Modified Stockers
Peter told me, “I appreciated very much that he would do all this work for me, but I decided no, no, this is not for me because I’m not a mechanic and I cannot fix it. I just wanted something simple and rideable.” In fact, according to Peter, he had to put up quite a fight against his friend’s generous intentions to turn his straightforward build into a world-class show bike. As such, Peter said he doesn’t feel that it is fair to represent this bike as the work of a master fabricator who had his creative hands securely tied behind his back, and he requested that we keep the builder’s name anonymous-ish. I had to chuckle, because if you are familiar with his work, then you probably know who we are talking about just by looking at the bike…and if you don’t, then we’ll just leave it at that.
Peter originally bought the ’87 Softail in good running condition. The carb, air cleaner, and ignition all got traded out for upgrades, but he opted to just keep the Evo engine stock so that it would be easy to repair if necessary. Well, stock that is except for the bottle cap opener, which was added to the timing cover by Peter’s pal, Jake Smith (formerly of Exile Cycles, now Ultra Violence). Peter doesn’t like chrome, so they swapped the exhaust for a straight pipe with baffles.
The Softail pilfered its fender from a Sportster, and its headlight was abducted from a ’52 Hudson. When it came to the frame, Peter broke with hardcore tradition and made a concession to comfort, “I have four other bikes and all of them are rigid frames, but I’m almost 50-years-old now, and when you get older it’s not so easy on your body, so I decided to choose the modern technology of the Softail. I cannot have a 1945 Knucklehead bike because they don’t handle well, so I said I wanted to have the modern technology so I don’t have to worry about it. I also love the way a springer front-end looks. That’s pretty much a signature look for the Japanese-style of bike building.”
Peter is also a fan of British cafe racers, and so he chose the custom-built mirror and tucked-in bars, with a riser from ChopperHead Tim, to conjure images of “doing the ton” back in Jolly Old. The $5 brake-fluid reservoir was “custom made” too. In the classic Japanese-build style, an Avon 16” balloon tire was selected for both the front and back, lovingly embracing spoked wheels. The original front brake came off of a Kawasaki 250, but the bracket broke twice and Peter’s friend Jake Smith recommended switching to a setup confiscated from a Derbi DXR quad, which seems to have fit the bill quite nicely.
To maintain the flow of the bike, a tough choice was made to go with a slender 1.9-gallon Paughco tank rather than the standard 3-gallon. It was Peter himself who came up with the idea to add on a “reserve” fuel container. Depending upon whom you ask, it looks like a NOS kit, soup thermos, or jumbo whiskey flask, but few guess at its real purpose. Peter even had his friend, Pascal Cooper, craft a handsomely-appointed fuel thermos holder with fish scales to match the motif of the seat, which is also Cooper’s handiwork, following Peter’s direction for a design featuring cherry blossoms and a Koi fish swimming in from the corner.
Sometimes less is more, and in the end, Peter Tran accomplished his goal, which was to acquire a vintage-style custom with style and swagger that is still easily rideable and serviceable. That is with a little help from his friends, including one extremely talented and somewhat frustrated fella whose work has graced these pages on numerous other occasions. If you still haven’t guessed, Peter gave me permission to offer one last hint. His initials are…S.K. and that’s all I’ve got to say.
Up Close: Emergency Fuel
As I trolled through a small ocean of bikes parked at a swap meet, the silver canister lovingly ensconced in embossed leather just beneath the seat of Peter Tran’s Softail leaped out at me like a grasshopper on fire. Aesthetically it added a unique element of the unexpected, and upon further inspection revealed a functionality that made me wonder why I hadn’t seen these fuel containers on a street bike before.
Let’s face it, the puny thimble full of reserve fuel left in a tank is usually only good to get you to the next gas station in an urban environment. If you screw up and forget to return the petcock, or find yourself more than a few miles away from the nearest petrol, that’s when the creative curse words really start to flow.
Available in a wide variety of sizes, hardened-aluminum fuel containers with leak-proof caps and epoxy-coated liners are a simple and cheap antidote to the “done run out” blues. Available online, and at most camping supply stores, they are designed primarily to hold kerosene for camping stoves, but all of the ones I researched claim to be compatible with any liquid fuel. The manufacturers generally recommend that you leave a couple of inches of air at the top to allow for possible expansion, but otherwise no undue precautions need to be taken.
Of course these containers can be conveniently chucked in a saddlebag, handlebar roll, or backpack. By incorporating it into the design of the bike and embellishing it with the custom-made leather holder, Peter Tran really celebrated it as an integral component of his steed.
Here’s a web site (www.trailspace.com/gear/stoves/fuel/) where you can get one for $10-$19 and save yourself a lot of potential grief.
Builder: Peter Tran
Peter Tran was born and raised in Vietnam where riding scooters and small-displacement motorcycles was as natural as riding bicycles here in the States. Where Peter comes from, two-wheel vehicles rule the road, entire families pile onto scooters small enough for Paul Teutul to pick his teeth with, and children learn the rhythms of counter-steering and lean angle almost from birth. So it was only natural that growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, he would become captivated by the American outlaw biker scene, and the icons that it spawned.
“Like everyone in Asia, I grew up in love with American culture. You wanted to be a rebel; you wanted to be a bad ass. The first motorcycle movie that I remember was The Wild One with Marlon Brando, and I told myself back then that this is what I want.” Even now he cites Zero Engineering, Cole Foster, Trevelen, Billy Lane, and Jason Wilson as some of his favorite builders. “I really like their very traditional style,” says Peter.
Around 1980, Peter finally realized his dream of coming to America from Vietnam. He soon acquired a pair of scoots including a 1952 custom Triumph Thunderbird that he still has to this day. Today, Peter lives in West Covina, California, and has four vintage-style bikes in his garage. He claims that he rides all of them on a weekly basis. I’ll vouch for that fact, as it was in the parking lot of a local swap meet where I first spotted his ’87 Softail and left my business card as a sign of admiration. Thirty years after following his fascination with classic Americana from Vietnam to this country, Peter Tran can still be found fishing for more mementos of his childhood dreams.
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