With a hunger for speed, Graves Customs specializes in anything with wheels and a motor. Maximizing the shop’s exposure with multiple features in a variety of custom magazines with a style designed to impress and awe, Graves isn’t afraid to build bikes that blend voluptuous curves, big-inch motors, and loads of flashy metal. Current trends suggest future finishes and frame geometry will become subtle, muted, and less exaggerated, but Graves continues to win awards and critical acclaim with aesthetics that scream at the judges without the possibility of being ignored.
The owner of this bike, Steve Allen, had seen a number of Graves Customs’ work and decided that style of bike was exactly what he wanted, with his own personal touches, of course. Mixing 1930s ostentatious gangster-flavor with a base design heavily influenced by the shop, Steve desired a powerful ride with an emphasis on looks. After a lengthy conversation between Graves and Allen regarding the options for the machine, Allen was excited to learn he only had six months to wait before he could swing a leg over his future bike.
Building a bike on TV and building a bike in the real world are two different realities — nothing ever happens in ten days without months of previous planning — building a bike in six months is a reasonable time period as the Graves shop had plenty of work ahead of them in order to deliver on time. Using a proven Graves/Brighton Chassis rigid frame with a single-downtube stretched up 6” and out 3” with 45-degrees of rake provided an ideal foundation for the motorcycle. Metal Motorsports designed and machined a set of billet wheels with a three-spoke, three-dimensional shape, with an 18×10.5” rim wrapped in a Metzeler 300mm tire in the rear and a 21×2.25” rim for the front. A Redneck Engineering New Skool springer front-end with 14” of additional length was bolted to the steering neck and the front wheel to line up the frame’s bottom rails parallel with the ground.
A flashy appearance with rock star aspirations requires a motor that looks like it was carved from precious metal with an outrageous number of horses to match. Graves called on R&R Cycle, Inc. for a polished, billet aluminum block of beauty measuring in at big 127”. R&R’s impressive numbers don’t stop there; a pair of 43/8” forged aluminum slugs travel 4 1/4” to create 11:1 compression, 163 foot-pounds of torque and 168-horsepower. Imagine how fast this bike must be with almost three times the power of a stock Harley and without the use of nitrous, a turbo, or a supercharger. Aiding the efficiency of the motor is a Nology mini-coil nestled under the seat with a Crane Hi-4 ignition, an S&S G carburetor, a Thunder Cycle Design velocity stack intake, and a custom fabbed 2-into-1 exhaust pipe with curves that match the frame’s downtube. A bright and shiny BDL open-belt primary with an oil filter mount built into the backing plate transmits power from the motor to the TrikShift RSD, 6-speed transmission.
Never mistaken for stock was the plan for LymeTyme from the start, and the Brighton/Graves frame was superbly suited to support swooping sheetmetal in the shape of an S from the top of the tank to the tip of the rear axle. A slight horizontal line in the base of the gas tank is the only indication that the sheetmetal isn’t a single piece. The gas tank’s filler cap marks the apex of the bike, mounted as high as possible on the frame’s curved backbone, sloping down to the seat area and hidden oil bag built into the rear fender. Once the sheetmetal and frame were molded and the rear leg of the front-end and handlebars were prepped, they were painted LimeTime candy metal flake as a base color under purple flames by Seth Paton. Before the clearcoat was applied, Sonny DePalma airbrushed murals of 1930s-style gangsters on the back of the tank and the fender.
Bling means expensive, expensive usually means high-quality, and every part bolted to this bike is high-quality making LymeTyme the definition of bling. PM front brakes along with PM hand and foot controls were secured to the chassis with Graves’ designed and custom machined grips and pegs. DOT rated lighting isn’t gangster at all, so only the essentials were used on this bike, a 4 1/2” Headwinds headlight and a permanently mounted Graves Custom taillight/license plate frame. The left rear wheel side is left uncluttered by using a dual purpose Exile sprotor, then the seat area was topped by a purple crushed velour seat made by Jeffrey Phipps Custom Saddles.
Delivered in true Graves Custom Cycles fashion, LymeTyme was everything Steve Allen had expected, an unabashed custom ready to handle the attention this level of craftsmanship deserves. As promised, it only took six months to separate Steve’s bike from his friends. LymeTyme instantly guaranteed he’d have a unique bike and the fastest one in the pack.
Builder: Jerry Graves
Graves Custom Cycles
As a child in the 1970s running around his grandfather’s machine shop, Jerry Graves found he was mechanically inclined early in life, modifying anything with a motor that he could get his hands on. His dad was a biker, so naturally his first serious project was chopping his own bike when he was 16. Three years of practice re-inventing his bike led to an ambitious, full-blown custom build at the tender age of 19. After building the custom, his father’s friends began letting him work on their bikes, which directed him to lend his services to a local shop for about three years. With confidence built-up from talent and years of experience, it was time to take the next big step in the evolution of a bike builder. No one was surprised when he finally opened a motorcycle shop; Graves Custom Cycles was born in 2002.
While Graves Custom Cycles has a steady stream of loyal customers who keep him more than busy, and a slew of awards to prove his style is appreciated, he still hungers for more. Satisfied by the adrenaline surge that comes from riding extremely fast American V-twins at drag strips all over the South, he tries to make it to the track as often as possible with a top-fuel bike currently running 8.20 seconds in the 1/4-mile. If you like to walk on the wild side, contact Jerry at www.gravescustomcycles.com or call 561-364-2453.
This bike feature originally appeared in Barnett’s Magazine issue #55, May-June 2007.
SPECIFICATIONS: | |
---|---|
Owner: | Steve Allen |
Year / Make: | 2007 LymeTyme |
Fabrication/ Assembly: | Graves Custom Cycles |
Engine: | 2007 127″ R&R |
Ignition: | Crane HI-4 |
Coils: | Nology |
Carb: | S&S G |
Pipes: | Graves 2-into-1 |
Air Cleaner: | V-Stack |
Transmission: | TrikShift 6-speed |
Primary: | 3″ BDL open drive |
Clutch: | BDL |
Frame: | Graves/Brighton |
Rake/ Stretch: | 45-degrees/ 6″ up and 3″ out |
Forks: | Graves/ Redneck |
Wheels: | Metal Motor Sports |
Front Tire: | 80/90×21 Metzeler |
Rear Tire: | 300/35×18 Metzeler |
Front Brakes: | PM |
Rear Brakes: | Exile Sprotor |
Fuel/ Oil Tank: | GCC |
Fenders: | GCC |
Handlebars: | GCC |
Headlight: | Headwinds |
Taillight: | GCC |
Controls: | PM Contour |
Painter: | Seth Paton |
Color: | House of Kolor LimeTime |
Graphics: | Sonny DePalma |
Seat: | Jeffrey Phipps Custom Saddles |