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ContentsJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011

ON THE COVERVolume 21 • Number 1 • Our 171st Issue

Sometimes the best, most creative machines come out of thebarns, garages, and basement workshops sprinkled throughoutthis great country. Nailing the magical formula is no easy featand not easy to accomplish for a seasoned vet, let alone a totalnewcomer to the scene. With that bit of pomp and circum-stance, meet Leo Tancreti, proprietor of Leo’s Speed Shop andbuilder of the Flor de la Muerte.

FEATURE BIKESTrask V-Rod 8Bad, Black and Boosted

Loosigians FXR 20The FXR the MoCo never built

Leo’s White Bike 42From ’75 FL to full-out custom

Big Green Bagger 48By Perewitz Cycle Fab

FEATURE STORIESRon Finch 24A look behind the curtain

IW Tried & Tested 36VIO video camera

Viper Diamondback 38Riding the pro-street muscle bike

Lehman’s Renegade Trike 46An all-terrain ride

IW Tried & Tested 51Nolan Helmet

IW GARAGEBiketronics Audio 52Speaker upgrade for a rigorous ride

Buell Brothers 54What’s that sound?

JIMS motor mount install 56A solid and stylish upgrade

Electric 58Repairing two-brush generators

Engine 60Camshaft dynamics

Demystifying Audio 63Listen up!

All About... 64Anatomy of a custom boot, part 1

Gasket Materials 66MLS gaskets explained

Mystery Machine & Die 68The big reveal…

Project FLHX 70Baker and Alloy Art opt in

DEPARTMENTSLetters 18Send us a shout out

Buyer’s Guide 73Engines and rollers

REGULARSSteve B 6Change is good

Mike Tomas 12Becoming an American rider

Sam Kanish 14To ride or not to ride

Marilyn Bragg 16Ready and willin’

Margie Siegal 78Red Fred’s 1938 Chief

SPOTLIGHTThe Shop and Industry CustomsWe've learned that often times, some of the best work is donein some of the smallest, least acclaimed shops and that's cer-tainly true of the two gear head havens in this issue's Spot-light. The Shop and Industry Customs are both located onLong Island and their days of anonymity are over. Come on andtake a walk around with us.

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Forward2011promises to be quite a

year, yessiree. The worldaround us continues to demonstratechange is something we’d best learn todeal with and better yet embrace because,dear friends, fellow motorcycle enthusiastsand Americans, there is nothing we can doto successfully withstand the hydraulic pres-sures of change. Change is a wind we can-not help but bend to, it is relentless.

Along those lines, I’ve come to appreci-ate that not everyone embraces changethe same way. Some folks resist, theproverbial sticks in the mud—and pay theprice as saplings do in a mudslide; theysnap, break, struggle, and eventually dis-appear. Some run from change, but thatdoesn’t work. You can’t outrun the fleet-footed beast of change. Others surf thetides of change, staying on top of the cur-rent, limber and flexible, open to the shift-ing course and finding a way to make thepower of change work for them.

Change brings all sorts of other things tothe forefront: opportunity for one. Whenthings change, opportunity is abundant andsome cool stuff can fall out of the ensuingmovement. You have to be quick, you haveto move with assuredness, and you have tohave a sense of humor if you are going tosucceed navigating the seas of change.

And so it is with IronWorks, that thingscontinue to change, and in our case, changefor the better and stronger. We’ve furtherrefined our mission and will consistently deliv-er the great stuff you expect from us. For in-stance, we’ve lined up some really good (anddiverse) column contributors for 2011, fur-ther broadening our voice, breadth, and per-spective. All these folks ride, they haveideas, and they are talented. The subjectmatter they target will always center on themachines, riding and the riding experience,no calisthenics (mental or otherwise) ormind-cleansing mantras are on our editorialagenda. Ironworks is about bikes (V-Twinsmostly), products and info that make the ex-perience better (safer and more comfort-able)—just to be clear.

Keeping within the theme of change, afterbeing a faithful contributor for many a moon,Bert Baker, friend, advertiser, and support-er has asked for a sabbatical so he may

focus on his business and some new prod-ucts he’s got in development, to which weresponded, ”Right on!” Bert will continue towax eloquent on everything from Coney Is-land hot dog farts to thieving trademark in-fringers, but without the pressure of monthlydeadlines and my hassling phone calls.

With that news is the addition of two newvoices to IronWorks’ printed pages: the first,Mike Tomas, who you know as the visionaryleader of Kiwi Indian. Mike is an interestingguy who has a lot of business, life, and mo-torcycle knowledge and is willing to share.Mike has been a long time friend of IW andwe are glad to have him working with us.

The second contributor you’ll know if youvisit IWBlogger.com and that is MarilynBragg a.k.a Chessie. Chessie is gold: shewrites, she shoots, she explores, and shemost importantly rides her Sportster every-where. I mean everywhere. This 1993Sportster has in excess of 180,000 on it.Yeah, that’s right, she rides everywhere.Chessie has been in the V-Twin business andworld for quite some time and I feel like wehave scored to have her join our team.

We’ve got a few projects underway in theIW Garage: Project FLHX being one. Takingthis machine that a few short months agowas a stocker and transforming it into botha looker and a performance handling touringmachine has been fun and an education inparts and process. Nothing better thanworking on your own bike to get a sense ofhow stuff works, day in and day out. We’veaddressed appearance, handling, and drive-train as well as light engine mods. Comingup in future issues will be a deeper dive intoengine work and a few other incremental up-grades and enhancements. The fact thatthis machine gets ridden a lot means thatyou’ll benefit from the feedback from a firsthand user’s experience—namely mine.

