Bill built wicked cool bobbers which had not really come into their own yet and he put real knobby tires on the damn things. How cool was that? Epic at the time when everything was polished this and show chrome that and who had the fattest rear tire was as important as who has the tallest front tire today. He didn’t give a damn about what was trendy and just built what was going around in his head after his move to the East Coast. Talk about a life change, he could have written a guide book on the subject.

 

  So obviously I’m a big fan of his work and not yet to the point of having to have some sort of court-ordered restraint although I think he might not need to go to court to keep over-zealous fans away. He’s his own guy and his bikes show it one after another. They’re all different in their own way, but have an aesthetic about them that lets you know it’s a Dodge-built bike.

 

   Barnett’s Magazine Online’s guy-with-the-eye, photo journalist extraordinaire, and a hell of a good time anytime, smilin’ Jack Cofano, shot this Bling’s Cycles Harley Shovelhead a couple of years ago at Smoke Out 14 and it’s been sitting in our Picasa site waiting for its day in the sun. To me it’s kind of a melding of ‘60s psychedelic to a bit of Steampunk with the early Industrial Age thrown in to fill up any dead spots.

 

   Besides the Timothy Leary-inspired paintwork which you couldn’t miss except if you were Timothy Leary, there’s just a whole funkscape going on with clean and smart, but not overdone mechanicals that you wouldn’t be afraid to get out on the road and ride. The silhouette and stance look fun and tough at eh same time. It appears there’s suspension front and rear, but what there is is not much. The front tire sits close to the fork before you even sit on it and after that, there can’t be much left until the downtube or the tire screams “Contact!” But I got a feeling there’s a bit of suspension (probably most) in the tall sidewalls of both lovably classic tires.

 

   No sense being picky about suspension and stuff on a bike obviously made to hoon around on. What there is is probably just right for riding around town without the need to make concessions for a trans-state bomber. There’s my justification too for the brakeless front end although if I had to make a choice between suspension and brakes, I would chose those stopping things as they’ve kept me out of trouble way more than once. But hey, it’s not my bike so I’m going with what we’ve got and reveling in it for its damn fine eclectic looks.  

 

   There’s a lot more to appreciate about a Dodge-build and sometimes it’s the big Bill things and sometimes just the little Dodge ditties. Take that wild angled fender that’s like a spoiler gone wild. You gotta be sure of what you’re doing to mount it like that, but I really like the six, perfectly lined-up brass wing nuts that hold it on. Or the twin frame-mounted quarters just under the lovely tooled leather ‘Bling’s Cycle’ seat. Or the somewhat fearless use of twin fat bob tanks (are those billet dirt bike gas caps?) without the cover-up of a dash of some sort. You can look into the tin work crevice and somehow it doesn’t look like it’s missing a dash ─ that’s just the way it should look as Bill sees it.

 

   The BMX pedal pegs still pedal and I guess you could say the foot position has 360-degrees of adjustment. You can’t miss the oil tank with its end cap viewing ports or the sensible front-mounted spin-on oil filter with enough added hose to bring up the capacity close to a quart by my unscientific guess. And hell, who can miss those fishtail of all fishtails? Man they are just beautiful the way the move over the bike until the sing out at the end in a smooth blend of curves instead of the usual fishtail flatness. I bet these even sound good too. Oh, in another bit of disclosure, I usually hate fishtails except vintage bikes they came stock on.

 

    In a time of big wheel baggers, this Bill Dodge bike might seem a bit out of it to the fans of custom touring bikes that can no longer tour if their lives depended on it. This bit of funky mechanical madness sure looks like a machine that you’d have to master to enjoy and that’s a spirit that’s missing from big wheel baggers. This is a motorcycle and not a giant barge with more audio equipment than all the home and car audio I’ve owned put together in one lump. The bike speaks to me, not the audio system and that’s what I love and always will love about getting out there and hooliganing it up every chance I get.

 

  For more information about Bling’s Cycles, click on http://blingscycles.com/. Unfortunately Bill’s site is a bit out of date (to say the least) so check out his Facebook page for the latest and greatest.