Hogs Wild

HOGS WILD

Hangin' out with the Cruise Brothers

IT'S AS AMERICAN AS A 'BURGER, fries and frothy milkshake; as red, white and blue as faded jeans and a tight-fitting T-shirt. It’s called cruising, and whether it’s done in a '32 Ford three-window coupe, a boom-box-equipped mini pick-up or a chrome-laced motorcycle like the four gathered here, it's a peculiar art form born in the USA.

The ground rules are simple: See and be seen. If you’re into cruising of the two-wheeled kind, the weapon of choice is a big Harley-Davidson, a Hog, because now, as back in the 1950s when cruising got its start, nothing beats the stage presence of a hulking V-Twin and its thumpthumping brouhaha of an exhaust note. Ah, but out on the boulevard, stock just won't cut it. Never has.

Which brings us to the four coollooking, kicked-back motorcycles on these pages. Call them the Cruise Brothers, a quartet of sparkling Big Twins, four show Hogs built for riding as well as for looking at. Each has a distinct personality, but the purpose of each is the same: to put its owner on the road in style, and to reflect his thinking about what a proper motorcycle should look like.

That’s what these four motorcycles do best. In a world where the looks of a sportbike are dictated by its aerodynamic efficiency, where a touring bike’s seating position is fretted over by ergonomics experts and where a dual-purpose bike’s styling is dictated by marketing mavens, these four bikes reflect not science, but their builders’ ideas of art, of style.

Let other riders frown and ponder tire compounds and suspension adjustments, let other riders fuss over mile-per-gallon figures. Cruiser riders are quite content to adjust their shades, blip the throttles of their VTwins, smile knowingly, and chuff gracefully, stylishly, out onto the pavement.

After spending some time with the Hogs Wild, we think they're on to something.

BARTELS' FAT BOY: Going West L.A.

YOU’VE customs? HEARD That OF description, CALIFORNIA it now seems, is much too broad. We're talkin’ specificity. The motorcycle you see before you is an example of that specificity. It’s styled to achieve the hitherto-unknown “West L.A. look,” according to Dave Fournier, who built the bike at Bartels’ Flarley-Davidson (8910 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230:213/838-3003.)

Never mind that Duane Johnson, the bike’s owner, lives in Seal Beach, California, south of the Big Orange; the West L.A. look is just fine with him. “That bike has me written all over it,” he says, glowing with pride.

What is this look which has so smitten Johnson that he's turned down a purchase offer of $55,000? According to Fournier, “It’s the clean lines of the paint, the color coordination, the attention to detail. It’s styling the bike with paint, chrome and powdercoating, blending the three into something pleasing to the eye.”

It works, for this bike, which began life as a monochromatic Fat Boy FLSTF, certainly is pleasing to the eye. It’s also pleasing to the rest of the senses, though with the exception of cosmetics, surprisingly little has been done to it. Engine, transmission, gearing, suspension; all are just as Flarley-Davidson designed and built them. Beyond the obviousness of the bike’s paint scheme, the first hint of tampering is detected when one’s eye falls upon the bike’s fork, which is covered with chrome. Another hint is delivered when the bike’s engine is thumbed into life. It’s got a bad-boy rumble that is, er, several decibels louder than stock. This comes by virtue of the bike’s custom twin exhaust system, which looks just like the system on Harley’s dressers, but isn’t. That system won’t fit Harley’s Softail designs, according to Fournier. So Bartel's builds the system you see here. All it takes is $ 1000.

Part of this bike's custom feel comes from its seat, built in leather by Cragar, which sits you low down in the chassis. Johnson admits he isn't completely happy with this, and says on his next custom Harley, he'll do the saddle differently. The bike's front fender has been bobbed fore and aft, and the rear sports a tombstone tail light and chromed tip. The wheels have been powdercoated red, and the bike’s tank and fenders treated to coats of silver and Ferrarired paint.

The result is stunning; sufficient, it would seem, to turn even the most hard-core rider into a 45-mph cruiser. That sort of speed is where this bike is at its best. It just chuffs along in life’s slow lane, looking fine and transferring that look to its rider.

