George Woodman is an aptly named carpenter, furniture designer and interior architect, but it was not the name he was born with. He took on the name as a kind of branding exercise and came to the custom scene with the idea to introduce his favourite material wood. Sources: Timberbiz, George Woodman Garage
Now Mr Woodman is creating customizations as unique works of art with motorbikes.
His first custom was titled “The Smoking Black Fish” and was built on a 1929 FN. It has been entered in the famous “Haas Museum” in Dallas.
The FN Type M70B is a 350cc single cylinder motorbike produced in 1929 by Fabrique Nationale d’Herstal.
FN is a Belgian armaments manufacturer that’s been in business since 1889. They produced motorcycles from 1901 until the1960s, including the famed FN Four—the world’s first production four-cylinder motorcycle.
The centerpiece of the Smoking Black Fish build is the new seat unit, which is a wood and aluminum sandwich with a dollop of leather. It’s sitting on a custom-made hinge-and-spring system, with the original seat springs re-purposed out back for a little extra compliance.
Everything’s been designed to use the frame’s original mounting tabs, minimizing changes to the original chassis.
The handlebars were cut and re-welded for a more vintage race feel, capped with wrapped leather grips.
Mr Woodman continued the wood theme with a neat headlight cowl and some smaller pieces like a protector plate for the velocity stack and a nominal rear fender.
All the controls are original, so the rider still has to control air, fuel and spark manually—like they did back in 1929
As a finishing touch, Mr Woodman has etched into the black paint of the FN’s fishtail exhaust, earning it the nickname ‘The Smoking Black Fish.’
