View attachment 595953
View attachment 595954
Long backstory: Six months ago, in anticipation of replacing the shifter and shift box on the Chevy, I began looking for a unique shift knob. About a month into the search, I found a pic of the knob seen above. I knew that was the knob I wanted (giggidy), and the real search began. As hard as I tried, I just wasn't able to find the knob for sale anywhere. In the original pic I found, there was a small logo on the bottom of the knob. I wasn't able to use it though...too blurry.
After scrolling through hundreds of pages of results, I found a very old post on a car forum that had this knob in in the background of the pic. The post mentioned a website, but also indicated the website was dead. Damn it. I scrolled through the many posts in that thread, and another poster mentioned the name of the owner of the website. Now I'm on to something.
The interwebz found many, many people with the same first and last name. Not unexpected, but DAMN IT! More days and weeks of searching led me to a Facebook post that connected the name to a business. There were multiple businesses across the US that share the name...damn it. So I used Google Maps and Street View to try and narrow it down. After 2-3 attempts....BINGO. In the street view I can see a sign on the side of a building with a blurry image and a phone number. The blurry image looked an awful lot like the blurry image on the bottom of the shifter. I call the number. The shop is in Northern California!
Dude answers the phone and I asked if they used to manufacture shift knobs. He answers "Yes, but that was a long time ago. I did it as a side gig with my friend. When he passed away I lost the desire to continue. I still have some knobs laying around though. What knob are you looking for?" I describe it to him and he replies "Yeah, I have a few of those left, they cost X. What color do you want?" Well, I want bare metal like the image I found. "Let me take a look" I expect him to tell me to call him back, but I hear him rustling around, and he comes back to cal and says "Well we can strip on of the knobs for you for an additional cost" Sigh. If that's my only choice...he interrupts me "I do have a bare metal one here, but you aren't going to want to spend 2X" I ask him why that one is different and he says that 4-5 guys from SoCal saw the original knob but wanted it made in a different material. He goes on to say they were all coworkers at NASA. In my head I absolutely KNOW where this is going and I ask him "It's titanium isn't it?" He says yes, and I tell him I'll buy it. He asks where I'm calling from and I tell him. He says "You should come out and see it in person before you buy it." Here's my cell phone number, I'm usually here on Saturdays. Call me and swing by.
Three(!) months later I can finally break away and go to the shop. It's a huge building with various project cars on the property in various states of rust. I walk in to find more metal working machines than I've ever seen in one shop. I walk deeper into the shop and finally see him. I'm surprised to see him standing next to a heavily modified HD XR1200. I'm gobsmacked. Turns out we participate on the same XR1200 forum (we recognize each others screen names). I noticed a dusty set of fiberglass fairings hanging on the wall and say "What's the story behind the Bimota db2?" He's noticeably surprised "You know what a db2 is?" Yup. And off we go on a long conversation about that bike.
He finally shows me the knob and I'm ecstatic. He says "It's been sitting around for years. Let me polish it and I'll send it to you. Two weeks pass, and here it is....
"kicks" ya got there.
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