Riding through 60 mph winds in the desert is cause for many things. White knuckles? Sure. Sphincter pucker? Count on it. Cursing? Damn right. Celebration? Hell no. Carl Sorensen knows this very well, as he found himself making the Phoenix to Houston run on his rigid Shovel. His maelstrom road trip was the end result of a severe case of peer pressure brought on by his rider buddies.
A lot of great chopper projects start their lives with a few famous words: "But all my friends are doing it." This one wasn't an exception. Carl's original plan was for a sweet little BSA rigid as a follow-up to his `72 Triumph Bonnie. He'd even gone so far as to procure the frame. Unfortunately, life reared its ugly head and his company transferred him from Houston to Dubai in 2008. Carl rented his place to a good pal before he left but that's what started his case of peer pressure.
See, this buddy used Carl's garage to build a crazy nice BSA rigid of his own. Like any good friend, he missed no chance to gloat about it, either. Given where Carl was at the time, the salt felt especially good in his wounds; it's hard to build a bike in the middle of the desert. Especially when the tools and parts are in another desert halfway around the world.
So Carl's builder itch was well on its way to becoming a full-on rash. It percolated to a nice critical mass, though, courtesy of a call from his friend John.
"I just picked up a Shovelhead from Dallas. It's gonna be awesome."
Now Carl had two buddies on the fast track to making custom bikes. "I'd come to Houston for R and R and want to ride but they'd be on their rigids and I was on my Bonneville or KTM," Carl lamented. "It just didn't seem right."
Carl had enough. He wanted a chop of his own and read plenty of magazines while piecing together a plan of attack to make the bike happen. Being halfway around the globe from where he wanted to ride was a bit of an obstacle but he worked around that. Both the Jockeyjournal.com and eBay came in handy; the former for a bike, the latter for some of the parts he wanted.
Carl located a rigid chopper owned by Ernesto Francisco in Las Vegas. They emailed back and forth, with Carl giving him the full interrogation as to the bike's history. He also told Ernesto what he wanted changed on it, they came up with a price, and then the chop went over to customizer Todd Prosser along with the new parts to make the changes, which Carl relayed from Dubai.
Stylistically, the bike's a brassed-out classic disguising modern technology. Its S&S Shovelhead features 93 cubes and Carl had Todd and Ernesto switch it over from the pre-existing five-speed transmission to a JIMS six (the overdrive gear comes in handy on the highway). The motor sports split heads with brass pieces that read, "Loud" and "Fast."
It originally had a springer but Carl's a glide man so that had to go. Sixteen inch apes were also added above the wide glide fork set for the high look. If you're having a hard time locating the cables, don't be afraid; they're internal.
Once Carl's mods were completed, the battle was only halfway won. Now he just needed to ride his bike to make the journey absolute. There was still the small matter of being in Dubai with his baby residing Stateside. Eventually, though, the big day came. With Carl's parents visiting Phoenix from Canada, Ernesto agreed to meet him there with the brassed-chopper in the back of a truck. They met, Carl threw a leg over his saddle, and he was on his way to Houston.
It took him almost three full days to make it back to Texas. Considering it's a 1,300-mile trip through high winds on a rigid, Carl's earned some bragging rights. Hopefully he exercised them with the same relish his buddies felt when they goaded him into building this beauty.
Note: Carl wanted to extend special thanks to Ernesto, Todd, Robert, and Tony for making this bike possible. He wouldn't change a thing. SC