Road Rage Performance’s the Dark Ride

What can I say about Road Rage Performance’s Chopper the Dark Ride? She is a bike that’s all vacant bones and chrome free. A bike that was built to be powerful, rugged, however look clean with smooth lines and curves! The Dark Ride was engineered by Road Rage Performance and it’s owned by Mike Thornton of Fesno, California. What gives the bike its clean nonetheless rugged look is its Road Rage Performance’s custom Handle bars and gas tank together with the West Coast Choppers CFL frame. As well as its black magic paint job done by Frank.

The Dark Ride is built on a West Coast Choppers CFL Frame, with a 1 of a form hand made Road Rage Performance slope black gas tank, and hand made Road Rage W14 handle bars. The Grips and also the Pegs are each custom designed by Road Rage Performance. The Front end could be a custom engineered Road Rage Springer Front end.

The Dark Ride is powered by a strong Ultima Black a hundred motor, that is connected to a vi speed transmission with a 3 open road rage exp primary to deliver all of the power to the ground. The exhaust is distributed out of the motor by custom West Coast Choppers pipes.

All of this sits on eighteen inch and 21 in. spoke wheels which rolls on Metzeler tires.

The Dark Ride is everything you could want in a very bike, it’s clean, has nice lines, and it is sinister yet easy. It’s one of these Bikes that when you first look at it, you know it is a great custom bikes. Its options are nice, I very love the sleek form of the gas tank and therefore the darker additional sinister shape of the handle bars they very blend together well. The Bike extremely could be a peace of design on wheels.

The Digger

I have been getting a lot of emails lately of people asking me what is a Digger. As we all know if you read chopper magazines, look at chopper websites and go to shows you hear the term digger being used to describe some choppers.

The Digger first started to appear in the early 70s in the chopper world and it is often credited to be first built by Arlen Ness (back then Ness built cool bikes). The style that makes a chopper a digger is typically a long and low look. Other common this you will see are diamond and hexagon shaped gas tanks (which are usually long and long gas tanks as well), drag pipe exhaust, and large old school style drag wheels.
To get the long and low look for the digger, they were usually built with low gooseneck frames and would have a big rake to the front fork. The frames usually have backbones that have been chopped so they can be lengthend for the long look.
Some people say the style was influenced by the drag bikes of era and they were meant to resemble drag bikes.  The main story of it is Arlen Ness attended a drag bike event in the early 70?s where he saw a bunch of Harley sportsters. This give Arlen Ness an Idea, take a sportster, chop the backbone to lengthen the frame, put a longer rake on, add a diamond shape tank and add a 70s style drag tire.
The origin of why its named the digger has its own story as well. My guess of why it’s called the digger is because it’s based of a drag bike and back then dragsters were known as diggers so it is a digger style bike. The other story I have heard is because of how low they are (though not as low as a lowrider) they looked like they were digging into the ground so they name digger was given.

Thanks to Arlen Ness diggers grow in popularity through out the 70s and become some of the best choppers ever built.  Diggers still seem to have a strong influence on modern choppers today! They may have been on of the two influences for pro street choppers (the other was pro street hot rods).

Choppers

I know a lot of you read the print hot rod magazines such as Hot Rod, Car Craft, Street Rodder, Rod and Custom. Many of you guys also read print chopper magazines such as Street Choppers, Easy Rider, Iron Horse and back street choppers. What many of you don’t know is that free webzines that offer better content exist! One of these free webzines is Kustoms and Choppers Magazine which is a webzine dedicated to original and unique content about Hot Rods, Choppers and All things Kustom Culture! Kustoms and Choppers Magazine features many different types of articles but the main focus is on Unique and famous Hot Rods, Hot Rod History and Original Choppers. In the chopper world the magazine was the first publication to do a Top Ten Best Choppers Article! Some of the other things you can expect to find is event coverage, tech articles and movie and music reviews. Kustoms and Choppers Magazine has set the way of the future for hot rod and chopper publications.

