IWdec11pgs SS IW0204Pgs CSstephenberner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/iw... · Photo Credit: Riles & Nelson, courtesy of H-D I t is odd to be writing my final column for 2011 just

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ContentsDECEMBER 2011

ON THE COVERVolume 21 • Number 9 • Our 179th Issue

As Greek myth stated the story, Icarus was able to fly using hand-made wings. His downfall (literally!) was in not following directions.According to Lock Baker, the builder of the bike called Icarusshown on the cover, this Icarus can certainly fly. But the bike’ssuccess comes from doing just the opposite of our mythicalfriend; Lock and his Icarus have taken off essentially by not follow-ing any pre-determined directions at all. Turn to page 8 to readmore about this unique machine.

FEATURE BIKESLock Baker’s Icarus .........................8A custom engined custom

The Flow.......................................16A Sporty custom inspired by motion

70s Panhead chopper ....................20The same now as then

Scotts ’69 FL................................30Replacing the one that got away

Andrew’s Super Glide .....................34Friends for life

Editor’s Choice Winner at J&P .......3820 years in the making

FEATURE STORIESRiding with the Harley team ............44To the Black Hills

Sturgis from Ground Zero...............48Fred Mathews sleeps in the dirt—for you!

The Faces of Sturgis ......................52IronWorks celebrates the people

IW GARAGEIW Product Review ........................58Baker +1.5 Oil Pan for late models

Hoppe Quadzilla Fairing ..................60Making a Sotail a bagger

Cycle Electric ................................64Generator assembly 101

Shop Time ....................................65The Skull bike gets stroked

Metal Mods by E-Fab .....................66Custom levers, coming up

IW Garage: All About .....................68C-TEK Battery Charger

DEPARTMENTSHoliday Gift Guide ..........................69It’s time to start those lists!

REGULARSSteve B ............................................................6Last Licks

Sam Kanish ....................................................12Snakebit’s wish list

Bert Baker .....................................................14Deceptive simplicity

Margie Siegal..................................................76’48 Chief sidecar outfit

IW Eye ...........................................................82Worth a thousand words

SPOTLIGHT: DP CustomsThe Motor City roots of brothers Jarrod and Justin Del Pradocome through loud and clear in the bikes they build at theirshop, DP Customs located in New River, Arizona. But evenmore than that apparent influence there’s also a strong senseof American style in the machines they design. Add that Justinis a mad mechanical wrench and Jarrod is a lifelong racing fanand you’ll get even more insight into why they do what they do.Go to page 24 to see a selection of their builds here in Iron-Works for your perusal and enjoyment.

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Photo Credit: Riles & Nelson, courtesy of H-D

It is odd to be writing my final column for2011 just as the summer begins tofade but it is fitting, perhaps even appro-priate, that it be this way. In places thatsuffer from having true seasons, the endof summer is a bittersweet time allowingan opportunity to get some last licks inwhile the getting is good. Like a fuse burn-ing, you flash on how much timeyou’ve had and how little you’vegot ahead. The AC is off, thewindows are open, kids areback in school, and the air isclear and crisp. You can feeltime is marching on.

I am not ready to look backon the year quite just yet; westill have time to travel on two-wheels comfortably. Putting thewrapper on the season thisearly would be wrong. The twomonths after Sturgis are a nicetime to get out in the North-east. Looking at the calendar,travelling has calmed down andso I am able to look up and ap-preciate the good stuff IW hascoming up and maybe get a fewno-agenda personal la-dee-dahrides in, personal overnighters,do a little visiting.

While I was waiting for Hurri-cane Irene to visit last week, Ireceived a call from Chris Callen, Publish-er of Cycle Source, on his way to Bon-neville, for the BUB speed event. As hewas heading west towards Utah, he calledto report on a stream of utility vehicles,power line crews, arborists, and cleanupcrews parading their way east towardswhat would be a mess. He was headingtowards bright sun and the salt of Bon-neville and was watching an army move to-wards home. It was a strange feeling.

I know many of our readers, sub-scribers, fans, and fellow riders were af-fected by Irene. Ugh, what a disaster. Myheart breaks for those deeply affected. Ican think of few things sadder than dam-age to a home, business, town, etc. I lived

through a house fire and I can say thiswith absolute certainty: floods and firessuck. Take it away, just please don’t leaveme with a heartrending mess to contendwith.

But on the other hand, we are fortu-nate. Nearly all survived and will be able torebuild. Some things can and will be re-placed, many things can’t. And it is theloss of those photo albums, the old pic-tures from past generations, homemovies, those pieces of paper and thingsthat prove we were here and accom-plished things, which hurt the most. A lit-

tle bit of us gets lost when we lose thosethings and so we lean on the folks aroundus to give us strength, help us redefineourselves in this new context.

