Just as Hollywood actors are leery of getting typecast into one style of character, or a painter can paint himself into a corner, Johnny Goodson's strength and weakness is black.
From his time at Exile through the present at his own Insane Custom Cycles, most of Johnny Goodson's bikes are proud to be a monochrome blend of black, polished metal, and a little more black. However, if you're not Russell Mitchell, black bikes have a hard time making it into magazines, or even attracting much attention at a show when surrounded by a slew of outlandishly colored and styled creations. In those environments, subtle doesn't sell.
"I was sick and tired of people saying I only build black bikes. My favorite color is black, but my favorite style of bikes are from the '60s and '70s...and those bikes had a lot of metalflake," said Johnny.
The Copper Chopper is a bike built to kill a few stereotypes, but it's also a bike built for the builder. The idea floated around Johnny's head for awhile, then took up space in the corner of his shop as one paying job after another stole his attention. But it continued to get worked on a little at a time, and sported some touches he'd never tried before.
The slightly unconventional 15x7.5 rim with a 200mm tire squeezed onto it was a new configuration for Johnny. Only arrived at after some consultation with wheel builder Black Bike, it strikes a bold and bulbous profile, and while not the fattest rubber on the planet, it looks plenty beefy in regards to this bike.
While Johnny settled on the copper-plated finish and the green flake to go with it, he got another assist from famed painter Miguel Perezchica of Miguel's Psycle Paint. He added his own touches of variegated leafing to trim the edges of the copper-plated flames.
Since this was to be his personal bike, Johnny didn't skimp on the motor. The thing is a total hot rod, with a cocktail of components pulled from long years of building engines that he knew would all work very well together. STD provided the cases, heads, and rockers, while Axtell pistons and cylinders ride atop Truett & Osborn connecting rods and flywheels. S&S Cycle chipped in with valvetrain components (cam, lifters) and an oil pump, while PSI's Big Air carb mixed the go-juice. With pieces like that, is there any doubt about how fast the 121ci mill is?
It was a hit on the show circuit, and helped to break up the monochrome of the ICC display. But it was never really meant to be this bright high-maintenance booth beacon. Unlike chrome, which was first widely adopted because it's maintenance-light, copper requires constant attention to keep from turning cloudy and green. Since Johnny's inspiration was the metalflaked bikes of the '60s and '70s, part of the vision for the bike that Johnny had was that it got stuck in the ground back then and pulled out of the ditch 30 years later.
The simple answer to this is to simply stop polishing it. In fact, there are areas of the bike where this is exactly what happened. The inside of the wheel hubs, the seat (springs, rivets, pan), and assorted hard-to-reach places all were allowed to turn on their own. But the advantage of using a chemical agent is control. Since the chemicals react with the copper itself for the discoloration effects, you can mix and match the chemicals, tarnish and untarnish as you see fit. Unlike powdercoating or polishing, it's easy to do and completely reversible.
Plan A was to apply the slow-changing version of the tarnishing chemicals and wait it out over time for the change to take place. The hot Phoenix air would do the work. I initially proposed that we get a case of Pacifico Lager, kick back, and watch the metal corrode. However, between Johnny's years of sobriety and an uncharacteristically cold week in the Valley of the Sun, that plan got shelved.
Instead, it was a bit more work. Starting with the taillight cover, a green tarnishing agent was applied, and practically nothing happened. Hitting it with a heat gun accelerated the process a bit, but it was still far too subtle. Johnny and his crew broke out the Jax Pewter Black, which proved to be serious overkill, as it instantly turned the copper to a deep black. However, with a bit of experimentation, it was discovered that the Pewter Black was workable if followed up with WD-40 and a rag or some ScotchBrite, which left a streaked effect that still let the copper shine through.
It wasn't too long before the Insane Custom Cycles folks discovered that different copper-plated metals responded to the tarnishing agents differently. Steel, such as that on a Springer frontend, darkens a bit, but doesn't streak as well as the aluminum, which had brightly contrasting streaks of copper and black. A bit of work then went into making them match as much as possible. Due to the clear coat, the tanks would remain their gleaming selves.
Someday, years from now, nature will probably take over. The bike will all turn a uniform blend of corrosion, the tank's enamel will start to peel, and it will look the way it was always intended to be. Until then, Johnny-or some future owner-will have a show-stopping bike that you can leave out in the rain.