Work began on the tired engine as John’s dad had ridden the pants off it. “This was my first time rebuilding a Shovelhead so it would be safe to say the whole ordeal was a day-by-day, part-by-part learning experience. The first major problem was finding a bent connecting rod and New River Harley-Davidson in Jacksonville, North Carolina, pulled me through that fiasco by setting...

    We even assign them names like they might respond to it like they say plants do to music. I haven’t sat around for extremely long periods of time watching plants grow or not, but I have had intimate conversations with my bike. No, not every time I see it, usually it has a lot to do with a miss starting or a low fuel reading. I politely beg for it to get me through the...

   Personally, I think this all can be attributed to the owner of this bike, John Savage of Raleigh, North Carolina, and what he does for a living. Surprise, surprise ─ John’s a master tattoo artist at Savage Tattoos & Art in Raleigh, North Carolina. He also is known for his air brushing and paintwork that he does on the side. When you look at both his tattoo work and paint...

       Will has a simple aesthetic when it comes to chops and that’s to work his brain and his ass off until he ends up with a custom that’s stunningly clean and simple. Plus it fits in perfectly with his previous work without looking a lick like it. How you keep reinventing yourself without looking like you’re trying to do exactly that is beyond me, but he pulls it off. Here, let...

   Then, bam, there it was, a custom Harley-Davidson FLH of Shovelhead persuasion from Smoke Out 17 that looks like it could have been built yesterday or decades ago. I’m inexplicably drawn to bikes built on a budget by their owners using skills acquired over the years. I stopped looking at hundred grand baggers and zeroed in on this neat ride. I had no choice as I said I’m...

   Like the ubiquitous, but iconic Coke bottle or a red ’63 Sting Ray split-window coupe, some shapes are designs for the ages. Whether it was trial and error, extreme talent or just honest luck, certain things have reached their zenith as far as their design goes. Basically, they just have such a purity of line that even mild modifications can have big ramifications. Along with...

    Obviously I’ve kinda been smitten by this bit of bobber brilliance and I’m sure you are too even if you never ever wanted to own a hard-core hardtail bobber especially powered by something straight out of the AMF years. As I said, we never found the owner, but they’re one tough SOB to ride a bike as mechanically overbearing as this, but there is a sweet side to them too. Just...

  This particular bike is not destined for a bar, well at least not on the inside as of yet. The bike is called the Fulcrum Tactical and it’s actually a raffle bike for a law enforcement charity called Fulcrum Tactical Training and Support that was according to their website “created with the specific purpose of providing otherwise unattainable training and support to law...

  Jeff has the ability to look at a derelict bike and see something entirely different like the hunk before him doesn’t even exist in that mode anymore. It probably has something to do with his other favorite pastime, photography, where he looks at bikes like looking at an image through his viewfinder. There’s nothing in his viewfinder that shouldn’t be there and it’s the same for...

     In the case of our feature bike by Tim Firstenberger of Little Comfort Customs in Sarasota, Florida, this 2001 Buell Lightning was struck by something other than lightning, apparently some kind of vehicle. But, it did leave a fine donor engine for Tim to work his magic around and that’s just peachy for the rest of us. In case Tim’s name strikes a bell, you might remember we...