What hit the American Motorcycle industry like straight pipes and tire sizzling burn-outs, at 4 in the morning? Television, in the form of Motorcycle Mania one and two. The introduction of chopper building skills and rebel attitude, unleashed broadband, to citizens all over the country, rocked the biker world. Then chopper heaven in the form of Biker Build-offs struck with round two. Who was responsible for this Tsunami boon to our lifestyle? It was Hugh King, the producer/director/writer and editor at large of Original Productions.

Hugh felt the crisp freedom and wild wanton wickedness of the chopper industry in 1947 as a Milwaukee youngster, with his nose pressed against his living room window. An older neighborhood wildman, Billy Brody, screamed down the street on a bobbed ’46 Indian Chief. He tore across his folk’s lawn and slid to a stop on the front porch ignoring the driveway and garage alongside the house. That scene, on the Oak shrouded street, was emblazoned in Hugh’s expanding creative mind for years to come. In fact he added a wild black and white scene of a biker burning into a bar, to his documentary resume while living off grants and making social action films.

Through the reams of vast, rough-shot, motorcycle footage he learned the Harley biker industry, from event coverage, to land speed record attempts. Hired by Original Productions he produced reality shows. Then one fateful day, while warm California rays graced his small Original Productions, office, Tom Beers, his boss, wandered in.

“Discovery Channel called,” he said. “They want a feature on the custom motorcycle industry. You’ve experienced the motorcycle world. It’s your assignment.” Since the offices were located in Burbank, California, Hugh investigated valley shops and called motorcycle mag editors. A mystery connection was made, and an old crocked finger pointed toward West Coast Choppers. “And the rest is history,” Hugh said.

By Motorcycle Mania two, Jesse became a star. “Viewers wanted to talk to him,” Hugh said of growing audience. “We filmed it for the average Joe and sensed immediately that people wanted to reach out and touch tools. There was a deep longing for the ability to make something out of nothing.”

Jesse smacked a cord in young American viewers with a ballpeen hammer against a flat sheet of aluminum. Fans witnessed pure raw alloy shaped into sleek gas tanks. “The footage of metal being annealed was graphically inspiring,” Hugh said. At that stage he was the producer, director, writer and editor (Tom Beers was the executive producer).

Discovery was rocked and wanted more, so Hugh directed the first four Monster Garage segments, then kicked off the Build-Off series.

Life kicked into high gear for Hugh and again Original Productions was approached by Discovery Channel to make Motorcycle Mania III or “Jesse James Rides Again” starring Jesse James and featuring his buddy, Kid Rock. Jesse worked with wheelwright, Fay Butler, in Massachusetts to learn the intricacies of copper fabricating. Fay manipulates old yoders like an artist’s brush shaping copper. Yoders were used in WWII to fashion sheets of metal for fighter fuselages and wings. Jesse and Fay worked together to shape the copper chopper gas tank.

The MMIII film endeavor raised the bar for Hugh. “I had the opportunity to work with high def film and top quality camera equipment,” he said. “We got to use the highest standard automobile commercial equipment like a Shot Maker and Chapman cranes for dramatic rolling angles.” His life hit overdrive as he filmed the building of the Copper Chopper for Jesse, American Bad Ass Chopper for Kid Rock, and they hit it to Mexico. “Nothing went according to plan,” Hugh said. “We changed the itinerary constantly. The people of Mexico were terrific as we shot from El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico, in 125 degrees, through 350 miles due south to Chihuahua.”

Hugh filmed spectacular footage of the two riders passing smoldering sand dunes, sweeping vistas and lumbering Iguanas crossing the rugged roads toward Copper Canyon.

Having the time of their lives they rode south to Chihuahua, a growing city, and searched through the old market place. Riding west they climbed 6,000 feet to Copper Canyon, in the middle of the Sierra Madres, which is six times longer than the Grand Canyon. They slept in a small village on the lip of the gorge, in a town of 65.

