One of Joe's favorite shots.
Before we met in person, I asked Joe, why was such a colorful bike, named White Bear? He told me, but before I let on, check this out.
From Joe's wall of fame.
When I met Joe at the Wailing Wall, he had some goodies in the back of his SUV. Joe had told me about his collage. It's is made up of friends and their bikes from over the years that were featured in magazines. I was really glad and surprised he also brought his David Mann painting along, but more on that later.
Here's another good shot of the top of White Bear's tank. The Model 'T' Hot Rod in the background was Dick Allen's at the time. He got it in trade from Jim Andrews. Jim hounded Dick for the Cobra Trike so Dick traded it plus the chromed frame from his earlier bike for the 'T' and a bunch of bike stuff.
Joe told me White Bear was named after the Funny Car that inspired the paint job. I did a Google search, and at first, all of the results didn't quite add up.
Definitely somethings amiss.
Almost
Eureka!
Then I stumbled on this toy car. It turned out that Tom Hoover had several Funny Cars and they kept getting wilder paint jobs. White Bear appears to be a Dodge dealer and sponsor.
Not the best shot, but The Real Deal.
Right in the middle of the collage is the very photo that inspired Joe.
Bruce Parrish, who painted the bike, at first asked, "How am I supposed to do that car's paint on a bike"? Joe told me they spent about every waking hour for an entire week masking and spraying. It was first painted a base of pearl white and after the first color (gold), was sprayed, he said it looked horrible. Good thing they kept at it.
One bad ass machine. I guess it's fitting that a bike that looks like a Dragster, was inspired by a Funny Car.
