Good As Gold
GOOD AS GOLD
Roger Goldammer’s homage to board-tracking wins the inaugural World Championship of Custom Bike Building
Never mind the hype on The Chopper Channel (coming soon to a cable network near you?), not all custom bikes are made for television. It’s even possible to have a custom bike-building contest where the builders aren’t followed around by video cameras. Like the World Championship of Custom Bike Building, presented by British-based American Motorcycle Dealer magazine with sponsorship from Custom Chrome.
No fewer than 63 builders entered 2004’s inaugural competition, which grew out of a European Championship first held in 2002. And the winner? Roger Goldammer of British Columbia, Canada, who built the board-track-inspired V-Twin shown here. For his efforts, Goldammer took home a cut-glass trophy, diamond-and-sapphire championship ring and a check for $25,000. Not bad for a thousand hours’ work...
Goldammer sounds like the name of a character in a James Bond film, but he is in fact the proprietor of a custom shop that produces high-end components such as $12,000 frame kits and $7000 forks. Called the BTR3, his bike pays homage to the days when men were men and fallers spent days picking splinters out of their ass.
“It’s trying to recapture a fascinating era in motorcycling,” Goldammer explains. “It’s a custom Harley, but it’s fashioned more after the Indian and Flying Merkel board-track racers.”
That explains the “BTR” part. What about the “3”?
“Four of us builders were talking about doing board-track racers and mine would have been the third,” he says. “It was sort of a builder’s challenge that never happened. I talked to Billy Lane about it later and he said he was booked for the next 47 weekends straight. Everyone is aspiring to be a celebrity.”
But while the BTR3 resembles a century-old racer, it’s meant to be ridden on the street, and boasts a number of clever touches. For example the 23-inch wheels, which suggest the spindly look of a board-track racer’s bicycle wheels yet still put plenty of rubber on the ground. And the brakes: narrow 20.5-inch-diameter rim-mounted rotors grasped by tiny Performance Machine two-piston calipers that are all but invisible, because board-track racers didn’t have any.
Then there’s the suspension. Talk about invisible, the rear end looks rigid but is actually a soft-tail; the rear fork slides into the frame’s top tube where it attaches to a shock hidden between the twin gas tanks. The springer fork is similarly innovative, with a steering damper mounted laterally to provide compression and rebound damping.
As for the frame, it features an exposed, curving top tube like an old board-tracker’s and houses lubricant inside, thus freeing up the space normally taken by an oil tank. The neck is raked at 38 degrees, the triple-trees kicking the fork out another 5 degrees with just 3/4-inch of offset to correct the trail. Like a board-tracker, the bike has no front fender and a cut-down rear, and the drop bars house an internal throttle, front brake master cylinder, cables and hoses. The lights are virtually undetectable; tiny LED headlamps are hidden between the fork springs, and the taillights are inset in the bicycle-style saddle.
Powering the assemblage is a mix of aftermarket engine components featuring a Twin Cam-style top end and Evo-style bottom end, with cylinders and heads machined to resemble a Shovelhead. The six-speed transmission is also an aftermarket mix-n-match, and power is transferred to the rear wheel by a period-looking narrow belt with a tensioner tucked in tight against the tranny. The voltage regulator and oil filter are hidden behind the primary cover. And you’ve gotta love the board-track-style blooey pipes that point straight down at the ground.
Final touch-and a non-too-subtle jab at the Chopper TV phenomenon's the bronze badge on the primary cover, inscribed with “half a peace sign” and the words, “Discover This.”
“I didn’t do that to offend anyone,” Goldammer laughs. “I was just poking fun at my buddies who want to be TV stars.”
Even so, we get the feeling we won’t be seeing him on The Discovery Channel anytime soon... -Brian Catterson
Want to see the Goldammer BTR3 in Daytona? So would Roger, but the bike has to be at Custom Chrome’s European dealer show in Germany three weeks later so won’t be in Florida. To see more, visit his website at www.goldammercycle.com.
