dead_man_walking

10. COBRA How about a Cobra car? The Cobra was the original American Musclecar, brute power, big tires, loud and a recognizable American Icon. Now the gears were turning in my head, many sleepless nights were spent building the ultimate Cobra Motorcycle in my dreams. I wanted to build a "concept bike" just like the guys GM or Chrysler build future concept cars. I was not into building novelty "Body Bikes" which would involve sticking a trim package onto a stock frame and drivetrain. The concept would be to build a bike on the NO RULES principle of design; Nobody would be making up the rules but me. Here are the preliminary design perimeters I developed before I drew the first sketch or ordered the first component: It has to be more than just a body. It has to have a power plant bigger than Big. It has to have a chassis that nobody had ever built for a motorcycle before. It had to look like a motorcycle, not a car, keep the proportions correct. I started sketching ideas, and traded them with a longtime friend, and Senior Automotive Designer at Chrysler Pacifica, John Sodano. John is a complete nut about cars and I knew the Shelby Cobra held a special place in his heart. We traded faxes for a couple of weeks and then I did a final sketch of the bike, which became the final design. I bought the biggest rear motorcycle tire available at the time, a Metzler 200/70 15 ME88. In '95 nobody made a 15 x 7" rear motorcycle rim. I found a local company who spun metal and gave them the design specifications and they cranked out a one-off rim for the rear of the Cobra. I wanted the frame to emulate the leading automotive technology of the Sixties. Adhering to the whole Cobra concept, we came up with a "four-link" automotive style rear end, and I don't believe this had ever been done before on a motorcycle. I called Larry Langley at Progressive Suspension, told him what I had in mind and they engineered a custom shock that met the spec.'s needed to support the four-link. Next was the heart and soul of a MOTOR-cycle, the engine. It had to be Extreme. Delkron had just come out with it's four-cam billet engine case for top fuel drag bikes. That sounded like a cool platform to base the machine on but this was going to be a street bike. I needed an alternator and enclosed pushrods to oil the top end if this bike was going to run more than a quarter of a mile at a time. I found one of the top gear-head machinist/motor-builders in the country that built many a bunch of winning motors for the top racers, Sam Evans of Sam's Performance Specialties in South Carolina. Sam thought I was a complete nut when I told him needed a Streetable 120" 4-cam big twin with two rear cylinders. "Why the hell do you want two rear cylinders?" Sam questioned. Well, I had just finished sketches of the bike and I needed big dual exhaust to emulate the Cobra car. If you use two rear jugs and Heads the exhaust ports are facing to the rear of each cylinder, and you have the intakes facing forward. That makes for a really cool looking platform to mount a pair of Mikuni HSR42 carbs on, and some unusual plumbing required to fabricate exhaust pipes emulating the Cobra style. Sam accepted the challenge, and this was a motor that involved a ton of engineering; custom ground Andrews cams with reverse lobes for the backwards facing front heads, reverse geometry which involved machining the heads to accept pushrod covers at angles never before attempted, and all on a motor that had to start without an external source, on-board batteries, not a big external starter like on the drag bikes Sam was the master of building. Sam pulled off the motor-building for us, after he pulled out most of his hair in the process. Now for the body. It had to be aluminum, just like the original Shelby version. I ended up drawing a � scale version of the Cobra, found huge blocks of foam and carved out "bucks" or the model from which a fabricator bases the body panels. I found Andy Palmer of "Exotic Toys" in Bellflower, California. Andy is an amazing artist in metal. He completed a 5000-hour apprentice program to learn the art of metal forming in New Zealand. Building metal bodies from scratch is a lost art, and I was blessed to find a guy who not only knew bodywork but also specialized in restoring Cobra cars. It turned out that Andy had some of the original Cobra body bucks that were carved out of tree stumps at his shop. Within six weeks Andy transformed my blocks of foam into the body you see on the bike. It took 18 months from conception to riding the Cobra V2 on the street. I can still spend hours staring at it and amaze myself that this project came to life with the help of some really skilled people who believed in my vision.

9. Steed 200-TM Pegasus The 200 Pegasus isn't your dad's land yacht bike. The Pegasus 200-TM is the performance Touring Steed. PERFORMANCE, it's just a word to many gear heads. At Steeds we view motorcycles as the ultimate freedom machine. To us, performance means that you can get on your bike, ride it anywhere, and have the confidence that you're going to make it back home in style. That's touring! The Steed Pegasus Monoglide Musclebike motorcycle is purposely built for the long haul. The exclusive Monoglide 3-way adjustable suspension takes all the open road has to offer. The fat 200 Avon Super-Venom rear tire grips like no other, ready to plow through every element that Mother Nature can deal out. There�s a detachable short windshield for the inevitable bug guts, large hard covered saddlebags, by Rocky�s Custom, with plenty of room for all your gear. This Steed also features heads up digital gauges hidden in the mirrors, and a solo seat, or optional two up seat with a sissy bar for a little friendly companionship for you on the highway.

