The name alone, Bullet-Proof Death Machine, tells this bike’s story in that proverbial nut shell. Built by Brad Gregory of Glenwood, Iowa, out of select pieces from Twisted Choppers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, used parts, great deal parts, and a lot of fabrication, it fits the Smoke Out bike category to a T. Part of that honestly fitting the Smoke Out M.O. mandates it not to be a trailer queen, but a machine that actually gets ridden in anger and just for the hell fun of riding. You know, motorcycle riding.

 

    Brad began with an idea of building a vintage bike/board tracker/Bonneville racer/dirt bike-style design ─ actually he didn’t, I just made that up. But there is a bit of a free-for-all going on that makes Brad’s bike his own and he wouldn’t have it any other way either. I could categorize Smoke Out bikes as also being built around their motor just like they did back in the oftentimes called good old days and I see Brad’s bike as being no different. A wicked smart choice of a 1999 Buell X1 Lightning engine makes for a reliable, compact engine/ tranny package to build around with roughly 90hp and 80ft-lbs of torque straight out of the box. That’s way more than enough to push this relatively light custom around with some serious aplomb. I’ll assume the change from the stocker’s EFI to a Mikuni HSR 42 carb and those nasty lad header-wrapped Twisted Choppers pipes doesn’t lose anything in the translation and maybe even picks up a few horses along the way. And push it Brad does, but more on that later.

 

  The long and low rigid frame sports a short Twisted Choppers Mid springer fork with a set of clip-on handlebars mounted low and wide under the top triple tree. There’s nothing much on the bars other than what I think is hockey tape wrapped around the Exile Cycles internal throttle and more tape on the bare clip-on on the left side. The rear-only Wilwood brake and a foot clutch/hand shifter setup empty a bar faster than a police siren.

 

   Sitting between the chromoly springer’s legs and also between the rear axle adjusters is what I’d have to logically assume is a smart repurposing of a good deal on used Harley-Davidson ThunderStar wheels. I didn’t recognize them at first in their matte gray livery as I’ve only seen them in dashing MotorCo chrome. Didn’t take much to take the stock out of them, but it took a good eye to do it in the first place. You know, that imagination thing. An unusual, but brilliant (in my opinion) choice of Metzeler Enduro 3 Sahara tires featuring an adventure bike aggressive block tread adds some spice to the mix while looking ready for anything including Armageddon. By the way, Brad got 4,700 miles out of his first set and while that may be decent mileage for the tires, it shows he’s riding the living piss out of this bike he’s had for over a couple of years now. Gotta give the boy credit for his many long road trips Brad’s taken this bike on whether it’s off to Sturgis or just a throttle-banging road trip. I should add he rides it fast too. Maybe that’s where the “Death Machine” part comes jokingly in.

 

    I don’t know exactly where Twisted Choppers and Brad co-mingled on things like the bodywork or the fenders, but let’s just give then both credit and call it a draw. All I know is the end result is done very well and many TC parts were used in the process. One thing that shows Brad takes his seat time seriously is the Twisted Choppers single shock seat with a Leatherwork by Lemme tooled-leather cover. A seat shock is the only way to go on a rigid and actually makes it pretty damn tolerable even for an old guy like me with a rearranged skeleton from bad motorcycle decisions. For a kid like Brad, it’s gotta be like sitting on a couch. Well maybe not a couch, but you get the idea.

 

   Last, but not least, the paint work is an eye grabber in its own extremely subtle way. At first it reminded me of those de-saturated photos where they look like a black and white photo but with a flash of bright color for no particular reason other than the crazy juxtaposition of tones that ensues. In this case, there’s the shock of the red bandana wrapped around the springer and the dash of red on the seat shock’s spring. Throw in the mild gas-induced gold tint of the exposed fuel lines of the gas gauge and the carb feed and that’s all she wrote. The rest is flat phantom metallic gray shot by John Gregory who I’m gonna take a leap of faith and declare him some sort of relative to Brad (brother, cousin, dad, grandpa, uncle, whatever, he’s gotta be related so I’m sticking with that even though I’m guessing). Possibly the best part of the paintwork is the bold ass graphics on the tank declaring this to be a Bullet-Proof Death Machine. Just what a family sitting in their SUV at a red light wants to see pull up next to them. Obviously Brad’s in touch with not only his masculine side, but his in-your-face sense of humor as well. Love it.

 

   And pulling up to a family in an SUV at a stoplight has probably happened at lot as, like I said, Brad rides the pee out of this bike. Whether it’s loaded down with camping gear for Sturgis or the Smoke Out or just on a high-speed weekend run, he puts more miles on it a year than the national average. This is no trailer queen and definitely not strictly a bar hopper by any means. Brad’s having a blast riding a bike he built exactly the way he wants to ─ hard and fast. He’s got his motorcycling mojo down to a science and he’s enjoying every minute of it from construction to cruising over the speed limit on a Bullet-Proof Death Machine. It doesn’t get much better than that.  

 

   For more info on Twisted Choppers and their extensive line of reasonably-priced and well-built custom parts, click on https://twistedchoppers.com/.