mini is my lifelong project dedicated to my father who worked at a chrome plating factory making all sots of ugly bumpers come back to life as show quality parts. He has a signiture on each piece he did, and he may have done your parts! If you have an odd grind mark on the back of eithr side of your bumper, it may have been him. My Father always loved the old stuff. So I went to a lot of the Show and Go's, Muscle car shoot-outs and weekly bracket races in Brainerd. His dream was to have a '57 Chevy. Since I can't afford one of those things, I'm building the IH. It;s my way of having a hokey American car. I have been racing bicycles since 1987. BMX, downhill, road, gravel road, alley cats, you name it. I have worked in bike shops since '94 and I now operate a non-profit communtiy bike shop I startes that I will be p***ing out in the next month. I also make art out of upcycled steel. Mainly bicycle parts because I have as many as I can handle. I like tasty beer, ****ty beer and cheap whiskey. I don't eat anything that doesn't squeal when it dies, although vegeterian women do taste good. I'm also a cook at an Italian restaurant, but that job is near it's end. My dogs name is Boogie. A hefty 13 pound, cross eyed mini Dacshund I rescued from a fat cat lady that "didn't have time for him do to her illness" (which I'm pretty sure is an addiction to Craigslist and Ho-ho's). I have a bad *** girl that deals with all my **** and even helps tear my cars/cycles/bicycles apart. Full support of all I do. Oh, and I like long walks around the lake. Pics since words are boring. Art pays the bills- 150 foot bicycle mowed in a hill at from 1-4:30 a.m. Pitch black. The "Crop Cycle" Some of my bikes- Fixed gear, welded freehub body, Winter beater commuter bike 56 pound DH racer. I stripped the paint when it was new and painted it Wal Mart "CHROME" with a rattle can. Nothing like rolling up with a ****ty looking bike and schooling the rich boys Hiawatha Boardtrack racer with a *** change and springer I built in thirty minutes using parts from the s**** barrel (Chevy valve springs work great!) Me- Halloween Mad Max bike night- To many Beam's My shop- My Cars- And the reason I came to this site- And my motorcycle. '75 CB360 with rusted panels on tank done by me. It will be getting stripped down this Winter for the final finishing on all the parts. So there you have it. You should know my now. I enjoy this site a lot. Lots of good people (and a few ***holes as usual), but good info and a great archive of knowledge. I have been lurking for a while. I hope to have fun. Cheers!
Welcome to the Hamb!! Your father earns every cent he gets polishing bumpers. Very few people really know what it takes. I do almost all the bumpers that run through our shop. As you can see, I like bicycles too. The origins of our chrome shop go back to 1990, catering to the growing cl***ic/antique bicycle restorer crowd. I fell in love with the Sting Rays and built my own about 10 years ago using the family chrome shop to its full extent. Today, about 90% of our work is automotive, and maybe .5% is bicycle stuff.
That Schwine is purty! Love the Ram Horn bars. I just picked up a Schwinn 20" cruiser style bike. I put some apes on it and I'm rebuilding a Bendix 2-speed kickback for it. My Dad p***ed in '02. He never went to the hospital, and when he finally went for a pain in his shoulder, they found Cancer....EVERYWHERE like an old car from Minnesota. He lasted two weeks in the hospital. Once they took his cigs, whiskey and steak he was done for. He worked back in the 80's while I was young. 90% of the fellas that worked with him are all gone as well. Bad regulations, smoking cigs next to TONS of chemicals, and very little safety devices exposed a lot of the guys to some pretty bad ****. It has since been cleaned up quite a bit. O.S.H.A. came in and laid down the law. My Dad was the guy in the shop that did all the high end, antique show chrome that came in as well as the gigatic semi bumpers (he was a big dude) . I was a pretty lucky kid. EVERY bike, car, snowmobile, riding lawnmower and yard ornament had some sort of thing chrome plated.
I had a buddy in Germany had one of these with a VW engine in it, was really fast and squirrelly. Welcome from California, I very impressed with your work, you should get into making trophies for car shows...
Welcome, I drive truck through Mankato several times a day, admired the "field Cycle" hundreds of times!
Anything I guess. Are you in Mankato or the twin cities? I might be interested in any aircooled vw stuff you have.
I'm in Mankato until the end if the month. I don't have any aircooled stuff though. I have about 1000 diecast VW cars in my collection though. Mostly new and from all over the world. Along with dealer stuff and other goods. I'd like to get rid of that stuff. To the other poster... I have made trophies for a lot of bicycle races. I'd have to attend some events but I would be happy to make trophies for car shows. If anyone wants something let me know. Last time I was at the machine shop they had a 50 gallon barrel full of goodies.
Hey from Plymouth. Welcome. You got some pretty cool stuff there. I'm an artist too. Mostly on the side. Haven't been up to the races in a long time The Honda 360 is *****in' So's the truck.
Hey, What kind of dealer stuff do you have? Anything for the aircooled's or early watercooled? Do you still have the scirroco? I think I met you last fall at clements with our vw club. Was that you?
Yup. That was me! My buddy Anders had the bus. I think he needs some help with it. I'm more of a watercooled guy so I don't have much for aircooled. Just some diecast stuff and other toys.
What does he need for the bus? I have a '79 bus that I am parting out. If he needs anything let me know and i'll give you my e-mail address. Any dealer stuff from the old Mankato dealer? Are you selling the GTI or Scirroco?
Too many positive comments to list... So are you moving up to the cities for good? If so what becomes of your shop/ inventory? Looking forward to bumping into you sometime up here. Jay
Yes. I'm moving up in September. I will be working for Penn Cycle on Lake St. Most of the things I own personally are gong to storage for now. The rest will be turned over to the next person I can find to run the shop.
Penn Cycle on Lake is a good place. I haven't been there in years but when I used to frequent Uptown I enjoyed stopping in to check out the new skate decks/parts. You should have a good time in that area. Ever check out "Cyclecide"? (I think that is what they are called...) Jay
welcome to the board. nice looking work nice mini. did you go to the mini meet in winona? if so maybe i saw you down there. i work for a shop that specializes in british stuff we had a car down there. good luck with the move
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