“A customer had come in wanting to redo his old Shovel,” Jason said. “I told him about a design we had on paper that had not been done yet. He was a go once he saw it.” Yeah, I bet. I would too, because although I was born way, way, way too late to have been a modster, and I think modsters were Banned in Boston anyway, being that everything else was. But I do have a thing for steampunk. Apparently Jason does too, because his favorite aspect of the bike is its mechanical look. He says nothing major went wrong with the build, “just the usual,” so I guess you’ll have to use your own experience and imagination on that one.

It’s all good in the end, though, as Jason says, “It rides like a bat out of hell.” Hell’s bat population is out of control and terrifying to me, so as much as I like this bike it would probably sit in my garage. Not so for its owner, Jeff, who did plenty of work on the bike also and could care less about the bats in hell. He rides it often as a bar hopper. Jason has also ridden the bike plenty, seeing that he hasn’t had time to build one for himself. Suffice it to say it’s a popular bike. “We were going for an affordable base model that was different from all the rest,” Jason said. “We give options right from the start at SSK.” Jason did splurge on a Bareknuckle Chopper’s Blown Glass Velocity Stack Kit. “It’s worth every penny,” he said. South Side Kustoms scoffs at bike shows, so don’t expect to see this bike on stage any time soon. “Trophies mean nothing,” he said. “People walking up on it, commenting on how cool it is at events and cruises…that’s the reward I get.”

So what’s up next for Jason and SSK? “Hopefully we’ll be building a lot of the Rock-N-Rolla, and it doesn’t only come in flat black,” he said. Cruise on over to South Side Kustoms and check out their bikes, prices on base models, rollers, frames, parts and accessories.