Jesse and the Kid accomplished their goal of escaping fame and fortune as they continued West toward the coast over torturous curved roads through blinding lightening storms and over a territory where the only vocation is hijacking. “We slept in the camera van,” Hugh said, “since there was no place to stay, until we reached the white sand beach on the Sea of Cortez. It was a transcendental experience.”

Motorcycle Mania III will experience limited theatrical release later this year, followed by Discovery Channel airing. Hugh has a year and a half invested in the film while directing Biker Build-offs with Billy Lane, Dave Perewitz, Roger Borget, Paul Yaffe, Indian Larry and currently with Yank Young, Chica, Eddie Trotta, Russ Mitchell, Arlen and Cory Ness. “Choppers have turned my life upside down,” Hugh said. Although the family man doesn’t own a bike, he rides constantly. “I’ll jump anything the builders let me straddle,” Hugh said. You can see the motorcycle mania fever boiling in his gaze.

What’s the future hold for Hugh King? The Biker Build Off series is rockin’ through another chrome and flamed season and even hotter segments are headed for next year. “We kicked off the series with Billy Lane and Roger Borget,” Hugh said. “Initially it was intended as an elimination competition, but no builder can manufacture one ass-kickin’ bike after another, every 30 days. We currently pick builders by regions and diverse styles.” In 2005 he hopes to throw a massive live finale in Las Vegas and take the bike voting interactive.

At 65, Hugh ramped into an all-time high with custom bikes. He’s riding it for all it’s worth and the entire industry benefits.

HUGH KING SIDEBAR:

THE LAUGHLIN BUILD-OFF– On April 20th ten of the world’s greatest bike builders thundered into Laughlin, Nevada. For 72 hours in a secret desert shop they worked non stop to create BBO X, a one-off 124 cubic inch, rigid, right side drive, black and chrome, spear-like chopper. Then they presented it to Hugh King, producer of Discovery’s Great Biker Build Off. The geniuses who came together to make this awesome steed were Arlen Ness, Cory Ness, Russell Mitchell, Eddie Trotta, Mitch Bergeron, Kendall Johnson, Matt Hotch, Joe Martin, Chica and Hank Young.

Chica hand fabricated the gas tank. Hank Young made the oil tank. Kendall Johnson was responsible for assembling and tweaking the 124 cc. S&S motor and the Baker 6 speed transmission, Mitch Bergeron was responsible for the frame and the billet down tube (in which was cut in the Roman Numeral X and the Discovery planet), Matt Hotch fabricated the fenders, Joe Martin built the pipes and did the pin striping, Russell Mitchell and Eddie Trotta built the front end and Arlen Ness and Cory Ness were responsible for the paint and the overall supervision of the project.

A special guest appearance was made by legendary seat maker, Danny Gray who fabricated a black leather seat with a zebra stripped manta ray inset.

On Saturday night, April 24th, before thousands at the Laughlin River Run, BBO X was unveiled and formally presented to Hugh King.

Each of the ten builders had competed in Bike Build Off before. Their ten bikes were on display at the Discovery both where the people voted on which motorcycle they thought was best in show.

Matt Hotch’s low slung, blue beach cruiser took the prize. Watch every Monday night for a new Build-Off on Discovery.

Brembo has a solid worldwide reputation, and I ran into a hot looking Brembo representative at an illustrious bike function and decide I’d give them a try. They’re hot and ready to rock. The only items I needed were the locking nuts for the back of the rotors bolts and the springer axle spacer. This set-up was designed for a stock springer replacement.

Because of the wild, light, taper-legged Paughco Springer my hiem joint link wasn’t long enough and I bastardized two fine bolts together temporarily. At that point I wasn’t considering a front fender. There are two aspects of chopperdom that I have a tough time working around. Bikes need front fenders and brakes. Can’t ride ‘em much without those two bastards. Even in the old days I ran front fenders, Avon Tyres and front brakes.

