In The garage

So somewhere in the dead of winter Kirk and Ryan decided that they were going to run the 2014 Cannonball Motorcycle Race. Of course that meant building them from scratch. Nothing new to Cannonball old timers but still a challenge for a couple of guys who had never done it before. The rules state that “No motorcycle built after 1936 can run for the prize. The machine must be powered by an original engine.” Okay, where do you start? By finding a couple of Indian Scout motors and the frames to put them in. That set Kirk off into weird world of Indian Motorcycle parts. Some wonderful stories. Anyway, if Kirk isn’t in the garage then he’s on the computer. No way to find all these bits and pieces without the net. Of course, Kirk couldn’t just stop at what was needed he wanted more. From day to day we never know what we’ll find in the garage that Kirk has found in some weird alley on the Net. There is just a bit of jealousy over the great ol Indian Motorcycle jacket.

One thing turned into another and now Kirk and Ryan have eleven machines and parts to match. They had so much fun building Pandora and Morticia that they are already building more. They all have names of women. The next one is Ali. It is named for Ali MacGraw because it is Steve McQueen’s old bike. And a beauty it is. She is making the ride to Daytona as a backup machine.

Now there are more machines than the garage can handle and Melanie (Kirk’s wife) is looking at him with narrowed eyes. So after the machines are built they will be sold to right kind of people. Each one will be hand built with extreme care. You can’t really judge a man’s work without seeing him in action. That’s what this page is all about. We are putting up small unedited videos of them working. This is to show the work. Kirk and Ryan are tough, exacting and meticulous. Their bikes are the proof.

There is a site out there that in a blog gives a description of everything that is being done on any given day. That’s cool if you are doing a tutorial but what we are showing here are snippets from the Garage to show perspective buyers the exacting work ethic that Reservation Racing brings to their work. Since we are into video instead of being a stenographer the thumbnail at the right shows the night when the guys were working on the Piston Rings for the Indian scout motor. Its not all work. There are plenty of times when we are pretty goofy. We’ll show you that, too. Nothing to hide, I guess. Its sort of a reality show from the Garage, Click here to watch the movie. 4min20sec.

One night after Kirk, Ryan and Dillon had worked past midnight Kirk, as he often does, went onto Ebay to see what might there. He found an auction for a large number of unnamed parts. A man who collected Indian parts had died and his son was selling the whole lot of them. A collection of this size could have been anywhere like the UK or the East Coast but amazingly it was in Albuquerque. Fifty miles down the road! There were twenty watchers on this auction and Kirk knew it wouldn’t last long. So he used the “Buy It Now” then and there.
As it turned out it was in a questionable part of town and the parts were strewn over a dirt floor. Kirk and Ryan had driven down two days later to load up the parts. As they loaded the truck Ryan kept whispering under his breath, “Can you believe this?” It wan an unbelievable haul. Click Here to see the pictures.

The Guys are putting ball bearings into the motor casing. They talk about building motors, how long it takes them, especially now that they have the parts for the engines. See Ebay special above. :-) They also talk about Ally, the backup Scout. It would really be a bummer if a bike went down but if it does they have a backup. The expression on Ryan’s face as he says that that would cost points. Priceless. “The more time we spend here (in the garage), the less time we will hopefully spend out there.” I think I know what he means.

You'll also notice that there has been a sealant painted on inside of the motor casing. Believe me this is not factory. The original motors were bare metal on the inside and thus leaked and leaked some more. Not only is it pretty (luv that red) but it works. Again this only shows the workmanship these guys put into their builds. Click here to watch the movie. 4min23sec.