To kinda prove my point, how long did it take you to think of John Deere when you took your first glimpse of this bike? It probably is some sort of crazy nano-second recognition average that other corporations would die for. Green frames and bodywork along with yellow wheels and graphics says John Deere in the farm implement world as well as suburbia and anyplace in between. So much so that John Deere just got through a trademark fight of their colors that they ended up winning. Green and yellow is John Deere.

    Now I can only guess the back story behind this build, but would it be a fair guess to say that it’s owned by a huge fan of Mr. Deere? A really huge fan who’s not afraid to show his true colors even if they’re the same ones adorning his tractor? Does a bear . . . ? Yes they do. I’ve never had such a deep love of farm equipment (or even had any) that I’d want to build a bike around it, but then I’ve never owned a Deere. Maybe it’s like the Harley-Davidson saying, “If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand.” 

   Although it’s hard to get past the John Deere aspect of this build, there’s a lot going on behind the green and yellow paint. Somebody’s not only built a JD tribute, but a real street bike as well. The owner/builder chose suspension over going the purist hardtail route with a Softail; frame and a set of modern inverted forks up front. Also, the frame’s dimensions weren’t monkeyed with allowing decent travel, handling and ride comfort. All good points for a bike built around a current license plate. 

  The wheels which you can’t miss if you tried are quite-tall solid discs that are surprisingly skinny both front and rear. Somehow you figure the tractor fat rear tire theme would be brought into play, but was resisted and that’s okay. That would have been too predictable. Both wheels also wear braking devices that are not only practical, but functional looking in a John Deere pure functionality way. The yellow disc wheels are function first and theme bike second although it’s a very John Deere-close second. 

   Bodywork is farm implement simple and that’s no insult. Simple round fenders front-and-rear along with a fuel tank that’s more implement shaped than vintage or coffin basically cover the build. A chrome Harley horseshoe oil tank is at odds with the rest of the build, but then so is the engine itself. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bit of the shiny stuff on a John Deere, but it looks good here breaking up what otherwise would be a strict two-tone color scheme. Chrome engine dress-up bits stand out sharply against the green engine castings. Gotta give credit to the builder for not going the expected exhaust flapper route although there’s probably plenty of people who might be disappointed for that. As Doris Day sang a long time ago, “Que Sera, Sera . . .”  

  You know, it’s funny how anything with a green and yellow paintjob is preordained to be considered a John Deere tribute even if that happens to be your favorite colors and somehow you know nothing about John Deere. Here the builder took a liberty by painting the frame yellow too, but it works even though that’s not exactly purist John Deere stuff. Combined with the tractor-like yellow seat looking straight off a you-know-what it lightens the whole look and adds visual interest that you’d miss in a over-loaded festival of John Deere Classic Green. Nobody would probably care but me and him as everybody seems to love a Deere and the more it looks factory the better. 

  So what we’ve got here is a crafty builder who built a charming street bike that he can ride the pee out of and have immediate recognition that he’s in town with a pair of eye-grabbing colors that alone make it into a theme bike. People ride custom bikes for attention and this John Deere green and yellow scheme assures the owner that he can never ride through town unnoticed. People may not know what kind of bike it is, but they’ll know it’s a John Deere. That’s all cool, but I like the fact that the builder made it in the nicely street-worthy in the spirit of the company’s famous slogan, “Nothing runs like a Deere” and I think this baby’s made to run like one too.