Custom bike building in my mind is quite a misused term today as many builders who say they are a custom bike builder are no more than a parts assembler. A custom bike builder has a good eye for style, is creative, has an artistic flavor and is a talented fabricator and when you stand back and admire the bike as a whole it shows through.
At the Cincinnati V-Twin Expo trade show in Feb 07 Michael Lichter made me an offer that I could not refuse, it was his “One World Choppers” exhibit for Sturgis 2007 and his exhibit was to feature foreign born bike builders and I felt honored to have been asked to represent down under New Zealand. This was a big deal for us being part of one of the main attractions at Sturgis.
Now that we had the invite the tough part of the project was the concept of what to build to show case our abilities, talents and products and I needed to get my head around a project that was cool, old school and unique which is what Kiwi Indian is all about. I started a list of what features the bike should have, leaf spring fork, rigid frame, sissy bar, 21” front wheel, 18” rear wheel, narrow tires with old style tread, peanut gas tank, remote oil tank (un-Indian), tank nose art graphics, narrow rear fender, no front fender, straight exhausts, ape hangers, left hand throttle (typical Indian), right side hand shifter, foot clutch, custom seat, steering dampener and some design theme worked into the frame. I felt these were some items that would make a good starting point.
Just a few years ago I was told by one of the industries top magazine editors that my products and motorcycles were not main stream and that we’ll never be eligible for any industry awards. Well to me this was a pretty good sized kick in the guts considering I’ve been doing this almost 20 years in the US and designed and manufactured about 2500 different part numbers and others within the industry have acknowledged our bikes and talents. To me the reason most of us got into motorcycles is because I did NOT want to be main stream. I was determined to build the most kick ass and authentic old school bike ever built to this day. We are Kiwi Indian MotorCycle Company and we are gonna be noticed come hell or high water for all the right reasons.
In March my son Ross and I went to the Pomona Calif car swap meet and this became the starting point of what was to become the Kiwi “Arrow Space” rocket bike. Here we found a cool 1940’s-50’s little fender marker light that would sit upon the top of the sissy bar, a cool Buck Rogers head light, rocket air cleaner cover, a cool old tail light that had absolutely no relationship with anything else on the bike other than it was just plain cool as well as a few other bits and pieces. I find I do most of my innovative thinking while behind the handle bars of my Indians and in April I rode my 1948 Chief to a road run in Texas putting on 3300 miles in a week. On the return trip I went a bit out of the way to stop and look through Roswell New Mexico, the land of the space aliens. I’m not sure why I made myself stop in at Roswell at the time other than I had heard so much about it but in hind sight it was most likely because of this bike build, maybe space aliens????.
Since leaving school (almost 30 years ago) I have always been dedicated to the Indian brand and while I have seen many attempts made at reviving the brand come and go mainly because none have ever understood what Indian is really about however, for me I enjoy bringing to life a part of America’s past motorcycle history. There is history to everything that we are doing today and I feel someone has to keep the history alive so it might as well be us.
One of my inspirations is Indian Larry and I was fortunate enough having met him before his unfortunate passing. He brought to life (and to the world on TV) some old things some of us already knew and did. I remember him heating and twisting metal for his frame on TV in a very simple fashion without any fancy tooling and people went wow and still remember it to this day. He was the real deal and he thought Kiwi was a cool company knowing what we did to keep vintage Indians alive. When he would call up to talk parts, he didn’t mix words, he was coarse and straight to the point yet likeable as he was a real bike builder in the raw.
In mid 2006 Trevelen from Super Company in Los Angles approached us about being involved in a TV biker build off with him featuring our bobber rolling chassis and engine (he is the creator of the Crazy Horse copper tank and fender bike). He brought us into his custom bike building loop and it was a great experience to hang with such a guy. Trevelen is a very talented and artistic guy and he builds a bitchin’ style of bike. I enjoy all of the different cultures influence in America that play into the past and present of motorcycles and Trevelen exposed me to the Hispanic culture and the Frisco Chopper. I just love the style of the Frisco Chopper, lean, clean, simple, ooh la la.
