I call this bike The Lowrider II for a reason: The motor was used in an earlier configuration. Since this motor is near and dear to my heart I couldn’t part with it, so I made a deal with my buddy Doug. Away went everything but the motor. I had to come up with a new bike, and the Lowrider II is it.
I reintroduced the motor to its original frame. Had it sitting in the corner for years. It was bent due to a head-onI’ll leave that subject alone. I called Fab-Kevin and had him send up some of his pre-bent tubes in order to set the bike up as a rigid. I used Kevin’s kit because it’s super close to stock and better than anything I’ve seen before. I just love them old H-D rigid frames! I then bought some V-Twin dropouts and went down to see my buddy Greg from Shaer Madness and, voila, Insta-rigid. Greg has a pretty sweet jig, so it turned out pretty nice.
Next on the list was to find a tranny and decide what to do with the rest of the bike
I had been staring at my old magazines and decided it was time to pay homage to the past. I was riding a Shovel for Christ’s sake! Well, I decided to go all out. I hand-fabbed a king and queen seat pan, tall sissy bar (a must for those long trips), rabbit ear handlebars, and molded an alien tank. Those parts in my mind are standard for a vintage chopper. I had the tank painted by none other than Jaime at Blue Moon Kustoms, Richie Phillips covered the seat, and Shaer Madness painted the frame. The rest of this bike was done in house. Those guys did a wonderful job. Thanks a ton.
I of course had to add some Jr’s Cycle Products parts to the mix since that’s my day jobby-job. I threw on the very first set of my narrow trees and laced up one of my spool hubs, and the damn thing turned out real nice. I raced to have it done by Daytona. We basically finished it, made sure it started, then threw it in the trailer. Once we got to Daytona, I rolled it out of the trailer and gassed it up. I got it started rather quickly then took off around the block. Talk about luck!
The next day I was doing 70 mph with Kurpius sitting bitch on the way to the swap meet and there was no kickstand spring. I had to have him hold the damn thing up with his boot. I did have some issues kicking it over. The worst part was we had to push-start it to get back home. Anyone who has ever tried to bump-start a 93ci Shovel can relate.
That ride turned out to be one of the more memorable trips on the Lowrider II. The other epic ride was out to Born Free 2 in Southern California from my home in Wisconsin. On the way out west I hooked up with Jeremiah from Bravetown as well as Nick and his brothers, the Haints. What a blast! If you’ve never been cross-country on a motorcycle, you are missing out! This bike has been real good to me. Lots of good miles and big smiles. Thanks to all who helped as well as those who joined me on the various escapades this bike and I have embarked on. Here is to many more. See you all very soon! SC