Will Knox’s “Desperado”

Story and Photos by Eric Bass

Talking to owner, Will Knox, I kept reminding myself that we were talking about a bike build, and not a research project for his masters thesis in customology. “This whole thing started when I saw a bike in a chopper mag that featured a goose-necked frame that I liked a lot. So I hunted down the owner, who was very helpful. He pointed me to Killer Chopper Cycle Fabrication in New Hampshire, who had built the frame of that particular bike, and we worked out a design that I wanted for mine. When they were finished building the rolling chassis for me (frame, tank, wheels, oil bag, rear fender) I had it shipped to Larry Rydberg, who’s been in business for about 35 years here in Albuquerque so he could finish it up from there.

Starting with KCCF’s 43” raked gooseneck frame rolling on sweet-looking DNA spokers, Will and Larry set out to morph Desperado into a one of a kind custom designed specifically with Will in mind. “I was originally going to put an ’89 Evo engine from my H-D Lowrider in it, but it didn’t fit real well in the frame, so we ended up going with the 2005 replica pan from S&S that Larry recommended.” Will selected a set of HotMatch pipes that paralleled the arc of the frame and Larry modified them, wrapping the front pipe around the right side downtube like a snake. The prominent air cleaner has an asymmetrical effect on the look of the bike when viewed from the front, and looks aggressive and racy from the side.

All wires were run internally through the swoopy, pulled back, gull wing bars. The look was kept clean with no gauges, no signals, and no front fender. Even the sissy bar Larry built detaches if Will ever gets a wild hair, but his 69 year old bones like it better on, and the convenience of a little stashability comes in handy. After seven months of build time with lots of homework along the way, Will is now very happy with the $40K bike, and heaps praise upon Larry’s smarts and dedication.

“I didn’t know what to name it once it was done, so I went online and Googled around, and looked stuff up in a thesaurus, and eventually ended up with ‘Desperado’.” Seeing as how my dictionary defines a desperado as a, “bold or desperate outlaw, especially of the American frontier”, I can’t really argue with Will’s logic. The bike definitely is ‘bold’, and breaks plenty of the unwritten ‘laws’ of design with its creole of mix and match stylistic and functional elements, and heck, New Mexico even qualifies as ‘frontier country’.

Will professes an appreciation for Hank Young’s work, and you can see some of the meat and potatoes of Young’s aesthetic sauced over with some retro summer of ’69 Frisco, and well larded with cushy-isms like floorboards, a generously padded seat, Legends air shocks, not one but two storage compartments, and a 2-foot high sissy bar….for the rider.

A custom motorcycle that’s actually comfortable…ish?

Definitely a ‘Desperado’!!!

Owner: Will Knox

Like many folks who get detoured by raising a family, Will had about a 30 year hiatus between his childhood riding and his return to the saddle as an adult. When he was a teenager growing up in Austin, TX, he zipped around on a Doodlebug bike with a lawnmower motor, and later a little Honda. Many years on, he was in Acapulco on vacation when a spin on a scooter reignited the fever. Upon returning, a used Honda 450 found a new home in his garage. Will’s daughter was into Harley’s though, and pestered him into an ’89 Lowrider when he was 50, which Will readily took to riding all over the Southwest. A few years back he got the idea to pull together a custom, and at the tender age of 67 he found himself straddling ‘Desperado’ for the first time. “When Larry gave me the bike, I could barely ride it out of the parking lot. With all that rake, and the skinny wheel, and the wide bars, I thought my God what have I done? I built a bike I can’t even ride! I had to take it over to a shopping center with a big parking lot and basically started over learning to ride it. It doesn’t have much of a turning radius, but I’ve gotten used to that. Now I’m very comfortable on it.”