Jesse James is a very talented builder and some of his nostalgia builds of past chopper styles really tickles my fancies. I have built Jesse 2 Indians and both were fun as he likes to have something different and we can get creative, the 1st a customized 1948 Chief while the 2nd was a 1937 Chief. Jesse commented that the Indians were his most favorite bikes and the 1937 Chief bobber (rigid frame and leaf spring fork) was his most favorite bike to ride. I remember going to his shop to drop off some parts years ago on a Sunday morning and there he was fabricating and welding away up in his loft, just him. He’s a very talented guy and always shown respect for what we do with Indians.
Brian Klock is another super talented builder who can build anything anyway and to me he is one of the most talented and versatile builders this industry has yet to fully recognize. Everything he builds is 1st class and I admire a guy with such talents and a positive attitude.
I like Chica, his style and his way of doing things, simple and without fancy equipment. Chica comes from the same vintage back ground as us and I respect him for where he has come from and what he is doing. For years people thought what we were both doing was odd, out of place and non mainstream but many years later people come to appreciate what we build as it’s the real deal with the real history because that’s what we really know and are all about.
Donny Smith built cool choppers during the 70’s and he’s a very cool guy. I have spent a bit of time looking through old magazines recognizing his talents. He’s one of the old and genuine bike builders that I just have to admire for still going on like the energizer bunny.
I also have a lot for respect for the past designers and builders of the Indian mark, that is the original Indian factory guys in Springfield Mass. Over the past almost 20 years of developing Kiwi Indian MotorCycle Co I have designed and reproduced approx 2500 different part numbers for Indians and I admire Briggs Weaver for his designing talents. If we go back in the historical style of things, he was the guy who was directly responsible in bringing in the art deco style to the automotive and motorcycle industries. Briggs had been working for Indian in the late 20’s under the DuPont era ownership of Indian (late 20’s to 1945) and I feel he started catching his stride with his art deco styling influence in the 1934/35 models. The front and rear fenders had a nice curve from side to side and they both had a flare at the rear bottom of them. He then introduced little skirts or shields to the sides of the fenders giving them a flowing style which also flowed in with the chain guard. 1938 saw the integrated dash panel so the speedometer and gauges were no longer an after thought just placed up on the tank and handlebars. To me the 1938 and 1939 Chief’s were the most beautiful styled bikes ever created even to this day. Brigg’s also brought to us the fully skirted fenders in 1940 which even to this day are the most recognizable thing ever introduced to any automotive design. I love these original factory guys, without them we’d have nothing to work with or appreciate, may they live on forever.
Designing a bike with our engine offers a lot of freedom in the design process since our engine is a 2-1/2 to 3” lower overall height than that of a Harley based engine. While it doesn’t sound like much it really is when it comes to the freedom of design and the other big factor is the low center of gravity. When you get on any Kiwi Indian bike you will immediately notice the low center of gravity and the unique and easy handling of our bikes, light, nimble, smooth and just plain fun. This is what motorcycles are all about and what most builders overlook and don’t build into their bikes today. It’s something we have known for years and it’s the foundation of what build making these bikes the most custom made bikes in the USA. That may seem like a tall order but consider who else manufactures their own engine from scratch. Yes we make our own cases, heads, rods, flywheels, cams, etc.
Creating an artistic bike is no small chore and things have to flow. I loved the flavor of the 1940’s-50’s Buck Rogers rocket shapes and I thought it would be cool to have some of these designed into the bike especially into the frame that we would build. I wanted the frame to be as structural as possible and I thought it would look better if we made the rockets with a hole through them and had them chrome plated and then slid them over the frame locking them into place with set screws (grub screws down under) and then welding the frame tubes to the neck and rear axle mounts. While it is lot of work I felt the end result would be surprisingly brilliant if I could ever pick the right shade of red as the color was going to be key in making our chrome rockets “pop”. If the color was not quite right then it’ll be a turn off and people will not admire what we had created. Nobody knows how much I really hate picking colors and picking the red was a big chore in itself and a very difficult pain staking decision that went on way too long. I went through every brand of car dealership, domestics, foreign, exotics, family, econo, you name it until I finally saw the red I was after, 1 lonely 2007 VW Jetta in Salsa red, that was it, no doubt about it. I painstakingly checked what it looked like against chrome and then black, ooh I could see the choice was right.
