RNR Customs Canadian Streetable Softail

What the hell? I called Ryan Robinson who was rolling away from his 17-year-old shop on the outskirts of Toronto, in Guelph, Canada, a city of 121,000. It was a calm 28-degree night as he sliced his way home through 91 percent humidity. He spent a regular 12-hour day at his small service shop, RNR Custom Cycles, when I reached him. The first words out of his mouth were, “My daily mentor to this day is Bob McKay.”

Bob is a Hamster and owner of McKay’s Cycle Creations in Kingston, three hours away from Ryan’s shop. I’ve known Bob for 30-some years. He owned Bob McKay’s Harley-Davidson with his wife, Dianne, from 1986 until he sold it in 2002. I immediately mentioned about my knowing Bob and that he’s a Hamster. “So am I,” said Ryan. “I came around under Bob’s wing and became a Hamster in 2009.”

I scratched my head and muttered, “So am I. Class of ’87.” The conversation took on a new and colorful level at that point. For years, the Hamsters were known for their Easter-egg shell colored customs. I was one of the few outlaws of the bunch, but the club was made up primarily of guys who scratched-out their livings building motorcycles or motorcycle parts. Some were more successful than others, but the mantra was all about enjoying the passion of building custom motorcycles and having fun.

For a stretch, Hamsters were frowned on by some riders as being rich flashy bike builders who didn’t ride much, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, it goes beyond just the non-riding assumption. How many guys do you know who build bikes from the ground up, and then ride them to Sturgis or across the country? In the case of the Hamsters, that’s often the metal flake scenario.

As the Evo took hold, custom dressers became popular. Where the hell did the pseudonym “bagger” come from? They were all called dressers until Eric Ellis became the editor of Hot Bike Baggers. Then he changed everything. Anyway, we started to ride custom dressers, Victory Visions, and brothers started to bitch that they weren’t custom bikes. Paul Yaffe, another Hamster, put an end to that debate when he quit building choppers and created an entire line of products for baggers.

With each custom touring machine came another long-distance Hamster. “You’re right,” Ryan said. “Just a couple of years ago, I rode my bagger from home to Lansing, Michigan to hook up with Dave Bell’s son (also a Hamster), Graydon, to ride to Sturgis.” When he arrived, he asked Graydon when they planned to leave and how far they would ride the first night.

“We’re leaving now and riding straight through to Deadwood,” Graydon said, and straddled his bike in the service area of his dad’s dealership, Capitol Harley-Davidson in Dimondale, a suburb of Lansing. They peeled out for the 1350-mile ride. As they entered Chicago, rain forced them to the side of the road under an overpass, where Ryan donned his rain gear and a full-face helmet.

Ryan looked over at Graydon, who stood shivering in a wet t-shirt and popped open one of his saddlebags. It was empty. “What the hell?” Ryan said.

“All my clothes are at my Dad’s house in Deadwood,” Graydon said, and borrowed a sweatshirt. They hit the road once more.

In the Dakotas, the temps dropped to 60 degrees and it rained throughout North Dakota while the Hamsters peeled along interstates at 85 mph.

The next year, Ryan rode back from Sturgis with the notorious Shadley Brothers, Mark, Paul, and Jim. They were headed back to Whitman, Massachusetts. “Man, they ride fast,” Ryan said of the Hamster trio. They hit it out of Spearfish, South Dakota, Thursday afternoon, just after the annual Hamster barbecue. The clouds were ominous, but they were confident they could skirt the dark front and make it through.

“We didn’t pass through Rapid City before it started to rain,” Mark Shadley said, “but we kept rolling.” At just over 150 miles east on Interstate 90, the weather got the best of them. In the wind-swept downpour they passed overturned 18-wheelers, travel trailers blown over, and upside down citizen sedans. “We had to escape this hurricane.” They were headed directly for the epicenter.

