As maiden voyages go, Glen Sauer of Sauer's Garage will tell you the baby blue bobber seen here gave him one hell of a ride...or more accurately, one hell of a fall.
Ready for the bike's inaugural shakedown run, Glen stomped his weight down on the vintage popsicle-style kicker pedal only to have the new 93-inch S&S shovelhead kick back into his leg with enough force to fracture bones and tear tendons, landing Glen on his back and putting the bike's first miles on indefinite hold.
"When I first got it done I was having trouble getting it running right, so I took it over to R&R since they had done the top end for me," Glen said. "Their mechanic over there, John, is like 250 or 260 pounds and he didn't have any trouble kicking it over, but when I got it back he had set the timing marks for him and I set it all up the same way, but obviously it didn't work out quite right for me."
To make matters worse, Glen tore the MCL in his opposite leg in the process of hobbling around trying to heal the original injury. "The bike just sat in the corner for a few months," he said. "I still haven't actually ridden the bike. John from R&R has put quite a few miles on it, but I've never ridden it."
For all the bad mojo surrounding his newest creation, Glen still beams with pride over the ultra clean look and subtle nuances that make his "Ankle Breaker" more than just another bobber.
"I just really wanted something simple and clean," Glen said. "This one goes against the flashy high tech trend and holds it own in a timeless fashion."
Wanting something familiar but altogether different, Glen traveled to Killer Chopper in Henniker, New Hampshire and collaborated with owner Josh Ford to create a unique no-stretch wishbone frame with a modest 30-degrees of rake using thick-wall 1-inch tubing throughout with a 1.250-inch backbone. The result is a nostalgic looking frame with enough rigidity to handle the twist created by the aforementioned joint-crushing power plant.
With the frame blueprints drafted, Glen and Josh realized Killer's offset Springer wasn't going to allow for proper trail, and so a new inline prototype was created and is now offered as part of Killer's regular product line.