Here we go again.... it's time for you, the public, to get involved in the fun... time for you guys to vote for your favorite.... the top 13 will make it through to the next round and be one step closer to making the FINAL Born-Free 7 Builder Invite spot...
We are running polls on our site and on the Chop Cult as well as letting the Born-Free organizers and former People's Champ finalists weigh in on the decision.... vote as often as you'd like because we'll be culling the double and triple votes to do our best to keep things on the up-and-up.... KEEP IN MIND IF YOU VOTE MULTIPLE TIMES WE WILL DELETE ALL OF YOUR VOTES... so, run the risk if you want....
Without any more of my gator chomping here we go....... Here's a photo and a few words about each bike being built straight from the builder themselves...
I'm planning on riding this bike to Born-Free so my main goal was to build a chopper I can RIDE. I chose an Evo powertrain for the reliability & wanted to make it aggressive so I went with 8 up, 0 out, and 30 degrees of rake on the frame. Almost every piece on this bike is hand fabricated, machined, and welded by me. Lots of work into all the polished stainless and aluminum, but it'll all be worth it once I get this bike on the road.
I'm building my chopper around a 1942 Magnum 45 motor which is a sportster top end on a flathead bottom end. I'm putting it in an old Knuckehead chopper frame which will be molded to the high heaven. Running dual WM16's & a 20 over narrowed wide glide front end. I've got a bunch of crazy stuff to throw at this project... Handmade fiberglass tank, a 1930s dutch oven for an oil tank, Nick-E Shift, M88 Linkert, Morris magneto, some 2 into 1 pipes I'm gonna build, tons of polished parts, and eventually a bunch of chrome. I'm going to have local legend Mark Conforth do the paint to put the final touch on this beast.
I'm building a fully polished matching Motor & Trans 1951 FL Panhead with an L carb on a Harold's Panifold. Frame & springer are custom one off pieces built and designed by Andy Carter of Pangea Speed and myself that will both be chromed. Wheels are dual 18" American Racing 12 spokes. Belt drive/pro clutch inside a polished Imperial finned primary cover. Tins will have some ribbed body work with chrome accents and paint by Harpoon.
The chopper I'm building is based around a mag fired 1977 88" Shovelhead with a 4 3/4" stroke & 10.8:1 compression. Gonna be pairing that with a 4 speed ratchet top trans in a 2 up 0 out 28° Mullins Chain Drive single downtube looped tail frame. I've got an 18" laced for disc in the rear & a 21" dual disc in a 2" over anti dive 35mm front end up front. I'll be making some stainless T-bars and exhaust & for the tin I'm using a friscoed Wassell tank & a rear fender from Cooper Smithing Co. I'm going for a very 80s street racer club bike style. No frills just a business built chopper meant to crush the streets. The bike will be blacked out with some simple orange & white crab claw flames for paint.
I'm building my version of a digger in show bike fashion. I'm a big fan of swingarm bikes and an avid collector of all sorts of vintage junk, so I chose to modify a late 60's HD frame while attempting to dive into my personal stash of old parts. The front end I'm using is an old Ness low bend springer. The gas and oil tanks will be removable, but I will add some tasteful molding to blend it all together. Keeping the prism/squared off lines throughout, I chose to construct the fender out of steel while honoring the look of a Ness fiberglass fender with a Lucas taillight. The rear suspension is a set of SB&F sprung struts set to a round swingarm. 21" laced to a hex spool hub up front and a 16" juice drum in the rear. The power train is a fully polished 55 pan bottom with a shovel top end & a fully polished 4 speed. A bit of chrome & a tidy paneled type paint job should bring it all together!
