The chopper you see here was built by Toik of Toik's Choppers located in Canyon Country, California. It is modeled after one of nature's more interesting creatures, the praying mantis. It seems that the mantis - a 2- to 6-inch, green, sometimes brown insect - waits patiently in the grass for its prey, with its front legs pulled in together as if it were in deep prayer. When the soon-to-be dinner victim gets in range, the mantis reaches out with its razor-sharp front legs, grabs the victim by its neck, tears its head off, and then consumes the rest of the tasty victim. Like others, the mantis has a natural predator, the bat. To be able to survive, the mantis must be very fast and nimble to avoid becoming a meal for a ravenous bat. Hence, Praying Mantis the chopper is green, long-legged, fast, nimble, and able to eat anything in its path.
The Mantis began existence with one of Toik's custom Softail-style frames. The frame was built to Toik's specifications by stretching both the downtubes and the backbone 5 inches and raking the neck to 40 degrees.
A Toik's Choppers swing arm is pressed into service, giving the chopper some rear legs to handle the road.
Mimicking the long and fast front legs of its namesake, the frontend has been designed to stretch way out front while maintaining exceptional strength. Toik accomplished this by pairing Ness Triple Trees with a set of 10-inch-over tubes riding in Ness legs, giving the bike an aggressive stance. A KT Components torsion bar system smoothes out the bumps encountered by the swing arm.
Helping maintain the graceful lines planned for the bike is a set of Performance Machine Tresspasser wheels - a 21-inch one up front, and an 18x5.5-inch riding out back. A set of matching Tresspasser rotors and P.M. calipers brings the Mantis to a quick halt, while Metzeler rubber keeps the bike in firm contact with the road.
There wasn't ever a question in Toik's mind when it came to the motor. It was a simple matter of needing a lot of power. Toik needed to look no further than the Merch catalog. Inside was just what he had in mind: a 120ci Stage I motor. When he looked at the impressive HP and torque numbers put out by the polished Merch, Toik knew there would be plenty of power to get the mantis to spring to life without performing any engine modifications. Getting the V-twin breathing is a Mikuni 45 carb and a set of Samson Drag pipes, which allows the exhaust to flow from the motor.
Toik was torn between a more traditional chopper-esque open-belt primary and an enclosed chaindrive. After giving this some serious thought, he decided on the chaindrive in order to maintain the clean, flowing look of the bike. A Harley primary was used to transfer all the power the motor had to offer to the Ness five-speed via the Bandit clutch.
When it came to the sheetmetal for the Mantis, there was no question that it would all be created in-house. The extra-long stretched aluminum gas tank flows seamlessly out of the seat up and along the backbone. Both front and rear fenders were fabricated from steel, as was the oil tank. Wanting to keep the rear fender looking clean, Toik fabbed a set of internal struts that would keep the sheetmetal precisely positioned.
Toik personally molded the frame, and once all the welds, seams, and joints appeared to be one, the frame and all the sheetmetal was loaded into the truck and delivered to Bob Dale for painting. He applied a basecoat of House of Kolor Kandy Metallic Green and numerous coats of clear until the bike had a dazzling finish.
Toik made good use of the time while the parts were out being painted. He kept himself busy fabricating numerous custom pieces from stainless steel that would be polished to a brilliant finish. The parts included grips, axle nuts, fork nuts, a shift linkage, and a coil cover. All were machined from solid stock that Toik machined a hex design into.
About the time Toik was finishing with the stainless steel parts, Bob called and let Toik know he could come by and pick up the green frame and sheetmetal that resembled a praying mantis now more than ever. By the time Toik's brother, Todd, returned with the parts, Toik had everything on the bench laid out and ready to be assembled. With the drivetrain, the suspension, and the sheetmetal reinstalled, the Mantis was in the home stretch. All that remained to get the bike on the road was the installation of P.M. hand and foot controls, Toik's bars with a VDO speedo, a Headwinds headlight, a Paul Yaffe Originals combination license mount/taillight, and a Bill Wall Leather seat.
After checking out the bike, Toik jumped in the saddle for a cruise through the mountains that surround L.A, looking for tasty victims.