Duane Ballard is no stranger to the custom bike scene. Having made custom hand tooled seats for Biker Build-Off winners Hank Young, Cole Foster and Greg Westbury to name a few. Duane knows how to put a bikes "look" together. Duane is also an aficionado of 1970s pop culture. He's been building model cars and collecting Ed Roth memorabilia for decades. With RatFinks and other ‘70s icons tattooed on his hide, Duane is a walking museum of the era.

When Duane was considering building his personal daily rider, he wanted something in line with his passions. "Harleys are cool,” Duane said, “but I fell in love with the Honda Choppers that I saw in the magazines when I was a kid.” I guess there was something different about the slim lines and raw power of the early Japanese motors that fascinated him.

Rather than buying a complete bike and chopping the hell out of it, Duane started collecting parts and tossing them in the "Bone Yard.” Like Dr. Frankenstein, Duane took parts from different sources to build a new breed of beast and breathed life into it. Duane and Joe Magalheas put long hours into the bikes major construction.

Ken at Cycle Exchange built Duane a blown out, dual Mikuni carburated 1976 CB-750cc motor with enough torque to wrench a coffin outta the grave. Match that with the 5-speed tranny, and you have the recipe for a remake of Bat Outta Hell.

For the body, Duane went with a C & G hardtail frame stretched 4-inches in the spine and then they raked the neck to 46-degrees. Keeping with the '70s look Duane scored a vintage Durfee 12-inch over Girder. "You don't see too many Girder front ends these days,” Duane said. “Springers are cool, but Girders kick ass".

For the paint work, Duane called on his buddy Robert Pradke from Custom Auto Design in Eastford, Connecticut. Robert was the painter of record for many of Indian Larry's award winning bikes, and is a master of custom design paint work. Hand laid pin striping and lettering, airbrush artwork are all done by Robert's own hands in his shop. Only the best would do for Duane's "Monster.”

Robert laid down a few base coats of Appliance White and then went to town doing the airbrush graphics on the gas tank, then topped it off with the lettering down the tanks top in a Dollar Bill Green.

With so many choices for parts these days, Duane went grave robbing and came up with an old Arlen Ness gas tank, a vintage octagon oil bag, handlebars from Cole Foster and an extremely rare Aris triangle head-light. The 19-inch front wheel from a Harley had to be milled down to fit between the legs of the Durfee 12-inch over girder front end and a vintage 16-inch rear wheel from Custom Chrome fit the frame.

Keeping with the "Only the best will do, Duane used a custom brake system from Fabricator Kevin in Michigan and bar end mirrors by Goblin Millworx. For the "Monsters" nervous system, Duane called on Zach Densmore of The Chop Shop in New Hampshire to wire the bike’s electrical system.

The kicker, for me at least, is the bike seat. Duane Ballard is the sole proprietor of DB Custom Leather. Duane has hand made wondrous seats for bikes showcased on television and graced in the pages of magazines for some of the world's top custom bike builders. You would think that with a pedigree like that, the seat would be a gaudy representation of his handy work. Duane did a complete 180-degree turn and instead handmade the seat to look exactly like one that you would find on a chopper from the 1970s. before LePera or Corbin were out hawking their wares. Plain black leather stitched in a straight-line pattern definitely keeps the bikes look '70s style.

After three years of working in the "Lab" putting together the bike from bits and pieces of scavenged and custom fabricated parts, it was time to breath life into the monster. True to the legend, on a dark and stormy night in New Hampshire, with lightning flashing and the air charged with static electricity, The beast belched and came raging to life with a deafening roar.

It's really a treat for me to find something so special and out of the main stream these days. Early Honda Chops are something that I grew up with and it's nice to know that they are still around and hopefully will be for many years to come.

You can contact Duane and see some of his custom seatwork at: http://www.dbcustomleather.com/.

If you're in the market for one of the sweetest paint jobs on the planet, contact Robert Pradke at: http://www.customautodesign.com/

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