BF 7 Invited Builder : Jon Rispante

The recipe is pretty simple yet it's really hard to find guys who can do it correctly. That is building a traditional 50's/60's style British custom without over doing it. Jon Rispante is in a very small group of guys that understand what these bikes should look like and have the skills to build one. Jon has built some really cool bikes over the years. He brought the killer swing-arm Pre Unit "The Grass Hopper" to BF2, built a period perfect BSA dragster for BF3 and now is back as an invited builder for BF7. He has just checked in with his first update....he writes:
I'm building a 1950 Triumph Thunderbird this year. I purchased the start of this project about 12 years ago and have been slowly collecting the pieces for it since then. My favorite style of custom Triumph's are from the mid 1960's. That
transition period between a fairly stock bike and a raked out, extended front end, full on chopper. My Dad graduated in '67. The bike he customized and rode to High School was a '64 TR6. As a kid I loved looking at the old photos of his metal-flake blue custom. I will be building my '50 as if a 17 year old kid would have in the mid 60's. No fancy CNC parts, perfect TIG welds, or belt drives... As a kid still in school and pumping gas at the corner Phillips 66 station, funds are limited... I will be saving my lunch money for chrome and will be doing all the work myself including the Watson style lacquer paint, polishing,
engine rebuild, etc... Also, full show bikes are nice to look at but since this will be my only means of transportation, it has to work and be within "regulation"... That means brakes, lights, and mufflers. Jon