Wrenching and bike building is like drinking - sure, you can do it by yourself, and that's hardcore, but isn't it more fun when you have someone else around? There's two ways it can go, either you and your friend are constantly trying to one up each other, or you're working together to finish a project or keep one of your machines on the road. After over 50 years of combined experience building custom cars and motorcycles all over the country by themselves, Duane Kastor and Scott Porges came to be good friends of the collaborative type at Scott's shop American Motorcycle Service (AMS). One day, maybe after knocking a couple cold ones back, Duane and Scott looked a little bit too hard at Scott's '33 three-window coupe. Chopped, channeled, sectioned, and decked out like an old-school rod should, it's the real deal in steel. The idea was forged, they needed to build a bike that combined the best of both worlds, capturing the old-school look with quality construction and craftsmanship.
Immediately, Duane went to work on the Diamond Engineering frame, creating one of the many old-school styling cues vying for your attention on this two-wheeled hot rod. Removing the downtube, a solid I-beam front axle was welded back in place, then drilled for lightening holes that taper up and down in size as you look from top to bottom. At the bottom of the frame, Kastor fabricated a miniature radiator grill that flows into the lower framerails. The gusseting at the neck and upper engine mount was drilled to match the look of the downtube.
While it would be easy to overlook the forks and rolling stock on this bike, it would be a mistake. The smooth fork legs were blacked out and mated to a '37 Harley-Davidson cable-operated drum brake up front, which took some creative machining to match the old binder to a modern billet hub. Both front and rear rims were powdercoated to give them an old-school look, which turned out to be an artful way to camouflage the flagrantly modern 240mm rear tire. In back, the brake is a slightly more modern '66 Harley-Davidson hydraulic drum brake, also machined to mate to a fully modern billet rear hub.
Even on a bike with as many custom touches as this, the engine is still the centerpiece, and the 97ci Evo is built to the hilt, against which the dual vintage drum brakes are hopelessly overmatched. A monster cam and high compression make for a raspy idle note through the fabricated exhaust pipes. Porges designed the manifold that holds the three, count 'em, three Stromberg Deuces. (A quick history note, they are called Deuces because each carburetor has two venturis or barrels. So, in effect, there is a six pack of ports feeding this hungry motor.) John Huband machined the manifold to the exact blueprints and handed it back over to Porges, who assembled the motor and tuned it so that all three carbs actually worked. The top motor mount, split beltdrive, and magneto are all homages to the rods of yesteryear. Engine-turned accents and simply styled custom controls lend themselves to the clean hot rod styling.
Again merging the ethos of old and new without violating the old-school styling of the machine, Kastor fabricated the fuel and oil tanks, with their respectively wild and tall fillers. Pay close attention to the tank, and more details are revealed. A raised ridge runs down the back before the tank folds around the backbone of the frame. Twin petcocks extruded from the side of the tank serve as the fuel feed and reserve. The sides of the gas tank subtly stretch in artful bulges that are accented by with pinstripes and offset coloring reminiscent of the two-tone hot rods of the late '50s. Kastor also fabricated the front and rear fender supports from tubing, then went to work on the mount for the Model A taillight before he attempted to finish the bike off with handlebars and risers made from a Harley Springer frontend.