Rocking K Custom Leather – The Bikernet / Cycle Source Anniversary Chopper Leather Solution

The Bikernet/Cycle Source Sweeps saw its grand finale in Las Vegas and a Cycle Source subscriber won, Jordon Cambell, who will have the glorious opportunity to pick up his bike at Daytona Bike Week in March. But we won’t stop giving credit, where credit is due. One man added the final detailed touches to this Kustoms Inc. designed chop. Out from the dusty trails of the old West came an artisan, Howard Knight of Rocking K Custom Leather, who molded leather to his will and crafted heirloom-grade products for our sweeps machine. You can tell his cowboy influence by his perfected classic western floral designs and he created the world’s most expensive pair of cowboy boots ($106,000).

For 13 years, Knight refined his craft of creating innovation, one-off unique designs and high quality leather products for the motorcycle, western, and watch industries, combining exotic leathers with sterling and gold accents. During a recent custom bike show at the Harley-Davidson Museum, Prince Najar, the bastard who developed the Bikernet/Cycle Source sweepstakes team, witnessed Knight’s incredible range of work and his mastery of design and ability to integrate exotic leathers. He immediately tried to recruit Knight onto the our team.

After feeding Knight whiskey and cajoling him with bullshit about the building of the 15th Anniversary Bikernet/Cycle Source Giveaway Chopper sponsored by XPress lid and Spectro Oil, Howard agreed to handcraft a tool bag, saddle bag and seat for our Sweeps scooter. Whatta score.

His specialty is the classic western floral as evidenced in the Porter and Hollywood styles, along with Rocking K Custom Leather original designs. The Hollywood style harkens back from the Cowboy B movies of the ‘50s and is characterized by bold and flowing floral designs. The Porter style is an art deco style from the ‘20-‘30s and is tightly, defined and symmetrical.

Rocking K motorcycle seats are made up of three essential parts: the baseplate, the foam, and the cover. Gary Maurer of Kustom’s Inc., our primary builder, supplied the Fab Kevin epoxy powder-coated 16-gauge steel, which was pre-fit on the 15th Anniversary Chopper. The rugged baseplate was selected because it is a suspended seat and will take significant abuse over the lifetime of the build.

Knight designs seats to compress and mold to any body shape. The first ride should be as comfortable as the 100th and the seat should retain its shape and support for years. In order to ensure that a Rocking K Custom Leather seat is comfortable, Howard used top grade materials including medical foam, gel and his secret military composite material called KYDEX. KYDEX is a military-grade man-made material that is tough, noncorrosive and thermo-formable. It’s used extensively in the gun industry to mold and shape assault rifle holsters and magazine bandoliers. Howard uses it to contain his gel sections.

Gel displaces rather than compresses like foam. If you push down firmly on gel, it just changes its shape. Foam compresses to support your weight evenly over as large an area as possible. The combination provides the greatest amount of comfort. A 1-inch section of gel will do the job of 2.5 inches of foam.

“First-rate foam usually feels firmer than stock but it shouldn’t feel hard. It should offer gentle support,” said Howard. “A good test is to stand next to a seat and press down on the foam. It should depress by about a third.”

A soft seat provides no support and is just as bad as riding on the bare baseplate. On the other hand, a really hard seat can make you feel like you’re sitting on a piece of flexible plywood. Either way, your ass will be in agony at the end of a ride.

The most important component of seat comfort is the foam which includes both the shape and the quality of the foam itself. “This is truly a case of it’s what’s inside that counts,” said Howard. On the Anniversary Chopper, Howard used 7/8-inch high-quality foam pad. Because the chopper seat is unlike seats he builds for Softails and Baggers, there was only room for the foam pad. It was built to the specs of the bike, a bar hopper with limited saddle time and a whole lotta style.

When you look closely at the outline of the seat, you will see it is in the shape of a skull. The outer portion of the seat with the scrollwork frames the design. The logos were carefully positioned on the top and bottom side of the saddle.

Rocking K Custom Leather utilizes only American tanned cowhide from Herman Oak Tannery out of St. Louis. American leather is sourced because it delivers much better quality product, which means that it has greater consistency, few imperfections, more usable square footage and no bug bites or soft spots. The leather is a terrific weight for tooling and it provides good definition and shading when tooling, as well as taking dye exceptionally well.

Howard started by creating the design in his head. He used two pieces of leather to build up the profile as it fits on the skull shape of the pan. He then free hand-scrolled with an English gun engraving. He wet molded the leather, wet the back of the leather and then folded it over the foam. He used an elk antler to form the leather over the foam. The foam is hand-sculpted in a contour to support the winner’s body and align his spine at the best angle possible to relieve back stress.

The leather was worked in the natural cowhide color. After the design was finished, Howard dyed it three times and then applied an acrylic finish/sealer to provide water and wear resistance. The seat will last a good 20 years with just an annual cleaning. As it ages, it will take on a rugged worn patina.

Howard matched the saddle scrollwork with the saddlebag and tool bag. The seat alone took 12 hours to complete.

Howard hand-makes all the wrist watch bands for Montana Watch Company, and recently Willie G. approached him for a project, including a four-leaf clover motif designed in leather for his 2012 Ultra Glide.

Howard is a master when it comes to crafting and tooling leather filigree and snake inlays leather seats, saddlebags, cowboy boots, tank bibs, tool bags, and vests. If you are looking for a unique design that is made with old-world craftsmanship, jump to www.rockingkcustomleather.com . Tell him that Bandit of Bikernet.com sent you.

BIKERNET/CYCLE SOURCE BUILD SOURCES

Xpress
http://mysmartcup.com/

Crazy Horse
http://www.crazyhorsemotorcycles.com/

Texas Bike Works
www.TexasBikeWorks.com

Kustoms Inc.
KustomsInc@hotmail.com

Chop Docs
www.Chopdocschoppers.com

3 Guyz
www.3Guyz.com

Accel
Accel-ignition.com

Fab Kevin
http://www.fabkevin.com/home.htm

Evil Engineering
www.evil-engineering.com

D&D Exhaust

Wire Plus

Barnett
Barnettclutches.com

Rocking K Custom Leathers
howard.knight@montana.com
3443 Baldwin Rd.
Stevensville, Montana 59870
406-777-3542
406-777-3543 fax
www.rockingkcustomleather.com