The Cinderella Lump
Phil Little Racing – About four years ago I bought two low mileage late model Specials. One I turned into a mule for my Craig Vetter X75 Hurricane BSA/Triumph look-a-like kit and called it the Storm. The other sat neglected and I called it the Lump because it looked so forlorn. My thought was to sell it but first I wanted to create something slightly unusual-which I now call the Cinderella Lump.
I used Storm body pieces but reshaped them and conjured a complimentary paint job to emphasize the body lines. The paint scheme is from the 50s-metallic charcoal, pink and pearl white. I wanted something in the chopped-bobber family but was unwilling to sacrifice the ride to a rigid frame. So I lowered the sprung frame. I have no idea how to label this bike so let’s just call it a custom.
The bike is basically stock with a stock engine. I mean the engine has 5,500 miles so why pull it apart for mods when most people only putz with them. I’m a slow rider which gives me time to watch for evil autos.
To magnify the use of unholy pink paint I colored the wheels because they are a vital design component of any motorcycle. The trend of black wheels is totally misguided. Most who do it are just followers-no rational thought went into making their wheels disappear.
I had a customer who painted his pipes white moments before a show because his store didn’t have black high temp paint. The crowd reaction staggered him-that’s why I did mine in white.
The Cinderella Lump has no earth shaking features or highly machined anything. It is simply a color and design exercise. Having the Storm body pieces on hand made it easier. I’ll be selling this bike in the spring after I ride it a couple of times. I didn’t have time to fire it up because I finished in November of 2015.
A neglected 650 with thankfully low 5,500 miles. What to do with it? My business is making conversion kits-mostly street trackers and café bikes. I determined the Lump was to be a departure.
The Concept- a bobber/chopper
I make a 650 conversion kit called the Storm. It is a takeoff of Craig Vetter’s X75 Hurricane BSA/Triumph. I wanted to make something different than a Storm to use up the neglected 650. A fella can’t have two Storms so my extra 650 slithered off another way. I went through many drawing concepts and this was the last one. When it came to building the actual bike more changes occurred. 1) The Storm body work was radically cut to achieve swoopy lines and 2) the paint was changed to accentuate those body lines. I am most proud of the front fender paint design-it’s different and cool.
Phil Little
Minnetonka, MN
