Take this lovely little Sporty that Barnett’s Magazine Online’s expert eye for the photo prize, Jack Cofano, shot at last year’s Smoke Out. It’s possibly one of Bill’s most conservative customs I’ve ever seen with nary a knobby tire in sight, but it’s shockingly striking in its cleanliness and simplicity. This is a perfect case of where the builder focused on the lines and didn’t see the need for tacked-on furbelows that would only diminish the sleek starkness. Obviously this is not some whacked-out showbike incorporating every last new trend, but a bike built for someone to ride the crap out on the street and be proud as hell of when they look at it at rest.
Yeah, it’s a rigid which limits it a bit for thousand mile jaunts, but there’s still a ton of fun to be had riding a rigid like the immediate response to whacking the throttle. That’s something that never grows old to me at least. A stripped-down and hotted-up Sporty sporting a set of rather bellicose pipes is a fun, fun motorcycle that makes you feel like just you and your motorcycle are the only things happening in the whole world at that moment. I guess this is my definition of a motorcycle where the motor dominates the experience and provides a soundtrack better than any 16-speaker bagger. Everything’s immediate, all your tactile senses are on full alert and nothing, absolutely nothing, else matters at that moment. Pure motorcycling bliss.
There’s just something about this bike that I like a lot more than I should and it’s some indefinable overall harmony. Maybe it’s just the lines, the stance and the set of pipes that give it the feeling like it’s about to move. Harley’s Sportster mags never ever looked this good to me and I’m not a white bike freak like Jack Cofano. Their use is cooler to me than a billion dollar billet wheel and their honesty just looks right. Yeah, they’re probably a bitch to keep clean, but what wheel isn’t? The way Bill coordinated the white paint panels on the fender and tank brings it all together and smoothes the potential starkness of big white wheels. The lack of chrome or show polishing is refreshing and doesn’t feel like it’s missing a damn bit of bling (Sorry Bill). There’s nothing deep going on here, but this is one fine Sporty I’d be glad to call my own. And ride.
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