ROAD KING REPORT–Initially I had some questions regarding Road Kings. I wanted to know some about the frame geometry. I perfer a little trail over low speed, parking lot handling. I like to run fast and stable. Next I’m old school. I perfer a bike with minimun extras so I lean toward a carb model […]
The Road King Report Installment 1 Read More »
The competition has changed, expanded. Can home-built choppers fly to Sturgis? Can Jesse James build a chop and actually ride it, with all his tools, mechanics, equipment, lathes, milling machines, and money? Can Billy Lane from Choppers Inc. build a bike by hand while wanton women dance seductively around him daily in him Maimi based
Bikernet East – The Rolling Chassis Read More »
Each custom motorcycle has a story. That’s one aspect of this treacherous world that sets it apart from stock bikes. Stop any rider of a chop and ask him about his bike and he’ll either punch you in the face or tell you how he started to build his bike, lost his wife and family
Sturgis 2000 Project Bike – Bandit II Lives Read More »
Here’s the deal. The 1928 project was recently completed except for a stylish exhaust system. The antique notion was based on racers from the ’20s, something way off the pavement, open and short. JR, the service director of Strokers, explained the steps, “They were cut and pasted together. Bits and pieces from the
1928 Shovelhead Runs Part VII Read More »
Photo 1 While Zebra spins ahead with his project bike on wheels, Jesse James and his entourage are interviewed as yuppies of the year on the Discovery Channel, Billy Lane of Choppers Inc. carves another rigid frame on the pages of Horse magazine and Jay hunts through the parts bins at Station 34 bike
Bikernet West – Zebra’s Chop is in the Lead Read More »
Bikernet East, Zebra Report 8/17/2000:ZEBRA CRUSHES BANDIT! ARRIVES FIRST IN STURGIS! Despite overwhelming odds, such as a rev limiter installed secretly byBandit (later ripped out and thrown in the ditch), heavy rain on the eastcoast, phony tags (fuck the Florida DMV), a bleeding gas tank (Bandit issuspected here as well), hail in Atlanta, deer in
Bikernet East – The Zebra Reports Read More »
Wiring is the nemesis of man, the puzzle of the best builders, the hornet’s nest of breakdown treachery. Bandit sat for hours drawing a wiring schematic for Agent Zebra’s Softail, only to rip it to shreds and toss it in the trash. He made lists while Sin Wu brewed strong coffee and baked
Bikernet West – Electronics in a Weekend Read More »
Here’s the deal. With less than two weeks to go I’m praying, laughin’, grinning and scrambling. The paint finally arrived from Harold Pontarelli of H-D Performance of Vacaville, California, and the dark haired beauty wanted to be at the shed when I opened it. I paced the floor waiting for her alabaster legs to bring
Bikernet West – Belt Drives Limited Open Belt Installation Read More »
When the dust and metal filings settled, the smoke cleared, and the greasy gang of wrenches at the famous Bikernet Garage sobered up, before us stood a gleaming new chopper, complete and ready to break in, save for a few minor tweaks and a seat. The Zebra entry for the Bikernet ChopOff 2000 was complete.