Americans rebuild—it is our nature; it’swhat we do. The phrase, “What doesn’tkill us, makes us stronger,” applies to acertain extent to this past year when itcomes to weather. To boot, I smell someaction in the air, I look around and seethat we are percolating. I am hopeful thatpolitically we are collectively realizing thatit’s ours to lose. And hey, Washington:time to stand up, go to work, stop the in-fighting and pursuit of self-serving agen-das, and look to our future. I see it hap-pening amongst the citizenry, it gives me

heart. You guys need to follow our lead.So in this context of the pot simmering,

what’s up with IronWorks Magazine?Well, I can say with a high degree of confi-dence, IW has some good things comingyour way in 2012. We’ve got a groovegoing if what I am hearing from ourfriends, competitors, and readers is anyindication. While we are keeping our edito-rial line-up, we’ve got some new contribu-tors, some new columns, and some greatmachines teed up for 2011.

We’ve got our challenges like everyother business. The bee in our bonnet is

an ever-shrinking newsstand uni-verse. As small and large conve-nience and bookstores alikeclose it becomes harder to findmagazines, IW included. Inter-estingly, as newsstand hasshrunk, subscriberships have in-creased, because folks wantand will seek out their Iron-Works Magazine. So a balanceis maintained but it is still achallenge. My suggestion is thatif you like IW and want it regu-larly, you take advantage of thesubstantial savings and sub-scribe.

I suppose that every year’send missive should also havesome sort of resolution/lookahead type of communication init, seems that that’d be onlyright. Well, I am pretty clear onone: I want more. I want moretalented contributors in thesepages, more new voices in IW. I

want more pages of bikes. I want morefeatures from around the world. Basically,I want to turn up the volume. I want moreof what we already have. Typically Ameri-can, I know, but heartfelt. I want more ofwhat I like! And you can be certain; I amgoing to work on bringing that resolutionto fruition.

So in closing, friends and readers, Ihope you will look forward as I do, to thecoming year. But for right now, let’s getsome last licks in on 2011. We’ve still gotplaces to go, tires to turn, and friends tovisit.

As for 2012? Bring it on, we’re ready.Stephen [email protected]

6 IronWorks December 2011

A Mile a MinuteSTEPHEN BERNER

Last Licks



Icarus FliesEastern Fabrications builds a great bike with a new-think engine


9IronWorks December 2011

Story by Lock BakerPhotos by Stephen Berner

We talk about new. We talk about thespirit of adventure. But look around: what istruly new, inventive, and adventurous? So when someone, in this case Lock Bakerfrom Eastern Fabrications, takes the longway around and designs, builds, and thenrides a bike with his own unique one-offhand-fabbed engine, we have to step backand appreciate as well as applaud his efforts, if for no other reason, than he hadthe balls. He did it—and he made it work.—Stephen Berner

The inspiration for Icarus was primarilyto push my limits as an enginebuilder. You see, for years I only didthe metal fabrication on my motorcycles,leaving the motor rebuilds to professionals.The problem was that the local profession-als, in many instances, turned out to be un-reliable, costly, and difficult to work with. Iknew that in order to become a true bikebuilder I needed to master every aspect ofbike construction.

I had assembled a few engines in a con-ventional manner but nothing that proved Iknew the true dynamics and intricacies of in-ternal combustion. When you simply assem-ble a motor from a parts catalog you do notneed to know much, other than how it all fitstogether. Look at a shop manual for thegiven engine type, follow the instructions,and presto—you have a running engine. Thisengine may not be a competitive race win-ner, but it will go down the road.

I wanted to prove to myself, and mypeers, that I truly understood the mechanicsand theories of internal combustion. Theonly way to do this was to design and build—not simply assemble—a custom engine.

I remember several years ago watching aTV program with Indian Larry. He was ex-plaining one of his engines, one with two dif-ferent Harley heads on a commoncrankcase. He said that he liked engines tobe as bizarre and mechanical looking as pos-sible, hence the two different heads. I could-n’t agree more! I thought that I could pushthat concept further still—by not usingHarley parts at all.

This engine is a hybrid of different de-

signs. The crankcase is Harley style. Inother words it is a V-twin, single cam, 45-degree cylinder angle, with a gear dri-ven breather system. The cylinders, pis-tons, and heads started life as Continental0 200 parts. Continental is an aircraft en-gine company that primarily builds boxerstyle prop plane piston engines.

The work involved in making this wholething come together is too long a story totell here, but I will cover some of themajor challenges. The task of mating thecylinders to the case was a big one. Conti-nental cylinders are “oversquare,” mean-ing that they have a larger bore thanstroke. In this case, the bore is 41⁄8” whilethe stroke is only 31⁄2”. In order to makethis fit the case, I needed a much larger“deck” area than a typical Harley.

The cases I used were manufactured byDelkron, who were kind enough to sell themto me with a blank deck, meaning therewere no stud holes. I also specified a caseset up for a 1⁄4” extended pinion shaft, es-sentially moving the entire cam compart-ment over in order to make room for the in-creased cylinder base area. There are


more differences between typical Harleycylinders and Continental cylinders.

Continental cylinders have six basestuds instead of the usual four, as well asan O-ring base gasket instead of a flatpaper one. The base studs were a prob-lem because two of the six studs per cylin-der were located exactly where my tappetblocks were! To fix this I built up weld ma-terial outward from the deck area towardsthe tappet blocks then shaped them byhand, blending them into the case. Thisprovided the extra meat I needed to ac-commodate these new base studs. Thetappet blocks themselves then needed tobe machined in order to have them fit thisnew deck modification. They barely fit!

