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I'm not in favor of rat bikes!

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another one saved

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I had a poorly repaired Hawthorne frame. really bad weld job where frame broke and was repaired by way too much brazing rod piled on. I considered throwing this frame out it looked so bad. I saw this tank setting under a table at a swap meet. every one had passed it by. the guy wanted 10 bucks for it! wasnt rusted, I didnt know what it fit, but for 10 bucks I bought it.
Of course the only frame it fit was the ratty hawthorne.
Lots of grinding later I got the bad welds looking excellent. striped off two coats of house and paint lots of rust. Added 1950 Huffy fenders, a 49 Buick hood ornament, the hocky stick guard
and a coke bottle opener I found nosing thru the trash. :)
The only way this bike got saved was because of the tank. I put it together Christmas week, and just brought it out today. too icey to ride though. Another old bike saved!

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Great old thread !
I'm sure that many of the opinions stated here remain unchanged, but I suspect that there are
quite a few who have had their eyes opened to some degree by the sheer awesomeness that
a well executed Rat bike can deliver!

This years build off winner, TRM's Decoluxe !
( Go to ratrodbikes.com and check out the whole build start to finish !)
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Maybe here at the Cabe, that subtle line between OG and Rat would be appreciated most...
Here's a bit of both!

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Interesting topic.....the reality of the matter is most of us doing "Rat Rods" rarely alter a bike to the point that they could not be returned to original condition. Also we are widely responsible for many of the restorers being able to find their restorations. All those parts you sell to fund your restorations are the parts we buy to build our Rats. Likewise most of the parts we buy are the parts that are far too gone for a restorer to use or too common to be of interest. Also while building these Rats our interest and knowledge of the originals grows and most of us will do a restoration at some point. Here is a pic of my JC Higgins Flightliner I have named the "Flatliner" all the parts used were salvaged.

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Custom or Rat???

I reading through the posts in this thread, I'm now confused. When is a custom a custom and not a rat bike. When is a rat bike a rat bike and not a custom. How do I categorize these...

Custom or Rat??? :confused:
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Custom or Rat??? :confused:
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I say traditional custom on both
 
A RAT has more to do with the method of build rather than appearance of the finished product. A RAT uses existing parts to achieve a cohesive finished product. A custom uses more scratch built fabrication. Many say mine are not RATS because they have too polished of an appearance. This is just my opinion its not written in stone anywhere. In reality its probably just a matter of how much of a bike snob one is.

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