I remember the good old days cruising the boulevard in my parents’ Corvair. Don’t laugh; I could smoke any one of those bad boys in the winter on snowy roads with my rear engine. Funny thing, it wasn’t one of the new muscle cars that held the title of badest of the bunch, it was a black-primed 1954 Chevy that didn’t look like anything special until you noticed the cut- out headers peeking out the side and popped the hood and checked out the engine and tranny. It’s what we called a “sleeper” and that’s exactly what Jason Serratt’s Buell Lightning would be called today.
In keeping with the sleeper tradition, at first glance you may only notice the Buell fairing. Jason wanted something to get down behind at the drag strip. Then you would probably notice the old Army green paintjob that was mixed and matched to replicate the vintage Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane of yesteryear. One of the first things I noticed was the “kills” painted on the side of the fairing. According to Jason these are the factory logos of people who ran their mouths off at the track and he retaliated by smoking them on the strip. Payback’s a bitch.
As with the ‘54 Chevy, it’s what you don’t see that makes this bike something special. Typically Buell motors are pretty restricted. By using his own exhaust system, intake system, camshafts, heads and computer programming that can change the timing events to regulate how much fuel the engine is getting at any time to try and squeeze as much power out of the motor as possible we end up with what Jason calls Warbird. Jason’s goal was to prove that the stock 1203cc engine that comes out of the crate that produces around 102hp at the crank could end up producing 130hp at the rear wheel.
He accomplished this by starting off with your basic port matching. Then a little tweek he uses is blending out the little reversion hump on the intake track to get smoother airflow into the intakes and combines this with taking the intake manifold and porting and polishing the inside to basically open up and smooth out the air travel. Being mechanically retarded I have no idea what the hell this all means, but I’m sure a lot of you do.
A friend who does camshaft design and grinding helped out with the camshafts for the bike and with a little grinding and polishing produced a super product. Not seen on the bike when the pictures were taken is a nitrous-oxide system off a four-cylinder Ford Focus that another friend who does power tuning for Ford Mustangs installed to add an additional 80hp when Jason has the cojones to use it. Add all this together with their own exhaust system design as well as Jason’s almost magical manipulation of the computer and presto, you got a real modern-day sleeper.
The other bike showcased here, the Buell Blast is something that you don’t see in many custom bike magazines and I absolutely love it. Jason’s fiancé, Kelly Rogers, sat down with paper and pen and designed the bike she would be proud to ride. She didn’t want some girly-looking, same-old same old that she would see the other ladies riding; she wanted a bike that was aggressive with attitude. Thus the Wildchild was born.
Jason started out by removing the whole rear section of the Buell Blast frame so that the only part of the original frame left was the spine that runs over the top of the motor and supports it. By doing this they had to create their own exhaust system as well as well as foot pegs and seat perches. The front fairing is off a V-Rod Night Rod and the seat is off Jason’s old Indian. Can you dig it?
It’s got a big-bore kit bringing it up to 600cc and stock 1200 Buell camshafts. The heads were ported and cleaned up a bit and a modified Blast carburetor was installed. I freakin’ love this bike.
I have a feeling that we will be seeing a lot more from Hellcat Customs and Jason. He is the kind of young builder that has fresh ideas, an uncanny ability to think outside the box and the dedication to put it all together. Jason has shared some ideas for his next couple of projects with me and I can’t wait to see the results.
Builder: Jason Sarratt, Hellcat Customs
Hellcat Customs is owned and operated by Jason Serratt and I am not kidding when I say it is a one-man shop. He is the engine man, tuner, fabricator, assembler, and painter. He even cleans the bathroom himself. What a guy. As Jason says “I prefer to work by myself, this way everything that gets done is touched by me. It’s the only way I can control quality.” That is the backbone of his shop and something that is very important to him. Although Jason is hands-on with every aspect of the work done at Hellcat, he also has a support team of many friends and relatives who encourage and support his efforts.
Before he got into the motorcycle racket Jason was an auto technician, a Gold Certified Honda tech, but left this career because he felt that the customers were not getting the quality service they deserved and that was something he could not accept. That’s what led him to switch from cars to motorcycles. Originally he just wanted to paint but couldn’t find any builders who just wanted a painter so he decided to expand his horizons and become a full-service builder.
Whether it be custom exhausts, fabrication, incredible airbrushing, or quality service (foreign or domestic), you know that you will be getting the custom bike, part, or paintjob that was produced by someone who has your satisfaction as priority one. Jason’s philosophy is simple, “Produce a high-quality product at a reasonable price. No frills, no gimmicks…and never build the same thing twice.”
Hellcat Customs is located in Mesa, Arizona, but at this time he is in the process of moving to a new location. To find out more about Hellcat Customs you can check out Jason’s site at http://www.hellcatcustoms.com.
Builder: Kelly Rogers
Kelly Rogers is the other half of this dynamic duo from Hellcat Customs. During the day Kelly works in the advertising field, and by night she has become a fledgling motorcycle builder. She has been putting more and more time in learning the trade from Jason and is not afraid to get her hands into the business.
The Buell Blast you see here was her brainchild, a bike she could ride that would be aggressive looking and not something frilly-feminine looking. What she produced was an evil little beast right out of Mad Max. FYI: Ladies, and possibly some gentleman, let it be noted that in my opinion a motorcycle should in no way shape or form be frilly, or PINK…barf! Kelly rides a badass motorcycle, not a Mary Kay advertisement.
The sweet part of this project was that it was built on a shoestring budget. Cut a little off here, use some parts sitting on the shelf from other bikes there, grab some flat black paint, and presto-chango, a custom for under $3,000.
I can’t wait to see the new build they are working on for Kelly. This is going to center stage a Buell Blast engine, but hear me now, it will incorporate a Buell Lightning fuel-injection system. It just goes to show you that a little imagination and the knowledge to bring an idea from a thought to reality can produce something a little out of the ordinary.
What can I say; this girl has got it going. It would be great to see more women getting involved in the design process of motorcycle customs. It’s about time that we get a different angle from the Venus point of view to go along with the Mars men.