This week, with all the rain coming down in San Francisco, I am inspired by my other passion: motorcycles. I stumbled across these guys out of Portland, and oh man do I wish they had a shop down here. I love vintage bikes. Classic Hondas are my favorite and the guys of The Tarantulas really do them justice. The Tarantulas are a few guys in North East Portland who build and ride motorcycles, specifically: Cafe Bikes.

I think there are a few camps you can belong to  when it comes to Cafe bikes or classic bike restoration. I am in the camp that believes you should try and maintain the integrity of the original bike. And while some Cafe bikes look really cool, for me it all comes down to not stripping the bike of it’s original (intended) design. Decades ago, the men (and women) over at Honda worked really hard to engineer and design these bikes. So, to tear them apart and strip all of the unnecessary elements off them can sometimes be seen as crude. But The Tarantulas keep it classy. And that’s putting it mildly. They have great aesthetics and really preserve the original integrity of these beautifully built machines.

All of their design and photography work is done by Scott @ CTC.

This bike is called Mabeline. It’s a mechanically combined CB/CL175 from 1971.

This bike is called The Natural. 1976 CB750F SS

This bike is a CB350F. Tons of powder coating and beautiful custom leather. Check out those sidebags.

Check out their shop’s bad ass kegerator. A late 40’s Frigidaire stocked with Gilgamesh Copper and Ridgeway IPA from Oregon’s Gilgamesh brewing company. I wouldn’t mind one of those in my garage! Sponsored by our own Anchor Brewing perhaps?

These guys are just great and when I head up to Portland I am definitely going to swing by the shop. Maybe grab a beer and chat about bikes. Now I’m inspired to go and ride!