Taking this idea one step further is our feature bike owner, Lew Martin, from the town with a really cool name, Halfmoon, New York. How this project even came to be has a twist to it since Lew didn’t even own it when work began. “My brother Scott bought it brand new in ’97 and he started working on it and did quite a bit of stuff to it. I bought it in 2001 from him because it...

  Take a guy like Brad Krueger and his customized Evo-powered bike for instance. It’s one of those typical stories of young man discovers motorcycles, young man discovers wrenching and customizing motorcycles, young man gets married and has children, young man puts away and parks anything to do with motorcycles until he’s able to comfortably refer to himself as an old guy, and,...

    Looking over Jack Cofano’s Smoke Out photo gallery of our 1997 Sportster-based feature bike from Chop Machine in Toledo, Ohio, I can’t say any bad things about its period-good-enough-for-me look. Right up front I should say that this bike was built to a price and that’s not a bad thing. We all wish we had tons of dough to throw around on a moment’s notice, but we don’t so bang...

  And, that’s exactly what we’ve got here with this custom Fat Boy that rings all my bells. Personally, I’m not as much into radical unrideable customs as a well-done modified stocker that ramps things up both cosmetically and performance-wise. I love still seeing the stock profile that’s been tweaked so you know it’s special, but still what it is. That takes a great bit of talent...

   And, as the headline says, there’s 285hp lurking in the mainframe waiting to be unleashed. Although this bike is so far from it that it’s probably stupid to even bring it up, but if this was a total rust bucket with 285hp, we’d still be interested. Amazing how overwhelming power will do that to riders who love to whack open a twist grip to the stop. The engine room provides a...

  Mike Corbin was in the process of designing a new Warbird package and decided that the FXR frame would be the ideal starting point. A newer motor was needed, so a Twin Cam with an attached 6-speed tranny to power it was selected. Since sound defines a Harley, 2-into-1 header-wrapped pipes dumping into a titanium sound enhancer were attached. I’m not an engineer, but the...

  But when Jim asked Rob what he wanted for the bike, “All he gave me was 21, that’s it,” Jim said. “I don’t even know what that means.” Free to do whatever he wanted with the bike, Jim was psyched. “I did feel some pressure to make it right, for sure, but that’s what I like to do, chop up the frames and get in there,” he said. One of Jim’s trademarks is a drop-seat frame. “I...

      Unfortunately not everybody has the time, the talent, or the treasury to tie up a bike for long periods of time. That’s why so many cash-strapped people today just throw on a set of louder pipes, a different handlebar and seat, and maybe some paint or graphics just to keep it on the road with enough left to fill the tank. Hey, they riding and having fun and that’s cool and...

  I did say I thought it was at least 37-yeqars just because of the hinged rear fender on the bike that was dropped after the 1980 model year. I also have a feeling that the owner stayed true to details even though this bike has been customized from tip to tip. The builder was also smart enough to make any changes easily reversible in case it had to be returned to stock. Man, I...

  It’s pretty damn cool as far as I’m concerned, but still not quite cool enough for someone like Michelle who apparently doesn’t do stock. “My husband Dave and I originally bought the bike from my husband’s friend, Heath Bethel, for me to learn to ride on,” said Michelle. “When I got the bike, it still had a swing arm, but had been modified by Heath with lowered suspension, an H-D...