Chris Kallas came over at just the right moment. He’s as old at riding as I am and an artist. We’ve featured his work in special reports. He knows his bike shit and I’ve been trying to convince him to see Jim Murillo about a job. Jim has a paint shop in Torrance, but he’s not the graphics guy, Chris is.

As usual, about the time I think it’s going to be easy, the devil pops up on my shoulder. Kent, from Lucky Devil Metal Works in Houston called, “What are you going to do about a front fender,” he said? “Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’ll send you some shots of my springer front fenders.” He hung up and Chris looked at me sorta strange.

”Who the hell was that,” he said?

”Never mind,” I said flipping my computer on. Kent developed a system of mounting springer front fenders that’s clean as a whistle and odd as only the devil would make it. An engineer wrote Bikernet when I first featured his wild notion and chewed us out. “That idea’s not worth the powder the blow it to hell,” he shouted.

At first I thought he was correct, but the more I considered it, the more I determined that he was wrong. The caliper follows the line of the rotor, so the fender will follow the circumference of the Avon tire. Of course when I stepped into the ring to create a similar configuration I couldn’t do it like the Devil does. The Brembo caliper runs too far ahead of the rotor to mount the fender so we ran carefully designed struts off the brake linkage. Chris drew up the plan, then bent struts out of coat hanger for a guide.

We constantly tried fitment again and again before tacking them into place. I wouldn’t recommend this configuration to anyone. If you run struts off the caliper they’re solid. The heim joints allow the fender to fluctuate, especially side to side. I had to find a concave washer that would allow the heim joints to work up and down but not side to side.

Chris bent each rail to match in pure artistic form. Then I tacked them.

Kent built the front fender with threaded aluminum bungs underneath. I figured out some slender spacers to fit on top of the fender and tacked the rails to them. I must have welded them a dozen times trying to grab just enough rail, weld and spacer to prevent cracks.

There you have it. It’s wild, but will it last to the Badlands?

–Bandit

I’m not sure if I’m keeping everything in line. But this segment took us to Foremost Powder Coating in Gardena California. I was at that point when these shots were taken. I’ve had a Powder Coating Sponsor for years, Custom Powder Coating in Dallas. They’re good people and know how to handle custom work. They’ve handled jobs for Strokers Dallas, our custom for American Rider and even the 1928 Shovelhead for Bikernet.com.

Powder coating costs have dropped and it doesn’t make sense to ship a frame to Dallas. It would cost less to have it Powdered in LA than to pay for the shipping. So I looked around the area and was recommended to Foremost Powder Coating (877) We-Coat-it, 1608 W. 139th, Gardena, CA 90249. These people have their shit together and the girl who runs day-to-day operations, Esmeralda, is a delight on the eyes and to work with.

Let’s back up, though. Just before teardown for Powder I needed to think electrics. Kent from Lucky Devil Metal Works in Houston sent the above illustration for mounting the Compu-Fire voltage regulator under the tranny with the small Dyna Coils from Custom Chrome. I pondered that drawing and decided that I didn’t like the notion of putting my coils at ground level. What if I ran through a rain puddle? He’s built bikes using this technology several times and so has the guys at WCC, so it must work in most circumstances.

I decided that since I was going to run the Compu-Fire engine based electric starter that I had room under the oil bag for the coils. I still installed the sealed voltage regulator under the tranny on a 3/16 sheet of aluminum. But then welded brackets under the Craft Tech Oil bag to hold the two coils apart.

This was a delicate operation and ultimately the new Accell Sparkplug wires run right across the top of the RevTech Tranny. I also had just enough room behind the coils to house the wiring for the single-fire Compu-Fire ignition system. I thought through most every aspect of this motorcycle right up to the wiring business, then came up with a nuts notion, which I will explain during the final assembly process. It actually worked out fine with a handful of scary moments.

