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Contents
AUGUST 2013
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ON THE COVER
Volume 23 • Number 6 • Our 194th Issue This issue of IronWorks features something unusual on the cover: a café racer. But this one isn’t cobbled together from a rusted out Japanese bike of the ’70s; it’s based on a Dyna, a Big Twin cruiser built for easy miles, not canyon carving. We give the nod to Lord Drake Kustoms for their bold approach to the trending café scene, and also offer you up a host of other unique iron including a vintage superbike, a revived Shovelhead “bitsa” and a Sportster that looks forward while giving the past a well earned nod. Sit back and enjoy!
FEATURE BIKES
DEPARTMENTS
Lord Drake Dyna Café Racer...................10
Letters ................................................16
New directions, classic intentions
Readers write, we read
Jay Hart is Back!...................................18
Great Rides ..........................................48
With a little bit of this, a little bit of that
Get out and ride!
1924 J Model Survivor ..........................26
Made in the USA ...................................50
Brent Mayfield’s Cannonball steed
Kendon Industries
Karn’s Kustoms “21” .............................36
Streetfighter Buyer’s Guide ....................68
Thoroughly modern machine
For the minimalists...
Klock Werks Budget Bagger ...................44
Seasoned Citizens .................................76
A penny saved is a penny rode
1969 XLCH: the first superbike
IW GARAGE
FEATURE STORIES
IW Product Review: Centramatic.............30
Victory Road Tests ................................22
Smoke and mirrors?
Editors find victory at Daytona
Garage Talk with Dan Pike ......................52
Arizona Bike Week ................................32
Keeping time on your side
Fun in the western sun
Lincoln Electric Welding Series................54
Biker Belles Hit the Tarmac ....................40
Plan B to the rescue
The attractive side of charity
Shop Time with Mike Witt ......................56
Behind the Iron Curtain ..........................64
Family moto-values
LC Fabrication’s mountain hideout
Legend Suspension Series ......................60
Michael Lichter Goes Ton Up! at Sturgis ..67
Wrap up: Why new suspension?
Art of the café racer
IW Product Review: Park Tool.................62 Helping you get a grip
REGULARS
S&S Cycle Vintage Revival ......................72
Marilyn Stemp ........................................6
Kevin Baas’s ‘46 FLH
Who says we don’t like baggers?
Sam Kanish ............................................8
36
Goodbye, Harry
Rick Fairless .........................................14 Rally up!
Ed Youngblood ......................................74 Undersung Heroes: Effie Hotchkiss
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Story by Vincent Stemp Photos comlpiments of Lord Drake Kustoms afé racers are on the rise these days. Roll down to your local watering hole, and there’s a reasonable chance that you’ll see a grimy cafe’d CB750 or SX650 with enough duct tape on the seat to make a decent lean-to. Grabbing a little 70’s flair is as easy as kicking some life into a cheap Japanese craigslist find, hence all the wouldbe rockers that have sprung back onto the scene with a vengeance lately. Sure, trends are a dime a dozen, but carefully crafted motorcycles? Well, they’re much harder to come by. Which brings us to Red Baron, the cleanly rendered Dyna Low Rider-based café racer you see here, named to pay tribute not only to the famed German World War I flying ace but also the favorite Spanish rock band of all time, the builder told us. Beginning with one of Milwaukee’s best all-around Big Twin cruisers, Francisco A. Manen of Lord Drake Kustoms has done something truly amazing, both in concept and execution.
