Arlen's Chopper

Let's face it, the list of bikes that Arlen Ness has built over the years could easily fill this entire page and a few more. He has literally done it all. In the late '60s when Choppers were hitting it big, Arlen was right there leading the way, as he has done with pretty much every other style of custom Harley ever since. On a personal note, I know from spending time with him that he loves choppers. They are the core of his riding passion.

Over the last few years, most of the bikes Arlen has created have been outside the chopper realm, just experimenting with shapes and styles to see what he could come up with. But, he missed having a chopper in the garage, so he decided to be the first to chop son Cory's new Y2K-250 frame.

Arlen met with his frame builder and explained the plan. Keep the rear section of the Y2K the same, but add 8 inches into the downtubes and bring the backbone along to meet at a 38-degree neck. That would absolutely give the frame a big stance -- far from the old Bay Area-style chops Arlen used to build -- and make way for a big front end. Out of the Ness catalog came a set of 6-degree trees and 12-inch-over Massive tubes. A pair of Progressive Suspension shocks were called on to suspend the tube-style swingarm.

To add mobility to the stout chassis, Arlen pulled a pair of Ness Hammer wheels off the shelf. He covered the 21-inch front with an Avon 90-90, bolted on a matching Ness rotor, and slid it into place with a six-piston caliper to slow it down. In the rear, an 18x8.5-inch Hammer was used with the requisite 250 Avon, along with matching pulley and rotor; however, Arlen went four-piston on the rear caliper.

When you are building a rubber-mount chopper, you can use as big a motor as you want and not stress any vibration, so Arlen went with an S&S 113. The big-incher was polished to show-shine status and then a host of Ness trim pieces were added, like pushrod tubes, rocker boxes, a nosecone cover, and an airbox. More Ness parts came off the shelf in the form of a five-speed transmission and enclosed beltdrive assembly.

To add the style for which he is known, Arlen decided to do something interesting with the metal. He knew that the stock short rear Y2K fender and fake surround panel would keep the rear looking cool, but he wanted the gas tank to attract lots of attention. His one-piece design has a raised seam runnig down the center of the tank, accentuating the gas-cap area and side panels, which contour to the downtubes to add dimension to its shape. You probably won't find a similar-shaped tank anywhere else but on this bike.

Arlen added a Y2K front fender to the mix and sent it all to Iron and Art for some molding and paintwork. With the base purple in place, the Iron and Art guys turned their graphics guys loose on the wild accentuating colors. The finished result looks a lot like a modern version of one of Arlen's rides from 30 years ago.

Now it was time to raid more of the Ness parts bins for final assembly. The bars, controls, lights, seat, and everything else you can imagine, came out of the Ness catalog and do a damn fine job of making this bike rideable. Actually, the bike ended up being so much fun to ride that Arlen was doing burnouts and hard launches all through the riding portion of our photoshoot. When we asked him about the burners, he simply said, "I may be old, but I am not that old."