Indian Larry’s Famous Daddy O

Yesterday I did an article about Jesse Jame’s Sturgis Special which was one of the 2 bikes that got me into choppers. The other bike I that got me into Choppers is the late great Indian Larry‘s Daddy O! Like many I first saw this Bike on Biker Build Off and I fell in love it at first sight.
Overall I think Indian Larry’s Daddy O is the best chopper I have ever seen! Its a bike built to perfection. I like how it has the appearance of a hot rod, which The bike was built as a tribute to Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. All the small details on the bike are amazing, their is so much detail on Daddy O that I notice something different everytime I look at.
One of the reasons for this is Larry loved detail and liked to do most of the work himself and make his own parts. He made just about every part from the frame, to the fender, to the gas tank to even spoking his own wheels!  He actually said this while building this bike “Y’know I like a bike to look like a hunting watch, when you open up the back you look in there and its all mechanical and gizmos going on and movement going on, you see a lot of little parts in there. Its more of an art than a science building a spoked wheel. To me it says just elegance. ”
The Frame of Daddy O (and all of Larry’s choppers) had to be made perfectly. By Perfectly I mean, when it comes to the geometry of the frame it had to be exactly right so Larry could stand up and balance while cruising.
One of the best features of Daddy O is, the rear Fender. The Fender is actually made out of a Boat Carrier fender! Larry and his crew took a boat carrier fender, cut in half, at a small piece of sheet metal, cut more of it and rear shaped it into the rear fender!
The other main detail you will notice is the mustang gas tank made by Paco. This gas tank’s shape fits the 60s stripped down shape of the bike Indian Larry was going for.
Of course the other big Detail of Daddy O is its wild Paint job! Ed “Big Daddy” Roth was a crazy artist who pretty much invented air brushing and also invented a lot of crazy characters like Rat Fink who was created because Big Daddy hated Mickey Mouse.
The Paint Job is done by Robert Pradke of Custom Auto Design. Robert wanted to make it look as 60s as possible so the base coat of the paint is Gold Metal Flake. Metal Flake paint was very popular among hot rods in the 60s, so it fits the theme. The Paint also includes the Gasoline Alley Logo and Indian Larry’s name done in gold and silver leaf on the rear fender and true to Ed Roth’s style his Character Rat Fink was airbrushed onto the gas tank.
Even though I have said it several times before, I will say it again Indian Larry’s Daddy O is the best Chopper ever made! I don’t think any chopper come close to the hard work, craftsmanship, attention to detail and art that was put into this bike. It really is a one of a kind motorcycle and I don’t think that we will ever see another like it.
Tech Sheet
Year Built: 2003
Builders: Indian Larry, Gasoline Alley Crew (now Indian Larry Motorcycles)
Engine: 88 ci Pandemonium Motor
Frame: Indian Larry Wishbone Rigid
Front End: Indian Larry Twisted Springer
Wheels: Hand Spoked Wheels
Paint: Gold Metal Flake by Robert Pradke of Custom Auto Design

West Coast Chopper Sturgis Special

Ever since I covered the American Chopper Build Off earlier this week, I have been getting emails from readers, asking me to do a featured Chopper on one of Jesse’s bikes. I don’t actually have permission from Jesse to do a feature so this Article may not always be up (I’m sure Jesse won’t mind, hey its free publicity) but by request I am going to do a feature on one of the first bikes that got me into Choppers. West Coast Choppers’ Sturgis Special!
I first saw this bike a few years ago on Discovery Channels “Motorcycle Mania II” as soon as I saw the Sturgis Special it became one of the Two Bikes that made me fall in love with Choppers (the other is Daddy O by Indian Larry). Just seeing the clean lines, the custom built frame, fenders and gas tank just made love the bike and choppers in General knowing that it was all 100% Custom to the builders liking. A Chopper was a rideable work of art that a builder could call his own and seeing a the Sturgis Special made me realize this.
What I really like about the Sturgis Special is the frame. The Frame is the body of the bike and its what holds everything together and the frame of the Sturgis Special just has what a classic chopper frame should look like. With its holes in the front tubes, its clean lines, its large and it just looks strong and aggressive like a chopper should!
Of course who can forget the gas tank on the bike. The Gas tank is like the Heart and Center of a Chopper, its the first detail you notice on a Chopper, it helps make the lines and over all flow of the bike. The one this chop has great, its smooth, no visible weld marks or scratch marks, its clean and it stands out!
Sturgis Special was built during the filming of Motorcycle Mania II, the bike is one of West Coast Choppers El Diablo II choppers that Jesse wanted to build to be his own personal custom that he would debut at the Sturgis Bike show. He built the bike in a few weeks then rode 1400 Miles in 2 days with Indian Larry and other builders to get to Sturgis.
The Sturgis Special uses main components such as a West Coast Choppers El Diablo Frame, Patrick Racing Billet EVO Motor, Baker 6 speed transmission with Jockey Shifter, WCC custom Exhaust, WCC Custom Wheels, WCC custom Foot Controls, Brembo Brakes and Brembo Hand Controls. Front Fork Angle 38.0? Front Tire Dimensions 80/90, Rear Tire Dimensions 240/50
I can’t say their really is anything that I do not like on the Sturgis Special the only is the Front Fender (Its a personal thing, I just hate front Fenders on Choppers) and the chrome on the frame. Its not the most chromed bike I have seen and its actually been ridding a lot so I can’t complain about the chrome.
Overall I got to say the Sturgis Special is one of my favorite Choppers, it’s an amazing bike and its everything you could ask for in a chopper.