Dutch survivor flathead!

Typical 45 chopperized in the 70s or 80s here in the Netherlands. Nice and disgustingly done!!!

yep, still there!

no worries, your tattoo didn't wash off!

Bike does look familiar doesn't it!?

The Vanessa chopper

...back by popular demand!
Recently unearthed here in the Netherlands, 

but here are some more pics by Jan from back in the 1980s when it still had an engine!

 

Dutch digger?

Dutch dude? or someone drove all the way from Sweden on that thing!?

The one that got away

This would have been so nice standing close to my Funny chopper... it has the same paint

ZZchops first XS1100!

Am I getting old or what!? I'm starting to like these very bad custom paint goldwing type bikes!

Dutch touring club "de Bikers" back in the 1980s

King blits 1983

1st prize winner!
"Killer" by Frans de Weerdt!

Honda racer

Another Dutch fad of the 70s / 80s are these types of Honda 4cil. racers with wild paintjobs. Quite common to find a fairing or sidepanel in a paint like these on nowadays swapmeets

King Blits 1982

from the photo albums of Jan ter Haar!
King Blits was a chopper show here in the Netherlands in the early 80s. Yes, this was it!
You must keep in mind that a Harley was not in reach of the common man, so most custom bikes were Japanese or european. The differences with a bike show like Daytona in 1982 are huuuuuge!

Jan de Wit's chopper. He still has it, but in pieces in the attic

Mild custom lowrider

Poor WLA!

This looks nice. By H. Duckers ,also a well known name in the Dutch custom scene

License plates the size of dinner plates were introduced in 1978

Big Willem's bike outside

Dynamite by Frans de Weerdt

Many Dutch chopper enthusiasts will recognize this beauty from the posters hanging over their beds!
This bike was one of the best customized motorcycles in Holland, (that says a lot doens't it!!!) and even won 1st prize at the 1982 choppershow "King Blits" held at the RAI in Amsterdam. I don't know the whole history of the bike, but the builder Frans de Weerdt is still working and painting cars and motorcycles to this day.

1st prize winner! And other old school Dutch bike builders Jan de Wit shovel chopper on the left

And some of you might recognize my little project XS400 from a couple of years back, sporting an exact same gas tank paint! (minus the name "Dynamite " on the sides) which I found at a motorcycle wrecking yard

Ratty n rowdy

and then there were the Dutch!

Perfect example of how the Dutch were building bikes after the movie Easy Rider from surplus army WLA's which could be had for cheap. I'm not very proud of this heritage and you can see why haha!

We've heard it a million times

In English: boy, that's nothing but misery
and they're probably right! It all starts with printing the image mirrored

Same bike on a choppershow at the chopper show Flevohof or the RAI in Amsterdam...

Tank Tuesday!

Ben sends in another cool scan from his early days!

Tank Tuesday!

 the 1970s were the special paint glorydays in Holland and also very productive in those years was Goos Letterman a.k.a GL Paint from Oud-Beijerland. This is a nice 1975 article from the Dutch Motor magazine.

Basically the article explains that GL paint was busy turning the original stock bikes into hot customs with extreme paintjobs . Often done on brand new bikes to attract buyers. He learned these new painting techniques on his USA trips and with imported hardware and candies.

The company is still in business today, but this was the only old paintjob I could find on their site

Dutch custom painter Ted Sinninge

In a small country like the Netherlands there were a handfull of custom painters starting to learn the tricks of the trade in the early 70s, among those was Ted Sinninge (I'm curious how you english speaking folks would pronounce this!!!) Some other names were Frans de Weerdt, Roy Inca, Goos Letterman (GL paints, still excisting today) Dik's Paint and some dude from Schalkwijk
Mucho thanks to one other oldschool painter Ben Oud!
Click on the pics to have a better look

"the Gladiator" was a 3 wheeled Reliant! ha!