Some bikes have absolutely no story or character, but this one has so much it could fill its own magazine. Just in the last 13 years of its existence it's lived more than most bikes ever will, and nobody knows how it even got here. At some point in time it was a stock '60s (or '70s; we're not sure) ironhead. Sometime in the mid-'70s it gained a Paughco rigid frame, and in the 1980s it got the very new wave purple paint job, which is how owner Sean Kinney found it.
Sean Kinney, drummer for Alice in Chains, bought the bike in 1993 while out partying like rock stars do. Details (and memories of the night) are kinda hazy, but Sean's pretty sure a fellow Seattle rock star named Chris dared him to buy it. Since both he and Chris were too drunk to ride (and Sean hadn't actually learned to yet), it got wheeled back to where the band stored its equipment.
The next day, Sean dropped by the storage space and saw what he had bought...and wished he hadn't. Despite some cool original Invader wheels and a Bronco tank, it was ugly as hell, and Sean tried really hard to forget about it. He succeeded.
Fast forward 13 years. The bike is still in the storage space, laying on its side in a pool of its own oil with broken instruments piled on top of it. Forgotten, and worst of all, still ugly.
In the intervening years, Sean had learned to ride, and had a nice little collection of bikes for every occasion. As the storage space was getting closed down the bike had to get picked up or tossed. For some reason (perhaps centered on his newfound respect for motorcycles), Sean decided to give the little purple rigid a reprieve.
He sent it over to Huff Motorsports-who had worked on his machinery for years-to get it back in working order. Uber-builder (and former drag race star) Steve Huff did what he could to keep the bike in its New Wave glory, fixing the old parts instead of buying new ones, but the trouble was the same as before: the bike was still too frickan' ugly. So it sat at Huff's, with the occasional joyride by Steve or one of his cronies, for most of Seattle's short riding season
This is where the bike's latest chapter begins. While checking out paint colors for another project with painter Russ Foy, Steve spotted the color OD (olive drab) Green and inspiration struck. Steve decided that like any rock star, this little ironhead just needed to go to rehab:21 days out of commission to start life over and get a new outlook. Steve is both a procrastinator and overachiever, so he did it in 18
The entire project was a surprise birthday present for Sean, who was out on tour with his recently re-established band. Again, Huff tried to work with the materials at hand as much as possible, yet give the bike a whole new attitude. Central to the mission was a little spring cleaning to get rid of all the clunky crap on the machine. He tapped Exile Cycles for a FatBar kit in pieces that he welded up himself with internal throttle and integrated lever mounts. Moving the battery box to right in front of the rear Invader wheel, he welded on the oil filter in the battery's place, angled to resemble a heart with its lines arcing up and over the top of it.The headlight mounts were flipped to lift up the old aftermarket unit, while the housing was painted OD Green just like the rest of the bike.
The tank and rear fender are modified versions of the original parts, with some extra sheetmetal added for maximum effect. The chrome upswept drag pipes were chopped, wrapped, and mated to a pair of one-off megaphones, finished in rattle can black. Also on the receiving end of the rattle can treatment was the intake pipe, which sucks in the clean Seattle air (and rain). The garden hose style petcock was sourced at the local plumbing store.
The seat is an all-new piece, hammered out in the shop, and left to rust (for maximum grip). It's supported by a Fox mountain bike shock. The last modern day piece to hit the bike was a set of dirt bike footpegs of undetermined origin.
Needles to say, when Sean returned from his long tour he was extremely satisfied with the look of his "new" machine...but he still doesn't ride it much. The factory-original right side shift takes a little too much concentration for Sean to keep from ending up a hood ornament.