I welded four bungs that housed 3/8 fine threads to the frame with my Miller MIG welder. Ultimately I mounted the Compu-Fire voltage regulator to the pipe side (right) and it worked out fine.

It was time to strip the Engine out of the frame, complete final welds, grind the welds and ship the parts to Foremost Powder. I needed to create a temporary engine stand to hold the S&S 93-inch Shovel in place. I used a RevTech engine stand and mounted it to a junk metal table leg. It worked perfectly and I shoved it in a corner for future use.

As I tore portions of the bike down I formed zip-lock bags with labels to hold the fasteners. You’d be surprised how fast you forget which spacer fit what, unless you organize. Mike Egan told me years ago that he takes photos of every part and organizes his assembly with photographs to demonstrate how components matched or were fastened. Since I try to take shots constantly I had an archive of various aspects. Hell, I just need to turn on Bikernet and look up the tech.

The next move was to finish welding any tab or bracket that had been tacked or partially welded. MIG welding is a breeze, but not as dead certain as TIG and I’m after a Lincoln TIG welder.

Here’s all the fasteners, grommets and spacers in bags with biz card labels. It works like a champ although I replaced some of these fasteners with stainless Allens wherever possible.

Next I dug out all my tools for grinding welds and went to work. This level takes a great deal of patience and artistic style, which I don’t have. The more time and patience, the better each weld will look. There is actually a process for bondo filling powder now, but it’s more costly. If you don’t want welds to show ask about it. If you don’t mind the look of a clean weld, just powder. I wanted the look of a machine, nothing slick.

There’s one more consideration. Try to make each weld look the same as the next one for consistency. In my case that was tough. Some of my welds were decent, others sucked. I did my best, but my welds didn’t compete with the Paughco paid professional beads.

As I finished grinding and drilling holes in the frame for wiring I separated each group of powder finish parts and took a shot for the Powder guys at Foremost. It was a lifesaver to be able to hand them a shot of each group of parts since some had to be sand blasted before the finish was applied.

One more comment on drilling holes for wiring. This was one of the first times I drilled plenty of wiring holes. Remember Frank Kaisler’s rule? Drill the hole. Ream it out on a taper to prevent cutting your wires. Then with emery cones make sure there are no razor-sharp burrs in the tubing. Frank ran the emery paper then he’s twisted a Kleenex and shoved it in the hole. If it caught he’d sand the edges more. If not it was good to go. Let’s hit it to the next chapter, we’re burnin' daylight.

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 line of engines. What a natural. I liked that notion all the way around the block. First, it means more American hands in my new engine. Plus, what could be better than to have the best performance engine company on the planet working with the factory on the last and most refined V-twin configuration?

For this crew, and lots of riders all over the world, the FXR Evo is the best of the best. So, for Bikernet, this became the year of the FXR and the Evo engine. I asked the factory about their Evo engine program and received the following information.

A Modicum of Harley Engine History
The first 74 cubic-inch V-Twin engine on the JD and FD models was introduced in 1921 and the 45 cubic-inch side-valve V-twin engine (later to be known as the Flathead) on the D model debuted in 1929. The Flathead engine proved so reliable that variations of it were available on Harley-Davidson motorcycles as late as 1973 (servi-car trikes).

In 1936, Harley-Davidson introduced the EL model with an overhead valve, 61-cubic-inch engine. With increased horsepower and bold styling changes, the motorcycle earned the Knucklehead nickname, due to the shape of its rocker boxes.

New features were added to the 61 and 74 overhead valve engines in 1948, including aluminum heads and hydraulic valve lifters. New one-piece, chrome-plated rocker box covers shaped like cake pans earned this engine the nickname Panhead. The engine introduced on the Electra Glide models in 1966 to replace the Panhead became known as the Shovelhead, again due to the shape of its rocker covers.

Sources:

Bennett’s Performance

Branch O’Keefe