by: Paul Henry Harrington

It was Thursday, and as the rain battered down

on the tin roof of my loft, the latest Black Keys

song ebbed through my single speaker radio.

I remember thinking to myself, “there goes

another one...” as the once unique and almost

perfect Junior Kimbrough remake came to an

end. In an unguided effort brought on by some

cosmic force to snap me back to reality, my cell

came to life and sang out a rustic old telephone

ring-tone. Yeah, you know the one. How ironic I

thought, as I slid across the floor in my chair and

grabbed it. It was Jason from Dime City Cycles.

“What’s the good word, bubba?” Not even a

hello. Just this odd refined Southern tone that he

was always good for.

“Not much man, just working on a piece wondering

when this rain is gonna let up. I’m dying to go for a

ride. You?”

“I got something for ya that I think you might be

interested in.”

“Yeah?” I said. “What’s the angle?”

“No angles. It’s circular...” He said in a quazi

hippy-redneck voice.

“Well, tell me what it’s about then.”

“We’ve partnered with Lowside Magazine and

we’re building these three RAD Cafe Racer’s. We

talked about it and we’d like you to write the story.

What do ya think?”

“Dime City Cycles and Lowside? What the

hell? They’re about American garage built suicide

bobbers and choppers. You guys are about vintage

speed machines that hail from London. How’s that

gonna work?”

“Trust me. It’s gonna work. Swing by the shop

next Tuesday, we’re getting started on the first bike-

a 1975 CB400F Super Sport.”

“Sounds good, man. See you then.”

“Alright, bub. Catch ya later.”

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Fast forward one week to Tuesday, the torrential rains finally

passed and in the shining Florida sun I kicked my CB450 to

life and headed down to Dime City to catch up with Jason and

Herm in hopes of finding out just what the skinny was on this

strange and intriguing opportunity they presented to me.

Upon my arrival the usual bark rang out from Shopdog until

I took off my helmet and he recognized me for the vintage

Honda rider I am. I laid my Joe King lid on the seat, pulled my

leather notebook from under my cargo net and worked me

over the chain that said “employees only” into The City.

I found Jason in his usual spot; the JIG table. He was TIG

welding what looked to be a custom four into one exhaust

system. A cup of Dime City Espresso wasn’t far with a half eaten

biscotti hanging off a torn and grease ridden shop rag. Herm

was exercising his experience quietly on what appeared to be

a long forgotten shell that slightly resembled a 70’s Honda. Old

blues rang true through the shop stereo and the smell of burnt

oil filled the air. Man, I love this place.

Jason flipped his lid and gave me the usual nod as he took

off his gloves and set down his TIG torch. The ceremonial bro

hug took place and Herm began to walk over while cleaning

his hands with a shop rag.

“What’s the good word?” They both said in unison.

“You tell me I said. Something about bringing together the

last remaining legit motorcycle sub cultures so everyone could

share in two wheeled goodness until the end of the world came

upon us?”

They both smiled and pointed towards the CB400F sitting on

the bench and began to share with me the vision behind the

tri-Cafe project they have embarked upon with the Lowside

Syndicate, aka: Lowside Magazine.

In the following pages I will tell the story of the next generation

of garage builders, the ones shaking things up and changing all

the rules and how Dime City and Lowside are working towards

a common goal; sharing the collective appreciation for all

things two wheels.

Rich Gohlinghorst, the man in charge at Lowside and his band

of bearded, Harley riding camera jockeys approached the two-

nickel stake holders of Dime City with a plan to cross pollinate

the bobber, chopper and café racer motorcycle sub cultures.

Their collective vision? That it doesn’t matter if your two

wheeled metal machine has a raked front end and a king and

queen seat, a shovel head engine in a low slung

zero style frame, or a high-rev’ing Honda twin

sporting a fairing and rearsets. At the end of the

day, we all simply love to build and ride our moto’s

with a passion that for whatever sad sad reason,

the majority- the frapaccino infused, reality TV

watching culture America has become will never

know and understand.

As appreciators of the three great moto-

subcultures, we are cut from the same cloth. Our

ideals were forged from the desire to go faster,

farther and longer than those who came before

us. To leave our marks on the world. We get our

hands on whatever machine we can find, grab our

brethren and in an act of almost god given right

begin to strip away the veneer of homogeny that’s

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lathered the rest of the world, throwing it away to reveal

the inner machine, to reveal ourselves and what WE

desire.

So you have the Lowside Syndicate, a quintuple

threat comprised of hard working editors and writers,

photographers, top-notch mechanics and fabricators, a

crew that has the pulse on the legit old-school culture

that lives and dies by the v-twin and what it stands for

in American freedom...And then you have the pulse

pounding speed freaks at Dime City Cycles attempting

to revive the forefathers of speed with their two wheeled

ton-up creations.

Sounds like someone took a cup of the finest Espresso,

brewed it up, dropped in a shot of Tennessee’s darkest

Whiskey and added a little sugar for good measure.

A good mix if you ask me.

As mentioned in Issue #5, in total there will be three

machines built, the first, which you will find in the these

pages is a recovered 1975 CB400F Super Sport. A bike

that when introduced took the pole and dominated for

the first few seasons of racing due to its unique power

and torque curves. Riding one that’s been hopped up is

a bit like riding a 2 stroke with a power band that just

keeps going to 14,000RPM’s and has the smoothness of a

4 cylinder 4 stroke. Yeah, it’s like that.

