1980 CR125

[color=#008040:ce2f1]That thing looks like one of the lunch boxes they sell with the kids favorite riders pictures on it. I wonder if it came with Marty Smith Pajamas?
It obviously had work that was meticulously done, but Im not all that fond of the whole scheme. Red tires for one belong on Degans bike. The pictures on the side plates kinda creep me out. And a white painted CR motor is the same but only the polar opposite of bikes that I see on ebay where they get painted with a spray bomb of BBQ black.
If I wanted a tribute bike, I would want a Bultaco like Pomeroy road, a RM500 with Simons for Lackey or a Red 76 CR125 like Martys. And 7 grand? I almost would rather spend that on a new 4 stroke. But he did a nice job on it.I have seen a few bikes that the seller had restored and he is a Sano guy. But come on, Red Tires??? eww Maybe they show up better with the neon lights under the fenders[/color:ce2f1]

I'm not really sure what he was smoking at the time that he came up with the color scheme for that bike, but as I remember it was for a good cause and basically he donated it. Joe Abbate is a really stand up kind of guy even if he is from Jersey. One of my biggest regrets was selling him two old haggard hulks of Harleys finest Italian cuisine. He restored both of them and again donated one of them to AHRMA to be raffled off . Here are a few pics , one as I found one of the bikes here in Beaumont, Tx (serial #00038) and the other after it was restored. I also found serial #00045 here also missing all the bodywork. Don't laugh too hard at the before pic, I cleaned the rotten filter out of the box, cleaned the float bowl, checked for spark and with fresh fuel, it fired up and ran. Clutch was locked up and the shifter was missing but with a rolling start and a pair of vice grips on the shift shaft I was up and running.[attachment=1:e7c98]HarleyBefore.jpg[/attachment:e7c98][attachment=0:e7c98]P1010011a.jpg[/attachment:e7c98]

Joe does great bikes, but to me that's atrocious. I really like a well done Tahitian Red for the red rockets. A well done faux Mugen would be okay, too.

Truly proving that beauty is in the eye of the beholder! " title="Laughing">

Well, as I suspected over two years ago when I built this bike "Some people are going to like, some will mock it, but there won't be anyone that is going to forget it" Regardless of what business you are in, when you put something out there that is different than what people are use to seeing, you are going to hear it both ways. With some of you saying you have seen other bikes I have restored and that you liked them, some saying my work is "sano"I don't mind at all if some didn't find this exercise appealing.

"Looking like a kids lunch box" really isn't bad at all as I have heard things such as: It looks like a comic strip, an ambulance and on one occasion heard someone tell me they refer to it as the Bozo Bike. I think my favorite 'left handed" compliment was that it looked like a rolling business card with all that white, red and black on it. Either way, if someone saw it, they never forgot it, and one person thought it was special enough to pay a sizeable sum for it.


I'm not sure if the pictures on the bike are "creepy" as one person described, however Jim Pomeroy's picture does look different to me now that he has passed, more so on the silver 1979 Honda CR125 Tribute bike I kept for myself. The portraits on the fiberglass tank of that bike are air brushed, and from the day I picked it up, it had a bit of an eerie feeling to it. If the white bike was a little too over the top, go to my website and see the silver bike. http://www.JoeAbbatesCycleTherapy.com.

A special thanks to Joe Newman for posting pictures of one of the Harley 250 MX bikes he sold to me back in 2001. Although there were two of them, the one in the photos are the same bike, which is the one I still own. About a year after the raffle, the winner, Tom Viers of Missouri called and informed me he was going to sell the bike on Ebay, which he did. I lost track of it after that.

By the way, this was my first time viewing the site and I really like it. I didnt know about it until today when Rich Fogel emailed me and explained I was getting some "controversial press" I may not have known about. All things considered, it was enjoyable. Hmmmmm...Marty Smith pajamas huh....feetsies or no feetsies?

As well, Rich Fogel is getting press both here and on Motonews for bagging 4 grand for a set of Fox Forks!!!! You need to hang out here every now and then and post up what's going on up Jersey way. Any new projects in the works? Did Fogel ever do anything with the 175 Noguchi top end I sent him? And what is Scott Stevens up to? Take care and check in often.