[43590]

Well, due to my bike I see it from both sides. I've got a Magna, which is a sportbike engine in a standard frame with cruiser looks. I personally liked Dave's bike better, but I also thought that Billy Lane's bike showed more craftsmanship. On the other hand, a great artist using all his skill to paint an ugly picture doesn't change the fact that it's an ugly picture, just makes it well done. Any contest of this sort is going to be way subjective, and the audience voting has to be taken into account. If it was a sportbike crowd, likely the more rideable bike would have won.

whodat

 

[43169]

I know that it's a cliche, but if you can't look at both of those bikes and see which has more ingenuity, originality and style, then "if you have to ask, you won't understand".



Perewitz is a great painter, but he is not a great bike designer and builder. Chopper building is all about pushing the limits, but of style instead of performance. Billy Lanes bikes consistently push those limits, which is why, to me, he is the best of the nationally known chopper builders around right now.

 

[Hipshot]

Yeah, all right, I'm a Harley guy, but I thought the voting sucked. Lane's got some original ideas, but his construction techniques and finishing is total puke. Dave is a consumate pro. His machines are original, look good, run good, and last. Did you check out the crowd that voted? They all looked like Lane clones. Perewitz looks like a typical business man and everyone's father. The Lane lookalikes are probably still in adolescent authority rejection.

 

[zrx]

had more interest then I.

Sportbike_pilot you had more interest in this then I. I've tried to watch these bike build offs shows, American Thunder, Corbin’s Ride-On, just to name a few, usually I last about 5 minutes and find myself asking this question; is this about motorcycles or posing and how did it get to this point that reasonable and intelligent people spend great gobs of money and time obtaining these machines that are built to go backward in handling, performance, riding position and functionality...

 

[23063]

I've been studying this show American Choppers with Walrus dad and goofball sons and as Pauli might say, basically I think I understand how this is going to work.



First you need to set up shop next to a scrap metal yard that's full of soft weldable steel. You need a reliable frame manufacturer, wheel builder, painter, plater and several parts catalogs, one of which needs to be S&S. Then you just grab some metal pound, cut and weld a shape out of it and then weld it on the frame. The plater and painter will smooth it all out and make it shine. It hardly seems to matter how it actually looks as long as the front end is three feet over, the rake is 40 degrees and it has a huge rear tire. If it weighs 800 lbs can't, corner to save your life and bounces down the freeway like a pogo stick you're in the ball park! There seems to always be someone willing to part with a huge wad of cash to buy it and you could be on TV!

 

[Abe_Froman]

When are they going to have a biker build off where the participants build custom sportbikes (like the Tularis.....http://www.cycleshark.com/Project_Tularis/project_tularis.html) and see how they stack up to one another on the ractrack? Something to actually pit engineering skills against each other to make something work better instead of who can fab up the most improbable thing that still has two wheels and can drive down the road?

 

[1877]

This show had nothing to do with the "cruiser scene", it was all about building a "cool looking" bike. I personally don't care how these bikes handle because even if I wanted one, there is no way I'm shelling out 40 grand or more for a bike.

 

[nokneedragin]

I tend to glaze over when watching this stuff. I personally don't see the apeal of an ill handling lousy suspensioned bike, but to each his own.

If I was to spend 40 large on a bike I'd get my remeedial metal shop skills up to speed and do the work myself.

On a similar note, does anyone out there remember a story in Sport Rider (I think) afew years ago about an engineering student who built a carbon/carbon fiber motorcycle for his senior project. Now that was a project, frame, bodywork, wheels. All hand built, put a used kawi 1000 motor in it I think. Anyone Mo'Fo's have any follow up on that?

 

[zrx]

Could not have said it better myself.

 

[runner00]

I enjoyed it. Certainly more than the psuedo squid

comments found here !

 

[1163]

Not sure what that Tularis is but...

You just did a fine job of describing GP racing, Abe. Everything else is just fluff.

 

[wrecks]

How very true

Every bike has the same hulking frame, probably same revtech motor, and they always end up having to make cutouts in the frame all over the place to make everything fit. Total garbage. I bet that Mikey's bike weighed half a ton. It took two guys to lift and move his BACK FENDER. What are they using? 1/4 inch steel?

 

[polishnightmare]

I agree with Billy Lane stuff. How about Indian Larry though. His stuff is old school, and says he wants a bike that will go, stop and handle. Defentiely doesn't have the 40 degree rakes. I thought his bikes were good and I Don't remember anything going wrong with his bikes. Also riding in NY, guy has some big ones. What is your take?

 

[1163]

Perewitz is amazing. He does it all and his business is a family affair. One of the best parts of the show was learning more about him and how he runs his business.



Quoting from his website:

"Perewitz bikes are meant to endure—as art, investment and a reliably powerful ride. The team of custom bike building experts at "Perewitz/Cycle Fabrications" shares the same goals as the customers: Quality, Reliability, Performance, Investment, Uniqueness, and Pride. When you cruise the streets on a Perewitz custom motorcycle (100% are street ridden and daily driven) it is beyond doubt, "ART IN MOTION". "



I saw this show back in September and this episode was my favorite until I saw the Indian Larry -vs- Billy Lane show. Indian Larry's bikes are insane.



