Gophers and Cheese

As promised, here are 2 of my 3 favorite bikes at The Moto Collective open house on Saturday.  First up is "Fat Yama". Then there's the beautiful purple and white Honda that I recently saw at the Rockers Spring Social.  It was nice to see all the little details with it up on the lift.  I really love those black and white forks. My favorite of the night is up next!

Here's a birds-eye view of the shop at The Moto Collective open house. While very clean and organized, there's lots of interesting decor around the shop too. That little Harley was pretty cool. I don't know whether these were active projects, on deck, or being harvested for parts. Here's a sampling of the bikes being worked on: This one has a long way to go. This one looked done to me. I saved 3 of my favorite bikes for last.  2 are up next.  I'll make you wait an extra day for the last one.

The Moto Collective hosted their open house yesterday in Northeast Minneapolis.  I stopped by in the evening. There was a good turnout while I was there and it had been going on for a while.  If you've been to the Chariots of the Gods custom van show, it was basically in the same place. I rode my '04 as my '03 is in pieces right now getting ready for Moto Mania in August.  I happened to park next to Andy from Hold Fast Motors and we got to catch up on projects and trips.  I really want to go to Utah now. The Moto Collective is basically a shared workspace for a bunch of guys to work on their bikes.  They have some dedicated rental space available to anyone looking to work on their own project.  I also learned that Cafe Racers of Instagram (#CROIG) is based here and is part of the group.  They have a HUGE following and I never realized they were local. Before getting into all the bikes inside the shop, here are a few I spotted outs...

There was a huge outdoor swap meet at the AMCA Vintage Motorcycle Show .  There were lots of great options if you were shopping for a bike for Moto Mania.  Pete was there selling stuff and his knuckle looked amazing as usual. Pete also bought a new toy, a Harley Davidson golf cart: I liked this hardtail shovelhead: This guy had panheads everywhere, even one that looked barn fresh: Cool cars were around too: You know I love Sportsters and the swap area did not disappoint: There was even a 1957 Sportster! Overall, the show was really good.  These photos barely scratch the surface.  Like I said, I was chasing my kids more than taking photos but we all had a good time.