On the other hand, “idea bikes” are a different story. Taking a simple idea and using it to enhance the look of a bike instead of smothering it with an overdone theme is A-okay to this dude. New River, Arizona’s DP Customs’ Gulf Bike is a perfect example of this genre with Gulf’s racing colors as inspiration and not a corporate-paid excuse to put oil cans, grease guns, gas pumps, and whatever else was lying around a Gulf station. Matter of fact, this is not an ode to the Gulf Corporation, but to the undisputed King of Cool, Steve McQueen, and his role as Porsche 917 pilot Michael Delaney in the epic racing movie Le Mans. “Both my brother Jarrod and I are Steve McQueen fans and loved Le Mans. I always thought it would be a cool idea to do a bike that mimics his Gulf racing suit color scheme versus the Gulf-liveried Porsche 917 that everybody always does. I thought it would look clean and just pop with the bright white tank and having the racing stripes on it versus the baby blue base color of the 917,” said Justin Del Prado, co-owner of DP Customs along with brother Jarrod. “We brought a Gulf racing suit to a Sherwin-Williams dealer and picked out the colors by eye. When it was painted, we could hold the suit next to it and it was an exact match which was pretty cool.”

Starting with a ’79 Ironhead Sportster, Justin said, “It was a good running, but disenchantingly-dirty daily rider that pulled really hard.” Yanking the engine and inspecting it for wear, Justin found it in great shape and only had to replace seals and gaskets to make it an oil-tight runner ready for the road after a carb swap. As far as “disenchantingly-dirty” Justin said,” I’m the kind of guy, I’ve got Q-tips for the really fine stuff, where you could turn the engine upside down and you could eat off any little nook or cranny when I get done.” All that was left engine-wise was to fab up a set of cool pipes. “That’s pretty much my favorite part of building a bike,” he said. The header-wrapped exhaust culminates in a pair of VHT-painted white tips that Justin said was “good to 2000-degrees and holds up really well.”

First up, after freshening the engine was whacking off the back of the stock frame and welding on a hardtail from Old-STF Cycle Shop in Yuba City, California. “The kit does a cool trick by stretching the total length by about 4” and drops it by a hair over 4” so it gets the profile down. I’ve used other hardtails, but these guys [Old-STF] are good with top notch service and they’re great to deal with,” said Justin. The rest of the frame retains its good handling stock geometry, but did require 4” removed from the stock Sporty fork tubes for the battle-ready stance.

Building on a strict budget meant rolling stock would be a billet-free affair and that turned out to be a good thing. “We try to do bikes at a reasonable price and we have to find a balance before we start going over budget. Powdercoating the wheels was something I was on the fence about budget-wise, but my buddy, Brian Duffee, said, ‘You’ve gotta do it!’” said Justin. “Doing the rims orange just gave it the extra little taste it needed. I owe Brian big time.”

A simple peanut tank sitting perfectly only illustrates why these units are always so popular especially in the striking Justin-painted Gulf livery. When a shape’s right, it never gets old or tiring. Possibly polarizing, but incredibly cool in my opinion, is Justin’s take on the 917’s rear spoiler that was inspired by the late-great American Grand Prix/sports car racer Richie Ginther’s innovative design on his Ferrari Dino back in 1961. “I wanted that flare, that edge. I just kept repositioning the fender more and more forward. The more I did that, the more I liked it,” said Justin. “I think it turned out pretty cool.”

Originally built as his personal rider, the Gulf Bike, like the café racer he also built for himself featured in the last Barnett’s Magazine (#76), ended up for sale. “I can never seem to hang onto them as more shop tools take precedence over having fun. We needed a bandsaw, so damn, I had to sell the bike,” said Justin. “David Hill [the new owner] called me and said, ‘Hey, I just saw your bike for sale, do you still have it?’ He drove down from Colorado the very next morning and snatched it up.”

All’s well that ends well as David is thrilled with his bike and told me, “Justin did a wonderful job on the bike. It’s outrageous and pretty neat.” In the meantime, Justin is busy building another personal rider and hopefully we’ll get to feature it before it’s sold to buy more shop equipment.