Project Barbarossa Comes To Life
May 23, 2013 in Cafe Projects, HomeSlideShow, Project Barbarossa, QCMAR Rally
If you’ve been following along you know that our loosely organized social motorcycle club has been building a project bike to raffle off for a local charity at the upcoming Queen City Mods & Rockers Rally. That bike is code named “Project Barbarossa” after local brewery history. It made sense to name her that, after all, who doesn’t like beer and motorcycles?
The project had stalled over the later winter and early spring months as we waited for custom fabrication and powder coating of parts. We took on an ambitious feature of moving the oil reserve tank on the 1978 CB750K from the middle triangle up into a custom made bump stop seat area. The team discussed, mocked up, discussed some more and then one of them went to work. But day jobs get in the way, volunteers get busy, and time slipped away. Ah, the joys of working with a team of volunteers. Finally, another team member jumped in and took over to get the seat/oil pan fabricated and the frame prepped and powder coated.
Now paint has been completed, the motor is back in the frame, all the tiny bits that we put into baggies and labeled (mostly correct labeling) are being sorted, clean, painted and rebuilt. The original wheels were powder coated and new spokes tie the rims to polished hubs. Barbarossa finally has her legs and is looking like the red bearded queen we all envisioned her to be. The excitement grows, the team rally’s and the bike will be ready for raffle on June 1st at the Queen City Mods & Rocker’s rally in Cincinnati. All of the proceeds from the bike raffle will go to the Change of Heart support group (a regional 501.3c charity) who’s mission is to support heart transplant patients and their families. A worthy cause for our team and your raffle dollars.
We are closing in on our deadline and what once looked bleak is now looking like a real success! The team is pulling together to have this beauty ready for the rally. I’m amazed by the camaraderie and talent of the club volunteers and the generosity of our members. Greg B. even bought a vintage Moerlein Barbarossa bottle opener to give with the bike. This is a pre Prohibition era beer bottle opener that I know cost him some coin… but it’s a brilliant addition to the bike. We all just hope the raffle winner is a local so we can see it running around the bike nights from time to time.
Above are a few photos of various states of the build. Enjoy and we’ll see you there!