During the fabrication stage of the build some things were pretty tough to do in order to accomplish our mission goals and we have a saying here at Kiwi, “if it were easy, everyone else would be doing it, that’s why we’re doing it”. We drew some rocket shapes out on card board and sat them on the frame to get the right proportions. From here we bored the frame tube hole through the long pieces of steel which was a job in itself since we could not find a drill bit long enough. We ended up making one ourselves by welding on a long extension and turning the other end down to fit into the tail stock chuck. Since the 1-1/8 diameter drill had so much force on it, it wanted to spin in the tail stock chuck so we clamped a Vise Grip (kindly sponsored by Irwin Tools) on to the drill bit shank so the Vise Grip would rest on the carriage and not allow the drill bit to turn. We were figuring on machining the outside rocket shape on our own lathe but since each rocket needed to be an exact match to its mate, we felt the P&A boys (Paddy and Nigel) were the right guys for the task. We then drew up some cool rocket fin designs on cardboard and sat them on the rocket to get the desired shape which we then cut the fins out of 1/8” steel and welded them onto the rocket body, drilled in the set screw holes and off to Riverside Plating for chroming.
Trevelen gave us a cool oil tank which we had to be use on the build as it was a special gesture from him however for the longest time we could not find an appropriate spot for it (we must have tried 6 different places) yet towards the end of the fabrication stage (2 weeks to go) we finally found a suitable spot right above the battery and box. Here it would reduce the direct visibility of the battery yet sit centrally above it, fill in a dead area, look very cool while supporting the rear fender. The oil tank fins added a certain touch to this bike. Everything on a custom bike has to be cool and thought has to go into every single thing, after all that’s what it’s all about.
The original factory Indian clutch and foot brake pedals don’t have any style to them at all so creating new ones were mandatory for us. The ones created started out life as pieces of cardboard to get the right shape and proportions and then transferred to solid plate and plasma cut. We wanted to give the edges some style so we went for a rounded look and drilled some chamfered holes into them for a cool effect which also flowed in with the sissy bar. We wanted the pedals to have some cool rocket pegs built into them so once again we cut out the rocket shapes out in cardboard so they could be held against the pedals in order to get the right proportions. The left pedal is the foot clutch and we wanted the lower left rocket to also double as a foot peg so when the clutch pedal is in the fully disengaged position it rests against the front motor mounting bolt acorn nut and we have our left foot peg in the same plain as the right side peg. Paddy and Nigel from P&A alliance really rocked as we gave them the 2 rocket designs for our foot pegs to be CNC machined and we figured that once we got them back we would weld the fins on to them as usual but this time when they walked in with the parts they announced that the British invasion was here and they surprised us with having the fins CNC onto them. Wow, these were kick ass sweet and totally unexpected and took a lot to make. They were proud of their work and they rightfully should be. These guys were extremely fair, loved the bike we were working on and pretty much just charged us for materials and net labor costs. It was very much appreciated and considering they were both British, not bad guys. When the pedals were all said and done and when sighted from each side of the bike they both have the same contour and line up with each other. No small task on our part but it continues to make everything flow together in the whole overall package of the bike. So much time goes into every single part of the bike and in many cases things have to be done over and over again until it is done perfectly and the desired look is achieved. We didn’t settle for 2nd best on anything. It’s easy to say its close enough but that’s not the way we do things at Kiwi. It’s the price of perfection and the end result shows it, a bitchin’ bike with nice flowing lines representing a cool part of American motorcycling history.
A little funny side note on Paddy, I’d drop in and keep giving him some challenging parts to make. He’d hear me out and check out my drawing/sketch and then take me into his office and show me a T-shirt that he has stapled to the wall. “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”. I never did acknowledge Paddy’s t-shirt or give into his eyes being rolled around and like I explained to him if he can’t do it then I know a Kiwi who would show him how to do it. He’d mumble and hobble off across his machine shop floor and the next day we’d have our part our way. The 2 Pom’s, Paddy and Nigel were determined not to be beat by a Kiwi and they did some cool machining to give our bike some kick ass finishing touches.
