Adam Frantz – New Jersey

Chris Teach McNeil started out riding in New Hampshire with Core6 and crew. They put out a few videos, all of which wore out in our dvd players – and they rode the summer nationals in Worcester every year, killing it in the tunnels. I saw teach practicing one morning with Tony D, just the two of them, early in the morning and the two of them started having a little imprompteau game of horse. I sat there for an hour or so and watched run after run of flawless 180 endos and circle wheelies in the tight tunnel of Worcester, I knew that I was watching some of the very best riding in all of our country at that moment in time. If you’ve watched Teach ride, you know what I’m talking about. Wide open throttle is his credo and the fast paced stunts he puts down are so exciting to watch. He effortlessly performs all his stunts and puts together an amazing routine thanks to his drive and determination to excel at what he does.
When I heard about the BMW S1000RR, I was excited for more than just the obvious reasons. BMW sponsoring Teach was awesome, and everyone was glad to see them working together…but taking him off the I4 motors and putting him on the F800 put a bit of a damper in his WOT riding style. Seeing him back on an inline 4 motor has brought back the very exciting element to his aggressive riding style that was sorely missed by many.

I recently had the chance to check out his 2016 S1000RR which was undergoing some modifications by Gregg’s Customs in NH – adding a double rear caliper bracket for his hand brake. I can’t wait to see Teach out there ripping it up on that bike. That much power at the rear wheel really makes for an exciting show! Check him out if he comes to your town, BMW has him travelling all over for major motorcycle events so he very well may end up in your neck of the woods. I think he just got back from Sturgis a week or so ago. Check him out at http://teachtrix.com/

Photos & Text by Adam Frantz

Adam Frantz, Rutgers University New Jersey

This is a rather amazing bike with a very interesting history, a history I’ve not been able to find out much about…not for lack of trying.

A few years ago I spoke to a passerby at the IMS show at the Javits Center in NYC who recognized the bike in fighter form thanks to the trick bits adorning it. He told me it was owned by Hungarians that were heavy into racing, as you can see by the parts list (attached below). Allegedly, they were caught up in some bad business, the bike began changing hands from person to person – no one recognizing what a gem it was, and it eventually came upon someone who saw it for what it was.

Gil Conde found the bike offered for the right price and saw the potential in the un-loved old race bike that had been collecting dust, luckily he knew just the guy to highlight the beauty of this GSXR. Someone who could utilize the sum of the parts to create a unified whole of mechanical art.

Roman Levin, the builder of this machine as it now sits, refers to it as “The Shit Bomb”—personified by the brown paint and iconic bomb emblazoned on the clutch cover. Whether the bike’s shaky past or a troublesome build process give it that title, we’ll never know. However, I’d have to say it’s definitely one of the most polished turds I’ve seen!

What catches my eye is that this previously unloved and hidden in the shadows bike is setup with some seriously interesting and exotic parts—60 mm Paioli Forks held by Bimota triple clamps, sitting atop Antera wheels with Brembo brakes. Yoshimura carb’s, engine internals and race-braced swinger with a WP shock. Half of the people I’ve spoken with about it haven’t even heard of the rim manufacturer, let alone the Italian fork company that created those fat fork tubes up front. It’s not just the list of premier parts that make this bike an exceptional fighter, but the fab work put into it that sets it apart as a completely built well thought-out project and not another parts list thrown at a cool bike.

Roman wanted to keep those parts on spectacle when re-building this former track beast, so with his acute attention to detail he began his work. Clipping unnecessary wires and moving lines out of sight. Hiding the rear caliper completely within the swingarm. Painstakingly creating custom carbon fiber body work by hand. Molding the alien-esque headlight to give the bike its very distinguishable face — like it or not. Chopping the exhaust to fit underneath the engine, so not to block view of another part. Adding details like the spent shell casing covers throughout the engine bay, the incredibly clean top clamp with a simple tach and 3 idiot lights. Paintwork highlighting just the right bits and complementing the body lines amazingly.

I’ve only seen this bike in person a couple times, the photoshoot and the IMS show. While the headlight struck me as weird at first, the look of the bike starts to grow on you. Eyes scanning over the lines, over these exotic and different looking parts it starts to make sense that it has this alien looking headlight. For this bike is alien! It’s like nothing anyone has or anyone builds. We become used to seeing the same things, certain brands, certain parts, certain techniques of building. To see something built like this with all of these components is completely alien to the “custom motorcycle” industry. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m praying for an alien sighting,  how ’bout it Gil?!

1988 GSX-R 750 Frame
Oil Cooled GSX-R 1100 with Yoshimura headwork
Yosh Flatslides
Paioli 60mm Front Forks
Bimota triple clamps (modded for gauges)
Brembo Brake & Clutch Resevoirs
Brembo Calipers and Rotors
Antera Wheels
Custom Braced Swingarm
Custom Rear Brake bracket – mounted inside swingarm.
Brembo rear caliper and rotor
WP Adjustable Rear Shock
Custom Subframe
Custom Carbon Fiber Kawi zx6 tail
One-Off Carbon Fiber headlight unit
Custom Carbon Fiber front Fender
Carbon Fiber overlay on tank
Custom seat
Dirtbike Pegs
636 Taillight Flushed into tail
12 ga. shotgun shell frame and motor mount bolt covers
Custom mix of Brown, Black, and FOH Special Blend Gold

-All custom work by Roman Levin, All photographs by Adam Frantz

Text & Photos by Adam Frantz

Adam Frantz – Nostalgia

Many of us fighterers know about the Big Belly Crew and some of the bikes they’ve messed around with or on. (Pictured below is the ZX-10 Jesse built that was featured in Streetfighter Magazine-issue 190). What most of us didn’t know however, was the long motorcycling history in the Cornell family dating back over 100 years.

