Every chopper-lover has an idea of what his or her dream bike would look like, all the way down to the finest detail, like what kind of air cleaner they want to run. Anyone who has ever been around a chopper fiend knows that all that person can talk about is what his dream bike would look like and the wish list of parts he would use to build it. One person in particular, who has heard a number of people's daydreams about building a perfect chopper, is Nui Kauhane of Grumpy's Customs in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In fact, the bike shown on these pages is dedicated to all his customers and admirers of his work who have ever said, "I wish I could build a custom chopper." Nui had heard this statement time and time again, and finally decided to build a bike based on the various wish lists of parts and ideas his customers and friends dreamed about.
Nui wanted to build a chopper with the cleanest lines possible, so he started with a Rolling Thunder softail-style frame that had 5 inches added to the backbone along with 6 more in the downtubes, culminating at a 48-degree neck. To give the bike the long stance that helps define a chopper, he bolted a set of Billet Concepts triple-trees to the neck, then slid in a 12-inch-over Pat Kennedy 41mm frontend assembly. In order to help keep the stance he was after, Nui secured a pair of Progressive Suspension adjustable shocks between the frame and swingarm. Turning the frame into a roller was taken care of with the addition of PM Seville wheels.The 21-inch front and 18x8.5-inch rear were both covered with Metzeler tires, with one of the company's popular 240s on the back end. When it came to stopping this chopper, Nui combined looks with performance by adding PM calipers and rotors at both ends of the bike, with the rear running a drive-side combination.
Of all the dream bikes Nui had been told about, the one thing that they all had in common was that they were powered by S&S motors. While the displacement varied with each person's taste and style of riding, they all had S&S at the top of their wish lists, so Nui ordered one of the company's 113ci motors. When the powerplant arrived, he stuffed it between the framerails and stood back to admire its shine. As he was checking out the motor, Nui remembered that he had once heard one of his customers talk about how he wanted to add a velocity stack to his bike, so Nui figured he'd add one to this bike. However, the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of going with dual stacks. He went with a Weber 44mm down-draft carb topped with dual six-inch velocity stacks. Next, to go along with the cool looks of the carb, he made a set of his own upswept pipes, then installed a Crane ignition. Transferring all the 113's ponies to the rear wheel is a JIMS five-speed trans, a Primo clutch, and a Billet 4U open primary.
Moving on to the sheetmetal portion of the build, Nui felt that a fender covering the front tire would take away from the look of the extended frontend, so he began working on the rear fender. After modifying a WCC fender so that it would match the shape of the 240, Nui added some internal struts for added support, then welded it to the frame. To cover the extended backbone, he called up Xtreme Cycle Design and had them fabricate a stretched XL-style tank. Finally, he decided that the Rolling Thunder horseshoe tank that came with the frame would look good underneath the seat pan.
Nui left the task of covering the raw metal frame and sheetmetal with some color up to Dennis Mathewson of Cosmic Airbrush in Honolulu. After making sure that everything was as smooth as could be, Dennis began covering the frame and sheetmetal with some heavy Fireball Red metal flake with black flake accents on the top of the gas tank and rear section of the frame and fender. To really catch people's attention, Dennis finished the gas tank off with some Hawaiian-style warrior skull graphics.