Bikernet East – Zebra’s Chop Unveiled Read More »
Late into the evening, Bandit, Nuut Boy, and my wonderfully-knowledgeable- self hammer, weld, bolt, space, and tear our beards out moving forward on Bandit’s rigid. The Weerd Bros front end is in place with the Roadwings 21-inch, 40-spoke wheel. The rear is a 180-18, both with Avon tires. The frame is stretched 6 inches up
Bikernet West – Amazing Progress Read More »
In a mad rush to build and break-in a monster Simms built S&S motor rigid before the long haul to Sturgis, Bandit makes an abrupt move. At the final hour he decided to take the frame to a local powder coater in Orange County who is capable of layering on a two or three stage
Bikernet West – The Blue Bomb Explodes Read More »
Thunder Cycle Designs629 E. Sunrise BlvdFt. Lauderdale, Fl 33304 “I’m thinking of having a painter do up the bottom of the bike with some radical paint design because the fucker is so damned fast with this S&S 113 that it brings the front end off the ground in second gear. I’m not kidding. I had
Bikernet East Installment 5 Read More »
I knew it! The sonuvabitch couldn’t make it to the Badlands and back on that piece of shit. I knew it! The way Bandit mounted that tank was fucked from the beginning. I told him. Nuutboy told him. Harold Pontarelli told him. Shit, his 78-year-old mother told him. Did the big bastard listen? Nooo. So
Bikernet West Bogged Down In Pheonix Read More »
Custom Chrome introduces the world’s first rocket-powered Zebra. The power plant of the Great Zebra Northern Steamer for Bikernet Chop-Off 2000 by Special Agent Zebra 05.22.00. The Great Zebra Northern Steamer is to be a biker’s bike. No fantasyland Hollywood bullshit in the way of $80,000 paint jobs or diamond encrusted spokes, no chop-shop hoopla,
Bikernet East – An Eagle in the Garage Read More »
One of the best aspects of building bikes nowadays is the integrity of the components. If you get the right mixture of components together and take care with the wiring and assembly, you’ll have a bike as reliable as factory stock. That’s one of the reasons Bandit has moved to using Compu-Fire electrical components
1928 Shovelhead Project Part IV Read More »
Hey, here’s quick bit on George The Wild Brush who handled the Pin Striping on the 2005 Sturgis Shovel project. He’s pin striped several other bikes for me in his 47 years behind the brush. Born in Hanford, California, a miserable military town, in 1944, he kicked tumbleweed while his mom worked on a base.
Sturgis Shovel Part 12 Read More »
This is strange. I’m writing several Sturgis Chop Techs after I returned from Sturgis. I’ll try to remedy that in the future, but we were so damn busy trying to complete the bike and run Bikernet, we didn’t keep up on the techs. Many apologies.This piece covers the installation of the hot Speedster cap from
Sturgis Shovel Part 9 Read More »
Helluva weekend. Anytime there's lots of motorcycle carnage,sex, whiskey and writing, I'm all for it. Maybe it's Valentines Daycreeping up. Make a note. Here's the deal on the Sturgis Shovelhead. Sincethe engine was in and mounted I went to work on the exhaust system,then seat mounting, position and played with the bars. I made a
Sturgis Shovel Part 5 Read More »
We've developed a working relationship with S&S, and I was concerned about the 105-inch Shovelhead Richard Kranzler scored for my Sturgis Chop project. His motorcycle ran like a raped-ape, but the 105 tore the livin' shit out of his old school chassis. The mirrors became frisbies, the footpegs vibrated lose and ditched him at 125
Sturgis Shovel Part 3 Read More »
In a dank dark corner of a dusty debris strewn shop behind the Strokers Saloon on Harry Hines Blvd in Dallas was a small stack of bike parts guarded by a massive starving pitbull with one eye and most of one ear chewed away. The beast was so vicious that it once chewed through a
1928 Shovelhead Project Part II Read More »
Back to : Mudflap Girl Part 1a Okay, you have the story behind this build, and Chris Kallas is refining the concept drawing. My engine arrived from the factory, and Eric Bennett immediately noticed the return address, in Viola, Wisconsin. As it turns out, the factory hired the S&S crew to assemble their Evo
Mudflap Girl Part 2, the Bandit Engine and Spitfire update Read More »
Life is nuts, or is it just me? Fortunately, we have motorcycles and women to chase. And this year became the year of the Evo, the FXR, and the mudflap girl. I’m scratching the back of my head and wondering how to kick off this build for 2011. There’s a lot on the plate this
Mudflap Girl Part 1, the Concept Read More »
Illustration by Tim Conder. I'm attempting to build the ultimate handling chopper. It's not designed to be a show winning, bitchin looking, artistic masterpiece. I'm going another direction, attempting to build a righteous, old school, performance, handling, and reliable machine. No, it's not a Martin Bros job, and from an artistic standpoint I believe they
Sturgis Shovel Part 2 Read More »