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All customization is rebellion, but taking a fundamentally good Dyna and turning it into street-stalking café racer is almost off the wall. “It’s possibly one of the first Big Twin café racers in U.S.,” Franscisco points out, adding that he feels the model is undervalued in the Unted States. Deraked with shortened forks and taller external reservoir shocks, Red Baron’s conservative factory geometry has been pushed to its limits with quicker steering, more weight on the front wheel and room for increased lean angles, the likes of which a stock Dyna couldn’t dream of. While the XLCR paved the way for Sportster owners who lusted after a little more lean, this sort of chassis treatment is new to Big Twins. Franscisco only arrived in the United States to set up shop in Miami four years ago, but he has a strong sense of mechanical history and he’s clearly brought his own flair to the machinery we hold so dear on these shores. Take a look at how far the the Vance & Hines pipes are angled up, a testament to the serious changes that have taken place to the stance. It’s an eye-catching detail, and one that lends a unique pro-
file to a bike that came out of the factory with such radically different intentions. The lines of the bike become even more racy thanks to the addition of spoked DNA wheels, a 19” hoop in the front and an 18” in the rear. Spokes and rims are color matched to the aggressive black and red color scheme that’s evident in small and large details all over the bike, from custom engine covers and panels to the fork legs and even a horn cover proudly emblazoned with Lord Drake Kustoms’ initials. The theme is carried over to custom number plates, with the number 80 carefully cut into the panels and then filled with accenting black mesh. And why 80, you ask? “It’s the same number of victories the Red Baron himself earned,” Francisco puts simply. The fork brace received a similar treatment, with contrasting black mesh laid under the hole in the brace itself. More fabrication was required in shaping the bodywork, a key feature on any cafe build. The tail section was done in house at Lord Drake Kustoms, from shaping and molding the tail itself to adding foam under the seat cover for a little
more comfort than those tape-slathered café bikes I mentioned earlier. Francisco even grafted in a slick LED taillight along the back. The tank was modified with a custom dash panel, and then painted carefully to pull the two-color paneled paint scheme in a flowing line from the tank to the seat and across the tail. A bikini fairing adds a hint of wind protection for the rider, while helping create the clean, tapered profile that most café racers seek. Bars are a pair of beautifully machined Roland Sands Design clip-ons, mounted above the top triple tree for a racy but reasonable riding position. The mid controls were retained, and for good reason: you can’t really hustle a bike like this through the twisties with your legs fanned out in the breeze, dragging your pegs on every apex! RSD was also the source for other modern details, like the Clarity Line cam and clutch covers that unwrap some of this bike’s internal workings. Speaking of those workings, the already substantial 88” Twin Cam was left in a relatively mild state of tune. So how is this bike supposed to live up to its racy billing,
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Red Baron Specifications Name: Red Baron Owner: Francisco A. Manen, Lord Drake Kustoms, Miami, FL Builder: Francisco, LDK
GENERAL Year, Make & Model: 2001 HD Dyna Low Rider Assembly/Builder: LDK Timeline: 6 weeks
FORKS Year/Model: 2001 H-D Narrow Glide Builder: H-D Type: Telescopic Triple trees: H-D Extension: 3” under
ENGINE Year/Model: 2001 Twin Cam Displacement: 88 C.I. Lower End: H-D Pistons: H-D Cases: H-D Heads: H-D Cams: H-D Lifters: H-D Carb: S&S 58 mm Air Cleaner: S&S Pipes: Vance & Hines Ignition: H-D
TRANSMISSION Year/Modifications: 2001/None Primary Drive: Chain Secondary Drive: Belt you ask? Good oldfashioned power to weight ratio, the credo that any true café racer lives by. Why add power when you can simply strip weight? With the absence of so many Big Twin accessories, the Red Baron’s powerplant motivates the bike respectably. Remember, most café builders start with 350’s, 400’s, maybe a 750 if they’re feeling aggressive. Red Baron’s packing almost twice the displacement of a 750! That being said, a little more air in and out never hurts. Those Vance & Hines pipes I mentioned are responsible for the exhaust side, while an S&S tuned induction system draws air in through the larger 58mm S&S carb. And it wasn’t just the engine breathing hard when Francisco brought the bike to Daytona this March to compete at the world-renowned Rat’s Hole show. Just as Baron von Richthofen brazenly ventured into unknown territory, this Red
Baron stepped onto the stage to do battle at the longest running custom bike competition—the Rat’s Hole Show—during America’s prestigious national scene—Daytona Bike Week—for the first ever showing of a machine built by Lord Drake Kustoms. And thanks to the bold choice of platform and artful execution, Red Baron took first place in the Café Racer category. Rock on, Red Baron. Manfred Von Richthofen would be honored. IW
*RESOURCE
Lord Drake Kustoms • Miami, FL 954 650 7630 • www.lorddrakekustoms.com “Put another notch in my pedestal...”
FRAME Year: 2001 Designer/Builder: H-D
ACCESSORIES Bars: RSD clip-ons Risers: None Fenders: LDK Gas Tank: Sportster, modified by LDK Oil Tank: Stock Headlight: Modified by LDK Taillight: LDK Speedo: Stock, bracket fabricated by LDK Pegs: Performance Machine Electrics: H-D Seat: LDK Fork brace: LDK
WHEELS/TIRES Front Wheel: 19” DNA Fat Daddy Front Tire: Metzeler Size: 19” x 100 Rear Wheel: 18" DNA Fat Daddy Rear Tire: Metzeler Size: 18” x 160 Hubs: DNA Rotors: DNA Brakes: H-D
PAINT Think you’d like to see more? Go to www.IronWorksmag.com and click on “Bikes.”
Bodywork/Molding: LDK Painter: LDK Color: Fire red and black Powdercoating: LDK
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