This past Summer I had the opportunity to meet up with Jesse Cornell and the Big Belly Family in Springfield Massachusetts. The place of meeting was the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum, which has quite an interesting collection of antique automotive history. This old building with rickety wide-pine wood floors and the smell of dusty machines and old oil exuded nostalgia for us all. It documented a time long since passed, amazingly, a time when this families moto-mania began! Interestingly, it was not just the 2-wheeled variation, but cars, planes, pedal-bikes and more. It was really cool to see some of the interesting ideas from way back when and the way things progressed from so long ago! One particular room is devoted almost entirely to machines manufactured by Indian,  which was the reason for our visit. Jesse had a Great-Great-Uncle, Stanley, who dealt Indian Motorcycles in the early 1900’s.

As stated in the plaque in the display, Stanley was an Indian dealer, who originally sold bicycles.  As things changed and technology progressed, he began to sell  and repair motorcycles. He sold a number of brands, including Indian, and became the main Indian dealership in New York for 25 years. As testament to the age old saying “it’s in your blood” it seems that Jesse’s wild antics were passed through the generations from Great-Great-Uncle Stanley, who used to race the old Indians quite successfully with top riders in the nation. Imagine wearing a leather helmet, if any at all, and hopping on a glorified pedal bike with a single-cylinder engine and holding the throttle wide-open for extended amounts of time! It’s one thing to do so on the amazing machines of today with their amazing technologies and rider assisting modes, but back then it must have really separated men from boys (or crazy from sane).

I’ve seen some pics from years gone by floating around of Jesse’s dad (pictured below with white beard) wrenching on his bike, Jesse running around in the front yard with a helmet on that was too big, or sitting on the gas tank with his pops. Reminds me, and I’m sure many of you, of how we grew up — bikes, boots, and over-sized sometimes sparkly helmets. For many of us motorcycling is a way of life, not just one of our hobbies, and it will be passed to the next generation from us as it was by our predecessors. To have your own families gear-head-history immortalized in a museum exhibit is not just cool, but something Jesse and family are very proud to see. Congrats guys, I’m going to go reminisce on my moto-up-bringing.

Here’s the thing. For some reason a LOT of people assume that when you go to prison you see a lot of naked dudes, like it’s just dicks swinging everywhere. Naked men all in the shower snapping each other with towels or raping each other…I don’t know what they assume, but I assure you it’s quite the opposite. In prison there is clear understanding that if you’re walking around naked, you’re looking for something. So because of that, guys are very careful about keeping themselves covered up. It was never explained to me as such, but quite quickly you notice. If you’re unfortunate enough to be in a group shower, guys wear their boxers in there. If it there’s individual showers, guys don’t get fully undressed until after they are in the shower and the curtain/door is closed.

However, now that I’ve been home for a year or so I’ve seen more naked dudes in the local gym locker room than I’ve ever seen in my life, let alone a few years in prison. It’s like an “accepted” thing. These dudes just come back from a work out and get naked in there, talking to each other, sitting bare-assed on the benches, walking to the showers. It’s gross. I’m glad for you if you’ve become comfortable with your body over all those years, but I’m not, and you’re subjecting me to it all at once with no warning. I’d like to say that it’s mostly old dudes who just don’t give a fuck anymore, but then there’s some kid my age doing it who’s clearly learned from his elders…or visa versa, I don’t know. It’s offensive. I don’t walk around sticking my gen’s in your face. Bending over in front of you. Nobody wants to see that ….and if they do, take ‘em home with you.

Let me just say this. If you have any type of consideration for others, keep your naked self to yourself.
“But how do I do that?” you ask. Well, it’s simple. When you get back from your workout, get your clean underwear out of your bag and your shower supplies and proceed over to the showers in AT LEAST your underwear. Go into the shower. Close the door. THEN, and only then, take off your underwear and hang them over the curtain or door. When finished, dry off with your towel that’s hanging as well and put on your clean underwear you brought with you and then come out. BOOM eye-ball assault averted. I thank you, as do the rest of the guys in the gym.

Feel free to copy + paste as you please and post this up in your gyms locker room.

I don’t know what goes on in the women’s locker room, though I imagine it’s a lot of selfies in the mirror from what I see on Instagram, but ladies let me know if it’s like this for you too.

– Adam Frantz

Offensive isn’t it?

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

guess about a year ago now I had asked for fighterers who were going to FF13 in Carlisle to take pics of the event to share with me. Due to an, uh…unforeseen circumstance, I was sent on a six-month tour of the system and missed out on lots of mail, among other things. Once I got back, my buddy Joe was cool enough to say “Hey man, I still have pics for you if you want them.” Considering that FF is one of my favorite events every year, OF COURSE I wanted them!

I guess I don’t remember how much it costs to print up pics, but I know it isn’t free. I also know that mailing pics costs a few bucks as well. So when I received 16 envelopes with 25 pictures in each, I was super-psyched! Not only was Joe awesome enough to mail all of that out for me, he did it TWICE! The first time he sent them, I forgot to tell him that you have to write ‘approved content per BOP policy’ on the outside of the envelopes, so they got returned. Ugh. Big whoop right? That’s protocol my friends, and in prison we have to follow that. SO, with a 2nd attempt, they finally came through, properly labeled, and made my whole fucking week! I was reminiscing, thinking about all the prior FF’s I’d been to, looking at people’s bikes and seeing how they were coming along, looking at new creations and sharing it all with my fellow felons in here. Read the rest of this entry »