8. ASSASIN The Assassin was a project we started in the summer of '98 for Ernie Daurham.What you see pictured here is just what Ernie ordered, the ASSASSIN. One hundred twenty five and a half cubic inches of sheer attitude. Daytec built us a rigid chassis with our propriety hidden axle adjuster system, and raised the top tube three-quarters of an inch to accommodate the extra height needed to fit the taller 125.5" motor. We had the wheels specially made in a 3-piece design so the custom hub in the rear could be run with the pulley and the brake rotor integral as one unit. The rear tire is a 200x16 on an 8" wide rim so it looks extra fat, and we had to run a narrowed belt to accommodate the extra width of that meaty Metzler tire. The frame is also stretched about three inches longer than the standard Daytec version, ‘cause Ernie's not a little guy. The forward controls are also about 5" further forward than a normal size human can reach. He wanted a 38-degree neck on this beast, and it takes more than two lanes of traffic to pull off a U-turn out on the street. We added a kick-start to the 5-speed transmission so you can give an assist to the electric starter when the battery is a little low. I don't think a 500-lb. guy could kick this monster over. Now for the thing most important, the "hose down" finish. The only thing chrome on this bike is the huge 7" Ness headlight, and Ernie just thought it was too pretty to bead-blast or powder-coat over, he promised us that he would keep the finger prints off of it. Other than that, the whole bike is wrinkle black powder-coated, raw aluminum that was bead-blasted or painted with black rubberized undercoating. We even had the Euro-inspired looped exhaust coated by Jet-Hot in a flat black finish. Those pipes radiated so much heat from that thermal-coating that we had to wrap them with special asbestos-like insulation so he wasn't roasting his cajones on the rear pipe. Going with the "bigger is better" theory of design the gas tanks of choice were the 6 gallon steel version that CCI sells with the flush mount caps. The rear fender was fabricated in-house with integral struts. Ernie wouldn't let us stretch the tanks; he felt that might make the bike too pretty. Since Ernie rides this bike all the time we used our Steed wiring harness which incorporates self-canceling turn-signals, a digital speedo and a Crane single-fire ignition, the same components we use on our limited production Monoglide bikes. I'll tell you, this bike is a handful to ride. You can go faster than a human should be allowed, as long as you have a nice straight flat piece of roadway. It leaves a bit to be desired in the cornering because it sits so low and is way too long.

6. Arabian The original concept for the Arabian line of Steeds for 2001 was to develop a two-wheeled Revelation. Building a striking new Steed to stretch the boundaries of where motorcycle design and performance currently exist, becoming something that was not known or realized. Not to let the biblical implications of the new millennium pass them by, Steeds are only offering 4 of these models to ever be built, each in their own fire-and-brimstone color combinations of White, Red, Black and Pale for each of the Four-horsemen to ride into the Apocalypse. This ought to become quite a concern for the true believers if all four of these machines go for a putt on the same day. Steeds prefers Webster's definition of a Revelation, than the consequences of Gideon's version. Let's just call the Arabian the Steed concept bike of the century. The basis for the Arabian starts with Steeds own Monoglide chassis, (featuring a single shock under the seat) that was chrome plated neck to tail. To commemorate the millennium, a 2001 c.c. (120 c.i.) Polished Merch power-plant accented with Ness billet rocker boxes, among other billet details, was chosen to be linked to a Dyna-style Baker 6-speed transmission via a Rivera/Primo 3-inch open belt-drive system. All this power meets the road with a 200 Avon rear tire. As with all the Steed stable, a combination of proven components are carefully chosen to perform flawlessly, making it possible for Steeds to offer a full 3 year FACTORY warranty on their machines. Milwaukee-Iron fenders were modified in-house at Steeds to provide the classic Musclebike profile to the Arabian model. The one-piece steel tank is complete with a flush mount filler cap that was also stretched at Steeds to conform to the custom made white Danny Gray saddle. Pearl white was the commanded color for the first of the series of four Arabians', accented with a massive silver-leaf Steed signature racing stripe specifically designed for the conqueror. A detail only for the owner's eyes, which could be you, is the hand lettered tablet under the seat-back verifying the authenticity as the first of four limited units to be produced in this series of Monoglide Musclebikes.The Arabian is not just some show pony. This bike is NOT cluttered with unnecessary jewelry, destined to be trailered from show to show to collect trophies. Built to be ridden in the new century, enhanced cornering is provided by the increased ground clearance of the Monoglide chassis, along with the accessible 3-way adjustable Progressive Suspension monoshock, which delivers sportbike-cornering characteristics. The inverted 63-mm front end equipped with dual Wilwood chromed four piston calipers effortlessly bring this Steed to a halt in record time. The turn signals are tucked neatly into the Kury-Akyn Mirrors up front. The rear signals are blended into the chassis, while the bright L.E.D. taillight / license plate frame is another product from the Steed Paddock of unique parts.

6. 300-LM Sintaur - 39.995 USD sintaur - the mythological creature, part man and part Steed. We spelled Centaur wrong on purpose, because this is a bad radical machine that's turned the world of custom bikes on its tail. Long and Low, Mean and Lean, packed with powerful features that you just can't find on other machines.

5. 300-VM Appaloosa - 31.995 USD Appaloosas are radical horses, ponies bred for strutting their stuff. This is the steed 300-VM, Vintage Monoglide. 80-spoke wheels, trim and lean, eye poppin' machine. A chopper to the core, bad to the bone, priced to get one home without any imitation copycat components, if you know what I mean. The Appaloosa is an All American brute, with style to boot.