www.roanoke.com

Clay Rathburn, an amateur-going-professional motorcycle builder who lives in the Masons Cove area, is growing in his skills both as a bike builder and in his writing about the two-wheeled hot rods since his debut earlier this year. He entered a reconstructed 1958 BSA in a contest for the magazine "The Horse" for beginning pros earlier in 2008, and won first place accolades for the beauty (pictured). So Salem featured him in a neighbors article May 30, 2008.

The recognition from the contest and from his frequent contributions to online bike-rebuilding forums has paid off with several of his articles being published in "The Iron Horse" (a different magazine than the one mentioned above).

"There's a lot of bikes that are historically significant 'buried' right around this area," Rathburn said. Later he anticipates a little more travel for future assignments, but for right now, his articles feature local to semi-local historic bikes. "The Iron Horse" is available at local Barnes and Noble book stores and at Books-a-Million.

His 1958 BSA is still up for sale, and he's working on a 1970 Triumph. While the first bike is up for sale and display on Ebay, folks can also check out what he's currently working on at www.atombombcustom.com.