Holy City Designs’ Robbie Closson is responsible for both bikes and that’s something to be damn proud about. The Nonpareil Knucklehead was a delight to look at with all its spindliness and line-drawing aesthetic that Robbie cleverly kept from becoming a cartoon of a vintage board tracker/bobber just by being honest with itself. Put simply, he let the clean and sparse lines speak for themselves without the need for white rubber tires, radically dropped handlebars or something else to make sure and remind you of its board track make believe heritage. It just looked damn good like a cool custom bobber should.

 

   What we’ve got here is a most interesting variant of that same style but with a lot more budget and roadworthiness built in for what has to be an attractive price (I’m guessing). The Knuck and its separate tranny are even more compactly replaced by a unitized Sportster engine. The Harley XL engine may not be in the same nostalgically-pretty league as the Knucklehead, but it is modern, reliable, cheap, and most importantly, still makes the right sound. Bring a Knucklehead to a mechanic and maybe, just maybe, you might find someone who actually knows what they’re doing. Bring a Sportster engine to a mechanic and you’ll probably just have to ask when to pick it up and how much to bring.

 

  The Sporty frame is a bit different especially in the engine cradle, lack of a seat tube (which allows space for a more comfy shock-sprung saddle), and a single downtube compared to the wishbone-style downtubes of the Knuck with its seat tube interjecting itself between the engine and transmission. I also like the brakes now both on the same side of the bike because of the Sportsters right-side drive sprocket brake. Why exactly? I don’t know, but I do. Both have springer front ends, but the Sporty called Hood Rat trades the shocking bling of chrome for striking subtlety of bright color. Matter of fact, you could take that as an example of their approach to be the complete opposite of each other within the same basic design blue print. One for show and one for Holy City apprentice, Tommy Grady, to call his own.

 

   There are a couple of very definite differences on Hood Rat like the lack of a rear fender, the taller and comfier looking bars, and the different style tank. Nothing breaking all the rules, just owner preferences I’d venture. I prefer the Hood Rat higher bars and the sculpted rounder tank for purely personal reasons and as much as I like the look of no fenders, I’d prefer one out back for purely human reasons.

 

  I went out on an editorial limb yesterday on Nonpareil Knucklehead and after saying many nice things about it, I questioned the use of Mystic Chameleon paint. I did say I hated it basically everywhere else I’ve ever seen it but on Nonpareil Knucklehead and I stand by that. I do prefer the electrifying blue monochromatic paintjob (powdercoat?) reminiscent of Ford’s Grabber Blue as it outlines the whole project from one end to the other with areas of black in the wheels, engine, headlight, and fork springs for contrast. Simple, definitive, and monochromatically flashy.

 

   So who’s the winner? They’re both winners in their own way. One’s for show and one’s for go. I’m not much of a show guy, but I do like to think of myself as a go guy so I’ll take the lovely blue Hood Rat in a heartbeat, hit the starter button, and beat it out of town first chance I got. Voting with my thumb ─ what a country.  

 

For more information on Robbie Closson’s Holy City Designs, please click on http://www.holycitydesigns.com/.