They peeled off the interstate, heading north for another 200 miles, until they were clear of the storm and cut east on small two-lane highways through North Dakota and into Minnesota, where they shut down in a small town hit so hard by the passing storm all the power was still out.

The next morning, they were up and on the road by 9:00. “That was the longest day I ever spent riding,” Mark said. “We rode in the rain most of the day, and rode until 2:00 in the morning and covered only 900 miles.” Ryan rode a hopped-up Road Glide, and Mark a Victory Vision. Brother Paul rode a Victory Cross Country, and brother Jim a 95-inch Road King. All the bikes held fast, breakdown-free, as they rolled through Wisconsin and into Michigan.

At Salt Ste. Marie on the St. Mary’s River, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, they hid from the rain and bedded down. They wanted to awaken early, take break and a ferry ride around the Great Lakes, but couldn’t muster in time for the 6:30 launch. Crawling out of the sack, the soggy Hamsters straddled their scooters once more and rode 450 miles across the border into Canada, skirting the North Channel, then the Georgian Bay and headed south for Ryan’s ranch outside Guelph, 75 miles west of Toronto.

The next morning, the Shadley brothers loaded up their damp gear and headed home toward their shop of 40 years in Whitman, Massachusetts, another 500 miles in the rain. “It only let up on us for 20 stinking miles,” Mark said.

That year, the Sturgis Hamster riding season began with Ryan and the Shadley Brothers riding from their hometowns to the west coast, then back to Sturgis, then home. That’s two cross-countries in a month for the furry beasts. Can’t say they don’t ride.

So, what about this Softail? Buck Lovell shot the photos in Sturgis a couple of years ago. Ryan picked it up in Canada as an insurance job. “It was barely scuffed,” Ryan said. He hauled it to RNR and went to work. “I could have repaired and restored it to stock, but I wanted to try out some new PM and RSD components.” It turned out to be the perfect easel for the application of custom parts. “I only modified the fenders; the rest was bolt-on and paint.”

It’s a hell-of-an example of how a handful of PM and RSD components, and Rollie’s custom paint can transform a stock Softail into a stock configuration, agile, reliable custom bike.

Ryan’s shop maybe just over 5,500 square feet, but it’s constantly cooking with standard service work, bike builds like this one (with six to eight lifts busy all the time), bagger renovations, and he currently has eight engines on his clean-room bench lined up for rebuilds.

So there you have it. The life of a Hamster is all about riding, building, and living the custom motorcycle dream. “For Bob McKay, it began as a hobby, then he became a class A motorcycle mechanic,” said Ryan, “which he built into a world class business, sold it, and now it’s a hobby again. I aspire to the same goal.”

BIKERNET EXTREME RNR TECH CHART

Owner(s): Ryan Robinson

City: Guelph

Phone: 519-821-8666

State: Ontario, Canada

Email: rnrcustomcycle@bellnet.ca

Year: 2011

Model: Softail
Fabrication: Ryan Robinson
Chrome: Plating House

Bike’s name: Danger Zone
Brand name: Ultima
Build time: 1 month
Assembly: RNR Custom Cycle Ltd

Engine SPECS

Year: 2005
Manufacturer: HD
Model: Softail
Displacement: 95
Rebuilt by: RNR Custom Cycle ltd
Lower-end: H-D
Balancing: H-D
Ignition: Race Tuner

Cases: H-D

Cylinder heads: H-D

Pistons: WISECO
Cylinders: H-D
Exhaust: Supertrapp – Xpipes Paul Yaffee

Transmission

Year: 2005
Model: 5-speed
Trans. sprocket/pulley: 32
Primary drive: H-D
Transmission Case: H-D
Manufacturer: H-D
Shifting: H-D
Drive side: LEFT
Sprocket/pulley: PM-Gasser Contrast Cut
Gears: H-D

Frame

Year: 2011
Model: Softail
Suspension type: Softail
Motor mount type: solid
Manufacturer: Ultima
Stretch: stock
Neck rake: stock