Retro Styling Meets Modern Technology

Last summer, Mark Holms of Medina, Washington, was ready to give his Road King a few weeks off by getting himself a new ride for his trip to Sturgis. Now Mark really dug the Road King, but this year, he was riding with a bunch of guys from the West Coast and wanted to show off a bit more than he could on the King. His only problem -- it was already nearing the end of April and he had no concrete plans for a new bike to make the trip on.

Mark had been picking the brain of Jeff Carney for the previous three or four years concerning the building of a custom bike. Carney and his wife Linda are the owners of Cyclpath, a bike shop in Kirkland, Washington, which puts out a few customs a year, but mostly relies on service and repair to keep the bill collectors at bay.

When Mark showed up this time, he was ready to talk turkey. The time to fool around had long passed, and Jeff needed to help Mark come up with a plan. Not just a good plan, but one he could pull off in time while still ending up with a bike that would stand far apart from the others he had seen too much of lately.

About all Mark knew at the time was he wanted a bike with a Springer frontend hanging from well-raked rigid frame. The two guys put their heads together and devised a plan to parlay Jeff's years of drag racing and hot-rod experience into coming up with a bike that had the look and feel of days gone by combined with today's technology. Because Mark had seen the bikes which Jeff and his number one guy, Darin Waters, had been putting out, he had complete faith in their skills and gave Jeff the go ahead.

With no time to waste, Jeff picked up a Drag Specialties 200-series rigid frame and tacked it down to his frame table. Both he and Darin immediately had the neck sliced off and the backbone and the downtubes laying in pieces on the bench. When the pair welded things back together, the neck was raked an additional 6 degrees for a total of 40 degrees, and the backbone and downtubes had a respective 3 inches and 6 inches added. Right after Jeff made the deal with Mark to build the bike for him, he ordered a 12-inch-over Springer frontend from the guys who have been making them for what seems like forever -- Paughco.

Pulling a page from his racing background, Jeff wanted to be sure the bike had plenty of stopping power up front without having too much, which could cause Mark to have handling problems. Although not in the PM catalog, Jeff knew PM had some 8-inch brake rotors sitting on a shelf, so he ordered up a pair along with a single-piston caliper designed to run on a Springer. He then built a custom hub and pair of carriers that would allow him to run the diminutive rotors on a PM 21-inch Villain wheel. The back of the rigid frame supports an 18x6-inch Villain, complete with a matching PM drive-side pulley. Both ends of the bike are setup with Metzeler tires.

Sheetmetal for the bike would be kept to a minimum, but would carry the feel of the bike quite well. A Paughco Coffin Tank sits high on the backbone, while down below, Jeff modified a Midwest oilbag to house the battery and fill in the space behind it a bit. The remaining metalwork on the bike began life as a Werinmont R 900 rear fender that Jeff cut short and welded to the frame. The back of the fender gets its support from a gracefully shaped piece of round stock welded to both the frame and the fender.

Jeff was now ready to get going on the motor, but he had a problem. His plan was to put a raw, finished S&S motor in place, but it just didn't look right sitting between the framerails. Both he and Darin checked it out for quite sometime before Jeff gave in and walked over to a little-used corner of the shop. Sitting under the bench with a blanket draped over it was a beautiful 89-inch pan motor Jeff built for himself a couple of years back. He was planning on putting it in a bike he was going to build for himself, but as too many of us know, those kind of projects are always the last ones we have a chance to get to.

When Jeff planned out this motor, he made sure it would have plenty of power. Inside the STD cases are S&S wheels and rods, while S&S cylinders hide S&S pistons. A pair of STD heads conceals S&S valves, which are actuated by S&S rockers, set above JIMS pushrods and lifters and an Andrews cam. Rounding out the motor package is a beautiful Rivera Eliminator II SU vintage-looking carb, a Mallory distributor, and Paughco pipes, which Jeff had to modify to get around the JIMS six-speed transmission. Keeping with the retro look, Jeff coupled the motor to the transmission with a Primo clutch and 3-inch open beltdrive.

The time was getting close to put some paint on the bike, and Mark chose flat-black. The paint, as well as the pin-up girl on the tank, was laid down by Classic Customs of nearby Lynwood, Washington. Jeff decided to do a bit of machining to many of the components before sending them out to be plated. With the exception of a STD logo on the case and a SU logo on the air cleaner, he machined the company names and logos off all the components, giving them a real clean look before sending them out to Art Brass of Seattle for nickel-plating instead of chrome -- just one more touch of retro.

The bike was completed, and none too soon, with the nickeled PM hand and foot controls, Paughco headlight, Flanders bars, Paughco risers, and baseball-glove-stitched leather seat, which was upholstered by Randy at Auto and Marine Upholstery.

Jeff and Darin got the bike completed in time to put a scant 15 miles on it before Mark loaded it into a trailer and made the short trip to meet all his buddies in Sun Valley, Idaho, where the ride began. The next two weeks saw Mark pile up 2,600 miles on the bike, and the last time we saw him, he had a huge smile on his face. HRB