2005 Stinger Rigid - Long Chopper In Chrome

When Dawn Norakas told us she had blackmail photos for us from Sturgis, we panicked. What'd she have on us? The dead hooker? The donkey porn shoot? The dead hooker and the donkey porn shoot?

Imagine our relief when we looked inside the Manila envelope and found pictures of her bike, Blackmail. No photos of one of our staff members in his favorite outfit, or worse, one of our writers crying during Terms of Endearment like he always does. Of all the things that could've been in that packet, a bike feature was far from the worst.

Needless to say, we agreed to her terms: Run the bike or else. In case you're wondering what "else" is, let's just say one of our editors may or may not be overly fond of gerbils and leave it at that. When we looked through the pics we realized it was definitely feature material: A well-constructed long chopper with chrome trim. Nothing more, nothing less.

It started when Stinger won a frame at a bike show a couple of years back. They took their treasure home and stared at it briefly: "Well, now what?" was the big question on everyone's minds. The crew decided to make it for themselves: A rat shop bike that anyone at any time could toss a leg over and take for a cruise.

Obviously that didn't happen (or Stinger has a very different definition of rat bike than the rest of the Earth). Along the way shop co-owner and builder Dawn Norakas fell more and more in love with the frame and the way it fit her. She's not exactly tall, but she loves long, rigid choppers, and as the Stinger crew pitched in on the project it became more and more her bike and less and less the shop's.

It's all based around that rigid skeleton with its 45-degree rake and major stretch (6 inches up, 4 more out) that gives Dawn the ergonomics she likes. They shoehorned a RevTech 110-inch motor into it and mated it with a Roadmax six-speed and BDL clutch and primary (cut down by Stinger to accommodate Dawn's short legs). They threw a Hawg Halters glide fork set with 12 inches of extension into the mix. The combination gives the bike the long and hard combination the owner desired. It rolls around on Weld Wheels shod in Avon tires, the rear being a beefy (but not overly so) 250mm sneaker.

When we talked to Dawn about her baby, she characterized it as simple, but we don't think that's entirely accurate. As far as long, molded custom rides with hand-fabricated sheetmetal go, sure, it may be simple. Straightforward might be a better term; the reason being it's got plenty of style, from the points and curves of the fenders to the smooth flow of the gas tank into the seat and the chrome trim that offsets the deep black paint scheme. Beyond that, though, Stinger went through all the trouble to hide the lines and used an Exile sprotor to keep this bike as clean as possible without giving it a Borax theme. It may look simple, but that's the result of skill and a lot of hard work on the shop's part.

It took three months to get the job done, and in the years that followed its completion this bike has become Dawn's favorite motorcycle. She's supposed to be selling it, but she's pursuing that idea with all the enthusiasm of walking in front of a firing squad. Which is what I'll be doing once our editorial staff reads this.