Bike Features

Dave Johnson is a genuine connoisseur of motorcycle rallies and events.  After building a custom Ultra several years ago, Dave finally decided that he wanted to build a complete ground-up custom bagger that exhibited his style while still allowing him and Jan to ride to the rallies they had grown to love.  With a loose […]

It all started when a brother was desperate for cash and I bought a basket case Dyna, and with the help of JIMS machine turned it into an FXR. I started to build it for my son, Frank, the tattoo artist, around an old Kenny Boyce-styled pro street frame. Making progress on this build, with

Editor’s Note: The Bikernet staff supports the new series of Editor’s Choice bike shows created by Chris Callen of Cycle Source. They were created to give guys an opportunity to meet magazine editors and hopefully get their bikes featured in national magazines. Bikernet was one of the original supporters and the only Internet magazine in

  Sooo you’ve been searching the internet for dealerships that have new bike sales and you stumble across a husband and wife selling ‘both’ their bikes for two thirds of what you’d pay for a new one. One’s a 2009 Yamaha Road Warrior; the other is a 2009 Yamaha Raider. Both have less than 8500

In a world gone insane with new tech and import parts, there are still builders who create true works of art the old school way. A couple of years ago, a handful of us, including Billy Lane, Jeremiah Soto, and the boss of Sucker Punch Sally, rode north to Half Moon Bay from Los Angeles.

    The driving force behind designing and building bikes, for me, usually comes from something I’ve seen and want to put my own spin on. Recently, I saw a particular bike that caught my eye at the Yokohama Bike Show in Japan. I was really impressed with what I saw at the show and

We’ve followed Brass Balls Bobbers since Dar Holdsworth kicked off his effort to build cool rideable custom scooters out of Oklahoma in 2006. He scrambled through partnership wars, divorce, and in 2008 the economy tanked, yet somehow he survived to be one of the only makers of high quality, American made, production custom scooters alive.

While the company, Birmingham Small Arms was launched in 1903 (same year as H-D), BSA’s most popular vertical twin cylinder bikes appeared toward the end of the 1950s including 500cc and 650cc models with cool sounding names like Super Flash and Road Rocket. Although they were somewhat less dynamic in appearance, they earned a reputation

  Biker Pros rolled into Indy to produce the 2013 US Championship of the Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show in a city known for the The Greatest Spectacle in Racing: the Indy 500. To say we were excited would have been an understatement. To a man, the Biker Pros team loves racing. We even race

I’m a Panhead aficionado. I’ve owned at least a half dozen, so when Markus Cuff shot this stellar 1960 restored Super Sport Solo for American Iron I was intrigued but patient. I had to wait out the magazine publishing deadlines and schedules. It finally hit the bricks in the June 2013 issue, and Jim Babchak

If you are planning to be at the upcoming annual Sturgis Motorcycle rally, make a point of zooming to the East end of Sturgis to Guy Edward’s Caddy’s Whiskey Bar. Get a close look at this Sturgis Rat Harley-Davidson XL Chopper in person, and sit and sip a cold one of whatever it is you

Many motorcycle riders, myself included, wish they still had the first motorcycle they ever owned. Jay Ternes is not one of those riders. He, in fact, still has his first motorcycle. It’s a 1977 Harley-Davidson XLH, which he purchased in 1977 from a Harley-Davidson dealer in Iola, Kansas. Ten years earlier was the first year

Many of our brothers have not returned. Our brothers, who have given their lives to defend our freedom, deserve a memorial. They deserve to be remembered and honored through our actions and our appreciation for their sacrifice. Many of our brothers when they return, have the desire for freedom and independence that nothing satisfies, like

Well I woke up this mornin’ drizzlin’ rain,Around the curve come a passenger train,Heard somebody yodel and a hobo moan,Jimmy he’ dead, He’s been a long time gone,Been a long time gone, Been a long time gone,If you wanna get to heaven gotta D-I_E,You gotta put on your coat and tie!   –Lyrics by: Waylon

I’ve been scrambling from project to project, but this feature always lingered in the back of my mind. I picked it as the Long Beach Ultimate Builder Bikernet Editor’s Choice winner, and Peter Linney immediately shot it for a feature, and then he wanted his payment. I didn’t like the way he shot this bike,

  Malaunay, France, a small picturesque farming village of some 6,000, hugs the banks of the Cailly River some 12 kilometers north of Rouen. Situated in the Haute-Normandie region of the country, its economy is humbly described as one of “light industry” and no doubt that would include the more heavyweight activities that transpire behind

Their father first introduced the Shadley Brothers, all four or five of them, to motorcycles at a very young age. At 13, Mark Shadley mentored as a mechanic where he learned the ins and outs of the trade and business. Paul Shadley also started his life in the repair industry at a young age. By

     Indian Motorcycle, the first American motorcycle company, revealed a custom-built streamliner named the “Spirit of Munro.” The one-of-a-kind vehicle was unveiled in a special surprise announcement on Saturday, March 9 at Daytona Bike Week following the reveal of Indian Motorcycle’s new Thunder Stroke 111™ engine —the incredible new power plant for the upcoming

Editor’s Note: We shared this feature, minus the girl, with IronWorks Magazine. The issue featuring this very street-able Sportster custom is on the newsstands right now, that is, March of 2013. So if you need a print version of this feature, there you have it. When brother Jim stumbled into the Spitfire Motorcycles machine shop

I met Mark Daley during my Easyriders years, at a show. He was obviously a very talented young builder with an artistic eye and amazing fabrication capabilities. It was a pleasure to run into him at the 2012 Las Vegas Bike Fest Artistry in Iron show. Times have changed and the dragon slayer-styled chopper doesn’t

Marking the end of one chapter in our history and setting forth on the beginning of the most exciting one yet, the Final Edition is a tribute to all that was and all that will be.    A stunning yet powerful bike, it features the 1939 World’s Fair paint scheme of  Thunder Black and Indian

When it comes to Paul Cavallo’s dry wit and motorcycle-building capabilities, it takes no more than a the whisper of a breeze through California hillside brush to kick off the desire to build another chopper or bobber. He hardly needs any excuse to work 14-hour days along side his master machinist dad. Call him for

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