Whats up everyone? I'm building a completely uncut OEM frame alcohol fed dual carb 1961 Panhead chopper. My goal with this bike is to build a skinny, light, agile chopper that uses a stock frame. There's a lot of handmade parts on this bike, from the foot controls to fender mounts to radiused washers for the 12-Point Hardware & much more. Since I decided to use a completely uncut OEM chassis, it's presented some unique but fun challenges to achieve the look I'm wanting with the skinny split fuel tanks, but I got them all dialed in to where I want them. I just got some fork tubes from Forking By Frank this week, so I'm about to start getting my handlebars dialed in with an internal throttle setup soon. Jasin Phares of Harolds Iron Works and I decided to cast a dual carb intake for M53 Bombsite Linkert carbs & he is also supplying the primary cover on this build. Once I receive a few pieces I'm waiting on I'll be able to finish my foot controls, clutch pedal bracket, and the list goes on from there! For paint the frame will be HOK Kandybrandywine, and the tanks will be 2 toned, chrome & Kandybrandywine. I'm also chroming the rear fender, but unsure If it will be 2 toned as well.
The chopper I'm building is an 81 Shovelhead I got in a box with the engine torn apart, a trans, and the stock frame. I'm rebuilding & repairing the engine and trans back to stock specs. On the motor I'm going to run a dual webber carb with split cast mushroom covers, a burkhardt magneto setup and bigger cam. Going to be kick only with a cast imperial panhead primary cover, modified rocker clutch, and some high & tight mids. Gonna run a small drum brake laced to a 19 up front and an HD juice drum laced to an 18 in the back. The tin is all going to be shaped out of aluminum and given a brushed finished to top it all off!
It's been a long minute since I've built a full frame custom bike. I was constructing a couple Motorshop replica frames winter of 2011-12 and bending the loop tails when I came up with the idea for my "Super Loop" frame. I do all my own work so I'm building my motor starting with HD Panhead cases and want to run a mix match set of Pan & Shovel heads. I'll probably make myself suffer over some dual carb madness too! Just finished up my one off peashooter/Ibeam and I'm ready to turn the corner and see what lies ahead while building this bike!
The first conception of this chopper started when I got my hands on a 57 straight leg frame & a 55 Panhead motor and trans. I laced an Ironhead hoop to a star hub for the rear and an HD hoop laced to a Union Speed spool up front. To finish off my roller I knew I wanted something a bit different for the front end, so I got RKB Kustom Speed to build me a one off narrow girder. I'm currently working on all the fab, mounts, and a couple of small details on the frame and then it's off to paint. l'll also be machining a few one off parts, including pressure plate, distributor cover, shift knob, and more! My idea for paint at this point is some light molding on the frame & tins to smooth out the welds, and I'm leaning towards three shades of candy purple with some silver leafing to add some classy touches to the finished paint job. Once paint starts I'm going to tear into the motor and trans for a rebuild before final assembly.
I'm building a chopper around a 68 Shovelhead motor. I want the bike to have a very aggressive short wheel base stance. The cherry on top of this project will be making a one of a kind CNC billet sportster tank out of a 100lb chunk of aluminum. I just finished up the big mods to my frame with a double windowed neck, now it's time to tackle all the small mounts & tabs. I'm going to be painting the frame bridgeport grey, and everything else will be bare aluminum and black for the entire bike. I'm going to be narrowing a late model HD springer and running a 23" spool/16" juice combo for my wheels. I'm using my new production wooden magneto cover and have a few more crazy, yet classy parts in store for this build.
My name is Jeremy and I'm building a long Panhead chopper. This bike used to be a radical chopper that belonged to an old club guy from Ventura. He tamed it down and gave it to his son who wasn't interested, and now it's landed in my shop being built for a customer. The inspiration for this project come from a Finch front end my customer had laying around. I heavily reworked the trees and made them fit this frame. A lot of Finch front ends have these grooves turned in the legs in groups of three, that of course inspired me to do the same with my sissy design. When you see this bike in person you will notice the number 3 a lot. I whipped up a seat pan has a lot of hidden structure built into it with the idea to keep the tall sissy bar from shaking itself in half & give the passenger a safe spot to lean against. I laced up Harley hub and put on a Model A excelsior tire for the rear end. Reworking a Lowbrow fender, horse shoe oil tank, and a Paughco gas tank. I'm using the bars & exhaust my customer provided me. I've got a lot more work to do, but it's exciting to see all the people who are supporting the contest & all the builders.
