The Garage Company located in Los Angeles, California, and owner Yoshi Kasaka have always helped to keep the bikes of the past on today's roads. Yoshi often finds projects at local swaps meets, and the '72 shovelhead engine for the centerpiece of this article was found in just such a location. That day at the swap meet turned out better than he could have hoped; Yoshi also found a rigid frame, trans, and a Springer. With this combination of parts, he knew that he was ready to start building a new bike.
Yoshi started by going through the motor. He knew it was 30 years old, so he expected to do some work on it. After stripping it down and splitting the case, he found where the rebuild would start. He replaced the crankcase bearings and races. The flywheels and rods were good and in spec, so he cleaned up the cylinders and installed some 0.005-over pistons and rings, sliding in a new Andrews cam for a little extra power. The rocker boxes were sent out to the polisher and came back looking like new. With an S&S carb and an H-D air cleaner cover in place, a new set of points was installed to make this motor run.
The exhaust was a cross between a set of old '50s panhead pipes and some old shovelhead pipes. Yoshi started by cutting the mufflers off the panpipes and then trimming the shovel pipes to fit them. He did a few small bends to help them clear the kicker and aimed them up past the sissybar.
Remember the stock four-speed trans he found at the swap meet? It was a ratchet top and got the same attention, as did the motor. All the gears were in good shape; the only things Yoshi needed to replace were the linkage cover and the jockey shifter. Then, Yoshi found a 3-inch beltdrive in the back room, to keep the old-school look going on his new bike.
Once he got the frame back to the shop, he found that it was an old Denver's Chopper rigid. It had 30 degrees of neck rake and 4 inches of upward stretch for a tall stance. After 30 years on the road, Yoshi worried about the welds staying together, so he sandblasted the frame, redid a few vital areas, and sent the package out to get powdercoated.
To get his project rolling, Yoshi added the 14-inch-over springer with a 19-inch spoke wheel covered with an Avon Speed Master. He used a stock 16-inch H-D spoke wheel in the back, covered with a classic Goodyear tire. The only brake on this bike is found on the rear wheel.
On one more trip to the swap meet, Yoshi found an original Prizmic coffin gas tank and an oil bag to match. With a final search through his parts bins, Yoshi discovered a flat rear fender. He sent all three parts to his friend Scott for paint. First, he sandblasted the old parts to see what condition they were in. After removing years of old paint and lots of body filler, Scott did every thing he could to restore the parts to perfect condition.
The paintwork got started by covering the skin in a rich orange metal flake with layers of clear, and after water-sanding and buffing it out, the only thing left was striping. The striper, also known as Scratch, knew just how to throw down some old-school lines to punch up the color. After the bodywork came back, Yoshi was happy and got started on some bars and lights.
Yoshi was fixed on a set of dual halogens for the headlights, so he dug through his parts bins and came across a perfect pari for this bike, and an iron cross taillight by CCI. He welded some short Z-style bars to keep the outlaw look, and staying with the little-to-no-chrome theme, he painted them black to match the front end. With no front brake and a jockey shifter, there was no need for controls up top. However, some CCI foot controls were installed.