Sometimes knowing the right guy or being at the right place at the right time can make a huge difference in how a bike goes together, or how much it costs. Jeremy Casson of Santa Cruz, California, is a guy with a right place and right time story to tell. To make a long story short, Jeremy runs Hooligan Choppers in Santa Cruz, where the BMC Hooligans are built. A customer ordered a frame through Jeremy with unique dimensions. When he got it home, he realized it was not what he wanted, so Jeremy bought it back to build a new bike.
Creative Metals built the frame in question with 38 degrees of rake at the neck, and 6 inches added to the downtubes. Jeremy felt it had to have a crazy frontend, so one day as he was digging through his parts room, he came a cross an old 12-inch-over Girder. When he took the old Girder apart, Jeremy found that all the bushings and spring spacers were unusable. Since it was over 40 years old, he knew he couldn't just buy some. He would need to make some. With everything spaced correctly Jeremy changed his mind from chrome, and had the Grider powdercoated black, along with the frame. When the frame and Girder returned to the shop, Jeremy bolted up a 21-inch spoke wheel covered with an Avon Speedmaster up front and a 18x8.5-inch 60-spoke wheel from CCI covered in a 250 Avon Venom out back. When it comes time to stop the bike, Jeremy chose a single GMA caliper and rotor on the rear wheel, keeping the frontend as clean as possible.
Now that he had a roller to push around the shop, getting power between the framerails was the next task. He was concerned with keeping the cost down so that when it can time to sell the bike it would move fast, both on the street and on the sale floor. A good deal came his way on a satin finish 100-inch RevTech crate motor with chrome rocker boxes and timing cone. Jeremy was a fan of Mikuni Carburetors, so a 42mm was bolted on the motor, along with a Forcewinder air cleaner and Samson exhaust pipes.
Power from the V-twin is passed from the motor through an enclosed Primo primary beltdrive and clutch, which is tethered to a five-speed RevTech transmission. Completing the power conversion to the rear wheel is a 49-tooth rear sprocket with a Diamond heavy-duty chain.
When it came time for the sheetmetal for this bike it was all about keeping the cost low, and not having a lot of time on custom fab work. So a Creative Metal oil tank, a Yaffe gas tank, and a Hooligan rear fender were bolted to the bike. However, for a more custom look, Jeremy did stretch the gas tank back 4 inches and weld internal struts to the rear fender. After he was happy with the look of the bike, Jeremy took everything apart and sent it out to Shawn at JBH for paint. While in Shawn's hands the parts were treated to a metallic black basecoat and silver panels with white pinstriping. Then everything was covered in a lustrous coat of clear and buffed out to a glass-like shine.
With all the items back in Jeremy's hands, he got busy carefully unpacking everything and bolting the bike together for the last time. He made his own set of bars and bolted them to a set of CCI risers, a 4x4 fog lamp was bolted to the Girder for the headlight, and OMP hand controls finish up the forward section of the bike. A set of OMP foot controls and passenger pegs keep Jeremy's feet off the ground, and a BMC taillight/license plate mount and a Corbin seat completed the rear of the bike.
This bike started out as a good reason not to waste a frame and an old Girder, but now Jeremy wishes that he had done it sooner so that he could have kept it longer. Shortly after it was done and seen on the streets of Santa Cruz, it was sold. Oh well, he will just have to build another one.
Spec SheetGeneralOwner: Jeremy CassonYear/Make: '04/Hooligan ChopperFabrication: Hooligan ChopperAssembly: Hooligan ChopperBuild Time: 14 Days