Take this little devil of a Flatty he turned out that’s basically done its tour duty on the show circuit that I predict it will finally give up show business to spend some serious time on the back roads of Maine this summer. Originally built as the Rusty Trombone and entered in the 2012 AMD World Championship, you’re looking at the same basic bike minus the heavy rust patina. At least that’s my uninformed assumption, but take a look at the original and see if you agree. In this present shiny(er) guise, Jason was invited to show it at the 2014 Artistry in Iron Show this past fall where it brought a lot of attention to Maine’s premier chopper shop. Somehow I’m guessing that the long Maine winter and the bike sitting in the back of the shop led to its current makeover. Again I’m guessing, but doesn’t putting a guess on the Internet make it a fact?

 

   Either way, Jason built a really cool bike like he always has since his first appearance on the cover of the now much-missed print edition of Barnett’s Magazine. Building around a 1946 Harley-Davidson WL 45-inch Flathead is a great place to start if you’re looking for instant street or show cred cause you gotta love them old side valves even if you don’t know the damndest thing about them. They just look cool and sound cool so they gotta be cool. In their lovable Flathead way, they are wicked cool.

 

  Jason kept the basic WL engine, tranny and frame to work around after a complete rebuild of the mechanical bits. Possibly the best thing you can do to an old Flathead is just to make it run right and be reliable as hopping one up is probably not the way to go. You can’t do the things to it that you could to a tired old Evo motor where you could end up with a fire breather if you had enough money. That’s not what a 45 Harley Flathead is all about. It is what it is and you gotta love it for what it is or just move on to something else. But it sure is a mechanically beautiful engine from a very different time and that makes it ripe for building a custom.  

 

   The frame retains the stock Harley dimensions so no big surprises there, but Jason chose to up the ante a bit up front with a Bare Knuckle Choppers narrow springer. Unlike the stock pudgy WL front wheel, Jason went to the old standby, a 21-inch Paughco spoked wheel sans brake wearing a vintage ribbed tread Avon Speedmaster. That change of fork and wheel obviously gave it a classic look that bikers never get tired of. Out back is another spoker, this one an 18-inch rim laced to the stock drum brake and sporting an old square-tread-style Firestone tire. Altogether nothing too radical, just good taste and good work, but this is the jumping off point to where Jason puts a piece of himself on display for the world to gawk at.

 

   Bodywork and details is where Jason really shines and this bike is no exception. The hand-formed split gas tanks are wing-nutted together via vertical flanges with the stainless steel oil tank sandwiched in between (You can see the little cap just sticking up). The metal panels on the side of the tank are made of Damascus steel which is something that’s its own entity. This steel is made the same layered material way that ancient metal smiths in Syria made swords and knives that had properties of strength and resiliency unheard of at the time. The patterns that are produced by this process are referred to as banding and mottling. And, you can really see why this technique piqued Jason’s interest when you get a good look at the hand-forged Damascus steel back fender and seat to see it at its finest. Also, be sure to take a look at the AMD video for Jason’s explanation of Damascus steel as I’m certainly no metallurgist nor do I feel comfortable trying to be. Either way, it’s a finish that you don’t run into very often unless you’re into ancient swords and knives which the local constabulary has taken away from me.

   If I had to sum up the changes from the AMD build to the Artistry build in a quick bit, what was once raw steel is now black. There’s a bit of a dustup as far as the finish on some of the copper bits goes now, but the basics haven’t changed a lot. It’s a bit more polished, a bit more elegant, but it’s still the same neato bike through it all. You gotta love a Flatty with a hand shift and foot clutch that punctuates each shift with a soft rap through Jason’s tidy stainless twin-tube exhaust. Somewhere in Maine some old farmhouse is missing a couple of glass door knobs, but I know where to find them ─ right on the top of Jason’s springer looking for all the world like they’ve always been there. Nice Maine touch.

 

  Well we’re in the middle of winter right now and I can only assume that Jason’s banging away in his shop right now getting next year’s bikes ready to rumble. I doubt they’ll be another nip and tuck on this bike as it’s just about as right as it could ever get, but it won’t be the first time Jason’s surprised us. If he can stay off his snowboard long enough this winter (Jason used to be a professional snowboarder for Rossignol), I’m sure we’ll see the fruits of his labor in another exciting new bike when the shop doors finally get flung open this spring. Now all I have to do this winter along with checking the battery tenders is to just sit back and wait until he finishes working his ass off.

For more information on what Jason’s up to, visit www.northeastchopshop.com/ or check him out on Facebook.