Bobbers
There are so many things to like about Best of Luck, Mark was hard pressed to settle upon just one. “It’s just a nice little around-town bobber you can cruise around on with no trouble,” Mark said. “I really like it, it’s a nice running bike. I like the little spring seat, it takes the shock out of the ride. It’s really a fun bike.”
To get this raffle on the road, the Shadleys chose a frame by Maximum Metal Works with a 32-degree rake. For bodywork they moved the filler up on the Paughco tank and fabbed a horseshoe oil tank. They modified the Russ Wernimont Design fenders to hug the Avon tires tight. From my personal experience, it sure doesn’t hurt to have a long front fender for that rainy New England weather.
Mark said he and his brother chose an H-D 80” Evo engine for its reliability, taking any worry out of the bike for its new owner no matter whose raffle ticket is pulled. “I used a Harley motor because they run really good and you run into very few problems with them,” Mark said. “We put the bike together so it would pass inspection, have all right lights, mufflers, everything to make it a trouble-free kind of bike. We built the motorcycle so it would be reliable, we didn’t want it to be tricky to ride so we tried to make it easy on the person who could win it, either a hardcore guy could win it or someone who really isn’t familiar with the biking scene. In the past we’ve had one winner who was a biker and the other two people weren’t, so we think it’s better to build them very easy for people to ride.”
Cementing the look of this bike are the Black Bike spoked wheels, a good choice, as it just wouldn’t be an Old Sc
hool bobber with mag wheels. Adding style and raising the bike’s hipness factor are Roland Sands handlebars and Paul Yaffe risers. The headlight is by Drag Specialties but the taillight is a Shadley Brothers/V-Twin. For real control, the Shadleys turned to Legends for foot controls and pegs. With its Russ Keane paintjob using PPG Hot Wheels Spectraflame in Bright Red, there is no question this bike is hot, hot, and hot. The graphics on the bike, a skull in a fireman’s hat and flames, were done by John Hartnett. “He does graphics for us, and on this bike he designed something to go with the firemen theme.
Somebody’s gonna win this bike, why not you? For more information on tickets to this bike raffle, check out the Builder Sidebar. Best of luck to you, and I do seriously mean it. I mean, how cool would it be if someone reading this article in Barnett’s Magazine won this bike?! Now that would be really hot.
Up Close: Tim Remus
The photographer for Best of Luck is Tim Remus, who is also a seasoned author and owner of Wolfgang Publications along with his wife, Mary Lanz. Wolfgang Publications is located in Stillwater, Minnesota, which is apparently in great demand by Hollywood location scouts as many movies have been shot there; Grumpy Old Men, Fargo, Beautiful Girls, and Killer Movieto name but a few. And Tim Remus is in demand as well, as a friend and also a source of seemingly endless knowledge. He’s written and photographed, and published, too many books for me to list here, running the gamut from motorcycle assembly and restoration to tattooing and airbrushing.
As a kid Tim was fascinated with all things mechanical and started fixing everything from broken lawnmowers to cars way before he was old enough to drive one. After high school he went to a trade school, Dunwoody Industrial Institute, in Minneapolis, and later graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science degree and a strong interest in writing and photography. Loaded for bear, he worked in a variety of shops while taking over the publication of a motorcycle newsletter called Midwest Rider. In 1984 when he turned to writing and photography full time, he worked as a freelancer until starting his own magazine, Midwest Rod & Machine, with two partners. He later began churning out books for Motorbooks, then figured out he’d make out better financially if he published his books himself, and that was the beginning of Wolfgang Publications. Having branched out, Wolfgang is now publishing even more books on a variety of topics under the new banner of “ArtKulture, an imprint of Wolfgang Publications.” Check out Tim and his list of titles at www.wolfpub.com, or at www.artkulture.com.
Builder: Mark and Paul Shadley – Shadley Bros. Motorcycle
Just 24 miles south of Boston is the historic town of Whitman, Massachusetts, where you’ll find Shadley Bros. Motorcycle. Mark and Paul Shadley have been working to make some history themselves, having opened their shop, Auto Tec, in 1981 and offering first auto body and repair services, and later taking their passion of custom motorcycles to a whole new level by going pro.
“We’ve been building bikes professionally for eight-and-a-half years, but I’ve been building bikes since high school in 1974,” Mark said. A graduate of Randolph High School, Mark’s always been hip to custom bike scene. “I met up with some people who really liked building bikes and I took to it,” he said. “My first cover bike was on Street Chopper magazine in 1978.”
Mark met Tim Reamus, who photographed Best of Luck, in Sturgis “years and years ago” Mark said. “We became friends and he’s used a lot of my stuff over the years. I’ve been in the Hamsters since the beginning in 1978, and just being in that group you meet a lot of people at the different events and, building custom bikes, people want to photograph them.”
Mark and Paul are authors now, having recently collaborated on How to Fix Your American V-Twin Motorcycle,, which was photographed by Tim Remus. “Writing it was challenging for me,” Mark admitted. “I’m more a nuts and bolts guy. If I was more computer literate it would have been easier. But hey, at the end I was like, that was cool.”
Raffle tickets for Best of Luck are $100 and just 400 will be sold. The raffle ends in early fall. To get your ticket, call Shadley Bros. Motorcycles at 781-447-1442 or visit their website at www.shadleybros.com . You can also get tickets by visiting the Whitman Firefighters Local online at www.whitmanfirefighters.com.
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