Braggin' On My Husband Day (Part I of II)

Due to what he does for a living, my husband is known around these parts as Diver Mike.  Today, however, we'll be calling him Biker Mike due to what he does for relaxation and (possible) remuneration.  Mostly, though, working on motorcycles is just pure joy for him.

Because some of you show little photo icons of other blogs you follow I needed to edit the t-shirt Mike wore the other day on a run.  I mean, it was SUNDAY for pete's sake!

Here's the front of the t-shirt.  The Abbey is a total dive bar in the French Quarter--drug deals at the bar, disgusting bathrooms, sticky floors, people passing out in the courtyard . . . and guess what?  The last time we went there, they refused to let us bring in the best behaved Chihuahua in the world, our Holly.  I mean, she is cleaner and SMARTER than the majority of the Abbey's customers!  Now we just stick to gay bars because, well, you KNOW they all love a good small dog.  And a nice big juicy biker husband, too. 

("Hey!  I said you could pet the DOG, dammit!")

Last weekend was the Gulfport (Mississippi) Blowout, a big biker event.  Over the years, it's gotten more expensive to attend and the local police are in MAJOR attendance.  Huge bummer.  Worst of all, the police won't allow public female nudity.  ENORMOUS bummer.  So now many of the biker crowd goes north to Sandy Hook, MS to stand around in a big cow pasture, admire each other's bikes, drink beer and ogle the topless babes.  Mike's buddy Big Al came by and before they roared off I got some snaps.  Here's Big Al and Biker Mike.  Al is actually about 6" taller than Mike but didn't want Mike to look like his pet pit bull, which is why he's doing that squat.

This is where all the magic happens.  Mike's workshop:

This is Mike's first Harley, which he ordered brand new in 1986.  It's a Harley Davidson Heritage Softail Custom, one of only 1200 made.  This isn't what it looked like when he bought it--he has customized it (which is why it's called a Custom, duh) but he kept the original tanks and fenders.  He and a friend do all the painting--this is marbleized cobalt blue.

Biker Al's bike is a chopper with a '93 engine on a hardtail frame.  He has a solo seat since his wife, Dawn, has her own bike.  Dawn is a total badass and I love her enormously, even if she IS beautiful and even if she DOES somehow think I'm actually going to come back to her yoga class after the pain I was in after the first one.  I mean, really!!!!

This is one of Mike's works-in-progress.  This bike sat for two weeks submerged in Katrina water in Plaquemines Parish, LA.  Sitting submerged in ANY water for that amount of time is usually the kiss of death for a motorcycle, but Mike paid $500 for the bike, completely dismantled it and then started rebuilding from the frame up.  He expects to put it all together and say "It's done" by the end of this month.  It's an '86 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Custom-to-be painted an incredibly beautiful dark candy burgundy with violet ice pearl that sparkles in the sunshine.  He's customized it with old-time beach handlebars, a taildragger rear fender, and true dual exhaust comin' out the back.  This was quoted verbatim from him since at this point I have NO idea what he's talking about.

Original stock tanks and fender, rust and mold courtesy of Hurricane Katrina.

New 7-gallon stretch tanks, ready for assembly.  All painting again done by hubs and friends.

By now the eyeballs of my non-biker-enthusiast readers are completely glazed over if you've reached this point.  Because of this, and because it takes for freaking EVER for Blogger to download photos I'm going to finish this post tomorrow. 

But I do hope you are enjoying the tour!