At the various rallies and events I’ve attended recently, I’ve noticed a trend towards dirt bike-inspired designs, somewhat in the bobber vein, giving the rough-hewn machines an even harder edge. In some cases it’s just attitude, while in the case of this TJP Customs creation, it’s just practical. Bryan Schimke’s shop is committed to building show-quality bikes that are equipped...

  Gary’s first bike was a stripped down 1979 FLH Shovelhead that he bought in the very early Eighties — guess where he bought it — Barnett Harley- Davidson in El Paso, Texas. “I flew in from Los Angeles, spent the day at the dealership looking at bikes and couldn’t decide which bike I wanted so I thought it’d be a good idea to sleep on it. I was staying in town, and surprisingly...

  So when I asked Bruiser’s creator, Justin Collier, how he came up with the name, I wasn’t surprised by his response. “I got it from sitting on the bike for the first time and thinking to myself, ‘This is just going to hurt to ride. The bike looks cool but it’s going to be painful!’ ” admitted Justin. He went on to swear that, “I actually like leaning forward and reaching for the...

  She’s been with her husband Jerry for over thirty years, and during that time she’s more than proved her enthusiasm for the sport by exercising her motorcycle license regularly and having a bike in the shop that she can ride on a whim. She’s so involved with the business that she couldn’t tear herself away from their booth at the Speedway in Daytona, Florida, during 2007’s...

  “Everybody calls my shop Jon’s Customs, but the spelling of the shop name is supposed to sound like Jones, my last name,” Steve said. “If I started over today, I’d change the name. I’d spell it J-o-n-e-s, just like it sounds, nothing fancy. But I don’t want to change it now because I don’t want to have to establish a new name in the industry.” Steve’s hesitancy to change the shop...

  Taber intended it as a touring bike right from the beginning. “I started with a Kraftech frame and set it on our frame jig. I chopped it down until all I had left was the engine and trans cradle. Then I added a few inches and narrowed the rear section behind the trans to fit the seat suspension,” he said. “Next, I changed the standard neck for a gooseneck style with 29-degrees of...

  Starting with a Wild Child frame constructed within the bowels of Indian Larry Legacy, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what direction this build was going to take. There’s been many a Larry tribute bike done already, but most that I’ve seen have little or nothing in common with Larry’s ideas other than using him as a theme. BAKER R&D’s Chad Behrendt, Tom...

  Starting with a rigid frame built by Rolling Thunder, Bastard Son began with a standard length backbone and down tubes shortened four-inches. Then Yoshi modified the top of the down tubes, backbone, and neck to form a gooseneck steering head raked to 36-degrees. Instead of bolting an old springer to the neck, he felt the bike would handle better and look more like a race bike if...

  Yank the headlight off this bike and you’d swear this was a fast ‘70s quarter-miler, just a lot better finished. From a side view, few customs look this simple, open, and airy. This is truly a Motor-cycle, with the motor, two wheels, and a tank dominating the visuals. The Santee Gooseneck double-downtube frame sits low and long and provides the category defying style with a 3”...

  A fine example of this thinking is our feature bike Dirty Sanchez with its roots based on a tired Buell Lightning X1 that was just taking up space around George’s shop. “It was really ugly, dripping oil all over the place,” says George. “I was like, ‘Let’s build something out of it, something for the shop.’ ” So it was that one more Buell became reincarnated as a cool custom that...