Steering dampeners were cool back in their day and I wanted to create a totally custom Kiwi made steering dampener which took quite a bit of figuring out. Out came the cardboard once again to get the proportions just right and then redraw it out on steel plate and plasma cut it out. From here we went to town with our milling machine and the final blending was done by hand filing. Many think filing is old fashioned but I believe it is a lost art that requires great skill. I enjoy filing since it makes for a very precision part and few people now days know how or have the patience. I’ll pick up a file any chance I get just to keep the old tradesman skill up. The boys created the knob which represented Saturn with its rings around it. Quite a nice finishing touch which brings in the space theme
Designing an exhaust on a bike is one of those items that can either make or break a bike and we needed it to be outstanding and compliment the rest of the bike. One of our friends named “Bagger” dropped in during the fabrication stages of the build and when he saw the bike he went digging through his junk pile at home and donated us 2 very cool rocket shape exhaust tips. No one had any idea what they were off but they were just plain cool. We called in Dan Hellerud who lives around the corner from our shop to help out with the exhaust. Dan is a cool guy and I like to bring in others so as they have a chance to showcase their talents on our bikes. While we can build pipes ourselves I believe in networking and Dan is just a cool guy and we wanted to bring him into the loop.
Travis Bonde is a very talented fabricator who stops by regularly as he loves to see what we have going on at the shop. Travis is awesome at almost any type of design and fabrication (frames, tanks, fenders, etc) and brings so much talent to the table that having him involved in the build of this bike meant a lot to us. He is without a doubt one of the best welders I have ever come across laying down absolutely perfect welds. We wanted a cool peanut style tank but we tried several styles with out success as they just did not flow with this bike. After much frustration Travis disappears some days later creates a tank for us, sweet mate. He sat it on the frame and wow, now we got our tank, perfect. Since Chica’s rear fender had a rib down the center of it we thought it would be cool to have a matching rib running down the center of the tank but now the challenge was how to pull this off so as to make it Kiwi outstanding. We found a piece of 3/4” wide x ¼” thick flat stainless steel and started grinding and sanding away at it giving it a nice rounded shape on the top and making the front and rear ends come to a nice point. It was then carefully heated, formed and tack welded to follow the shape of the tank and then fully welded along all edges and sent to the polisher for a bitchin’ sparkling chrome like finish. Now Josh the painter can do his magic and Monte will top it off with his graphics. Another cool part about this tank is it has 2 gas caps (which is Indian flavored) and late one night while working on the bike we stepped back to admire it and the caps gave it the illusion that the tank looked like an aliens head when the caps were on. That might have been a midnight observation and could have come from sleep deprivation or what ever weird imagination we had at the time but that’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Actually when the tank arrived back from paint and final assembly to the bike we once again took a 2nd look at it and it still resembled a space aliens head and eyes. It all went along with the rocket and space theme and now it had a bit of an alien theme to it. Maybe it was the earlier Rowell NM ride connection, Hmm.
Cycle Electric kindly gave us with one of their high quality generators which we pulled apart to “carefully” weld on a custom bracket that we had designed up. I do say weld on “carefully” for good reason as the armature rotates very closely to the filed coils and any distortion to the generator body will cause the armature to contact the field coil pole shoes.
One of the nice things about being in the motorcycle industry for so long and creating cool bikes is networking with people and bringing them into the project. Irwin Tools stopped by our shop one day and were amazed at what we did and while at lunch they kindly offered us a tool sponsorship which we are very appreciated of. Chica is a cool custom builder and from the same back ground as us and he gave us one of his bitchin’ cool rear fenders which we had him hand beat a lip to the tail of it. Gard Hollinger from LA ChopRods hooked us up with his ISR brakes and sprotor while Corky Coker from Coker Tire donated some cool bitchin’ period tires.
Shirley from Bad Ass Seats in Las Vegas got word of our bike build through a mutual friend and she insisted on donating one of her awesome hand crafted custom seats that Ronnie from Pyrographix designed. Shirley is a cool English lady who is so sweet that even though we had other offers to do our seats, she was the one. Ronnie from Pyrograhics is one of the most talented illustrators I have ever come across and no matter what design we want, be it for a t/shirt, promo printed material, shop interior, etc he delivers the goods. When we were brainstorming the shifter knob Ronnie disappeared for a bit and then re-emerged with a sketch that resembles the 3 stepped rings on the back of the head light (that was before they were buffed out unfortunately). That’s what has been cool about this project is that everyone has contributed something to the bike and nothing has been off limits.