I'm building a '57 Panhead Chopper. Polished cases, wishbone frame, invader front wheel and Ness Springer. I've modified a GME tank with a tear dropped accent on the sides, fabbed a sissy bar from 1/2" stainless, and made a 16 gauge rear fender from scratch. I'm running a sprotor and custom machined oil tank to match the rear stainless wheel covers. The paint will be candy red with variegated gold leaf panels.
My name's J.J. Flairty from Genesee WI and & I'm building a 49 Panhead chopper. My main goal was to try and build, fabricate, and machine as much as I possibly could from scratch. I've ridden BMX my entire life so I decided to build my frame using .875 and 1.250 4130 chromoly tubing and made a super narrow wishbone style frame. I've machined my own flangeless "Hallcraft" style front & rear hubs out of 4150 heat treated material. I'll be running an Ironhead drum brake setup in the rear. I've started making my own 35mm fork lowers that will use a hidden axle I designed and are also made from 4130. I plan on topping off my roller with a set of super narrow trees I'm going to machine out of some 316 stainless & then moving on to all the little details to get this bike going down the road!
I'm building my chopper around a 69 Shovelhead & a 4 speed ratchet top drivetrain. I built a skinny springer and a rigid goosenecked wishbone frame to match. When I decided to use the American Racing 12 spoke in the rear I knew I wanted a 21 up front. So I filled, filed, and sanded the 40 spoke holes on an aluminum high shouldered front hoop to "blank" and made an "American Racing" 12 spoke spool to match. I'm going to be making the gas & oil tanks along with the rear fender, then using a lot of zinc and anodized coatings to finish off the bike.
Building a 48 Panhead. The goal for me was to finally build the bike I've always wanted. I found a deal so good I knew I'd never get again on the motor and trans, so I'm trying to do it right. I got a 22 over front end with a 21 spool up front and a 19 in the back. Old straight leg frame that we cut up and stretched to 4 up, 3 out, and some rake. Trying to keep it tall, thin, and simple. Can't wait to get this bike done and rip on it.
I'm working on a 77 Shovelhead with polished cases & a polished kick only 4 speed rachet top. Putting a primo belt drive & a pro clutch inside of a vented primary w/ an MPD finned primary cover. I've got a Weber dcoe40 2barrel that's swept forward w/ Velocity stacks. Started out with a modified D&Z Engineering single down loop with a bunch of up and out & I molded in a bobbed fender with hidden struts and a narrowed a Lowbrow DIY Wassell tank. I worked out a two tank fueling system that fills from the rear of the seat. Running an early Gatto springer, and tucking in a 21 akront laced to a Wargasser spool & an Allstate 2.75 safety stripe up front, and a 15" Cragar S/S mag converted to take a juice drum in the rear. Got some 60's Pontiac lights for headlights & Finch lights with lenses from Psycho Resin in the rear. Shack Cycles is doing up my seat and I chopped and modified some Cycle Goods & Pangea Speed foot controls to make my high mids.
I'm building a Shovelhead chopper using a 7/8" tubing frame that me and Paul from Bareknuckle built using some factory casting pieces. I narrowed an old coffin tank & did the same thing on the Panhead oil tank, trying to keep everything skinny. I whipped up a version of a Crazy Frank inspired fender for my rear end and am running an old K Model front end in a set of narrowed trees. The motor cases, heads, and transmission case will get a full polish & my dad and I will shoot the paint for the bike.
I had the idea in my head to build a frame as if HD had made a rigid frame Sportster. I started with a 1970 front loop I had & a set of panhead axle plates that I modified for right side drive. I switched the frame to a single seat post & made some "cast" rear motor mounts from scratch (complete with casting #'s) that slide down the seat tube just like on an old factory frame. I modified the primary cover by cutting off the electric start hump, welded up the foot peg notch, and removed the ribbed recess on the outside to give it a smoother look. The tank will have a polished stainless rib to match the ribbed chrome fender. Front end is a shaved 33.4 with a set of one off trees I drew up with the same rib as the tank and fender. 18" knuckle star hub in the rear and a spool laced to a skinny 21x1.50 hoop up front. Can't wait to see how it looks after paint & chrome!
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