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Everywhere we ride we meet guys who build the coolest bikes you can imagine. You name it: Shovels, Pans, Sportsters, old Japanese and British iron, the list is endless. Here’s a sample of some of our bikes and our friends’ eclectic stable of motorcycles for your enjoyment. If you’ve built a bike with our parts, we’d like to see it. Please email us a 72dpi 8x10 and a brief description of your machine and we’ll post it right here for everyone to see. bill@revcreative.net. |
 Chris Collins' Sportster 1957 XLA Ahh well… here’s the long-story-short version on this one. My dad and I bought this one from our friend Ron in 1989. Ron brought it over from Malaysia. Not sure what it was doing there, but it’s here now. I have rebuilt the engine, and I rebuilt the frame with help from my friend Jun. The forks were donated by Yasuyoshi. Wheel Works in Garden Grove, CA, cut the custom spokes. This bike shows my preference for Japanese style, but I’m still trying to do my own thing. This bike has been through a lot of major ideas but I’m psyched on the current direction. It will get finished some day. I hope that day is soon. 
Chris Collins' Panhead 1961 FL
I picked this bike up from an older couple in the Bay Area a few weeks ago. The old owner was super cool about giving me a great deal IF I was willing to drive eight hours to San Francisco to pick up the bike sight unseen. That was a 20-hour road trip worth taking. I didn’t do the Franken heads and I’m not sure who did, but like them or not, they actually work. Biltwell prototypes on this bike include our one-inch Clubmans, seat mount and spring bungs. DMC Chops on the Jockey Journal hooked me up with the brass risers. Wes at Four Aces got me all the cloth covered wire to run on it. No show, just go. Not a project, this is just a bike to ride and have fun on. I will always change things to whatever I think I like that day but this one is done. Except I might change… |
 McGoo’s Smokin’ Gun 1999 Sportster XL883 Two of the three motorcycles I’ve built have featured Flyrite frames. I love FRC’s no-frills design, conventional approach to geometry and rugged construction. The Smokin’ Gun is Flyrite’s answer to the question, “How can I put some pants on my Sportster so people will stop staring at its vagina?” I’m no motor guru, so I scoured the innerweb to find a donor bike with a healthy motor. This ’99 XL mill had 172 ticks on the clock when I bought it from an old tweaker lady from San Diego. As is the case with all my bikes, I plumbed eBay for the cheapest parts I could find. This bike has H-D spool hubs, take-off Road King forks, a CR85 dirt bike throttle and a front master cylinder off a Yamaha Raptor quad. ScrapmetalArt, ChopperShox and Baas Metalcraft supplied the rear fender, seat shock and seat pan, respectively. The incomparable Xian crafted the canvas and leather seat. The handlebars are off a Ducati Monster and the 19-inch front rim is off an Indian. The rear wheel is a 17” x 3.5” Sun. I taught myself to weld on the pipes I built for this bike, and I’ve only suffered two weld-related failures in approximately 2,000 miles: a pipe tab and a fender bracket. With those bits fixed, this bike is ready for the 2008 EDR. |
 Billdozer's Sporty 1998 1200cc HD Sportster. This bike was an exercise is building something simple and fun without a bunch of fancy expensive parts. Even the swingarm was kept intact. Everything not essential to the motorcycle was removed. Stock seat pan and foam shaved and recovered. Midglide trees and a Tokico up front stop the big 16" Avon no problem. Rewired with cloth wire and circuit breakers built into the side panel. Ti dirtbike pegs, Biltwell Frisco bars and prototype throttle housing. This bike is a test mule for future Sporty-specific Biltwell parts. |
 Steve Crandall's '81 SUZUKI GS1100 Our friend Steve Crandall is the co-founder of FBM BMX in upstate NY. Steve helped his friend out of a bind when he paid $800 for this beauty after said friend got a DUI. Here's Steve's story: "This is the first day I rode it, 50 miles, from FBM to my place. It was about 34 degrees, there was snow on the ground, and the tires were so shot the tread was showing through, and it felt like they were made of Jelly. I kept riding one-handed, trying to warm each hand on the engine, so they wouldn't fall off. It was a fucking blast. This was the only helmet I had, but it's so fucking cold up here I am using a full-face now. My bike is real basic. There ain't no hot-ass tattooed chick sitting on it, but hey—I clean up nice." |
 Chris Moeller's '74 Shovelhead Chris Moeller is the brains behind another BMX company, S&M Bikes. Bill and I went on a 52-hour marathon road trip to Denver, CO, this winter to help Chris get his bike from the seller, Irish Rich. After taking a three-minute test spin around the block, we loaded Chris's bike in my mini truck and hauled ass back to SoCal. Chris and a dude named Teaspoon in Huntington Beach, CA, have sorted out some major and minor stuff on the Shovel since then, and Chris says she'll be ready for the 2007 El Diablo Run. |
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Flat Iron Mike's Collection:
 THE MULE Our friend and two-time Diablo Runner Mike Camillo built his first of three bikes in 2003. Mike’s Mule is a 93-inch knuckle/shovel with a Flathead Power top end on an S&S bottom. The tranny’s a 5-into-4 Sputhe and the frame’s a one-off gooseneck softail with a springer fork. 16” Avons keep Mike rolling, and stopping comes courtesy of Exile sprotors on repop star hubs front and rear. The Mule got top-3 in the EDR bike show in 2006.  KINGER Mike started is second build the summer of 2006. Kinger made its debut on EDR II in 2007 and turned lots of heads in the process. Kinger is powered by a 93-inch S&S Cycle dual-plug Shovelhead with a Baker 6-into-4 tranmission. The chassis is a rigid with springer and rolls on 19-inch Avons front & rear. The alien-looking gas tank is a vintage '70s NOS Paughco “Axed Harley” unit under back rattle can paint.  No. 3 Mike’s favorite bike of the litter. No. 3 features a 1937 80-inch ULH Flathead motor, a Baker 6-into-4 tranny, a rigid frame goosenecked by George Counes at Spartan Frameworks, and a vintage 1934 VL I-Beam Springer. The tank is a '60s Daisho Japan Wassell knock-off unit, and seating is a Biltwell pan with Xian Leathworks cover. Of course, No. 3 features Mike’s signature minimalist exhaust set-up, this one crafted with a Biltwell kit. |
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