“Everybody calls my shop Jon’s Customs, but the spelling of the shop name is supposed to sound like Jones, my last name,” Steve said. “If I started over today, I’d change the name. I’d spell it J-o-n-e-s, just like it sounds, nothing fancy. But I don’t want to change it now because I don’t want to have to establish a new name in the industry.”
Steve’s hesitancy to change the shop name is understandable, as it can be hard to get a foothold in an industry as competitive as today’s custom marketplace. Adding to the difficulty of starting a shop, he just moved to Utah and has a new address in Riverton, a small town just south of Salt Lake City. As anyone who’s ever moved to a new state can attest, a lot of work is necessary to establish new contacts. Plus, all the old contacts need to be updated with new info if the lines of communication are to be kept open, and that takes up tons of time, too. It’s all for the best though, as he’s upgraded to a 1600 square-foot shop located on his new property so he never has to worry about a lengthy commute to work.
Happy with his relatively new business, Steve reluctantly confided that he didn’t became interested in exploring professional bike building until it was brought to his attention that such a thing was indeed possible for him. “I hate to admit it, but my interest in building custom bikes was rekindled by some of the TV shows,” he said. “I was under the impression you had to have thousands of dollars of expensive equipment and tools to build bikes, but when I saw what guys were doing on TV, I knew I could do it too, and I was inspired to try.” Steve did more than try, he opened Jonz Customs for (part-time) business in January 2005 and every bike he’s built since has been featured in magazines.
The idea for this bike was spawned from the fact he’d never built a wide-tire bike before, but these days a 240mm hardly seems wide when compared to a 360mm tire. “Some bikes look better with a little meat in the rear,” he said. “I wanted the aggressive look, like it needs the extra rubber for a reason. Once I built the bike, it reminded me of a Ford Cobra with the muscular curves of its wide wheel wells.”
Gazing upon the sinewy lines of Steve’s latest creation, an educated observer will notice the lack of bolt-on parts. Steve designed and fabricated most of the custom parts on the bike. “The intake was a project in itself and started as an antique car horn I nabbed at a swap meet,” Steve said. “It’s a cast-aluminum arrruuugah-style horn. The elbow of the intake was from the elbow of an aluminum handrail, and I machined a flange so it would bolt to the carb, then welded all the parts together, smoothed out the welds, and polished it to look like a single piece. The incredible engraving is designed to look like pin striping. My good friend, Jerry Potts, using nothing but his hands and a truckload of patience, also engraved the fork-leg caps and the hand-made seat.”
Not satisfied with handlebars from a catalog or modified stock bars, Steve designed a set of clip-on bars not commonly found on the average softail. “I wanted to maintain the narrow profile of the bike with a set of stubby handlebars that help create an aggressive stance both for the bike and the rider’s positioning,” he said.
Steve’s clip-ons also reduce the clutter of the triple-trees by eliminating the need for risers. The levers are bolted directly to the bars, and seem to flow with the lines without the bulk and lack of balance created by a huge brake fluid reservoir. The brakes are controlled by a cable-operated Brembo master cylinder located under the tank. An internal throttle also maintains the sanitary appearance complimented by no noticeable grips.
“The diameter of the throttle grip is about a hair’s width larger than the rest of the bar with no indication of any grip on the left side other than a comfortable length of bar that fits a person’s hand,” Steve said.
If the shape of the gas tank looks familiar, it’s because it’s extremely common, just not on American motorcycles. The gas tank is an old Suzuki Intruder piece, but it was highly modified to fit the bike. “The tank’s sheetmetal had the thickness of a beer can, but I’ve always admired its shape,” he said. “I cut the bottom out and changed the depth of the tank’s backbone tunnel. Then I pressure tested my welds and used Caswell tank sealer, it’s the best stuff available.”
Steve may not have been born on a motorcycle and he hasn’t lived his whole life “in the wind,” but his passion for creating and modifying motorcycles is comparable to many who have. “I know it’s not going to happen overnight,” he said, “but someday I hope I can be successful enough to build bikes and make parts as my full-time job.”