The second will be a proper Sportster done up in Dime

City cafe flavor and the third and final being a vintage

Triumph Tiger perfect for chasing the ton and that cup

of tea you always wanted. But you’ll have to wait to

hear more on the details of those little ton-up terrors

in the future issues of Lowside. As a matter-a-fact, why

not go ahead and grab a subscription to this fine little

publication so you’re not the only one left after the

rapture? Lord knows you’ve spent more and got less on

other things in the past..

The 400F Super Sport, or the “Four Hundred” as

Herm and Jason have named it, will be going through

an immense transformation into a track worthy vintage

race bike to be put through the rigors by The Bostrom

Brothers during Season 2 of Cafe Racer TV. As you can

imagine, for the 10-centr’s a major emphasis on not only

aesthetics comes into play with this build. Performance,

stability and safety are as heavily weighted in this

situation which is no easy feat to balance in harmony.

To address the performance aspects required to propel

the four hundred around a race track by gents used to

piloting MotoGP bikes at break neck speeds, Herm opted

to tear the entire motor to pieces replacing everything

possible with the lightest and hottest items possible. The

folks at Kibbelwhite stepped up to the plate and after

removing the dust off their files from the 70’s, re-created

an authentic high demand race valvetrain to match the

needs put forth by the custom ground MegaCycle CAM

spec’d by Herm specifically to compliment the high-

reving little four cylinder and the final drive ratio.

To make sure this wiry track terror had the required

horse power to propel the Bostroms out of the winding

and seemingly never-ending turns of Little Talledega,

hed settled on the best when it comes to the heart

of the engine. A black-box Yoshimura piston kit

sent directly from Japan will punch the motor out to

466cc’s and a shaved head will raise the compression a

tad for good measure.

A set of CR race only big-bore carburetors ensure

the engine can breathe and a custom combination

MAC/DCC stainless steel exhaust system will keep

things free flowing and afford the four hundred a very

unique exhaust note through the revs. Throw in a Dyna

ignition and a handful of DCC’s vintage speed tweaks

and even the Bostroms are guaranteed the ride of

their life.

To address the stability aspect some major changes

were made to the stock frame. Jason and Herm

commented that the while the rear section of the

stock 400 frame is solid and has plenty of rigidity, the

front section and main backbone is about as strong as

LoLo’s ability to resist party favors on a Friday night

on Rodeo Drive.

In order to stiffen things up Jason simply removed

the entire backbone and replaced it with a piece of

1.5” chromoly tubing along with a main gusset to the

lower section. Once that was complete in front, two

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new rear gussets of 1” chromoly were bent and

integrated into the mid section of the frame.

To add additional support and allow a path for

energy to flow from front to rear in a triangle

formation they opted to re-use the tight angular

bends from a set of old chromoly handlebars

they had on hand in the shop and integrated

them into the center section where the newly

laid 1.5” chromoly meets the stock 1” reverse loop

section of the frame. Recycle, nice.

Some stout rearset plates fab’d by torch,

hammer and patience make for a solid pivot

point in which the Bostroms can “steer” the

bike without concern for flex or give from the

helm of the Loaded Gun rearsets being employed.

Toss on Dime Cities signature perfectly bent rear

loop section and the four hundred should be able

to withstand maximum g’s without the slightest

of deflection from the track surface.

For good measure and extra GP the boys in red

also fabricated a custom chromoly lower swing-

arm brace which runs the perimeter of the swing-

arm and connects at four points of traversing

angles yielding maximum control over energies

transferred through the frame to the swing-arm

and limiting flex that occurs in the repeated

high-speed tight cornering found on the track.

Keeping everything in the right place at the

right time, the four hundred leverages the latest

in modern suspension technology with a set of

Progressive piggy-back reservoir shocks and

custom rated front inner springs the team at

Progressive Suspension turned out specifically

for this project. Being the trend setters that

they don’t admit to be, the dynamic Dime City

duo noted that this is the first time this specific

suspension technology has been used on a

vintage speed machine. How fitting.

With the first of three projects bikes underway,

Cafe Racer TV Season 2 currently airing and the

crews at Lowside and Dime City trading fashion

secrets about skinny jeans vs. boot cut double

cuffs, I can only hope that you’re intrigued by

this mind numbing amalgamation that is so

wholeheartedly contributing to the vintage

speed revival taking place on the streets and in

the garages of every American with wrenches

and a desire to make something his own.

Pick up a copy of the next issue of Lowside to

see the second half of the four hundred build

along with the test results from Little Talledega

and the Bostroms first-hand report of how the

little Honda track masher performed.

And, if you haven’t already,

tune to Velocity (formerly

Discovery Channel HD Theater)

and watch the Lowside

Syndicate get down in the south

with Dime City Cycles at their

grand opening and go through

the initial tear down stages of

the four hundred. It has have

more arm wrestling than Over

The Top, truck loads of cheap

Baltimore Beer and a Pin Up

Pageant you won’t want to miss.

Check out the website as well

www.caferacertv.com. It’s worth

a glance.

And remember, whether

you’re wearing skinny jeans

and a cut off vest sporting a

zz top style beard chopping

away at the road, kickin’ it with

Etnies bobbin’ a big brim ball

cap tucked under a 3/4” lid or

sporting patches from the Ace

Cafe with chucks and cuff’d

Levi’s on a Bonnie- you’re at the

same time completely different

yet one in the same. The Garage

Builder.

Digg it, man.

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