What he got was a recently finished, 130” Ultima engine bike built and used expressly as a show bike. “It’s pretty much been a show bike all its life and it had less than 500 miles showing on it. The guy I got it from was 62-years-old and had never actually ridden the bike himself. He had artificial hips and two artificial knees so for all intents and purposes it was pretty new,” said Rodney.
This was a different way of having a custom bike for Rodney as he builds his own ground-up customs at his shop, but, hey, you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth when it comes for short money or in this case a trade which he was going to dispose of anyway. “I had to do a few minor things to it, but not much. I had to pull the carburetor off of it and clean all that up ‘cause the previous owner had in it was really bad gas,” he said. “Now, I try and run nothing but racing fuel through it since I don’t ride it that much,” said Rodney. “There was also just tightening bolts here and there and stuff like that as it got thrown together originally and wasn’t completely tight.”
One thing for sure, the 130” Ultima engine was making some serious power. “This thing made 164hp on the dyno at the rear wheel. It’ll peel your eyeballs back. There’s been several times I’ve been out on dry pavement in second gear at about 40mph and rolled into the throttle hard and it’ll break that 330 tire loose like it was nothing. And, I weigh about 300 pounds so that’s not easy to do,” said Rodney laughing.
So far, the only real change Rodney’s made to the bike is reupholstering the seat, but there’s a lot more changes in store when he gets the time away from his other builds. “We’re completely changing the paint. We’re going to do a paint job with some airbrushing, different fenders, different handlebars, different pipes, just basically keeping the wheels, tires, and the gas tank,” he said. “I’m going to powder coat the forward controls gloss black and get rid of some of the chrome. I’m also powder coating the heads and cylinders and stuff like that. It’s starting to show a little wear and needs a bit of freshening up. Actually, what I want to do and will end up doing is pretty much re-inventing it, that’s it.” With all the changes Rodney’s doing, it kind of makes you wonder how the El Camino’s making out.