Justin Del Prado of DP Customs doesn’t mind budget being used in association with his shop’s mantra of building cool bikes that are affordable. To him, budget just means using imagination, skill, and patience to make a kick-ass bike that will not only make its new owner thrilled, but keep Justin’s passion for building one-off bikes as his day job. If DP Customs or Justin seems familiar, that’s because this is his third bike Barnett’shas recently featured (see Issues #76 and #77) and all have sold immediately for less than $10Gs, sometimes quite a bit less. You’d have to surmise that “less than $10Gs” is within the budget of real people who want a non-cookie-cutter motorcycle.
Keeping within budget requires patience and Justin takes his sweet time to find a great deal on a good motorcycle to begin modifying like the’85 Ironhead Sportster donor used for this build. ”Other than being dirty and neglected for I don’t know how many years, it was in very nice shape, really unusual high quality, and the drivetrain performs like a bat out of hell,” said Justin. “Normally I don’t care much about anything as long as the numbers are correct, has a good title, and the drivetrain is sound. That bike made my life easy with only resealing and re-gasketing along with new hardware was necessary.”
The only real engine mods were a Justin-built header/exhaust system that snakes around each side of the engine and ends symmetrically under the engine. This had nothing to do with mass centralization as Justin just likes it that way. It’s pretty loud,” he said laughing. ”It sounds pretty cool with the velocity stack and the exhaust all happening right there.” The same “just likes it that way” rule applies to his engine’s finish. “I glass-beaded with a pretty aggressive media all the covers and stuff to give it more of a raw cast finish instead of being polished. I just like it that way,” said Justin. “I also radiused the sprocket cover to follow the same lines as the primary cover, but it’s subtle so you’d probably never catch it.”
After freshening the engine he moved on to the frame and tidied that up, including lopping off the section aft of the shock mounts. Justin welded on 16-guage oval plates and finished it off “so it looked like it came that way from Harley.” Bolting on rebuilt stock shocks and a 4”-lower Sporty fork, he was ready for wheels, but the stock Sportster mags wouldn’t do. “I got a set of CCI laced wheels, threw the tires on and called it a day,” he said. “I wish I had a 19” in the rear to match the front, something with a little more spoke to make it more symmetrical.” The stock brakes were refurbished and put right back where he found them.
Bodywork consists of a ’68 360 Benelli Mojave tank (Benelli sounds way more exotic than its identical American-twin, the Montgomery Ward Tornado) lightly modified to fit the Sporty frame. Justin finished it off with a DP Customs badge that he had cast and fits right in the stock Benelli (or Montgomery Ward if you’re keeping score) tank indentation. Justin’s cast badge is classy and a bit sassy on a budget bike and I like it that way.
The tail section is a bit unusual as it’s totally open underneath the hump back tail, not enclosed like you might expect at first glance. Kinda like a pretty fender that happens to be a tail section. “It’s made from 20-gauge sheetmetal. I don’t own an English wheel or a planishing hammer, but I have hammers and dollies along with makeshift back supports to cradle the metal over and panel-beating bags,” said Justin. A tidy little round taillight sits at the very end and lends it a period café look. Once more, Justin turned to his friend Manny Hurtardo at Bell Upholstery to sew up the diamond-stitch cover for the minimalist seat pad.
The attention-grabbing Grabber Blue with white stripes paintjob was shot in Justin’s shop. Not a paint booth, but his actual shop. “I had to cover stuff up with sheets and blankets and just sterilize the damn place. That’s the last paintjob I’m doing in there. It was ridiculous,” he said laughing. “Actually it turned out real nice.”
Like his two previous feature bikes, Grabber Blue Café was sold immediately after finishing for under $10Gs. Justin comfortably justifies it saying, “It’s as close to a new bike as you’re gonna get. The new owner, Francisco Pineda, shouldn’t have any headaches with this at all. And, it’s definitely a hell of a lot of fun to ride.” BM
Up Close:Chainsikle Rearsets
With more and more café style bikes being made using Harley’s venerable Sportster motor, finding a set of rearset foot controls is one of the stumbling blocks to properly finish off a build. Usually it involves an individual fabricating a set and that’s not as simple as it is on most metric bikes. Harley’s primary/clutch design has its own peculiar problems that have to be addressed and designed around for one thing.
Shane Sorensen of Chainsikle knew what you were thinking even before you thought about it and offers bolt-on rearset controls for Sportys that will make your life, well, it just makes things simple and that’s not a bad thing.
Justin Del Prado swears by Chainsikle products and said, “When I went looking for rearsets for my Grabber Blue Café, one of the forums suggested I check out a guy in Utah. I spoke to Chainsikle’s Shane Sorensen on the phone, told him what year bike I had, and he built a set for me. They work really well, they look great, and I’d say they’re just tight and crisp. I’m really pleased with Shane’s work. They’re not cheap-cheap, they’re around $250-ish. Actually, that’s not too bad, though. If I had to make these myself I’d be dicking around all day. Looking at it that way, I’d say I love ‘em.”
Chainsikle’s the perfect spot for hardcore Sportster fanatics as Shane is one of you. If he doesn’t have exactly what you want, he encourages customers to ask and he’ll work with you. Shane says, “We are motorheads who like to make parts and we guarantee your satisfaction.” Sounds like one-stop Sportster shopping to me.
Check out www.chainsikle.com for more info.
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