This tasty little bobber is the product of the fertile mind of Yaniv Evan of Powerplant Motorcycles in the town of Hollywood, California. First off, I should mention that Yaniv is not an old guy, far from it, but he just might be an old soul trapped in a young man’s body. There is no known cure for that as far as I know so you just gotta run with it and abuse the privilege. That’s exactly what Yaniv is up to with his bikes that have a similar basic design, but with lots of Yaniv-unique-to-each-bike touches. Hey, if you find a bike style you like both to look at and ride, there’s nothing wrong in my book with continually working out each build until it evolves into its own to its own entity. We’ve all got our preconceived notions based on personally biased facts of what’s the best style of motorcycle ever and damn anybody else who says otherwise. Luckily for me, I’m a bobber guy through and through so Yaniv’s stuff works out just peachy for me.

 

   Well I should be getting back to the “old” issue I started and explain a bit about this Geico Caveman bike that you may or may not have seen before. If you’re like most people I talk to, you probably don’t remember CMT’s Chopper Challenge that aired after Discovery’s Biker Build-Off was unfortunately yanked from the airwaves. If you’re one of the few who saw or remembered Chopper Challenge, you might have the same attitude I had about it that it was actually a better set-up of a bike building show that also showcased somewhat lesser-known, but highly-talented builders. At the time which was way back in the old days (according to Rufus) of 2008, Yaniv would have fallen into that “lesser-known, but highly-talented builders” description, but that didn’t hold him down from being the eventual winner of the whole Chopper Challenge kit and caboodle. A clean, lean, cool machine will do that every time.

 

   What I think gets me about Yaniv’s Caveman build is the unfinished/finished look in general that has the just-got-back-from-a-wicked-ride look. If you got stopped by a cop for screwing around on this bike (I don’t think you can’t help but get screw around on bikes like this), you could never use the excuse you weren’t aware of what you’re doing. You couldn’t help being aware of everything going on between the axles at any given time as this is a mechanically raw, yet surprisingly sophisticated piece. There’s no filter, absolutely no filter of any sort, between the rider and machine and that’s a good thing for some of us.  It ain’t no Harley Ultra Classic where might lie, er, say to a policeman, “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was speeding sir” with a straight face. If it’s happening on this bike, you know it immediately and that‘s exactly what I love about it.

 

  So in essence, old doesn’t have to just mean old as in some old POS, but maybe timeless would be another way of thoughtfully categorizing it if you must. There are many one-off things Yaniv did on this bike that still look fresh after five years. Take that wonderfully convoluted Chutes and Ladders exhaust Yaniv whipped up. Spent gasses must think (In all fairness, scientists are still undecided if spent gasses are aware or not.) they’re in some kind of crazy exhaust water park after a spin through those pieced together pipes. Or, take a look at the spectacular charging system Yaniv fabbed up. Who would have thunk that a charging system could ever be sexy? I do know one guy who did and his first name begins with a Y so I think you can narrow down who it is. Personally, I’ll never feel the same way about alternators again. Besides the overall profile and stance, it’s items like these (and there’s many more onboard –check it out) that make what might be an old build to some as a timeless build to others (yup, that’s me).

 

For more info on Powerplant Motorcycles, click on http://powerplantchoppers.com/ and enjoy the ride.