I like powder coat on some items like our cylinders, frames and forks as it’s very durable. Usually all our frames and forks are traditionally black but this custom bike was to be all red so everything would flow together like the late 60’s and early 70’s era custom bikes. A company in Corona said they could do custom colors and I explained that we had a specific custom red color that needed to be matched to our sample of red that we had painted out on a piece of sheet metal so as they could get it perfectly matched (and there could be no misunderstanding). The cylinders came back a Candy apple red with white underlay showing through on all the edges, hardly anything close to the sample solid red provided but what amazes me is that the boss would argue that it was the right color when it was far from reality. We ended up having an on site meeting so we he could see them for himself and cut the bull crapping. I listened to all the excuses and I explained that I had been in business for almost 20 years and I would not buy off on his excuse. Sometimes you just gotta cut to the chase and say it the way it is. I don’t appreciate someone filling me with bull after taking my money and promising to do the job that was promised and coming up short. He finally agreed to redo the cylinders and he stated the new color would be in either that afternoon or the next day but in the mean time he’d send out the cylinders out to have them chemically stripped. A few days after the promised due date I phoned him up and he said the powder finally arrived but now he decides to send the cylinders out for stripping. Let me figure this out for you MATE!, they have been sitting there for several days holding down your concrete floor like overweight (23 lbs a piece) concrete weights with you knowing that they had to be sent out for stripping but when the powder finally arrives and you are ready to rock and roll with the job you now finally get your thinking cap on and send them out for stripping which delays the project even longer. You gotta be shitting me MATE! A week after the promised date we finally got them back BUT now they are a burgundy color, several shades off the other way. Some outfits seem to be so in love with themselves that I wonder how or why they are even in business. I ended up going with a textured flat black color provided by B&B Powder coating who did them with out any drama, under ½ the cost of the other guy and the color we wanted within a day. These guys rock, thanks Donny.
The paintwork on this bike is super nice however I purposely did not want a deluxe finish on the frame and forks. This took Josh from Nostalgia Restyling quite by surprise as it is contrary to what Josh likes to produce. All of our frame and fork joints are TIG welded and are absolutely perfect and there is no way we were going to have them covered up with filler and smoothed over for perfection. What we like and have is a bygone era where we produce the finest craftsmanship in our workshop right down to the welding and in my mind anyone can create a crappy weld and smooth it over with bondo or filler but that does not happen with our bikes. Our good craftsmanship that is under the paint WILL be seen. About my only exception to the rule are the fenders and tanks as these are expected to be perfect and silky smooth. Josh really did us good, went about his work without any drama and turned our stuff around quickly so we could keep rolling along. Josh rocks!
We have a good friend Monte Moore who is an outstanding artist and is personally commissioned by George Lucas (Lucas Films) as the official Star Wars artist and it was nice to have Monte on board for our tank graphics. Monte was excited to be the tank graphic artist for our bike build and I had to wonder why he was so excited since he is the official artist for so many big time outfits like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc so I had to ask him, he replied man you build the most kick ass bikes on earth, why wouldn’t I be. Thanks for your confidence mate. Monte is all about quality and he wants to bring a higher quality level of detail to motorcycles. Monte is a perfectionist and his attention to detail shows in his work. When you look into his work on the tank you will see the finest of details for yourself and his work speaks volumes for itself. You will notice some squiggly lines on the rocket and flags (US and New Zealand) as this is done purposely since WWII nose art was done this way and he wanted to reflect it as such. Just in case anyone has any doubts check out the straight lines in the bow and arrows. Monte also draws the best boobs which this chick just had to have and he has to be without any doubt a boob man (normal male). During the build Monte was doing a show in England while the build was going on, landed back home (Colo) with the tank waiting for him. He spent one day at home working on the tank and then he was off to San Diego for another show. After his shows he would go back to the room and paint the tanks till 2am. Sweet mate and we appreciate the great work and late nights/early mornings efforts.