The connecting rods had to be custommade for a few reasons. The wrist pinwas Continental and the crank pin wasHarley style. Also, the distance betweenthe two pins was much longer than aHarley. Carrillo was chosen to manufac-ture these custom rods, and after fourmonths of waiting they showed up. Theyare the most beautiful rods I have everseen: H-beam, shot-peened, perfect.

The crank assembly was another chal-lenge. Because of the short stroke theContinental cylinders called for, I neededto have custom flywheels made. You see,the only Harley flywheels to have a 31⁄2”stroke were 61” Knuckleheads. Mycrankcase calls for Evolution style pinionand sprocket shafts, meaning a corre-sponding set of flywheels. I called Truett &Osborn, a trusted flywheel manufacturer,and asked them if they could build thesecustom wheels around my custom con-necting rods. Once they started,I received a phone call saying that be-cause the stroke is so short, the nuts thathold the crank pin in place are too closeto the sprocket and pinion shaft bases.Makes sense when you think about it.Luckily for me, they are cool people overthere at T&O, and they came up with aneat solution: make a custom crank pinwith smaller threaded ends, meaning theycould use smaller nuts. Problem solved.

Here’s another: Harleys have two differ-ent cylinder heads, a front and a rear.They are almost mirror images, allowingfor both intake ports to be

located across the street from one anoth-er. This allows them to use a common in-take manifold and a single carb to feedboth cylinders. Continental engines areboxer style, so every head and cylinder isexactly the same.

When you take two of them and putthem upright in a 45-degree configuration,they look like two rear Harley heads.This means a few things. I needed twocustom-made intake manifolds and twocarbs. I also needed a custom camshaftwith the front two lobes reversed. In addi-tion, the rocker arm ratio of the Continen-tal is 1.2/1 while modern Harleys are1.6/1. This would mean that in order forthe valves to lift as much as Harley valvesdo, I would need a much higher lift cam.The cam design and construction wasgiven to Redline Racing Cams out of Cali-fornia. It took over six months but theyeventually nailed it. Thank you Redline!

I could go on forever, but here is abasic synopsis of the other challenges:custom collapsible pushrods, custom in-take manifolds, custom Lectron carbs,custom load bearing rocker boxes, cus-



11IronWorks December 2011

tom pushrod boots, custom top end oildrains, magneto re-degreed, custom ex-haust, cylinder fins extensively clearanced,custom base studs and nuts, and I evenhad to make a custom valve spring com-pressor due to the fact that the cylindersand heads are permanently attached toeach other! (No head gaskets.)

The rest of the bike is every bit as wildas the engine. With the help of AcmeChoppers, we made an entirely stainlesssteel frame in order to fit the taller en-gine. I made the hubs from scratch andhad them laced to imported Morad rimsfrom Spain. Bandit Machine Works provid-ed the primary drive, which I modifiedto accommodate a 10-degree transmis-sion plate tilt.

This allowed me to get a fair lead onthe final belt drive (an old Indian Larrytrick). I also made the fuel tank fromscratch out of aluminum (see past Iron-Works article for that one!). The fork is ashaved 35mm narrow glide. Everythingelse, including the bars, foot controls,fender struts, taillight, plumbing, seat, oiltank, and 4-bar pneumatic seat suspen-

sion were all made by me at Eastern Fab-rications.

I feel very satisfied with the final result.The engine runs like a top and the bikerides exactly the way I wanted it to —light,quick, agile and fun. It goes without sayingthat I had the help of a lot of talented andgenerous people. Mark Simiola, from Ster-ling Performance was instrumental in help-ing me calculate the length of the rods toget my desired compression ratio. He alsoanswered countless questions and helpedme time the engine. Acme Chopperscame through as usual with the bottomhalf of the frame.

Clifford Frizzel from Esquire Machinehelped make the beautiful rocker boxesand decked the cases. Cooney Engravingdid the custom badges that adorn thebike. Truett & Osborn, Carrillo, Delkron,and Redline all treated me with profession-alism and kindness. I would like to thankall of you for your willingness to think out-side the box with me.

Oh yeah, the name. The story of Icaruscomes from Greek myth. Icarus was theson of Daedalus, a craftsman who built a

set of wings that allowed man to fly.Icarus was allowed to use the wings onone condition; that he not fly too close tothe hot sun, as the wings were held to-gether with wax.

As Icarus flew he did not heed his fa-ther’s warning; the wax melted and he fellto his death. I chose the name because,by using aircraft parts, I was taking a risk.I knew that if I was not careful and diligentit would not work. Luckily, patience paysoff and so, this Icarus Flies. IW

*RESOURCEEastern Fabrications • Branford, CT

203-315-9908 • www.easternfabrications.com


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IWdec11pgs SS IW0204Pgs CSstephenberner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/iw... · Photo Credit: Riles & Nelson, courtesy of H-D I t is odd to be writing my final column for 2011 just