Karl Ardo & Josh Winderman’s Historic Born Free Build
The story of this bike starts with an invitation to build a bike for the Born Free Show. Karl Ardo and Josh Widerman had great success with their previous collaboration a Triumph Drag Bike, and were looking to build another similar but different scoot.
Then word came in from one of Karl’s buddies that a vintage historic drag bike was recently found in the rafters of a garage in New Jersey. A true barn find would make an interesting project. Karl called on Mike Davis co-owner of Born Free to see if restoring an old race bike would be OK for their invited builder showcase. With two big thumbs up, Karl purchased the bike through his friend and all the goodies that came along with it, including the incredible story of the original builder, Todd Schuster.
Todd Schuster was a distinguished fabricator to a generation of AMA Superbike race teams. Cycle News Magazine’s Larry Lawrence wrote up a great piece [Archives: The One and Only Todd Schuster]. In it he talks to many who knew Todd and recollect memories of a big, strong powerful man that knew his size can be intimidating yet would usually bring a deep belly laugh to any scene. He was a master at his craft and instrumental in the early days of AMA Superbike Racing with Butler & Smith BMW in the late 1970’s and American Honda in the 1980’s.
This bike, the Tokyo Rose was a precursor to the magnificence he displayed on the track. This bike, was built to showcase some of the imaginative styling and engineering to create such a treat. The bike was built in 1970 and campaigned throughout the eastern drag circuit including Atco Raceway in New Jersey from 1971-1973. Word has it the bike blew up and was shelved in 1973. Most of the parts stuck in Todds barn in Northvale, New Jersey. All the aluminum parts were severely oxidized in the uninsulated barn, and the frame was kept relatively well up in the attic.
After securing all the parts available, Karl and Josh began building it up and researching more about the bike and the builder. It is a true representation of it’s original form with dual Weber carburetors and Web Compensation Cam. The Honda CB750 was bored out to 900cc’s with 10.5:1 compression and sits in a stretched chromoly frame. The original paint was well preserved, and the boys called on George Tantardini to repair areas with the same patina.
They finished the bike a few weeks before the Born Free 13 show and it was prominently displayed in the corral of Invited Builders where it received a warm reception.
