Bike Builds

 The story of Hugh King and his grand television career spanning four decades has been told over and over. In fact he just completed another adventure for the History Channel in the cold snowy north, but the series is a secret.He has only one motorcycle and it’s this one built by 10 of the greatest builders of our time in a hidden desert location in an old machine shop outside of Laughlin, Nevada and across the Colorado River from Bullhead, Arizona.  “They built the bike under the constraints of a very short deadline,” said Hugh.The master builders included Arlen and Cory Ness, Matt Hotch, Chica, Eddie Trotta, Hank Young, Kendall Johnson, Mitch Bergeron, Russell Mitchell and Joe Martin. Just up ...

My grandson wrecked his Dyna. He thinks he went down on a slippery west side boulevard, but the bike looks like he was rear-ended, which launched his girlfriend. She was seriously damaged, but survived. He got scuffed and walked away. He needed a place and some guidance with his ’05 Dyna. He could have sold it and moved on, but he was so impressed with the performance after Bennett’s Performance tuned it and added some S&S TC cams, he didn’t want to let it go. I called Dr. John, in Anaheim, about his frame and spoke to Eric Bennett. We will bring you a complete report on what we do to his Dyna in the very near future.  So, we ...

In a sense, this project is indicative of this time in my life and the life of many bikers everywhere. I asked myself if this should be a life and times story. Let’s see if I can make sense of my life right now. I’m feeling stress at almost 70 and I don’t get it. Actually I do, but I don’t want to feel anything but nirvana. Hell, I built a motorcycle nirvana right on the coast, across the street from the Port of Los Angeles. But there’s something not right about that. They are now calling it America’s Port, yet the port has basically shit on the town adjacent to one of the richest ports in the world. I’ve ...

I spent a lot of money and time rebuilding an old 41mm wide glide for my 1969 Panhead build. It was one of those crazy builds, fulla twists and turns, but the glide haunted me. It wasn’t long enough. I would have liked it to be 2-over for a better stance for a rider 6’5” tall. I squeaked another inch out of it with spacers over the springs. Of course, it rode like shit. I adjusted it, but it still rode badly. Maybe I’m getting old, but I don’t like that excuse. This bastard rode hard even with the wide, soft, cop solo seat. Then the glide actually broke down. I lost the mechanical brake springs. They broke on the ...

My grandson wrecked his Dyna. He thinks he went down on a slippery west side LA boulevard, but the bike looks like he was rear-ended, which launched his girlfriend. She was seriously damaged, but survived. He got scuffed and walked away. He needed a place and some guidance with his ’05 Dyna. He could have sold it and moved on, but he was so impressed with the performance after Bennett’s Performance tuned it and added some S&S TC cams, he didn’t want to let it go. I called Dr. John about his frame and spoke to Eric Bennett. Dr. John was able to straighten the frame without a complete teardown. Amazing.Next, we jammed to the Long Beach Swap Meet to ...

Okay, so the classic 19-inch spoked wheel rolled in from Black Bike Wheels, in Van Nuys. They have grown to build spoked wheels for every make and model in virtually every size. Too cool. If you need a spoked wheel give them a call and speak to Elliot or Eric. Tell them Bikernet sent you.The wheel, with a tough used and stained aluminum racing rim, unpolished stainless-steel spokes and a blacked cast aluminum Black Bike hub painted and scratched by me looked perfect. It was shipped, carefully packaged with the machined center spacer, Timken bearings and new seals wrapped securely and separately.At first, I thought I would haul it to the local bike tire repair shop on Western, in Harbor ...