Thursday, February 11, 2010

Ol' Number 42

So we received a few 'concerned' emails recently about the direction of the Icon brand. It seems that some of our recent blog posts might lead a casual observer to believe that we've gone Harley. Well nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that Icon has always had a great love for all brands of motorcycles. Except for you BMW, we do not love you. Other than that we truly do love them all. To prove our point check out this beauty - the pride of 1979 - the Yamaha IT400. Yep, in excellent condition these works of enduro art fetch damn near $800. Ours though was far from excellent. In fact she was soiled and foul and bordering on scrap. But she did run and came with a uniquely 'distressed' title. I'll never understand why some people feel the need to store their vehicle documentation in their ass crack.  Anyways back to the Slabtown headquarters of Icon she came. We've been hacking away at her decrepit chassis for over a year now. We're pretty sure we can get her into Concourse D' Elegance form in time for the spring opener. Fingers crossed. Stay glued to the shortwave for updates.


In her factory light blue and yellow she was quite sassy...




...after 30 years of offroad abuse and a antique white latex paint job, not so much - though the hand painted '42' is race 


Icon's old world craftsmanship at work. Stock pipe moved from an uppie to a downie. New (to us) XS400 front, YZ400 rear and RD400 top. Now we just need a seat from a DT400 and bam! - connect four (hundo).


Some fine tank artwork - it was originally done as a joke -  than we found out there is actually a motorcycle apparel company called 'Dragon Rider'. We sh*t you not. They are either the coolest or lamest brand ever. Me thinks the latter. 

2 comments:

  1. Like your statement about having a love of all brands. I mean, can't we all just get along? Who cares what you're riding...we're all on two wheels and deal with the same stuff. I know, the Harley crowd thinks the sportbikers always ride on one wheel and weave in and out of traffic, and the sportbikers think the Harley crowd is too slow. My boyfriend and I are both sportbike riders (Yamaha R1s) but most people are surprised to find out we are restoring a 1972 Harley Davidson shovelhead!

    ReplyDelete

 
/* Google Tacker */