It was obvious to me that building bikes is a long-term commitment for Steve. “I’m a fabricator,” he told me. “I will make anything a customer asks me to make. If I don’t know how to do it, I’ll find someone who can or learn how to do it myself. But it will always be done right.”
Builder: Steve Jones
Jonz Customs
“Over the past ten years I’ve been living as a climbing bum.” After hearing those words come out of the mouth of Jonz Customs owner Steve Jones, it was obvious his life is unlike that of many builders driven to this industry by their sheer love of all things powered by pistons. Steve’s love of climbing and working in the rock climbing industry allowed him as much free time as he could handle, which gave him time to think about bike building, “I’d work when I needed to, building rock walls (for simulated mountain climbing) when I received an order, or I worked at private construction sites building houses for some extra money in my pocket,” he said.
He’s not afraid of roughing it outdoors, but he’s no stranger to things mechanical. “I’ve been around machines my whole life. As a child, my dad was a machinist and he was always fixing something in the garage. I’d sit right next to him while I tore my bicycle apart. In the ‘60s I imagined I was building a chopper when I added longer tubes to the front end of my bicycle, or made a seat with a backrest as high as the handlebars on the bike.”
But Steve’s current bike building style differs greatly from his youth, “Even though I thought choppers were the coolest thing ever at the time, long front ends just don’t do it for me anymore like when I was a kid,” he said.
He’s 53-years-old now and has had a few decades to develop, evolve, and nurture his love for two-wheeled vehicles. “At an early age I was told by my parents that I was forbidden from riding a motorcycle, but my dad used to tell stories about his 1937 H-D Flathead ⎯ I was the victim of another parent lecturing his child to ‘do as I say, not as I’ve done.’ ”
His current bike building style is definitely a byproduct of his other interests. “Now that I’m building real bikes, I like to relate them to racing,” he said. “I sold my 2001 Aprilia RS250 so I could build my first American custom. That bike ended up on the cover of a magazine. I knew I was on the right track after that.”
Check out www.jonzcustoms.com for a picture of Steve on one of his childhood chopper bicycles, plus a few of his current builds.
This bike feature originally appeared in Barnett’s Magazine issue #58, October 2007.
SPECIFICATIONS | |
---|---|
Bike Name: | Jonz Customs # 3 |
Owner: | Steve Jones |
Year / Make: | 2006 Jonz Customs |
Fabrication/ assembly: | Steve Jones |
Build time: | 30 days |
Engine: | S&S 96″ |
Cases: | S&S |
Flywheels: | S&S |
Rods: | S&S |
Pistons: | S&S |
Cylinders: | S&S |
Heads: | S&S |
Cam: | S&S |
Ignition: | Crane HI-4 |
Carb: | S&S Super E |
Pipes: | Jonz Customs |
Air Cleaner: | Jonz Customs |
Transmission: | Roadmax 5-speed |
Primary: | BDL 3″ open narrowed to 1.75″ |
Clutch: | BDL Competitor |
Frame: | Paughco wishbone rigid |
Rake: | 30-degrees |
Forks: | Wide Glide/custom trees and fork brace |
Front Wheel: | 2.15×21 powdercoated black |
Rear Wheel: | 8.5×18 powdercoated black |
Front Tire: | 110/90 x 21 Metzeler ME 880 |
Rear Tire: | 240/50 x 18 Metzeler ME880 |
Front Brakes: | PM |
Rear Brake: | PM |
Fuel Tank: | Jonz Customs |
Oil Tank: | Swap meet special |
Fender: | Jonz Customs |
Handlebars: | Jonz Customs with internal throttle |
Headlight: | Swap meet special |
Taillight: | Ford Truck |
Hand Controls: | Jonz Customs |
Foot Controls: | Jonz Customs |
Electrical: | only enough to make it run |
Painter: | Brad Aregood |
Color: | Black/silver scallops/green pinstriping |
Polishing: | Kevin Biggs |
Molding: | Jonz Customs |
Seat: | Jonz Customs |
Special thanks to: | Brad Aregood, Jerry Potts, and Bill Poppek. |