Bobbers
The thought process behind this bike was not the typical, ‘I got this frame lying around and it’s a (fill in) so that’s what I will build.’ Nope, Josh explained how this bike came to be. “I took a little different approach to this one. I was sick of fads and all that other sh*t. I thought to myself, ‘I’m gonna build exactly what the hell I want to build and if nobody else likes it, screw ‘em, ’It’s got some out-there stuff, but it doesn’t matter,” said Josh. “I grew up riding and racing dirt bikes and there’s nothing much that feels as good as a dirt bike, so I said, ‘To hell with it, I’m gonna build a dirt bike.’ “
Most builders start by making or buying a frame and then go from there, but not Josh. “The first thing I bought was the engine. T-Man Performance www.tmanperformance.com is a huge builder in North Carolina, he [owner T.R. Reiser] does a lot of drag racing stuff and a lot of Harley stuff,” said Josh. “He’s not a cheap guy, but like the old saying, ‘You get what you pay for.’This engine is a 106” that’s got his billet race heads that he makes personally in his shop. I have not had it on a dyno, but the same motor in a stock Dyna made 120hp and 119 lb-ft of torque. That’s kicking butt pretty good for a little 106. It’s super snappy!”
The T-Man 106 ended up being stuffed into an older Rolling Thunder chassis that Josh ran across. “It was all bracketed up, everything in the book. I cut everything in the world they had off of it and went back and put all my bungs, all my location stuff I needed,” said Josh. “As far as rake and stretch, I left that alone as it came pretty much the way I wanted it. It’s got 2” in the backbone and 35-degrees in the neck and that’s as much as I ever plan on going again.”
The 39mm Harley Narrow Glide forks (“heavily cut and modified to make ‘em look like something”) cradling a 23” wire-spoked wheel outfitted with a knobby tire make this bike look in motion even at rest. The front end is light, airy, and ready for duty, whatever the duty might be. To me, this bike is all about “the stance” and Dirty Onehas it in spades. The frame’s lines are in complete harmony with the front end and somehow a tall, skinny knobby ends up looking like the logical choice. “They don’t make a street tire for a narrow 23” rim and believe it or not, that tire has a klitle over 2,000 miles on it and you can still see the rubber tips on it,” said Josh. The PM Contrast Cut Judge rear wheel sporting a 250 Dunlop is a perfect compliment to the skinny front and the overall affect is much like a set of wheels on a ‘70s slingshot dragster, each end has its own purpose and looks right doing it.
There are a lot of parts that really make this bike stand out when you start to delve into what Josh made for choices like the star-pattern brake discs. “Those are from Hardcore Products www.hardcoreproduct.com out of California. The tips are actually raised outside the rotor, but they still clear the brake. That’s one of the reasons I bought them,” said Josh. Or the gorgeous ISR hand controls with a radial master cylinder and adjustable levers. “Nothing’s better. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a set of adjustable levers, but there’s absolutely nothing better than that,” he said adding, “I have Harley calipers on that bike because they’re cheap and they work good as long as you get their Twin Cam stuff.” Personally, one part I really like is the Hella headlight Josh used. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it just looks perfect to me. “It kinda gets everybody. I’ve seen that on a few bikes and I wanted something big so I can see [we’re back to that thing about Josh actually riding this bike], but I didn’t want a regular headlight,” said Josh.
Josh did the charcoal metallic paintjob in-house at his shop, Wrench Works, and took it of to Mark Peters of Peters Auto Art www.petersautoart.com in Asheville, North Carolina, for the graphics. “He’s just an unbelievable pinstriper and artist. He did the white gold on it and a little bit of real pinstriping on it,” said Josh. “I wanted everything to have a hand touch on it. His specialty is very, very thin stripes and the actual stripe line he did is 1/16th” or less.”
Summing up the build, Josh said, “I’ve had and built show bikes and there’s never been a bike I’ve built that I finished and was totally happy with but this one. Everything on there is pretty well thought out and I’ve learned from the mistakes I made previously. No matter what anybody thinks about it, you need to build it exactly like you have it in your head and for riding and be done with it.”
If you like Josh’s take on custom motorcycles, you can reach him at 336-392-3654 or drop him an email to thewrenchworks@yahoo.com to get yours. Josh also does service work and Harley customizing as well as ground-up works of art.
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Tag: Buck Manning writes about Josh Siler’s Wrench Works bike called Dirty One that he built with a 23” knobby front tire and a 106” Shovelhead from T-Man Performance.
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