Last fall I'd decided to tear down the Sloptail, freshen the paint, clean a few things up a bit, and drop a new crate Evo in. Front end would get new trees, rear would get new fender, sidemount plate, bullet combo blinker/tail/brake lights. Seat would be changed to a solo, but I didn't exactly know what kind. No biggie; plenty of time to think. Electrics would get completely re-done to clean out the last vestiges of the stock wiring. Front & rear brakes would be linked to the handlebar master cylinder via a proportioning valve, and the rear master cylinder chunked completely. Figured other little things would show themselves, too.

I started gathering parts, courtesy of all the overtime I've been gettin' Decided on a seat and scored a solo pan from Kevin Bass at BASSMETALCRAFT.COM with an extra 2 inches flip at the rear. It's gonna get zero padding, just a piece of formed and lightly tooled leather riveted on for a cover. It looks like it oughtta be mounted on springs, but I'm gonna mount it solid. Already got the Sloptail shocks and I've seen sprung seats and sprung suspensions sorta fight each other. Got things stripped down and finally got the frame painted Monday when the wet went away long enough to drop the humidity. Things are startin' to come together in my mind and on the bike lift. No hurry - got THE MAMA's Nightster to ride whenever I want.

Get home today and see my copy of the May/June Iron Works. Whole thing is full of bobbers! Get to page 38 and there's a bike with the seat shape I asked Mr. Bass to make for me. It's got too much padding & leather, but the shape is MINE!!!!

Looks like the bobber and pseudo-bobber craze is hittin' big time. I coulda been in the vanguard, but I'm too slow! Ahh well, when the craze dies out and the next one comes along, I'll still be riding my bobber.