Modified Stockers
It was Alaine Angelos’ youthful fascination with de cru motocyclettes (vintage motorcycles) that led this Gen X-er from France to seek out the Old School look in his bike builds and combines it with New School technology and reliability. Having been too young to hop on the Old School bikes before they were Old School, he now looks to add those elements that excited him as a kid to the bikes he builds today in his El Paso, Texas, garage. Now, with a couple dozen bikes under his belt, he’s pretty much got it down.
“I can’t stay away from the Old School look and the reliability of this new Twin Cam era — push button fuel injection,” Alain said. “Not that I don’t have my share old S&S Super Bs and kick starters.”
Like so many bike builders, it all started with a friend. You know him; everybody’s got “a guy,” “a pal,” somebody who gets you into building bikes. For Alain it all started with “a buddy of mine I hadn’t seen in twenty years,” he said. “I pulled up to his folks’ house, he walked out and he fell in love with my Old School springer Shovel. Did he ask me to ride it? Yes, he did. Did I let him? No. I told him I’d build him one if one day he thought he’d want one in his toy box. It wasn’t two months later he’s calling me from Dallas, telling me he was doing some toy shopping at a local bike shop and asked what kind of bike would I consider doing Old School for him. I told him if they a had a worn Cross Bones on the floor to pick it up. That was a build I had envisioned for awhile, and he’d be pleased with what I’d do to it. A week later we had the bike in El Paso and I was fueling my passion; Old School ,flat back, dump-the-fender bobber, big bore sleeper.” And the rest, as we constantly say in this magazine, is history. For Psychobones, said Alain, “I started with a 2008 Harley-Davidson Softail Cross Bones. I disassembled it and re-bored the motor out to 103”, and put cams in it and basically just made a hotrod motor is what happened. It’s two cylinders, so it’s not difficult. I used to do cars years ago, and cars are difficult because you need a lot of room and a lot of tools, but motorcycles you can do in your kitchen if you wanted to, it’s that easy. The whole kit is a bolt-on.”
Next, Alain replaced the stock ducktail rear fender with a fatter, rounded one that Harley should have thrown on in the first place . “I bought the back fender and put on a Sparto taillight,” he said. “We redid the front end and put on Hollywood Handlebars because I wanted a bobber look, an Old School bobber look. I liked the Shovelhead I did a couple years ago [see it in Barnett’s Magazine Online: Alain Angelos’ 1975 FLH Bobber] and I liked that look so much I wanted to do it to a new model. Something a little more reliable. And what happened was a friend of mine had seen that bike on the Barnett’s website, and he showed it to a friend of his in Dallas, and the guy asked if I could build him something like that. So I built the Psychobones bike for him. He’s actually moving to Germany and he’s going to tour all of Germany on that bike. A lot of my customers are from Europe and come to the United States and pick their bikes up here, out of Houston. And I’ve sold two bikes just from Facebook.”
Alain is doing an entire series of black Cross Bones. “I’d have to say that H-D had a great idea when they introduced the Cross Bones,” he said. “It’s an almost factory-completed Old Schooler, but of course leave it up to us wild ones to finish it off with our thoughts, the ones H-D didn’t have.”
What’s up next for Alain? “I’ve got a lot more bikes lined up,” he said, “a 2011 Street Glide first bagger project, and another springer just waiting for someone to create that new shade of black.”
Up Close:Led Sled Customs Fender
One of the biggest complaints voiced both in person and online about some of the new offerings from Harley is the recycling of parts from previous models for use on newly designed or redesigned models. Normally that’s not a big whup as tradition and the recycling of updated older styles is what makes ownership of a Harley interesting with its link to the past, but the look of today styling. One recycled part that really touched a nerve was the ducktail rear fender Harley chose to graft on to their ode to things gone by, the fairly right-on-style springer Cross Bones. Somehow that flip-up tail just doesn’t cut it with all the other traditional simple curves. Luckily, this styling mishap is not a welded on piece and fairly easily replaced with end results that more than make up for the effort involved.
Alain Angelos felt the same way as many others, but instead of just griping about it or living with it, he simply removed it from the equation and replaced it with a piece from Led Sled Customs in Dayton, Ohio. Led Sled offers everything from builder blanks to almost bolt-on units that will make your Cross Bones look like it should have from Day One. With a choice of a full Traditional Cut, Cutaway, and Pointy styles, Led Sled’s got something for you at an extremely reasonable price. What’s even better is that they will make one in the proper size for your application with widths from 180mm to 300mm tires. Match it up with one of their many styles of front fenders and you’ll have a derision-free Cross Bones.
For more info, visit www.ledsledcustoms.com or call 937-879-4645.
Builder: Alain Angelos
Alain Angelos caught the Old School-style motorcycle bug early while growing up in his native France. The only thing that held him back was that he wasn’t old enough to ride one. By the time he was old enough to hop on a motorcycle of his own, he found himself on a different path. “When you’re a child growing up in Europe, America is everyone’s dream,” Alain said. “I was in the French Army, and during my last tour there was an earthquake in Mexico City in 1985. I was like nineteen and that was my ticket out of France. I stayed in Mexico City for about three years pulling people out of the rubble — kind of like 9/11 in New York City, but it was the whole city.” During that time he lived in San Miguel de Allende, which is right outside of Mexico City, and after the army he stayed on.
“I stayed there and did the whole artist thing,” said Alain. “I painted and painted, and then a friend who had a store in San Miguel de Allende also had one in Juarez, and I was doing a lot of work with him. I drove through El Paso a lot and here I am.”
Combining his creativity and love of Old School bikes with New School tech, he began building bikes about 24 motorcycles ago from parts he purchases from everywhere. As a professional commercial property adjuster, his job takes him across the US and as a perk, to a variety of donor bikes and parts. Although he’s had success as a builder and continues to sell his bikes regularly to clients around the world, he doesn’t want to turn pro.
“I call myself MotorPsychos, but I only build bikes for people as a hobby in my garage.” If you’re interested, you can contact Alain by email at motorpsychos@gmail.com.
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