People's Champ Contestant - Eric Simonson

What have you done?
Just about every part on this bike has been handmade or modified by me. That includes everything from the frame and fork down to smaller items like the oil filter, headlight, and intake manifold. The frame is a mix of BSA and Harley-Davidson with custom tube work in the center section, and the fork was built completely from scratch. Both were fully metal-finished in-house and then sent out for chrome.

While the steel parts were out for plating, I hand-polished all of the aluminum and stainless components, including the headlight, clutch basket, control switch, primary cover, rocker boxes, forward controls, one-piece kicker arm, rear brake, and more. If it doesn’t look like something that came on a factory Harley, it was probably made by me on manual machines.

All of the bodywork and paint were also done in-house. There is zero body filler anywhere on the bike — everything was metal-finished, then primed and block-sanded to get the final details right. The color is Malachite Green, though it tends to look more blue in certain light.

The bike looks close to finished, but there’s still a good amount of detail work left, along with a few parts I plan to remake or refine again to get them exactly where I want them.

What do you have left to do?
I still haven’t heard this engine run. It was rebuilt before I got it, but I tore it all the way down to the cases to go through everything and do a light polish. There’s still a fair amount left to finish — a lot of the hardware needs to be replaced with quality stainless fasteners, the cam cover needs a final polish, fuel lines need to be run, throttle setup, and more. These sound like quick tasks, but none of them are simple bolt-on items.

For example, I’m running a fully internal throttle through the bars, out through a short section of flex line, then into a handmade hardline that disappears behind the tank. From there it snakes down to the rocker box and terminates at a custom pedestal that directs the cable to a custom throttle lever. So it’s not just a matter of bolting on a throttle and draping a cable over to a bracket — everything has to be built and fit specifically.

Next major steps include final engine and transmission assembly, a redesign of the rear axle and brake setup, custom hardware in most visible areas, new forward pegs, custom passenger pegs, and possibly a handmade aluminum Buco-style saddlebag, since this will be a long-distance and daily rider.

Once everything is finished, I plan to put at least 1,000 miles on it before People’s Champ and Born-Free. That part is a guarantee, whether I make the final six or not.

Any problems so far?
The biggest challenge has honestly been knowing when to stop overthinking parts. Most of what you see has been made at least twice, and in some cases three or four times, just to get it where I wanted it. Aside from that, keeping the paint in good shape has been a challenge since the bike is being finished in a working metal shop. That said, it’s meant to be a rider, so scratches and chips are inevitable anyway.

Favorite part of the bike so far?
My favorite part is probably the 23” front wheel. The rim is a 23” high-shoulder Akront I found at the Long Beach Moto Swap. The hub and drum are BSA A10, fully molded and converted to sealed roller bearings. The drum uses completely custom hardware and levers, all machined from stainless steel by me, and it’s all laced together with custom stainless spokes from Buchanan’s.

That one swap meet find completely changed the direction of the build and pushed it into the style you see it in today.

Favorite part of the competition?
The best part of the competition is the people. I’ve met several of the current People’s Champ builders, along with others from past years, and everyone has been welcoming, generous with their time, supportive, and honest when constructive criticism is needed. I can say without hesitation that I’ll be riding with the friends I’ve made through this “competition” long after it’s over.

Want to give any shout outs?
I want to give a shout-out to all the past, present, and future People’s Champ builders. This is no easy thing to take on, and putting your work out there — for better or worse — in front of thousands of people isn’t always easy. A lot of the current lineup is seriously pushing the envelope and building some wild, inspiring stuff.

On a more personal level, I want to thank my wife, Kioki, because she’s a total badass. My father, for trading this engine back and forth with me for the past decade. Kyosuke Koruda, for being my Harley-Davidson sensei, Alex Kirkpatrick, for constantly pushing me to bring my work to the next level. And of course Josh and everyone at Biltwell for making this whole thing happen and for sharing our sometimes ridiculous social media along the way