Ol’ 48 as Ron calls this bike is quite a contraption and I say that with the upmost respect for Ron, his shop, and the many awards he’s won and will win although it’ll probably never be taken that way. Contraption in that he didn’t take the simple “Let’s build a board tracker by using the same size skinny wheels front and rear and a droopy handlebar and call it a day.” Nope, this baby’s got a lot of thought, hard work, and time wrapped up in trying to make something different in every aspect for Ron and in turn, Waterford, Michigan’s pride and joy, Chop Doc’s Choppers.  

 

  Yeah, there are skinny, same size wheels like anything calling itself a board tracker has to have, but Ron picked a unique pair that give this bike a very modern edge along with a bit of glamour from the design concept to the glitzy, but cool finish. It doesn’t hurt that they’re showcased in such a important piece of the design, Ron’s gem of a frame. Just check out pieces like the front tri-tube motor mount detail or the unusual, but extremely clean center stand or the convergence of curvaceous tubes all running thorough each other in the seat mount area. Every mount, every piece, every tube, every everything looks like it just couldn’t have been done cleaner or prettier.

 

   Not only is the frame a work of art, but you might have noticed that gorgeous girder fork that couldn’t look like a simpler, straightforward piece if you tried. Most girders end up beefy and butch and that’s okay for most builds, but it would never do for this one. Does it work? I don’t know. Does it look good? Absolutely! Probably doesn’t hurt that it’s balanced beautifully by that extremely attractive giant headlight that looks like it might have had a twin sitting beside it on some 1920s automobile. Ron fabbed up a set of handlebars that do nothing but look board track-correct while comfortably sprouting from the front end like an errant seed dropped in good soil.

 

   Where Ron did get a little loopy in a good way was in the engine. Oh I know you knew wild stuff was just going on there, but I’ll dish on what I can. Of all the things you wouldn’t expect, a Twin Cam as a base was probably it. To really, really oversimplify it, it’s a 95-inch Pan/Twin Cam with two front cylinder heads and a Panhead top end. Throw in a pair of XR 750-inspired carbs on one-off manifolds, an always butch magneto, a neat set of “Exit ─ Stage Left” 2-into-1 header-wrapped pipes, and the pièce de résistance, the straight outta a Hemi ‘cuda cool, Hurst pistol grip shifter incorporating it’s own clutch lever to keep the bars clean as a whistle.

 

   With all this wild stuff going on from one end of the bike to the other, Ron kept his cool and laid on a lovely, stark white finish that balances nicely with the copper accents. It would be hard for most people to not try and come up with a more needlessly complicated paintjob and graphics, but Ron let his lines speak for themselves. And they do from any angle, quietly, but forcefully. Forcefully enough for Ron to win the freestyle class at the Ultimate Builder Show in Detroit (actually Novi, Michigan, but who’s counting?) and the People’s Choice award at the Artistry in Iron Show in Vegas to name just a couple.

   Personally, I think this build really shows Ron’s continuing growth artistically and imaginatively with an even bigger step in top flight quality that puts his shop in the rarified atmosphere where the top builders seem to dwell. For more info on Chop Doc’s Choppers, check out http://www.chopdocschoppers.com/.