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From the Twisted Iron Facebook Group:
Today we took a drive out to the extremely picturesque wilds of Essex to visit our old friend String Thompson of ‘Raw Steel Choppers’, and his partner in crime Mark Williams of ‘Naked Speed Custom Motorcycles’. With us was Tony Donnelly, a friend who is about to embark on a joint project between these two builders and Twisted Iron to turn his Kawasaki 550 Zephyr winter hack into a custom build… in just 4 hours! ‘This will take place at the ‘Twisted Turnout’ on the morning of Sunday 19th March 2017 and this challenge will be something not to be missed! The guys talked details, budget and concept ideas, they’ll now go shopping and line up some suppliers. Tony has a modest but realistic budget for this project and although he has been riding all his life collecting a varied selection of bikes they are all (in his own words) painfully standard. This will be his first custom bike. String specialises mainly in fabrication and you’ll have seen quite a few of his builds at ‘The Happening’ over the last few years including his ‘Moonshine Rat Rod’ and the ‘Cub Chop’ built for Luke Sackett. We have to say Mark’s workshop was one of the cleanest and tidiest spaces we’ve ever seen, an inspiration to any shed or garage owner! And it was full of some rather beautiful Honda builds such as a CB250N Superdream Brat and a Honda CBR600 Café Fighter along with a freshly blacked up CB250 RS frame. String and Mark make quite a dream team. Early in Mark’s career after qualifying as a mechanical engineer, he went to Spain, “I couldn’t speak a word of Spanish but having been offered a job with one of Spain’s most respected experts in motorcycle racing, how could I say no? Sign language was our only communication, but it’s surprising how quickly you learn a language when you need to eat…” Having started working for them based in Madrid, he soon moved to work in their Superbike racing team! He later moved to another team where he had the privilege of working with Juan Lopez Mella (RIP), racing the Honda RC30 in Superbikes. If you can’t get down to the March ‘Twisted Turnout’ on the 19th, we’ll be covering it on the day on the Twisted Iron page, along with photos, a time-lapse video and a live stream. But it’s definitely going to be worth the trip to see what these talented builders can come up with in 4 hours for Tony. If you can only make one Twisted Turnout this year… make it this one!
https://www.facebook.com/pg/TwistedIronTheHappening/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2348795215261190
The lads who will be doing the build, Mark of Naked Speed and String of Raw Steel Choppers
In the words of Blue Peter..here is one they did earlier. My 550 wont be quite as radical as this, but it really shows what these lads are capable of!Pictures courtesy of Twisted Iron and R&B Images
Hadn’t realised what the plan was, that sounds ace mate. I shall follow their FB page
Just had the idea at work one day….pass this link to any your biking mates who might be interested in following the page and wtaching the live link or even rocking up to watch the build. It is in Oxfordshire
I feel a Forum Ride out is in order.
If I am able I’m def up for this, although would have to meet you guys there!
Sounds really interesting and only a few miles from me. Sod’s law dictates however that only a couple of hours before reading this we’ve selected that weekend to go to the Lake District and have just booked the B&B. Have sent details to my son, I think he’ll go.
Sounds really interesting and only a few miles from me. Sod’s law dictates however that only a couple of hours before reading this we’ve selected that weekend to go to the Lake District and have just booked the B&B. Have sent details to my son, I think he’ll go.
That’s a shame it would of been great to of seen you there and said hello. Hope your son can make it and enjoys himself. If you have a Facebook account if you could share the Twisted Iron link to it I would really appreciate it.
Hopefully we can get to say hello at one the bike meets on the Wednesday evenings in the summer
I feel a Forum Ride out is in order.
If I am able I’m def up for this, although would have to meet you guys there!
be great to see you up there Pete, your Guzzi would get a good reaction I reckon
How very damn interesting indeed!
I shall be watching with eager interest!Spread the word…I will put up on the Thundercat Forum too
My 81yr old Mum is down from Edinburgh for her annual visit to the Forest that weekend – I’ll see if she wants a blast out on the Tiger….. ???
My 81yr old Mum is down from Edinburgh for her annual visit to the Forest that weekend – I’ll see if she wants a blast out on the Tiger….. ???
Does she have a socket set and can she spray (paint…)
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