On Sunday, one of my chores was to dig through three boxcars full of junked motorcycles looking for anything usable on a bike, before they were sent off to the scrapyard. It was neat because the motorcycles were all in various states of disassembly, and it was neat to see how, for example, a V8 motorcycle engine was all twisted around to make it fit within a big fat Harley frame.

Let's see... we got a bunch of fenders, including that big back fender off of an Electroglide, a coupla gas tanks, every handlebar we could jimmy off, some seats, and those shocks that go on the back wheel- those'll look cool under a banana seat. There was also a big front cowling, that'll look silly on a bike. We pulled two small motorcycles, scooters almost, out for future projects. There were also two three-wheelers: Your standard motorcycle trike, which was off-limits as the owner of the junk had designs on it, and a tadpole-style (two wheels in front, one drive wheel in back) go-cart, which should make a sweet little pedal-powered car. Oddly, I couldn't get any pipes, they seemed to have all been stripped except for some that were rusted to pieces.

This picture is a sneak-preview of a future chicagofreakbike bike, but it also shows one of the piles in the background. The bike is a silly hand-cycle that the VeloRat built. The motorcycle behind it had caught on fire at some point. Also check out, in the right foreground, a shaft-drive motorcycle.