The 69 Chopper featured here that Señor Cofano shot at the Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show in Daytona is a prime example of what Darwin’s up to. It’s an ode to those simple and subtle chops of yesteryear based on a nickel-plated Racing Innovations’ Softail-style frame with geometry that makes for a fun to ride bike. More than ample power for the stripped-for-duty weight via the...

  Actually, I think they would have been popular characters in any town as speaking with Bubba is just a blast. Here’s a guy who just loves building motorcycles and especially building motorcycles his way at his shop called Hayseed Cycles. He’s a guy who takes himself seriously but with a seriously great sense of humor. I’d love to have a beer with him, but I wouldn’t want to cross...

  Armed with a giant piece of cardboard, Greg drew a full-size rendition of the bike he had in mind. “We’ve got the CAD/CAM [computer software for 3-D designing] but it’s actually faster to visualize it full-scale,” he said. Comfort was important in this build, so Greg lengthened the stock aluminum swingarm by two inches to give himself the wriggle room for mounting a single shock...

Fabricator Kevin (formerly known as Kevin Verkest) has been specializing in building parts at his shop, Fabricator Kevin’s Steel Chopper Parts in Clinton Township, Michigan, for the home builder who’s not just bolting on some chrome thingie on his Road King. His expertise in CAD and CNC plasma and laser cutting along with an artist’s eye has provided not only great parts, but...

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of custom Panheads, some really nice and some where the owners should be arrested for crimes against motorcycle humanity. But, if I had to describe what I thought was a perfectly clean and rideable Pan, Chris Wade’s extremely tasteful 1953 FL custom could illustrate my thoughts in a nutshell. This is a bike that isn’t trying to be something other than...

  “Normally that’s where the story would end, but this bike had an unexpected experience a bit like, but not the same as the unfortunately destroyed bike I originally inquired about. “The bike was rear ended about eight months after it was finished,” said Erik. “We ended up replacing the rear wheel, the rear fender and made struts instead of a new sissy bar, and also the...

  Erik actually is a young man in this custom bike scheme of things, but that doesn’t mean he’s a newbie who’s hacking and whacking away until he hopefully gets it right. Far from it. As a wee lad growing up central California, Erik’s design concepts were influenced from hanging around friends and family that were involved in the low rider and custom car cultures. Knowing from a...

  Tim teamed up with a buddy of his Scott Schneck, owner of Schneck’s Hog Farm in Grantville, Pennsylvania, over a winter to make a (well here’s where it gets interesting without trying to get insulting) rat bike, beater, tough guy, or whatever the hell you want to call it that is a practical get on it and go rider. It ain’t trying to be purty, but it has its own beauty. It’s...

  Perry is unusually tall for a racing driver, so we decided to stretch the hard tail beyond the normal 4″ to 6″. A longer stretch in tandem with our DPC clip-ons mounted low would give his long arms the reach that he needed. He also wanted a scuba-style oil tank, so we modified the dual down tubes below the seat into a single tube, and bent in the upper hard-tail tubes...

Jon Shipley of Hoosier Daddy Choppers in Bloomfield, Indiana, gets the trophy for the incorporating the thing we all struggle to sit on, stay on, try to look cool on, and, most importantly, not fall off of ― the bar stool. Not only is this ingenious, but he took it a step further and deliciously made it out of wood with a nice ring of upholstery tacks holding the Old No 7 Brand...