Is it the most beautiful custom bike ever made? It is to one guy. The guy that put his hard-earned dough and personal sweat in this bike over a too-long period of time during a winter or two or three in his unheated garage with freezing-cold wrenches sticking to his fingers. Or sweltering away in the summer while his friends stopped by on their bikes to drink his beer and see if he had gotten any closer to finishing. He’d proudly show them the seat tab he fabbed and welded on or maybe the somewhat hidden mount for the speedo. It just always looked like he had a long way to go so they’d just finish their beer, cheer him on politely, and go off riding somewhere fun.
Nothing deep going on here and anybody attempting to do this themselves in their two-car garage knows it ain’t TV-easy. But the nice part about this ride is that you can tell the guy that built it knew exactly what he wanted and accomplished that about as perfectly as any builder/designer can. All the while keeping it within a budget that definitely cut into a few of life’s other necessities, but a man’s gotta have his priorities. The back shed, friends’ cellars and garages, ebay, craigslist, and whatever else that could be done to get any useful parts at the right price probably began this whole deal.
Major money out of the meager budget was spent on a good S&S engine/BAKER tranny package while an old/new frame from somebody else’s never-started project was bought for not much more than the price of scrap. The right springer front end was found after months and months of patient looking. An eBay oil tank and battery holder needed a bit of work, but eventually found a home. Other eBay parts, old and new, along with some horse trading with friends got this into a full mockup before it was time for paint.
Red with just about the most subtle ghost pattern ever looks ‘righteous’ as they would say in the sixties when they didn’t know what else to say to compliment you without sounding uncool. And yes, I love this bike because the builder made it to ride. Not just distances measured in yards either as it has serious brakes front and rear, fenders front and rear, a spring saddle sitting over a high-profile rear tire (so he can run low tire pressure for a little more comfort), comfortable rubber handgrips, a Jet-Hot ceramic-coated exhaust (won’t rust and insulates/isolates heat like header wrap without the barnyard-ugly typical header wrap mess), a gas tank big enough to hold gas to actually ride somewhere, a speedo, two (!) mirrors that look like they mirror and might save his ass, a handy and lovely left-side leather bag (they just look good to me), and most importantly, a current license plate. Sorry for the long list, I just got going and couldn’t stop.
I don’t know who built this bike, but I sure like the smarts that went into building a decent looking chop you could ride the pants off, get off, and want to get back on and do some more. No, this ain’t no showbike or a revolutionary bike or a trend setter or whatever. This is just a solid chopper. A chopper meant to ride the sh*t out of even if it’s raining. All I can say is, “Hey man, nice bike!”