1971 BSA Lightning

Bubble Mail from Elias Chaz:

 "This bike was started over a year ago, with my buddy Charlie after we had just moved to Oakland, Ca from Chicago to find new experiences. Basically we moved here for motorcycles and to expand the horizons of what one can know about bikes. (Which is never-ending) He picked this bike up in west oakland. The engine seized. The motor was completely torn down and the parts put in a bunch of zip lock bags all over our one bedroom, that houses the machine. The connecting rod, as it turns out, was completely melted and cracked in half. Talking to some specialists, they were puzzled and amazed at the lack of oil this machine must have been running on to do such a thing. We took a fabrication class and managed to make a pretty demonic sissy bar for it. After 13 months of running around, freaking out, breaking parts, and waiting for other ones, the bike has finally come together. Its been a beautiful process to be a part of."

Speechless!
Thanks dudes
LOVE the flames on your gas tank!
Perfect ride

Frank Chatokhine excited for 2014 DTRA season.

After some good training time during the practice end of march, Frank is currently finishing to fine tune his Rickman Metisse Flattracker and will be ready for the first race on Leicester Speedway April 27th.
Since 2005 the UK has had its very own Flattrack Championships. The UK scene has been growing every year with more new bikes and rider starting to race. Racing in the UK is mainly on speedway tracks with some use of larger horse trotting tracks and TT courses. Races are normally contested between 12 riders in 3 lines of 4 riders. The duration of each race is 6 or 8 laps with finals of 12 or 15 laps. Unlike speedway the bikes have a rear brake and gears. Typically riders can expect a minimum of 3 heats, sometimes semi’s and a final per class they enter.
For his very first Dirt Track championship season Frank Chatokhine has prepared in his workshop a dedicated race bike to enter the new “Vintage Class”:
“Thanks to the help of my friends from Co-Built I did not lost time searching for the proper chassis set up and had been able to focus on rebuilding the 500 Triumph pre unit engine. The bike was previously used for motocross and clearly needed to be lowered with different suspension settings.
The practice event in Rye House confirmed I worked in the good direction and showed the small improvements I had to make on plenty of small details.
I can’t wait to enter the first round in Leicester Speedway and see how fast I can be. I’m so excited ! See you in UK at the races !”

Frank Chatokhine thanks all his sponsors who did help him to enter this year DTRA championship: Ateliers RUBY, Edwin Europe, Café Racer, Castrol, FTWco, Sideburn and Seurat 3.
Follow Frank for this race season on instagram  and on the Atelier Chatokhine website

Great pics from Dimitri Coste




That's one killer Bike Frank! Good luck at Leicester and have a good DTRA season!