Architectural Triumph

If you have cable or satellite TV, there are two types of shows that regular channels don't have much of -- cooking and home improvement. Sliding past the Julia Child programming, we turn our attention to the home shows. There must be a dozen different programs that start with Dream Home... something. Bill Raigigh is extremely familiar with the dream home phrase, as he is one of the top architects in Chicago, designing residences and offices on which the aforementioned programming is based. >But the Windy City is damn cold in the winter, so Bill escapes to a place where winter is a bit easier to take -- Phoenix, Arizona. The winter in Phoenix is perfect for riding, as Bill found out during his first winter in town; but he had left his Paul Yaffe-customized Road King at home. No problem, he had been toying with the idea of a chopper, so he sat down and made some sketches of what his dream chopper would look like. He stopped by Paul Yaffe's shop for a quick consultation with the guy whose name is on the door. Paul looked over the drawings and pitched a few ideas, to which Bill agreed before hopping on a plane back to Chicago.

Bill's sketch showed a reasonably tall bike that carried its front wheel way out there. Paul cruised back into the frame shop and spec'd out one of his new chopper frames to position the neck at 40 degrees atop a 6-inch upward stretch. The rigid frame was welded together quickly, and as soon as it hit the bench, a pair of Yaffe 6-degree trees was attached. To attain the required way-out-there front end spec, a set of 10-inch-over Yaffe legs were installed. Aside from an understated color scheme, nothing on the bike was to be subtle, so nothing less than 120-spoke wheels would do. Black Bike built a 21-inch that carries a 90/90 Avon tire and an RC Comp rotor for the front and then created a matching rear with a 250 Avon. To put some stopping power to the ground, a pair of RC Comp four-piston calipers make the grade with a driveside conversion out back.

Yaffe has a very proven 95ci Harley motor package based on a TC88B that he likes for rigid and Softail-style bikes. The heads get some special attention, then a complete 95-inch H-D performance kit is slid in. The stock 40mm carb gets heavy mods, along with a PYO snorkel air cleaner to add some fuel and air for the Crane ignition to burn. A set of Yaffe Crack Pipes rounds out the motor. Just behind it is a five-speed H-D transmission that is fed power through a 3-inch Primo beltdrive and clutch assembly. Plenty of power, slick shifting, and no vibration for this rigid.Up to this point, this was a bike anyone could build out of the PYO catalog. Things changed quickly when Paul got serious about the metalwork. He wanted to give Bill something extra in the lines of the bike, so not only did his metal team add 3-D bevels everywhere, points became a styling element in the steel. From the front fender through the gas tank, and into both the oil tank and rear fender, the metal has distinctive radiuses and points. No surface has just one level, rather they all lead your eye from part to part on the chopper. The frame was powdercoated silver while the rest of the tinwork went under the spray gun. When the PYO paint shop finished, practically everyone in the assembly area wanted to help finish the bike.

It didn't take long to make Bill's chopper roadworthy. Almost every piece needed to finish it was on a shelf with a PYO wrapper on it. The headlight and bars are PYO, while the hand controls come from P.M. PYO foot controls and pegs were added, along with a side-mount license plate and a brand-new lantern taillight that Paul had just drawn up. Guy Tieman covered the PYO seat pan so Paul could head out on a test ride on Bill's chopper. Everything was perfect, the bike was a blast to ride, and the timing was perfect -- Chicago just had it's first snow-flurries and Bill was on an airplane headed West.