Jeff Leighton's 1938 Knucklehead

We featured Jeff's knucklehead back in November of 2009. It was beautiful in its dry build stage, but after getting some massaging from Harpoon and the local chromer Jeff's bike took on a whole new luster. Show-quality bikes are all the rage these days, and Jeff leads the pack with this machine. Years of hard work, lots of help from friends and a focused goal from the beginning combine to create a truly unique chop that is finished at a way higher level than most. The best part? Jeff rides the shit out of his show-quality bike, but it gets treated like a real motorcycle, not some pampered trailer queen.

Look for a full feature of Jeff's cover bike in the October/November 2011 issue of Street Chopper Magazine.

Owner name, location: Jeff Leighton, San Fernando Valley 

Bike name: Violet Fantasy 

Engine, year and make, model, modifications: 1938 EL knucklehead, large port heads and 74" internals

Frame: 1956 Harley straight leg

Fork: 1935 Harley VL front end extended 5.5"

Chassis mods: The frame is fully boxed and molded, tank was concaved and dropped 1/4" on the top and other side. fender had one side clipped  

Tire/wheel size and style: 21" WM1 Borrani spool front wheel; 18" WM3 Borrani star hub rear

Favorite thing about this bike: The amazing paint that Harpoon came up with, and the hand-made riser parts to take Flanders tops

Next modification will be: Alot of road wear

Other mods, accessories, cool parts, etc: Hand-made foot controls, shifter lever, foot pegs, riser bottoms, sissy bar, exhaust pipes, narrowed Flanders bars

In Jeff's Words: I built this bike, but it wouldn't be what it is without a great group of friends that helped along the way. From Harpoon killing himself and his social life to do hands-down the craziest paint job ever; to Frank Kaisler always being the best person I know and giving me the motivation to make things better and better. Wes White for being a great friend and putting up with me. Chris Hamilton killing it with his expert welding skills; Grant Reynolds for always being around to give a helping hand; Scott and Brent for helping with the crazy one-week timeframe to get it to the GNRS. Shawn and Scott at Bronsonville for the oil lines and helping hands at the very end. Bikes come and go but the people I get to call my friends because of the motorcycle world are life-changing