The price of this little slice of the West L.A. look, however, is anything but a slow-lane number. To the basic $11,000 Fat Boy, Johnson reckons Fournier has added $2500 in paint, $1000 in exhaust, $6000 in chrome and $2000 in powdercoating. But when quizzed about the expense, Johnson just laughs. Eventually he’ll sell the bike, make money on it, and build another. Maybe next time, he’ll go for the Seal Beach look.

GLENDALE HARLEY'S 1940s CRUISER: Everything new becomes old again

Cjfe NE OF THE ODDER CONUNy;. drums these days is that few W things are as wonderful as ^ owning and riding something old, especially if it works as well as something that’s brand-new. Unfortunately, that’s far easier said than done. Unless you ride HarleyDavidsons. Then, it would seem, anything is possible.

As pmof, Harley-Davidson of Glendale, (3717 San Fernando Rd., Glendale, CA 91204; 818/24656 1 8), offers this latest product of its custom shop, a 1990 Softail Springer rebuilt and restyled to look like a 1940s Knucklehead Harley.

Fred Dick, general sales manager at the Los Angeles-area dealership, explains: “We wanted to make it look like the older bikes, to take the '50sera Heritage Softail a generation back. So we figured out a way to do that."

And the way Dick and his crew figured involved just a bit of metalwork, starting with that springer fork. As it rolls out of Harley-Davidson's York, Pennsylvania, assembly plant, the Softail Springer wears a narrow, 21inch front tire. Fitting the much wider 16-inch tire to this fork required that the fenderand brakemounting lugs be cut from the lower fork legs and remounted on the outboard side of those legs, away from the sidewalls of that chunky tire. The fender, which now moves up and down with the tire, is a reproduction Knucklehead item, as are the handlebar and headlamp, with mounts for the light and the bike's horn handmade from stainless steel, completing the image.

The bike’s stock footpegs were discarded in favor of 1940s-style oval footboards, and a dual exhaust system with fishtail mufflers, from Paughco, was added. So was a 1947 Harley-Davidson Police Solo seat, which is still being manufactured and sold. A reproduction Knucklehead rear fender, adorned with the requisite tombstone tail light and attended by custom-built bracketery and a fold-up hinge, was hung on the rear.

1 he result is a machine that zings people. Onlookers told us during our brief time with the bike, “What a beautiful old Harley." What’s not old about it. however, is the smoothness of the belt drive, which was retained; the convenience of the electric start; and the thoughtful development of the Evolution “blockhead" engine.

Riding the bike is kind of like trying on your dad's old military uni form. In spite of what you know is 1 990 reality, you feel at least par tially transported, gracefully, gently and temporarily, back into another era. Made us want to tune Walter Winchell in on the radio, read John Steinbeck and maybe catch a showin g o f Ca sab la nca.

But the price of owning a neoclassic ain’t cheap. The tag on this bike’s handlebar reads $22.000. That’s considerably more than a fully restored 40s-era classic Harley would be worth. But there’s some consolation: This bike looks like an old Harley, but works like a new one. And that’s a pretty good deal.

H-D’S GENUINE ACCESSORY SOFTAIL: Next stop, the '50s

IN THE LATE FIFTIES AND EARLY Sixties, many Harley-Davidson riders propped sea-captain’s hats atop greased-down pompadours in homage to one of the most-famous Harley riders of all: Elvis. And it’s that era that the customized HarleyDavidson Heritage Softail we have here invokes. It recalls a time not so long ago when yet-to-be mothers swooned before the King, while soon-to-be fathers admired his “sickles.”

The beauty of this bike, beyond its classic Fifties styling, is that it is a true catalog motorcycle. It was put together out of the Holy Book itself, the Genuine Harley-Davidson AccessoriesCatalog. Building thisbikeis like shopping at Sears: Write down the part numbers and pick up the phone. In this particular case, exactly $2226 worth of gee-gaws and doodads have resulted in a bike that Mr. Presley himself would have been proud to putt around Graceland on.

First, a standard Heritage Softail was painted turquoise-and-birchwhite with silver pinstriping, a $440 job any Harley buyer can have by sending his tank and fenders back to Harley-Davidson’s paint shop. Then the folks at Harley added a clear windscreen with a small leather case mounted on the inside, just above the handlebar. A passing-lamp kit was also installed.

