Bobbers
Don’t let the pink hair fool you — Chris Gibbany is no girly girl. When she came up with the design for her 1981 Harley Sportster, her goal was simple: “I wanted a really cool looking bike, something you didn’t see every day. I also wanted something that didn’t scream to the world ‘I am owned and ridden by a woman.'”
Chris came up with the design for her Billy Bike herself. “I had an idea in my head but had never seen a bike in any magazine or in person of exactly what I wanted,” she said.
The challenge (as in all relationships) was relaying the information to her husband, Gabe. Chris had to describe in detail exactly what she wanted, “without exactly knowing how to tell my husband what I wanted.” As Gabe said, “It was a lesson in communication”.
Apparently the lines of communication were working well, because Chris ended up with the bike she’d dreamed of. “It turned out to be exactly what I wanted,” she said. She loves the bike’s appearance most of all. “I love the way it looks from all angles. I just love how my ideas all came together, and that is really what building a nice-looking bike is all about — making it flow and all work together. Riding a hardtail is WAY more comfortable than I was led to believe it would be.”
“It rides like it looks: like a beast,” Chris said. She travels everywhere on it when the weather’s nice. “I’ll take it to town with a backpack on and get a few groceries,” she said. She likes the reactions she gets from people who see it. “For some reason no one expects me to get on the bike and ride off.”
The Billy Bike has gotten good reaction from judges, too. At the first show in which it debuted, it won Best of Show. In 2010 it took Best of Show/ People’s Choice awards at five different shows and rallies. It’s also won some first place trophies in the Sportster and Custom Sportster divisions, and an overall Best Custom trophy.
Chris and Gabe, owners of Boneyard Choppers in Harrison, Arkansas, have been married for seven years and have been building bikes together for almost four. Each bike is designed and assembled in secret, and no one sees them until the project is complete. “It’s more of hobby, but we usually have two or three for sale. Eventually we’d like to do this as full time business,” Chris said. They’re currently customizing a 1950 Panhead and a 1981 Sportster chopper. There’s a ’56 Panhead being built in their living room, and, as Chris said, “Who knows what else might come along this year? I am really wanting a Knuck!”
Not only does Chris ride and customize Hogs, but she rescues them too. She and Gabe run the only official hedgehog rescue in the state of Arkansas, sometimes driving hundreds of miles to save the little critters. “I once had a tattoo artist airbrush hedgehogs on the fuel tank of one of my bikes,” Chris said. Chris’ love of hedgehogs goes back 15 years, when she once traded a dog for one. Since then she’s nursed dozens of hedgehogs back to health, or saved them from divorcing couples and irresponsible children. She also breeds them. You can visit their website at: www.gothedgehogsbreedingandrescue.bravehost.com.
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