So last week I was talking with a friend about this book I'm writing and he reminded me that I have built some really cool bike over the years but he thought my first bike was probably the best of all of them. It all started back in 1999. I was attending college and I had re-sparked my interests in cruisers after many years of riding crazy fast motorcycles. I had just started a new custom chopper business called Blackball Choppers and I was building about 1 bike every 3 months to help offset my college expenses. We specialized in building complete bobbers and choppers from the ground up based on vintage Triumph and Norton vertical twins. I had quite a following right from the beginning as I later found out we were the only British game in town. Back in those days I was building custom motorcycles that had a base price of $10K and went as high as $40K so I had some income coming in. A bunch of my close pals had bought various Dyno cruiser model bicycles and we thought it was cool to sort of form up a bicycle gang in lew of our MC the Two Strokes of Death.
Late in 2000 I bought a Dyno Tiki an immediately started to customize it with a set of 24" rise apes, a laid back seat post, and a real motorcycle headlight and taillight running off of a 12v NiCd battery hidden under the fake gas tank. It was such a cool bike but I had bought it not built it. Several summers had gone by and many motorcycles had been built and my bicycle ideas had been forming into complete sentences in my head. And then on the morning of my 35th birthday in October of 03', somebody decided they deserved to own my precious more than I did and they busted the lock on my garage. It was off like a prom dress! For several hours I searched the streets around my home cursing this man or kid promising death and dismemberment if I ever were to catch up with him. I'm a gun carrying member of the NRA and I believe in the right to protect your own family and property. But I was just down right mad!
That night at my birthday soiree (swaray) my bro's all felt so bad that they all pitched in and collected over $500 toward me getting a new Dyno. I was flabbergasted and I ended up getting them as wasted as I was on round after round of shots. So the next morning I came to with a wicked hangover and proceeded to sit on the sofa, watch reruns of monster garage, and sketch all of my ideas onto a pad of paper. After a few hours my mind was catching up and I really started to draw some cool ideas. Around 6 PM I sat down at my computer and really started drawing in AutoCAD. I had always liked my Tiki but I had longed for a lower stretch cruiser as my next bike. I've been using both Solidworks and Autocad for several years by this time so it was almost as fast for me to draw in the computer as it was to do it manually on paper.
So I had a plan, I was going to make my next bike, and I would just use the random parts I had laying around in my shop. All of the parts other than the frame and fork are salvaged from random BMX, downhill and cruiser bikes I have owned over the years. I built the frame and fork in just 26 hours from the time I started drawing it out on the couch to the time I bolted it all together and rode it around my neighborhood. Sometimes when I get into the groove just stay out of my way. In these pictures you will notice some very unique details such as the leaf spring seat mount or the pivoting girder fork. These are some of my trademark pieces that gravitated from my motorcycles to the bicycle. Although I've never made another bike just like this I really abused this bike for the last 4 years and it has held up it end of the bargain! I am now planning on building other custom one offs from this design and I have an idea for my own custom alloy mag wheels that we are working on a prototype similar to the Radir 5 spoke wheels.
Anyway enjoy looking and let me know what you think. Later Travis
Late in 2000 I bought a Dyno Tiki an immediately started to customize it with a set of 24" rise apes, a laid back seat post, and a real motorcycle headlight and taillight running off of a 12v NiCd battery hidden under the fake gas tank. It was such a cool bike but I had bought it not built it. Several summers had gone by and many motorcycles had been built and my bicycle ideas had been forming into complete sentences in my head. And then on the morning of my 35th birthday in October of 03', somebody decided they deserved to own my precious more than I did and they busted the lock on my garage. It was off like a prom dress! For several hours I searched the streets around my home cursing this man or kid promising death and dismemberment if I ever were to catch up with him. I'm a gun carrying member of the NRA and I believe in the right to protect your own family and property. But I was just down right mad!
That night at my birthday soiree (swaray) my bro's all felt so bad that they all pitched in and collected over $500 toward me getting a new Dyno. I was flabbergasted and I ended up getting them as wasted as I was on round after round of shots. So the next morning I came to with a wicked hangover and proceeded to sit on the sofa, watch reruns of monster garage, and sketch all of my ideas onto a pad of paper. After a few hours my mind was catching up and I really started to draw some cool ideas. Around 6 PM I sat down at my computer and really started drawing in AutoCAD. I had always liked my Tiki but I had longed for a lower stretch cruiser as my next bike. I've been using both Solidworks and Autocad for several years by this time so it was almost as fast for me to draw in the computer as it was to do it manually on paper.
So I had a plan, I was going to make my next bike, and I would just use the random parts I had laying around in my shop. All of the parts other than the frame and fork are salvaged from random BMX, downhill and cruiser bikes I have owned over the years. I built the frame and fork in just 26 hours from the time I started drawing it out on the couch to the time I bolted it all together and rode it around my neighborhood. Sometimes when I get into the groove just stay out of my way. In these pictures you will notice some very unique details such as the leaf spring seat mount or the pivoting girder fork. These are some of my trademark pieces that gravitated from my motorcycles to the bicycle. Although I've never made another bike just like this I really abused this bike for the last 4 years and it has held up it end of the bargain! I am now planning on building other custom one offs from this design and I have an idea for my own custom alloy mag wheels that we are working on a prototype similar to the Radir 5 spoke wheels.
Anyway enjoy looking and let me know what you think. Later Travis
Like the rims.
