La Mosca Reciclado

December 5, 2016

0Points

Article By: Chris Callen

Photos By: Markus Cuff

Originally Published In The June 2016 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

Over the years since they started the J&P Ultimate Builder Shows inside the IMS Expos we have had the pleasure of giving a Cycle Source Award to a number of builders that were showing their work throughout the country. One such build was the hot little triumph that you see here. We found this little gem during the Long Beach IMS and I was blown away at the craftsmanship. Little did I know at the time that the story behind it would be as impressive as the build itself. Anthony Robinson is one of those cats that I can say is a brother from another mother despite the fact that I have only just met him through this article. He has some real old world values in the way he raises his kids, conducts his business and builds his motorcycles. In our short conversation I was very impressed with this cat. His garage door business is his daily bread but he doesn’t put anything before his family. In the time he has in the middle motorbikes possess his every thought. In fact, the very foundation of how this bike came to be is a story of the bi-product of his daily grind. You see, in his business there is a lot of recycling; old garage doors are recycled as his company puts up new material. Anthony would squirrel away the recycle money for his Triumph project. He was very strict about this, in fact if the recycle money didn’t add up to the parts he was trying to score at the time, he would wait. This is a man of great responsibility and patience. Even his swap meet finds, at the Long Beach Swap, came down to doing the right thing. You see, if he bought a part and it was wrong, didn’t fit or whatever, he would force himself to flip it before he could get the right one. This also taught him some valuable lessons about what is what for the T-100. But I’m putting the cart slightly before the horse here.

Anthony came up around bikes with his old man, Jack E. Robinson, who was deep into it from a young age as a flat tracker. He raced in the real “back in the day” at Paris and all the old tracks around California. Needless to say he always had bikes around and Anthony had the bug early on. About the time he had finished his Modified Softail a good friend went down and lost his life. Anthony was a little shook up from this and sold his Softail and didn’t ride for a minute. Some time passed and the itch came back so he went to his wife and explained that he felt like getting into the building part of motorcycling. Then one night praising the almighty Craigslist he came across a deal he couldn’t pass up in Arizona. It was wheels, a frame and the motor from this T-100 and he could have it all for $750. This was not as exciting for his wife Mariah when he brought home his score. She exclaimed those words most of us moto junkies have heard at one point or another: “What the hell is that?” Anthony didn’t let that stop him, he could see all that was possible in this pile of parts and he set out to show her exactly why he scarfed that deal up. He told her “You have to see beyond what’s here now.” The first thing he did was go out and buy a Harbor Freight lift, scored a book on e-bay on the T-100. Together with his middle son Austin, he went to work. During the learning curve he would run into some neat side lines like the battery box that he used. It was actually an old 60’s battery charger he found in an old parts pile. He brought it back to his shop and gutted it to be used for the battery and electrical. This way he could forego having the electrical components hanging out and use something completely unique and original.

It took a couple of weeks to work it out right, the correct latch to use, the right location for the battery, but in the end it paid off. The girder was another item of great triumph, no pun intended. He found this girder that was originally on a 1937 T-80 and in kinda rough shape. Anthony took the girder apart and went to his buddy Kevin at Pacific Coast Powder coating for help. Kevin restored it meticulously and Anthony was able to reassemble it in perfect working order. From there Anthony’s Father In Law Dave, a machinist of 35 years helped to machine the motor mounts, brake stay and the bearing sleeves to be able to use the front end on his bike and have it fit to the bearings and neck of the T-100. When it came to the fuel tank RJ at Lucky Mother Garage made him the perfect solution. It was a day at the tattoo parlor where Anthony would meet Mat Egan who was recommended to handle the finish. Matt asked him for the story of the bike and then laid down the killer flake and copper leaf work you see here. It all added up to a bike that is flawless from start to finish and for us, the story that comes with it, well that’s just the perfect combination. Anthony is well into his next project, and now has the complete support of his wife in his ideas and we can’t wait to see what he comes up with next. You got space here man, whatever that might be.