A lot of what would now be old customs I saw when they new could look pretty damn good because there was nothing else to compare them to. In retrospect, there were a lot of hinky gas welds, thick globs of Bondo molded into and onto things, paintjobs that looked like their sale date was a few months at most in the future, dubious handling and mechanicals at best, and a bunch of other stuff that would never fly nowadays. Strange how all that crap really made them cool as they were fresh and new at the time. So building a retro bike is not easy for a lot of different reasons. But the number one reason in my book is that builders have just gotten too darn good.

 

  Take a look at our stunner of a feature bike built by Rhett Holley of Butch Chop in Dry Fork, Virginia, and guess if this is an old build or a new one? Yeah, you’re right, it’s a new one. Oh it’s a way more than decent homage to choppers of days gone by, it’s pretty damn close to perfect. But, it’s too nice to be an old build even though it was built Old School with lotsa hand work. Rhett knows his Old School, though. It’s built tight and tidy with just a touch of Indian Larry proportions coming thorough the build and that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

 

  Hard to believe this light blue, skinny-as-a-rail bar hopper started out as a rather portly 1975 Harley-Davidson FLH before Rhett got to tearing things apart. I’d feel pretty safe to venture to guess that the no-longer-usable pile was quite a bit larger than the keeper pile. This was one ex-bagger that was never going to see bags ever again unless they were under the eyes of the builder who spent many a long hour making this chopper time machine a reality. The contrast of the black barrels to all the chrome of the Shovelhead engine is a look that still works on every level. Black and chrome, hmmm. The split rocker boxes are kinda taken for granted today except by those that actually split them. It’s hard and sometimes tedious work for something that’s all about looks only. Actually, that’s not totally true as it’s about bragging rights too and if you’re capable of doing it successfully, why not?

 

   A big S&S Super E (or G) carb sucks big volumes of air and doesn’t give a sh*t whether it’s been filtered or not. And, it doesn’t even need a stinkin’ velocity stack to mix things up like the four famous lines in The Treasure of Sierra Madre, “Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre!” That thing just takes in the mix and it gets shoved out the twin straight-through headers that have just the right touch of gold the closer to the header flange you get to show this bike is a runner. The skinny open belt primary on the other side looks right and wrong at the same time depending on if you have strict Old School rules or just like what’s cool looking. I’m a very shallow person so I’ll go with cool looking anytime.

 

   Rhett couldn’t have done anything much better that I can see with his frame lines as the classic straight-shot top tube from the neck to the axle plate is briefly interrupted by the tiniest bit of the metal-sculptured peanut tank. Hey, it’s gotta sit somewhere and it looks pretty happy right where it is. The rear fender looks the part and that’s about the best thing I could say as sissy bars and handlebars were the calling card or signature of the builder or owner so I see Rhett’s pieces the same way. Just the right side of over the top. The chrome horseshoe oil tank looks right and the volume of additional chrome only accents what’s next door in the engine room. The old bikes were full of bling even when nobody knew what bling was.

 

    Wheel choice was probably not a brain teaser as laced wheels with chromed rims were the order of the day back when it was not timed digitally. The single brake, a modern disc setup, hiding in plain sight is in a nebulous area of Old School versus New School, but with a single stopper-only, make mine a disc please. I don’t know what brand the tires are, but they look like what they used to call Trials Universal style that came on some street scramblers. Universal to me usually means it doesn’t do anything particularly weel, but in this case they do look treadly good. The springer up front is not revolutionary, but it is perfectly correct. Chucking on some more chrome acreage adds to the party. The simple light blue paintjob was surprising at first glance as I sometimes expect retro bikes to have every technique there was back in the day. But, what it does is highlight the lines of the bike almost to the point it looks like a line drawing.

 

   This lovely Shovel is not only a looker, but a winner too. Last year at the growing-bigger-and-bigger-every-year Ray Price Motorsports Expo held in Raleigh, North Carolina, Rhett won the Invited Pro Builders’ Class against extremely stiff competition. That’s a lovely little accolade anyone can live with, but all you have to do is take a look at this bike and it’s a winner. And I still think it’s way too good for Old School and Rhett couldn’t build a bike any other way.

 

  For more info on Butcher Chop, check out their blogspot for contact info or visit Rhett’s Facebook page.