Bike builders often bring joy to other people but rarely have time for themselves. After turning out some amazing bikes for his customers, John Campos decided to finally build himself a chopper. He had a few bikes of his own, but not a ground-up custom, the kind he's known for building.
So he slowly started building it at the back of his workshop. He bought the major components and then began shaping the metal into pointed forms, finding just the right parts to complement his vision of spiky smoothness. Naturally, as the shapes of this bike began to take form, so did the interest of his customers.
At first, he guarded the design like a pit bull. He steered prospective buyers to other machines or flat out turned down some pretty big offers as he continued to work on his chopper. JC wasn't waiting for the best financial offer-he was waiting for the right idea to come along.
James Zelan walked in one day and expressed his fascination with knives. JC immediately saw that this would be the perfect theme to finish up the project. Sure, once again he wouldn't get to finish a bike for himself, but that's the price of inspiration.
While the blade theme is evident on the whole bike, there are three actual knives mounted around the machine. Above the front cylinder is a feline-avian hybrid knife with a spiked guard angled down toward the rocker box. Pointed dangerously at the rider's genitalia is another short-handled blade, one we'd like to hope is firmly attached. The last blade is a wicked-looking thing, closer to a sword than a knife, that actually serves as the shift linkage.
JC's original pointy theme is continued all over the place. John is first and foremost a fabricator, so he has all kinds of cool little sheetmetal touches all over the bike. The most obvious are the swoopy fenders and bladed velocity stacks, but there are numerous other smaller details, from a small diamond-shaped rear fender ornament to a chromed filler piece between the risers, as well as pointed tips at the corners of the handmade seat.
The aftermarket pitched in with some choice pieces as well. The Hi-Tech belt guard continues the theme, as do the RC wheels, each contributing matching circles of blades guaranteed to maim anyone who gets too close. When an aftermarket part wasn't quite blade-ish enough, JC wasn't afraid to do some grinding to make it so-witness the notched front brake rotor and foot-control levers.
Where the blades stop, the spikes begin. Spiked grips and footrests, as well as a few custom-machined spiked bolt heads, help complete the lethal look. We have a feeling that James will probably end up with some very stylish ripped jeans after just about every ride (even if they happened to be new when he first climbed on).
Since we had a chance to ride the bike out to the photo shoot, we can attest that there actually isn't a lot of snagging on the sharp points (at least not if you're paying attention). The all-TP motor drops the hammer hard, and handling is rock-solid on the open road.
As for JC, he's back at it again, attempting to build another bike from the ground up just for himself. He's taking a BMW boxer engine and frame and adding a sportbike tailsection, dirt-bike bars, and a huge tank. Either he's finally going to get to keep his creation, or he'll end up starting some new trends. Only time will tell