Gophers and Cheese

More rat rods from the 2013 Frankensteiners Ball ... I have never seen a rat quite like this one with a Bel-Air rear end.  If you look close, you can see the snow/sleet/rain coming down in a few of these photos. I'm not sure if this car always has the big skull on the front of it's just for Halloween. ...same with the rubber rat on this one. Here are two more really cool rat rods: Finally, here are some rat trucks including a rat fire truck. Great balls of fire and the lowest Jeep you've ever seen are up next.

What do I like best about the annual Frankensteiners Ball ?  Rat rods. Harley-Davidson rat.  The interior is both awesome and hilarious. Here's another great rat rod and a peek inside: This one looks great but is a little more subdued compared to some others.  I like the green. This would be an example on the opposite end, with over-the-top visuals and exhaust. More rat rods and a few rat trucks up are up next.

While I left my bike at home, a few brave people rode out in the very cold, wet weather to the Frankensteiners Ball 8 . I like this 2010 Sportster 48.  The "Minnesota Jerk" seat matches a sticker I bought at Scooter Trash 3 so I'm guessing the owner designed both. Here's a mostly raw-metal chopper. There was even a scooter (a Jawa I think) and a motorized bicycle. Here is a wider shot of the small handful of bikes that did show up including one sport bike.  For such a small group, it's about as diverse as you can get.  Note the lack of windshields and the lack of baggers. Finally, there was this cool ironhead Sportster.  It had a homemade devil's tail sissy bar and one of the biggest oil fill spouts I've seen on a bike. I snapped a quick photo of the owner heading out. Two posts full of rat rods are up next.

The weather sucked but there was still a decent turnout at Frankensteiners Ball 8 at the Anoka County Fairgrounds .  It was cold and wet with occasional snow & sleet but about 500 cars and a very small handful of bikes showed up at the event (I drove).  I've attended a few times and the event is usually a lot bigger when the weather cooperates.  If you like hot rods and rat rods, this event is for you. I've got about 70 photos to share over 5 posts and I'm just going to kick it off with something I've never seen before... monster-rat-rod-truck-tractors.  I really don't know what to call these things but they were massive, loud, and awesome.  I'm going to go with "monster rats" unless someone corrects me. Here you can see a few views of the crowd that braved the crappy weather.  Lots of people were in costume too. While I'm partial to rat rods (and you will see a lot of photos of rat rods), there were lots of different v...