First off, if you don't like long posts please move on. You may have guessed this stuff is a little more than a hobby for me! If you want to read about the origins of a mostly unknown motorcycle read on...
I ain't soap boxing here, but I'd like to say after some pretty harsh treatment from me to do with the representation of credit for this bike in the media...I'd like to apologize to Lynn Ashcroft for losing my temper over this motorcycle. This is just to clear things up.
I've always had a lot of respect for Ashcroft Motorcycles and when I made the difficult decision to sell this bike un-finished, I only offered it to my closest friends and three shops. Lucky's Choppers, Billy Lane and Ashcroft.
I just recently was referred to his site update by a friend, and Lynn has made a fine gesture to clear things up. It's partly my fault for keeping my shop small (and not participating in the media very much) when facts or credit for my work gets mis-directed or overlooked. Still, there are quite a few of us out there who flourish on word of mouth promotion, and we need all the credit we deserve. Magazines are pretty bad at getting the facts straight, and it's put me in some hot water too. I've lost a couple good working relationships simply because my "Thanks To" list was edited or chucked for ad space.
As far as DNA...
* I've wanted to own a motor with Anders' brand new dual carb knuckleheads ever since they came out. FLATHEAD POWER IS THE SHIT. I love dual magnetos so it had to have a big S&S shovel lower end.
* I dig the industrial look of frame castings and old parts like springers. Weerd Bros. was a stateside source for the only frame right for the bike. It was a 230 rigid using all the castings and dimensions of a stock knuckle frame. It came from Sweden and I'm sorry for not remembering where. I want to say SJP.
* The 230 Avon just came out and big wheels look TOUGH. I bought the rim dis-assembled minus chrome from Billy Lane.
* The surface area of these wide rims, and Danny Franssen using coordinated color on his bike rear rims eventually led to the checkered flag rear wheel. I had my friend Flav (a math genius scientist) give me the checker size to match the diameter and keep two white checkers from ending up next to each other. I laced and trued it in the frame.
* The 8-Ball spool front wheel was a V-Twin part. I dis-assembled it and painted it like it is, making the "8" an oval so it looked faster.
* The bike was going to be straight black, with the 8 only on the left tank. For me that's where the "8-Ball" stuff would end. Ashcrofts painter wound up painting the tanks and rear fender.
*My usual stuff... Moon tank, drag bars, no front brake, minimal everything. During this I discovered you can grind the posts of a V-Twin springer top tree and (after cutting them in half) you can weld any handle bar to them! So drags can be super low on the forks.
* After rough mock-up and a couple loose sketches, the only other suggestions I made were stainless shotgun exhaust, almost no seat, and to mix up the textures of the chrome, raw/polished aluminum and cast iron. NO "blacking out".
I hung onto it for a couple years, tinkering when I had time (we never get to build our own stuff!). When ATF ran out of money (again) it was the first thing to go. I was glad Ashcroft wound up with it mainly because we were friends, he had respect for the project (no "faux" concrete splash graphix) and the resources to really do it right. This is where my involvement ends (in 2000 I think).
http://www.armageddontopfuel.com/extra pages/hellbilly.html
After that it was all Ashcroft Motorcycles. Thanks Lynn, you boys build a fine 'Sickle.
http://www.ashcroftmotorcycles.com/Features/Hellybilly/tabid/54/Default.aspx
I ain't soap boxing here, but I'd like to say after some pretty harsh treatment from me to do with the representation of credit for this bike in the media...I'd like to apologize to Lynn Ashcroft for losing my temper over this motorcycle. This is just to clear things up.
I've always had a lot of respect for Ashcroft Motorcycles and when I made the difficult decision to sell this bike un-finished, I only offered it to my closest friends and three shops. Lucky's Choppers, Billy Lane and Ashcroft.
I just recently was referred to his site update by a friend, and Lynn has made a fine gesture to clear things up. It's partly my fault for keeping my shop small (and not participating in the media very much) when facts or credit for my work gets mis-directed or overlooked. Still, there are quite a few of us out there who flourish on word of mouth promotion, and we need all the credit we deserve. Magazines are pretty bad at getting the facts straight, and it's put me in some hot water too. I've lost a couple good working relationships simply because my "Thanks To" list was edited or chucked for ad space.
As far as DNA...
* I've wanted to own a motor with Anders' brand new dual carb knuckleheads ever since they came out. FLATHEAD POWER IS THE SHIT. I love dual magnetos so it had to have a big S&S shovel lower end.
* I dig the industrial look of frame castings and old parts like springers. Weerd Bros. was a stateside source for the only frame right for the bike. It was a 230 rigid using all the castings and dimensions of a stock knuckle frame. It came from Sweden and I'm sorry for not remembering where. I want to say SJP.
* The 230 Avon just came out and big wheels look TOUGH. I bought the rim dis-assembled minus chrome from Billy Lane.
* The surface area of these wide rims, and Danny Franssen using coordinated color on his bike rear rims eventually led to the checkered flag rear wheel. I had my friend Flav (a math genius scientist) give me the checker size to match the diameter and keep two white checkers from ending up next to each other. I laced and trued it in the frame.
* The 8-Ball spool front wheel was a V-Twin part. I dis-assembled it and painted it like it is, making the "8" an oval so it looked faster.
* The bike was going to be straight black, with the 8 only on the left tank. For me that's where the "8-Ball" stuff would end. Ashcrofts painter wound up painting the tanks and rear fender.
*My usual stuff... Moon tank, drag bars, no front brake, minimal everything. During this I discovered you can grind the posts of a V-Twin springer top tree and (after cutting them in half) you can weld any handle bar to them! So drags can be super low on the forks.
* After rough mock-up and a couple loose sketches, the only other suggestions I made were stainless shotgun exhaust, almost no seat, and to mix up the textures of the chrome, raw/polished aluminum and cast iron. NO "blacking out".
I hung onto it for a couple years, tinkering when I had time (we never get to build our own stuff!). When ATF ran out of money (again) it was the first thing to go. I was glad Ashcroft wound up with it mainly because we were friends, he had respect for the project (no "faux" concrete splash graphix) and the resources to really do it right. This is where my involvement ends (in 2000 I think).
http://www.armageddontopfuel.com/extra pages/hellbilly.html
After that it was all Ashcroft Motorcycles. Thanks Lynn, you boys build a fine 'Sickle.
http://www.ashcroftmotorcycles.com/Features/Hellybilly/tabid/54/Default.aspx
