Free Departments

  My life is usually peaceful. I tweak on the bikes at Bikernet, tweak on my own, drink a little beer and watch television. Ever since Bandit broke up with his last wife, I decided to avoid the pitfalls of life and stick to myself. This particular day at the Bikernet headquarters was a perfect […]

FLASHBACK On the night of Jan. 10, 2001, Arlen Ness, Jesse James, Paul Yaffe and I were on different planes to the same destination: the Italian Chopper Custom Bike Show of Padova, near Milan, one of Europe’s most important motorcycle events. I cross the Atlantic a couple times a year, but it had been five

Incredible. It’s been 15 years since we kicked off Bikernet.com. I had the audacity to believe someone might be interested in this history of an eternal search for freedom, the illustrious custom motorcycle holy grail, and the perfect woman. And since we had so many variations of our George Fleming-induced, 15th anniversary logo effort, I

Incredible. It’s been 15 years since we kicked off Bikernet.com. I had the audacity to believe someone might be interested in this history of an eternal search for freedom, the illustrious custom motorcycle holy grail, and the perfect woman. And since we had so many variations of our George Fleming-induced, 15th anniversary logo effort, I

  Kiwi is proud to introduce the worlds first operationalproprietary Indian engine and transmission powerplant. The first new Indianengine since the factory closed its doors in 1953. We utilized our proprietarycomponents and built it larger than stock to 84 cubic inches (80 and 74-inchversions also available). We call this the “Kiwi Integrated Engine” which means

If you ride a motorcycle, you have a relationship with a machine.Your motorcycle will bring you years of joy and satisfaction if youhave a positive relationship. Just like the association with yourspouse, kids or buddies; the amount of energy you put into yourmechanical connection with your motorcycle directly correlates withyour level of enjoyment. If you

John Covington has been in the custom manufactured motorcyclebusiness since Don Bitman started the trend with the IllusionMotorcycle Line. He is a devoted performance minded builder from thePhoenix area. We caught up with him at closing time in a Scottsdalebiker joint called the Billet Bar and quizzed him on the conditionand future of the custom

If it weren’t for the precision parts that came from Joker Machine, Bandit would still be in the leaning Bikernet garage trying to make forward controls from old rods and wrist pins for the Blue Flame. Bandit ran into Geoff, Joker’s general manager, at the Indianapolis dealer expo, where Geoff reminded the old guy of

There’s a party weekend in Charlotte each year that culminates ina Sunday gathering and a grand bike show. The humid weekend escapewas created five years ago by Mike Pullin a member of the CharlotteH-D team, after his son, Justin, died of asthma complications whileMike was on a run.Mike discovered, that the American Lung Association createdcamps

Using a tape measure, or if not available a piece of string, raise the bike to upright position. Start by holding the tape measure straight down from the front axle to the floor. Put a mark on the floor at that point. Then, place the tape parallel to the steering axle, following the angle of

There’s a seldom talked about, often ignored important ingredient used all over your motorcycle that usually gets under-appreciated until you see or hear a piece of your bike bouncing down the road behind you. Yes, it’s another case of “Arizona Road Jewelry”. Those pieces of your bike that end up on the side of the

    We all jump into a professional paint job sooner or later. It’s a mystery to most of us, an expensive mystery. As a young builder I hated to let any of my parts out of my rickety garage, even for an hour. I rebuilt engines, brakes, welded frames, rattle-canned my sheet metal, and if

<>I finally got “The Meanest” to send you these photos of the front endchange we performed on my Super Glide. First, a little background onthe bike. I bought it in March of this year at the dealership whereI work, Harley-Davidson of Charlotte. It was a consignment bike, Igot a real good price on it when

  This here cardboard box full of odds and ends was where it allbegan. Or was it just an idea? Or maybe too much Jack Daniels. Ormaybe Bandit was tired of me whining about it. Anyway, like a beggar on the streets ofCalcutta, or Blanche Dubois in “A Street Car Named Desire,” I depend onthe

Like the enigmatic fortunes you find inside thosefolded Chinese cookies, our visit with Dr. John–the”frame doctor,” was a mix of New Age mysticism andpractical guidance. The week before, Bandit and Ibrought the rolling Pro-Street frame to the gooddoctor. We gave the him our best ideas of what wethought the bike should become. Basically, we wantedthe

Bandit and I were checking out the Amazing Shrunken FXR. “Thedamned thing,” referring to the shrunken FXR project we had beenhammering at, off and on, for almost two years, “has attitude,” hegrowled, “a bad-assed attitude.” “Yeah, but will it have sound attitude?” I mused. “I want it toget attention. I want it to be felt

Photos by Bandit and Sin Wu It’s New Years Eve 2002 and catch up time on the ShrunkenFXR, as if I’ll melt if I don’t cross the line by midnight. And I’mgoing to lower the boom on you. It wasn’t intentional that Giggie,from Compu-Fire, came to the Bikernet Headquarters to help install aCompu-Fire charging, starter

You’ve been there. You handed the Makita cordless drill toyou’re drunken buddy, and he drilled a hole in your big screentelevision. You tried to wrap the extension cord around his neck andfinish him off. We came close to blows in the garage a couple ofmonths back. I spent days carefully welding chunks of Samson exhaustpipes

This oilpump photograph shows the vent line behind the oil pump. This is aShovelhead with an S&S pump with the feed inlet on the top plugged.We ran the feed to the bottom like old pumps to clean it up. The oil lines on a Shovel are straight forward. There are two oilline fittings atop the

I was sittin’ around listening to Bandit and Zebra go at each other again, over some b-s detail, and thinking’ that I’d probably be doin’ the world a favor to just blow both of them away, when it hit me. We’ve all read about the Bikernet West versus Bikernet East build up. We heard about

Sponsored By Well, now the holidays are over and I’ve caught up on all the other winter projects, sold the convertible, and put up enough copy to keep Bikernet readers happy for at least another week, it’s time to get back into the rigid project. Although the engine from Custom Chrome came with an ignition

Sponsored By   The old module was removed from the timing cover to expose what you see below.   The new Crane module was then put in place as shown.   You’ll notice that this ignition system has the module located right on the timing sensor pickup. This is a littledifferent from the OEM setup

Sponsored By Below are a couple of wiring schematics that detail how the entire system is hooked up. Pretty simple.   In my case, the plug setup was for single plugs, with dual coils. Note that this is a single fire ignition setup.     The initial static timing is pretty easy. Open the timing

Sponsored By OK – the majority of the wiring at this point is taken care of. Now to the fun part. Making it look like a realscooter. For this segment, we add wheels and sheet metal.   We start by preparing the rear for the fender install. The passenger pegs (for looks only….) are installedfirst