Bike Features

The industry is nuts with production bikes, new manufacturers andone-off custom builders popping up daily. It’s terrific for the guylooking for a particular machine. The sky’s the limit, and here’s astrong example of a custom line bent on performance. John Covingtonhas more than a 15 year history of building bikes. His goal is to build […]

I grew up around old skool bikes. My dad has a policespecial Pan and a high bar chopper Pan, as well as astroked Shovel, a flathead, and two Ironhead Sportsters. It'sbeen in my blood way before the yuppies decidedDiscovery Channel made it cool. I always wanted tobuild a Pan after years of riding on my

“Here is a Bobber that nobody expected me to build,” said Cyril Huze, “Except me and my client, Paul Gren, from Orlando. Graffiti is the first form of Hip Hop. It pre-dates Rap and all the other forms!!! Graffiti is still the only art form where the life span of a work can be as

Alex is a techno/engineering guy who builds stuff to blow up terrorists by profession, so naturally he went hunting for his dream bike on the Internet. He was searching for a fat tire bike, and wanted a performance bike that he could ride. He actually narrowed the field down to 3 builders, and intended to

No, it’s not a trick of the camera. We’re not squishing down this bike through some chicanery of digital lens/Photo Shop machinations. It is muy limbo low to the ground.The guys at the Garage Co. in L.A. got their inspiration from vintage Bonneville racers…big fat tires, skinny profile, kicked out springer, high pipe, we don’t-need-no

There are many unique things about being an American. Being able to begin your life in humble circumstances and rise to greatness is the pilot light in the furnace that makes up the American soul. You can do anything here. Another part of American culture is that the people who often fully appreciate the American

Roger, Chris and Darren. Everyone has their dream bike in mind but very few people have the vision, let alone the money to make it all happen. But once in a while, a customer comes along that gives builders the chance of a lifetime. My friend Chris was one of these customers. Returning from a

Jake and Jerrod Walter are 21 and 22 year old brothers who worked side by side to build this bike, and what a bike it is. Their main business is farming but dreams of cultivating mechanical masterpieces co-exist with corn. They’re from New Berlin, Il., which is approx. 15 miles from Jacksonville, Il. This is

The Steed 200 Pegasus isn’t your dad’s land yacht bike. The Pegasus 200-TM is the performance Touring Steed. PERFORMANCE, it’s just a word to many gear heads. At Steeds we view motorcycles as the ultimate freedom machine. To us, performance means that you can get on your bike, ride it anywhere, and have the confidence

Sometimes you have to head west when the crowd is heading east to find something truly unique. This was the case during Biketoberfest. Rather than joining the bustling throng in Daytona Beach yet again, I headed west to Santa Fe, New Mexico to hook up with Carlos Calles and his Irish Rich/Shamrock Fabrications built Santa

It was hard to imagine, when we stood in front of the garage doors, starring at a pile of boxes, that somewhere in there, somehow, a custom bike lurked. As it developed, except for a non-existent nut or bolt, the CCI Goliath kit was complete. The chromed quandary, could a novice builder, an average American

“Here’s some new shots of Bree, the naughty schoolgirl. If you can get pastdrooling over Bree, there’s one of our bikes with a cool devil chick in redpainted on the tank,” Said John Covington, president of Steed Muscle Bikes. She’s straddling one of John’s Steed 300-VM AppaloosaChoppers. Bree has straddled plenty of Motorsports modeling and

Hang on for this feature. This poker hand will take you from the bare shotgun frame to big-titted babes posing on the finished monster at the Smoke Out. Plus the owner of the shop and the builder, fabricator from Bitter End Old School Choppers wrote the story. Bitter End Old School Choppers is a chopper/machine

I usually shoot features on hard chopped Harleys. They’re my main course meat and potatoes. Long front ends and chopped frames with tons of chrome flashing in the sunlight. Every once in a while I run across a tasty morsel to temp my palette. I call ’em dessert, all fancy, done-up with a cherry on

I got the call on a cloudy Monday morning as I was drinking my morning coffee and trying to figure out which hand to jerk off with that morning. Just as I had made up my mind, I think it was the left hand; the phone began ringing with the resonance off my morning alarm

Here’s a bike feature that tells itself, which is often the best kind. The owner actually spelled out his lurid story from a school teacher and chopper enthusiast to ultimately, in his future, a bike builder. His bike recently won best of show at the second annual Choppers Only Show on the island of Oahu

Not long ago an issue of American Rider was devoted to lowered models contrived for shorter more compact riders. It was natural to feature a custom devoted to the tight-is-right crowd. In a custom world gone nuts with bigger, stretched, wider, fatter and pumped up motorcycles it was a lengthy chore for Buzz Buzzelli to

It all started when the Horse Magazine issued a challenge to four talented builders for their annual Smoke Out this year. The challenge, to build a cool rideable bike, for under 10 grand, and have it at the Rowan County N.C. fairgrounds for judging on June 25th. The builders accepting the challenge were Josh Mills,

</centerThe new issue of Cycle World features this bike on the cover and a rather bizarre article that’s not really a lot about the bike. This piece does a little better job telling the real story and is told by a secret agent imbedded within the Performance Machine compound… Strangely enough, bike building has become

I’ve been intending to send a few shots of the FLHS, the “S” believe it or not means Sports. It is a 1990 Sports bike and for those familiar with this model will verify, it is far from a Sports bike. But it must be because my insurance premium is about $300 more than my

The master, Roger Goldhammer. The second annual AMD ProShow in conjunction with the Custom Chrome Dealer show was held in Las Vegas the weekend of November 18th-20th, 2005. Billed as The World Championship of Custom Bike Building the event is sponsered by American Dealer Magazine (<http://www.amdproshow.com/>www.amdproshow.com) is a well-respected trade magazine published by Robin Bradley

Lexi ain’t exactly a Goblin, but what the hell. On a beautiful day in Hawaii, what started off as just another local barbeque, somehow turned into another impulsive but creative bike build. After throwing around ideas with Discovery Channel’s Chica and throwing back a few beers, we were able to come up with another awesome

A classic Roth shot from the ‘60s. Extended front ends were the rage then. Justin Schilling, of Two-Bit Choppers, recently completed this Buell conversion for a customer, Randy Carlson, out of Bend, Oregon. “Of course Bend is ground zero for BMC,” Justin said, “and Randy was actually good friends with many of Big Mike’s crew,

Cole Foster and his Bride-to-be, Susan. I’ll begin this rant with a clear definition of the story direction. If you know me, you know a clear definition ain’t possible, but I’ll give it a shot. I believe that Cole Foster of Salinas Boys Customs, Salinas, California is one of the very best at what he