By Peter Tanshanomi
There are lots of different people in the world, and we all want different things in life. I personally think that’s a good thing; it makes life more interesting and helps us all keep an open mind. As much as I love all kinds of motorcycles, I have never been much of a bar-and-shield guy and I’m not ordinarily drawn to choppers. But one of my co-workers here at the House Of The Red Octagon built this matte-orange, long-and-low V-twin that I think is pretty freakin’ cool. Furthermore, I have to give Bryce props not just for for the clean, innovative style and great workmanship, but also because he built this sucker to ride; he commutes to work on it regularly.
In the decade since cable TV first raised the general public’s interest in outrageous OCC-style choppers, you might say there’s been a wee bit of backlash among experienced riders. Choppers have become notorious as turn-key $30K toys for aging boomers who couldn’t tell a hardtail from a monoshock, and whose previous involvement with motorcycles consisted of riding a Honda 90 as a teen and having watched Easy Rider. But choppers have a long history prior to the Teutuls’ debut, and they’ll be around probably in various forms as long as guys modify bikes. Bryce is neither a past-his-freshness-date boomer nor a clueless two-wheel neophyte; his other ride is a very un-chopper-like Triumph Trophy 900 streetfighter. He fabricated most this chopper himself, including a lot of very cool one-off parts.
The bike is based on crate running gear and an aftermarket frame, but this is far from a kit build. Bryce fabricated most of the bodywork and welded up the awesome under-fender exhaust out of mostly junk scraps of stainless tubing. The traditionally shaped “oil tank” is actually the battery box. The hidden oil tank is cleverly integrated into the front of the swingarm. The softtail-style frame came without any mounting tabs, so Bryce had to fab the mounts for everything from the calipers to the fuel tank. He even custom-machined the air cleaner cover.
Some of the details, such as the minimally-guarded exposed belt primary drive and the lack of front fender, are not to my liking. But it’s not my bike, which is the whole point. Bryce spent three years building exactly what he wanted, and he’s been riding the crap out of it for about a year now. As for the Triumph streetfighter, stay tuned…
Jeff Glucker
With you on the fender and belt… love everything else.
Not a chopper guy at all, but like how this has a decent fork, decent tires and tire sizes, decent brakes. It's a real motorcycle, nicely done.
I'm not a Harley-style chopper/cruiser kind of guy, but this is a very nice build. I would have put on a larger headlight, though; the current one just looks… scrawny… compared to the rest of the components.
That's pretty restrained for a chopper in terms of style. …I like it! I'm not even the type of guy who likes choppers.
I'm not a bike guy but that is gorgeous. Fine craftsmanship.
That exhaust routing is awesome! I'm also a huge fan of the paint color.
I was beginning to think I was the only one who had noticed the pipes.
That is lovely. It's like a regular trailer-queen show chopper took some reality pills and learnt to fight. Very nice.
Really nicely done. It's my preference, I know, but I would also like a minimal front fender ..and I think it screams for another front wheel disk brake for symetry but damn..this is a cool bike! Hat tip to your friend Bryce!