I wouldn't want any one of them as a daily rider. I like my comfort way to much but I can still appreciate what they're building. If I had the bucks to burn I would have an Indian Larry custom in my garage. But hey, that's just me. ;-)

 

[bmwroadrider]

I have been a MO member for over two years now and this is my first posting. I have only been riding for 5 years (I am 24 years old), but have had a number of different bikes, First being a 95 Sportster, next a 77 R100/7, Then an 01 R1100s. Right now I have a 75 R75/6 and a Kawi ex250 that I raced a bit. I love all bikes but for different reasons. Sportbikes are great for their functinality performance, and originality in the sense of enginering and performance. Harleys, and more importantly customs are great because many truly are original works of art. The overall look of sportbikes hasn't changed much in 15 years, maybe 20. A late 80's CBR doesn't look much different than a 2003 F4i, the same is true across the board with yamaha kawasaki and suzuki. They all basically make the same looking motocycle with updated technology. Only Ducati, Aprilia, Bmw (in there own way), and some other smaller manufacturers really do anything original. Perowitz's bike had been done 1000 times before. A red custom, with lots of chrome, a big engine and a flame job is about as unoriginal as it gets. He barely even fabricated anything just sort of built a kit bike and then put a generic, albeit complicated, paint job on it. Billy Lane's bike was hand crafted and original. he frabricated an underseat exhaust system on a chopper. I had never seen that before. He hand crafted a totally unique looking tank. His bike truly was a work of art. Another biker build off between Lane and Idian Larry featured two of the most beautiful bikes I had ever seen, and totally original. I am as sick and tired as anybody of all the Harley posers out there, with there skull cap helmets and the tassled leather jackets. Their chrome studded seats that cover their purple or green harley's. However I am also equaly tired of asthetically challenged sportbike riders that think a motorcycle has to have 100+ horsepower, and be able to carve up a canyon at 80mph. Simply having a 150 HP GSXR, with a Race replica helmet and a matching set of leathers doesn't make you cool either. More often than not it also shows that you are just a poseur.

 

[ridinsince59]

I remember that "smelly-dreadlocks-Billy" also won a "Biker Build-off" against one of Roger Bourget's awesome creations some time ago on Discovery.

You can see Bourget's awesome T6 model bike, featuring his patented Oil-in-Frame/Drop-Seat Style Chassis at:

http://www.bourgets.com/pages/diamond.html

The hairy/tatooed crowd at the build-off/ barbeque/ beerfest, somewhere in the Carolina woods, looked like the Discovery producers emptied three or four trailer parks to gather up a suitably motley crowd.

I thought the Biker Build-off was more of a "good-ole-boy" personality contest than a strictly "which is the best bike?" contest. Based on the bikes alone, Roger Bourget should have won by a landslide.

 

[21072]

Whether sporty bike types like it or not, the chopper is a valid part of the motorcycle world. I don't own a cruiser type bike at the present time, but I have in the past. All of the bikes featured in the "build off" displayed a lot of thought, engineering and talent. I wonder how many of the elite who have scoffed at the efforts of the builders could produce a running motorcycle, even with a complete set of instructions and parts?



If you don't enjoy this type of program, turn it off, but take your "above it all" attitude somewhere else. The folks who built and judged these bikes are just as passionate about biking as you are.

 

[Buzglyd]

Welcome!



So what do you think about armchaps?



Oh, and watch out for KPaul.

 

[13667]

I think they voted for Billy's bike because he looks like what the poser's wish they could look like....a hard-core, dread-locked, devil-may-care biker dude. Dave doesn't fit that mold, thus he's at a disadvantage before it even starts. Personally, I thought Dave's bike was better.

 

[nomad76]

Pros and cons

After watching that show, I have to admit I was amazed at Perewitz's skill, but found the end result pretty bland. I really wanted to like it, but the pram-style handlebars and ho-hum customization left me wanting.

Lane was almost insulting in his flagrant disregard for precision, safety and overall discipline. You watch Jesse James, he'll go on about firing the steel, to spread out the molecules and make it more malleable. Lane grabs a hammer and pounds on cold rolled steel like a damn gorilla. Who's the craftsman here? (btw, what's with Jesse James doing commercials for AutoZone?)

But in the end, Lane's bike, looked a whole hell of a lot cooler. I found myself looking at it and thinking, "It looks a lot better." Maybe if Perewitz painted Lane's bike, we woulda had a good show.

And did anybody see the Bourget vs. Lane or Paul Yaffe vs. Indian Larry ones? Those felt like crimes against nature, too. The Bourget show was like Perewitz, high- vs. low-tech, and Yaffe had a sweet bike, but Indian Larry's awesome paint job and old-school looks went up against what was basically a Yaffe custom off the shelf.

Now if they had a biker-build off with streetfighters, that would be cool.