For that tall-in-the-saddle look, a solo springer seat was bolted in place of the Stocker’s more-conventional seating arrangements. Matching the design of the seat is a set of premium “Harness Leather” saddlebags complete with silver studs. Three straps fastened by small buckles keep each bag closed’. A chromed luggage rack rests between the bags and above the rear fender. Passenger accommodations were jettisoned. Elvis, after all, rode alone.

Retro-styling is also evident in the dual, chromed toolboxes and the 2into-1 fishtail exhaust pipe. This is still a quiet exhaust system, one that will offend your neighbors far less than a loud, hi-fi rendition of “Jail House Rock” or “Blue Suede Shoes.”

Despite it’s 1950s styling touches, the bike handles, goes and stops just as well as a stock 1990 Heritage Softail. which is to say, pretty well. If it lacks the raucous appeal of the White Bros, dragster, the fine craftsmanship of the Glendale bike and the glitz-appeal of the Bartels’ Fat Boy, some contentment can be taken from the fact that the bike costs at least $ 10,000 less than those other custom Hogs. Motorcycle and accessories can be had fora total of $ 12,52 1, and while that's still a lot of money for a motorcycle, it's a steal for a time machine that can zip you back to the 1950s and make you feel like a King.

WHITE BROS.LOW BOY: Low, not slow

IT ALL SOUNDS SO SIMPLE. IN DRAG racing, you just want to get from point A to point B, 1320 feet away, as quickly as possible. Hardly a difficult concept to grasp. But despite having such a simple mission. dragsters are the most-complex machines in the combined sport of motorcycling.

Likewise, the idea behind .Dan White’s White Bros. Low Boy is simple enough. A custom, street-going FXR with the look and feel of a reallife drag racer. But the bike itself is complex and intriguing. “I wanted something different, an attentiongetter,” says Dan, half of White Bros. Motorcycle Specialties, ( 14241 Commerce Dr., Garden Grove, CA 92643; 714/554-9442). “At first, I thought about building a Harley FXR (rubber-mounted engine) sportbike. But it was hard to rationalize that approach—the bike was too heavy and too wide. The more I thought about a dragbike. the more I liked the idea.”

So the Low Boy was born. Because White Bros, has been in the dirtbike accessory business so long, Dan naturally contacted dirt-oriented companies to do some of the work. The FXR frame went to C&J Racing Frames to have the steering head kicked out five degrees and to have the rear of the bike spread out to ac commodate a wider rear wheel. Then Dan turned to the drag industry. Kosman Racing supplied the wheels, the 3.5-inch-longer swingarm, the Lockheed brakes and assorted odds and ends.

Most interesting of all, though, is the bike's front suspension. Since White Bros, is the U.S. distributor for White Power suspension components, the front of the bike is graced by, of all things, a set of Dutch-made, upside-down White Power Road Race Forks. “That’s what I love about customizing Harleys,” says White. “There are no rules. With sportbikes there are certain things you can and can’t do. With a Harley, you can do anything you want.” What he wanted in the rear, not surprisingly, was a set of White Power H-D Series Super Adjuster shocks.

But any motorcycle that looks as potent as the Low Boy needs to be able to back up its appearance. “My goal was to have a 10-second Harley, using as few engine modifications as possible,” says White. The powerplant uses only basic, proven Harley mods, such as a SuperTrapp exhaust. a Crane WB-1001 cam, a Mikuni HS40 Carburetor, Manley valves and Wiseco pistons. The most exotic of the engine mods is the head porting, performed by Nigel Patrick.

Does the Low Boy meet expectations? While White Bros, has yet to give the bike its drag-race debut, a quick ride on the bike alleviates any doubt about its power. This is one fast Harley. Right off the bottom, it has typical Evolution-motor torque, which is quite good. But where a stock Harley drops off and begs for an upshift, the Low Boy keeps right on revving and making serious horsepower, more like a real dragster than a showbike built for the street. The Low Boy also handles like a dragster, which is to say it likes going straight. If you want to go fast around turns, you’ve come to the wrong place: The bike’s outlandish rake, long wheelbase and low ground clearance prohibit Wayne Rainey imitations.

“That’s not why 1 built the bike,” reminds Dan. “I wanted it to be something really special, something that people would look at.”

And that's exactly what he got. 0