Our handlebar height had to be no higher than 48” as it had to fit inside of a van. Generally overall height is no problem if it was only being transported in our big rig but we wanted to cover all bases so it could fit into most vehicles if need be. Likewise with the sissy bar as it too could not exceed 48”. We wanted to bend our own handle bars however our Hossfeld pipe bender was not designed for making them so we were wondering who had a pipe bender that could do some tight bends for us then, out of the blue we were offered a fancy Itallian tube bender, roll former and other related equipment that would make us fully self sufficient. Nothing like spending a ton of money to bend up a set of $20.00 bars but at least we were now completely independent in our shop and could create anything from this point on. Since we’ve made almost everything else for this bike, why not make handlebars ourselves too. We’re now figuring since we have all this fancy equipment we’re going to start producing stock Indian bars and crash bars for our catalog of Indian parts. It’s the Kiwi way, we can do anything.
Our sissy bar outside shape simulated a launching pad for a rocket but how to make it look exquisite and make it kick ass and flow with the rest of the theme was the challenge. Some time earlier I bought a cool old rocket hood ornament off ebay which had 2 out rigger wings on it making it about 12” wide so we decided to cut the outer wings off it which just left us a bare rocket. This rocket was nice and petite and we sat it within the sissy bar and it looked real cool. So cool in fact that the consensus was to leave it in it’s tacky pitted condition but we made up a new one and welded on the fins, had it chrome plated and it’s now a brand new one which suits the rest of the bike. The sissy bar and rockets job was not only to look cool but it also supports the rear fender. We cut many designs out in cardboard to support the rocket before settling on the final design. Funny how some things happen by accident but when Travis was holding the final design card board template within the sissy bar it would not sit flat and kept kinking. Well it looked so cool kinked that it gave it sort of a 3 D effect and that’s what we went with. From the day I bought the Zeplin fender marker light it was going to be mounted to the top of the sissy bar. Fender marker lights were used in the 40’s or so when the cars had long high hoods and the driver could not see the right front fender so different things were attached to an antenna like rod and clamped to the fender so it would “mark” the location of the outside edge of the fender. The one I found had a cool Zeplin shape to it and I figured it added a cool touch to the bike.
The tail light was a car swap meet item and I have no idea as to what it is off and nor does anyone else for that matter so far. It was made by Guide and to me it had a Desoto feel to it but that was only my gut feeling. I found it at the bottom of a pile of junk and the guy wanted $185.00 for it in its tacky condition. That was a lot of money for it BUT it just had a cool factor to it and I had to have it. It did not have anything to do with rockets or much of the rest of the bike for that matter but it had a built in mount for the license plate and license plate light. We battled with it for quite a while to get the ideal location of where it would look the best but it was no easy feat since it was such an odd duck for this bike. But it was just so cool and odd that it was going on the bike come hell or high water. Unfortunately upon re-chroming it revealed a lot of pitting which we then had to do some fancy paint design work in order to make it look right. Even to the last minute the pits played hell to cover, disappointing but considering how much custom stuff we created for the bike something had to not go by plan. The headlight adds a certain touch to the bike as it was a spot light of UFO origin and was so cool that we could turn it into a Buck Rogers head light because can do anything. The Kiwi guys Scott and Mader contributed to the build as well and had the idea of making a rocket look like it was coming from the engine area and piercing through the steering neck and coming out the front and incorporating the front part into a head light mount. Hmm seems like a great idea so we all hunkered down and made it happen.
Custom builders have different ways of laying the colors out but for this project I had it all in my head. It was to be a contrast of red against chrome pieces throughout the bike and with the rear fender just having a chrome center rib and tip. When I saw the chrome work that Nick and Mariana (Riverside Plating) did on the rear fender it totally blew me a way as they fully chromed the fender and it was a beautiful work of art, just absolutely perfect. I had to rethink the rear fender now as I wanted it to pop in order to showcase Chica’s quality in his fenders and Riverside Plating good polish/chrome work. I thought about leaving the rear fender fully chromed but visualizing it would not flow with the rest of the bike as there would be too much chrome focused on the rear end of the bike especially when the sissy bar is taken into account. I decided to have a red insert panel in the fender which would leave the sides and center rib highlighted in chrome. I drew it out with red marker pen and oh boy saying it looked sweet is a gross under statement, it rocked. Interestingly enough and this was one of those flash back moments but in the teens, 20’s and early 30’s, the factory Indians had their frame, forks and sheet metal all painted the same color which was generally Indian red. Indian red was more burgundy/maroon color than what I went with but it was one of those cool flashbacks when I was steering and marveling at the frame and forks and I had that flashback. Some things are meant to be and I think we are pretty much in tune with the original Indian factory more so than we might think. I have a special place in my heart for the original factory engineers and feel we keep the tradition alive.
