Any of you guys remember this bike for sale on ebay.... MAN did we miss out. If I recall it sold for Just over 2000 dollars on ebay. Well as they say hind sight is 20/20 and this bike would have been a STEAL at $2000.

DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!!!!

I know right now there is a certain someone out there in lowrider land that is smiling and thinking "damn, I tried to tell them when I posted, who made it, what magazine it was featured in, and it was a STEAL!!!" I don't know about you boy's but next time that guy from minneapolis says in a post that if he had the money he'd buy it.... I'M GONNA BID HIGH!!!!

Some times I'm really glad "that guy" from Minnesota doesn't like to rub it in when he's right.

The cover to the right is from Custom Bike, December 1979.

below you will find the scanned page on the right and the copied text on the left.

To many of us, the idea of owning a thoroughly customized motorcycle is strictly daydream stuff. For sure, it's a whole lot easier to fantasize about a bike than to build one. Why, hell, putting up a truly fine machine generally con-sumes huge amounts of time, effort and money; assuming, of course, that you already have the basic skills needed to do the job. You don't? Too bad, for the labors of a halfway decent fabricator will run upwards of $15 per hour. So, you should add several hundred dollars more, maybe even a grand, to those projected expenses.

Without a doubt, building a truly sani-tary, original motorcycle poses a huge challenge to most of us. Indeed, the challenge is so imposing that some enthusiasts are inclined to throw up their hands in frustration, shriek "To hell with it!" and start searching around for a complete custom to buy.

Sure, it's an expensive approach, but you must admit it sure saves a lot of time and aggravation.

There's a guy in Hayward, California who used this approach to motorcycle customizing with excellent results. He got just what he wanted in motorcycle

styling. His investment in the bike was surprisingly moderate and the total time he had to wait for the thing was two weeks!
Johnny Rodriguez was in the market for a nifty, unique custom that would portray some of his feelings about what a custom bike should be. So, he con-tacted Billy Budde, of the famous cus-tomizing emporium in neighboring San Leandro. Budde has been in the busi-ness for more than a few years now, and has earned a reputation as one of the best customizers of Japanese motorcy-cles in the world. And, with Budde's

help, in the span of just 14 days, as well as the expenditure of $3200, Rodriguez rode away on his brand new custom motorcycle.
And what's even more surprising is that this bike did not turn out to be just another bolt-together custom. The craftsmanship that has gone into its development places it in the company of the most sophisticated customs you can find.

The bike is based upon a highly modi-fied 750 Honda frame. The original steering head of the frame was torched away, to be replaced by a 3" gooseneck of Budde's own manufacture. Rake of the steering head was thus increased to 40 degrees.

Next, all the frame's excess bracketry was removed, as well as the tail loop of the frame located under the saddle. Then, with all the unnecessary festoon-ery removed, the frame was handed to Budde employee Gary Elmore for one of his meticulous molding jobs. El-more's talents are well known to custom bikers around the country. As a matter of fact, elsewhere in this issue you'll find further evidence of his skill on other feature bikes.

In order to provide the motorcycle with a sleeker profile, its wheelbase was further lengthened by extending the swingarm 11/2 inches. And if you're mut-tering to yourself, "Well, if they extend the swingarm they'll need longer shocks, too," you'd be dead right. The Rodriguez Honda is fitted with special S&W shock absorbers that have chromed springs.
A Sportster tank modified by Budde is used; its mounting tabs had to be re-bopped somewhat to achieve a secure fit on the Honda frame.
The springer front end is a Billy Budde item having a high bend in its spring legs, plus a six-inch extension. Look closely and you'll see one of those small Santee half-hub brakes on the front wheel. But Budde offers a special modification to this brake that elimi-nates the need for an external brake anchor, as is evident in the photos here. Thus, even the appearance of the small-est mechanical detail is modified to achieve the utmost in visual simplicity.

The use of Budde pullback handlebars and the small Bates headlight combine to yield even more simplicity of appearance.
That finely crafted seat and pillion are the work of local saddle artist, Paul. Once again, the pursuit of clean and simple looks is evident; the bike's seat design allows for a subtle, uncompli-cated profile.
Another factor in this bike's crisp appearance is the rear fender. Like al-most everything else on the motorcycle, it is available from Billy Budde's Custom Motorcycles, 15640 E. 14th St., San Leandro, California 94578. Tariff for the fender is an easily digestible $37.50.
Paint was applied by the Budde shop, too. It is based upon a pearlescent blue,topped by subtle pearlescent gold scal-lops. These lacquers are then given a glossy, tough coating of clear lmron polyurethane.

Certainly the most intriguing me-chanical aspect of this motorcycle is the firing phase of its powerplant. You see, the stock Honda, like just about all other inline, four-stroke fours, is de-signed to deliver a power stroke to the crankshaft at 180-degree intervals. Generally speaking, the less distance (degrees) between powerstrokes, the smoother an engine will run. So, on each revolution of the crankshaft, two pistons will be at bottom dead center (BDC)-one piston at the beginning of its compression stroke, the other at the end of its power stroke. On the other hand, of the pistons at top dead center (TDC), one is just beginning its intake stroke while its mate is starting its power stroke.
Now, all this would be of academic interest only, were it not for the fact that Billy Budde had a special camshaft grouhd for the 836-cc big-bore. This cam allows for simultaneous breathing of each cylinder pair. Thus, ascending pistons exhaust and compress to-gether, while descending pistons ingest charge and transfer combustive force in unison. Now, the upshot of all this is a four-cylinder engine that has a power stroke (from two cylinders) every 360 degrees. And as a result, Budde tells us, this particular motorcycle enjoys excel-lent low-speed power.

In all honesty, though, Budde's goal here was not gobs of low-speed torque. He actually made this transformation for a very different reason: exhaust note. Oriental fours tend to have an exhaust sound far removed from that of four-stroke vertical- and V-twins. The fours tend to soar and howl, as op-posed to the fabled, deep rumpetty-rump of the twins. So, Budde was shooting for a four that sounded like a big twin. Instead, however, he had to settle for a four that, according to Budde, sounds "like a 350 Honda twin instead," which also delivers enormous quantities of low-speed grunt.

So, you see that this motorcycle is a one-of-a-kind custom on a couple of counts. Moreover, there seems to be something of a lesson in the machine. First, we see before us an individualistic custom that was built in the brief span of two weeks, which shoots down the saying that "good things take a long time." And second, with a total invest-ment of $3200 in this bike, it is clear that there can be a financial advantage in having someone else build your custom for you; a street-level, everyday yahoo could easily exceed the $3200 mark in attempting to duplicate the bike.

Smart fella, that Rodriguez . . .