The stock 74-inch Panhead engine was in good shape when John got it, but was soon subjected to a high level of detailing. JIMS pushrod and lifters were installed along with Andrews cam and Knucklehead pushrod tubes. The once upon a time standard big twin chopper carb, an M-74B Linkert, was polished passed its original cast roughness and is now controlled by a svelte Triumph pre-unit throttle. The uncommon and very old Stellings & Hellings bars sit atop the extraordinary Flanders risers. The afore mentioned suicide foot clutch helps operate the early 4-speed trans that sits below a chrome Harley horseshoe oil bag. The polished gearbox houses a ratchet top and a Knucklehead one-piece kicker arm and matching kicker cover. An early Panhead mechanical drum brake out back handles all the "whoa" duties. John sits comfortably atop the well worn old Bates solo with perfectly matching pillion pad.
The biggest obstacle John faced with his own bike is knowing when to say when-especially being a painter with a good eye and a creative mind. For a long time John has painted other people's bikes, but literally lost sleep about painting his own-he wanted the bike to speak for itself. After molding the single rib into the old peanut tank and selectively molding the H-D straight leg frame, John finally mixed up a color using House of Kolor paint he likes to call Honey Suckle Rose. He used no metalflake, no fancy period tricks like panels, fades, lace, freak dots, etc, like you'd find on his customer's tanks, but laid on thick coats of restraint polished to perfection.
When it comes down to it, people don't build scooters like this anymore because it's really hard, time consuming, expensive, and they never knew how or forgot how if they lived through chopper's teen years of the '60s. Of course this make John's bike even more exciting and unique. He didn't use new parts out of a catalog, he used parts from friends who help friends out, swapmeets, and old fashioned scouring, many rare, many expensive, and some came with luck. No matter how John found them, every part was used for a reason and massaged in some way to make vision a reality-or what may seem like a hallucination to those who see it first hand. SC