Shovelheads have the reputation of being a real bad boy’s bike and they’re what I think of when I’m picturing a bad ass Harley in my head. They’re just lovely, archaically-mechanical beasts that have all the subtlety of a howitzer and that’s exactly what makes them so likeable. I’ve always thought of them as Harley’s hot rod equivalent of a 425hp 409 Chevy engine. They’re a bit...

     From the split rocker boxes to the stunningly delicate foot controls, there’s a lot to take in. Every piece of Nate’s mechanical porn could stand on its own as a work of art. It’s so stinking clean you could safely perform surgery on it if you could ever get anybody to consider having their surgery done on a Shovelhead. No, I don’t know any reason why someone would, but if...

     They were all knockout bikes, but there’s just something about an RKB build that reaches for just a little more than the competition with dazzling details everywhere you look and plenty of places you’ll never even see. Rick Bray builds killer bikes that make slobbering fanboys out of all of us here at Barnett’s Magazine Online. Yes, we’re a bit biased, but after a couple of...

     Take for instance the lovely RevTech-powered, tribute to the Day of the Dead bar hopper Cristian built. There’s nothing earth-shaking about the overall design (on this particular Sosa bike anyway, check out all his others for that), it’s just a very fine exercise in heavy metal with the devil working overtime on the details. Yeah, it does look like a bastard of a bike to ride...

    This is not Jesse’s first time being featured on Barnett’s Magazine Online as we covered a build of his that made a few readers squirm a bit as it wasn’t the usual Harley fare or even the usual motorcycle fare. Got your interest on that one? Click here for the full story on a most unusual Raw Iron Choppers’ build that you’d probably never guess no matter how many answers you...

     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....

     The paint is black lacquer that was applied to the sheet metal somewhere that it was legal. A most unusual feature is that, except for the motor, all the bright work was nickel plated at a considerable expense. The miles on the clock (only 327) are since new and the summer after it was built it graced the streets of Sturgis during bike week.  

      I think it all started the second Barnett’s Magazine publisher and director of good taste, Mark Barnett, called me into his office and whipped open a large manila folder.  He excitedly showed me photos of one of Bill’s first builds since setting up shop in New Jersey after a long stint being point man at West Coast Choppers. The bike, Asbury Dirt, was a shocker of a hardtail...

     When I say “engine builder” referring to Lock, I really, really mean engine fabricator. As in, Lock starting with a couple of cylinders intended for an aircraft engine and adapting them to the old classic V-twin architecture. That only came about by designing and fabricating just about everything else you could imagine inside-and-out of your beloved Harley motor. In other...

    Before I let it go too long, I should mention he’s the head honcho at Joker Cycle Works in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and even though he’s a young guy this is not his first rodeo by any means with many magazine feature articles to his credit along with awards at the big time shows. But this board tracker called Under Pressure just may be his finest build to date as far as I’m...