Sometimes you just gotta go all out when it comes to advertising your business. You've seen it so many times before: a truck comes down the street in your direction and before you can even read the name on the side, you know the company the truck represents just by the color scheme painted on it. That was just the visual recognition Fuzzy was looking for when he decided it was time for a rolling advertisement for his Shakedown Street bike shop located in Ventura, California. Fuzzy and his partner, Marty Cherrie, had been in business for about six months when they decided the time was right to put together a bike that would help convey to existing and potential customers just how far the pair could push the bounds of two-wheeled transportation.
The bikes coming out of Shakedown, as of late, have a very distinctive fat and stretched look and feel to them. This being the case, Fuzzy wanted the new bike to mirror that style. That's when he grabbed the phone and called his buddy Mike at Amen Chassis Works. The two kicked around a few ideas, and by the time the conversation came to an end, Fuzzy decided that the only way to go would be with one of Amen's Softail-style frames.
The frame was penciled into Amen's production schedule and arrived at Shakedown a shortly afterward. Marty and Fuzzy tore into the crate to reveal the beautiful frame, complete with accommodations in the rear for a 230-series tire. The other end revealed a 38-degree rake that would be paired with a set of Amen's 7-degree triple trees, giving the 10-inch-over forks a whopping 45 degrees of rake. The massive Amen swing arm used a set of Progressive Suspension shocks to give the back of the bike just the right amount of cushioning. A pair of Amen, Twisted Sinner, two-piece, billet wheels was mounted in both the front and the rear. The front carried a 21-inch Avon, while the 9-inch-wide rear wheel was home to a 230 Avon.
At this point, Fuzzy still wasn't sure what motor would be powering the bike, but he did know it would be something in the 100-plus-horsepower range. With this in mind, it was obvious that good brakes were a necessity. To accomplish this, Fuzzy mounted Pro-One rotors and Performance Machine calipers to both ends of the bike. The rolling chassis was completed with the addition of a H-D front fender and an Amen rear fender and oil tank.
Right about the time Fuzzy was narrowing down his motor choices, a new neighbor moved in next to the shop. The new resident was Dave Olp of Milwaukee Performance. Olp and the guys at Shakedown hit it off immediately, with the move barely complete, Olp filled the guys in on the details of his new project. It would be the next generation of his proven 100ci Fatso motor; wanting to up the ante with this project, the displacement for the new motor would be 114 ci. That was all Fuzzy needed to hear. He signed on in a heartbeat and would soon be the owner of the first 114-incher to come from Olp's shop.
Fuzzy figured since it would be some time before the motor would be ready, this would be the perfect point to send the frame and sheetmetal 30 miles up the coast to Tom Dominguez of Santa Barbara, California. Fuzzy's thought about the finish on the motorcycle was simple - he wanted to work the name Shakedown Street into the graphics, not only as a logo but as a graphical element to the bike. Tom started to jot down a few ideas by playing around with the names Shakedown and Street. That's when it came to him. The bike would start out basically black and from there Tom would paint the bike to look like asphalt. To reinforce the asphalt theme, he airbrushed a broken white line down the center of the gas tank. The graphics were finished up with the addition of a pair of red and white Shakedown Street logos on either side of the stretched D&D gas tank.
Work on the motor was moving along quickly. Olp started out with Merch cases, flywheels, and rods. Sitting on top of the cases was a pair of Axtell cylinders that were stuffed with J&E pistons. Olp topped the cylinders off with a set of STD heads filled with Black Diamond valves. Bringing the motor to life was a Mikuni 45mm carb fit with a custom air cleaner fabbed by Fuzzy. A crane Hi-4 ignition supplied the spark, and a set of Samson two-into-two slash-cut pipes completed the motor.
Fuzzy and Marty agreed, an open beltdrive was the only way to go on this bike. With that, he ordered a 3-inch primary from Primo to connect the motor to the transmission and to spin the Primo clutch. The primary was detailed with the addition of a set of milled billet pulley covers. In order to get all the power the motor was producing to the rear wheel, Fuzzy used a polished JIMS case that was fit with a set of the company's five-speed gears.
With an end to the project in sight, Marty made good use of any spare time he had by getting together the final items needed to make the bike roadworthy. Some of the items that would soon be on the bike were a set of Wild 1 bars, Ness mirrors, P.M. hand controls, Accutronix foot controls, a Headwinds headlight, a Yaffe taillight, and a license mount. The last piece to be added to the bike was a custom seat by Larry Hoopers.
By the time the project was done, Fuzzy and Marty had the advertising vehicle they wanted. It had eye-catching looks, it showed off their talents, and everyone who saw it knew exactly where it came from - and more importantly, where to look for one of their own.