Frank Lange's "Cherish" Triumph

Back in the day, a custom motorcycle with white wall tires meant one thing for sure. It was a east coast bike. As far as I know there never was a whitewall mounted on any custom cycle west of the Rockies. Prove me wrong if you can, but it seems that whitewalls were taboo on the west coast. Kinda odd since the 1960's Rod & Custom auto scene in California used whitewalls almost exclusively on show cars and many street rides too. Of course over the past decade or so many a "bobber" has been shod with white walls, but unfortunately they were usually matched up with red painted wheel rims and a heavy dose of flat black on parts that should have been sent to the chrome shop, like blacked out aftermarket springer front ends from the '70s, making for something that was not period correct in any way and not even close to being a real bob job. A horrible phase of custom bike styling that has thankfully past. I'm definitely not against using whitewalls on a custom bike and in fact have a white walled custom cycle in the works now. One thing good about our modern era, from looking at these pics, grafitti art has got a lot better.

Frank Langes Show Bike from Brooklyn N.Y. is a masterpiece of custom styling and detail. Love the shaped fender, molded tank and perfect striping. The Dunlop white walls had been discontinued nine years before this bike was built, so you definitely will not be seeing any on ebay or anywhere else, but if you do grab them quick! The tires go nicely with the custom seat and pinstriping too. Mixing and matching components from different years seems to have been pretty common during this period and the early 1950s forks and 1954 8" vented front brake wheel work well with the overall design.

1968 Cycle Sport