As the bikes final assembly started coming together, 1st off with the leaf spring pack with its chrome and red alternating leaf colors, then the forks onto the frame, a front wheel and then the rear wheel and before you knew it was up on wheels and looking mighty “tight”. We tacked up a set of our newly made handle bars and threw on a seat and I had the guys push me around the shop while I made motorcycle noises. For the 1st time everyone could see 1st hand all the hard work, design and thought that went into it finally start to take shape in front of their very own admiring eyes. One just had to stand back and admire it at the end of the 1st day.
. I have several kick ass Kiwi Tribe guys working with me on this build which I can’t speak highly enough about, Scott Mills, Justin Hale (Mader) and Joe Lambert (Engine Joe). Joe builds our Kiwi engines which are totally made from scratch. We have the cases cast and machined and we insert the races and bushings and hand hone them to size. Flywheels and rods have to be assembled with the rods, hand trued and balanced. It requires great skill and is quite an art or more like a lost art. Today’s modern mechanics are used to engines coming in sub assemblies or assembled complete but in our case we make the whole engine from scratch which we’re extremely proud of. After all we’re one of the few motorcycle engine manufacturers who actually make a proprietary engine in the USA!!!. Everyone has contributed a lot to this project bringing something special to it. I’m very fortunate to have these 3 kick ass guys as they stepped up to the plate and brought a lot to the table. They’re idea guys too and there is nothing they can’t do. Travis and Ronnie were essential members of the Kiwi team also and wanted to be involved. No one sat on the side lines and the bikes show cases our talents.
I like fostering different ideas from everyone and thrashing them out with others who also share the passion. Even the name “Arrow Space” was contrived by our team after many failed attempts at other names. Everyone involved with this bike build had the passion and contributed heavily to the build and it showed. If you look the bike over you will see a theme carried throughout the bike with some rockets being rather inconspicuous. It makes you look even further to see if there are any that you have missed, a good testament to a job well done.
Some companies really rocked and made things happen for us and without them this project would not have been done from start to finish in 6 weeks. Riverside Plating (Nick and Mariana), P&A Alliance (Paddy and Nigel) and Nostalgia Restyling (Josh). I can’t speak highly enough of these guys as there service and quality was outstanding.
On the last Friday of each month we have “Final Friday’s bike night” at our shop. June was our 1st one we ever had and it was very successful. We used our July bike night as our unveiling of the Sturgis bike and since this was only our 2nd such event we had over 100 bikes showing up over the course of the evening. In June people saw what partially resembled our Sturgis bike in a rather raw form but 1 month later they saw almost a completed bike less the gas tank. The comments that were over heard were extremely favorable and everyone was thoroughly impressed. It makes everyone on the team and associated with the build extremely fulfilled.
Looking back I think about the only stock things we bought were the wheels and brakes. We had a few donations along the way but we pretty much created everything ourselves from scratch which is pretty cool in today’s society where it is so easy to throw down the credit card and buy anything or pay someone to make it for you. This bike is a good testament to the Kiwi crews capabilities. The Kiwi way is we build it all, engine, frame, forks, etc. We did it and you bet we’re dam proud of it. We have a good attitude and when the going gets tough and we find ourselves wanting to take an easier route I kept saying to the guys, “if it were easy everyone else would be doing it. We’re the Kiwi crew and we can do it and we’re not quiters”.
We are “the Principal of old school” and when school is in session others will pay attention to the principal. We’ve set a new standard.
Thanks to Michael Lichter for a wonderful opportunity. We felt we built a kick ass bike for Sturgis top exhibit. What’s next, well this is just warm up and a stepping stone for the next project which will utilize our talents even further.
Sponsors:
Josh Nostalgic Restyling
Coker Tires
Ronnie Martinez
Monte Michael Moore
Billy with the Kiwi's
The Piano Man Chillin' on our Replica Chief!
Billy with the Kiwi Crew
The ride when all said and done covered 3300 miles in 8 days with the longest days ride being 725 miles (all on secondary roads).
Look for more pics at www.KiwiMotorCycles.com