We are writers and photographers that

ride and are proud of it. Although youwon’t find us covering events per se andthe party at “so and so’s” in our printedpages, you’ll find us at these events, busylooking for machines to feature and peopleto engage for projects and contributionsof knowledge. When we are out hobnob-bing with bigwigs and hoi polloi, we havean agenda.

With all that said, we are looking formore “reader engagement,” and hope thatyou’ll take the opportunity to interact with uson the IWBloggger site. Print is not themost interactive medium at our disposal andso we encourage you to use our very busyand vibrant site to connect with us. Blog-meister Sam Kanish is one busy man keep-ing IWBlogger up to date on a daily basiswith all the news that amuses and pertainsto our V-Twin world. Sam is also a mean sto-ryteller and funny as hell in his inimitable laidback manner, so I encourage you to checkout IWBlogger and look for his missives.

I have one request from our constituents—and that is to assist us in identifying talent-ed local folks building bikes, performing cus-tomization, creating road going machines,and developing a body of work in the V-Twinarena. Looking for Spotlight subjects issomething we could use your help with and ifyou know of a talented shop or individualwho has built a number of machines of ahigh caliber and quality I’d like to know. Find-ing talented folks flying under the radar issomething we’ve got a deep interest in, andif you can turn us on to some unsung talent,we’d be most appreciative.

So bring it on 2011, we are ready; gloveson hands, helmet tight, petcock switched,key turned, carb choked…ignition!

Happy New Year!Yours on 2-wheels in 2011Stephen BernerSteveb@steveb.biz

6 IronWorks January/February 2011

A Mile a MinuteSTEPHEN BERNER

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W esco came on my radarwhen I lived in Oregon somemany years ago. Over time I

have ordered a few different pairs ofboots from this company in large part be-cause they make a custom boot that iscomfortable and heavy duty—important tome because I spend a lot of time in myboots. My Wescos fit, unlike what I com-monly find at the Big Box men’s wearstores, and all are in fine shape after aton of miles, multiple rebuilds and re-sol-ings. This is footwear you rebuild, notthrow out. Importantly, Wesco is here inthe USA, and at IronWorks we supportU.S. manufacturers that make unique, dis-tinctive, and quality products that put asmile on the face of V-Twin enthusiasts.We hope you enjoy this series of articles

from Wesco describing what goes intomaking a custom boot. –Stephen Berner

My grandfather started making Wescoboots in 1918. Back then he’d go out tothe logging camps in Oregon to take mea-sures, then come back to town to makeTimber boots. While we still build bootsfor loggers and many other occupations, asignificant number of the boots comingout of the factory lately are custom madefor motorcyclists.

In 1939, Wesco first introduced an en-gineer boot called the Boss, and it quicklydeveloped a following among more seriousriders, although over the last few yearsthere seems to be a growing trend towardriders asking for lace-up boots. Once westarted sending teams out to shows like

Americade and Sturgis, we discoveredthat this crowd doesn’t mind spendingmoney for a high-quality product.

We’re not ashamed to let the worldknow: Wesco boots are not cheap. Wesource nearly all of our raw materialsfrom the U.S., which can present a chal-lenge, as many companies simply can’t af-ford to make products domestically any-more. The manufacturers who remainhere have to charge more. The bulk of ourleathers come from a select few tanner-ies—one in the Midwest and two on theEast Coast—with which we’ve had long-standing relationships. While we could cutthe price of our boots by farming out pro-duction to an overseas factory, we neverhave and never will. I’m proud to say wecontinue to make every single pair in theUnited States in the same factory mygrandfather built with his own hands.

Even as custom boot orders becomemuch more popular, we still offer off-the-shelf, motorcycle boots in stock. For thecustom boot client however, we have agrowing list of available options. With all ofthis custom, one-off work for our factory,there’s an additional waiting time for cus-tom boots, but this hasn’t slowed downour orders. In fact, the factory is busierthan ever.

Creating a one-of-a-kind boot is a funprocess, but seeing all the custom optionsmight be a bit overwhelming. Some of thetoughest-looking characters have stoppedat our factory on their rides to the Oregoncoast and ended up spending the betterpart of an afternoon weighing the possibili-ties. On our Jobmaster boot alone thereare billions of different ways to create acustom pair, and that’s without includingcolor options. That bit of information camefrom a customer of ours who happens tobe an Ivy League economics professor. Hetook the time to do the math for a presen-tation in one of his classes and he sent

IronWorks January/February 2011

All About...STORY AND PHOTOS BY ROBERTA SHOEMAKER

The Business of Creating One-of-a-kind Custom BootsWesco: custom made in America for nearly 100 years

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65IronWorks January/February 2011

our custom fit department a PowerPointwith all the calculations! Once you settleon a boot style, everything from height toleather color to lining type to thread color,as well as the choice of sole, comes downto a matter of personal preference.

We’ve designed our new catalog andwebsite to simplify the ordering process.On our website there is a Custom BootBuilder that has a “demo build” feature al-lowing you to go back and forth with col-ors and options until you have your bootsthe way you want them.

The process works like this: first,choose your boot style. Next, specify aboot height—anything from a short 6”ankle boot all the way up to a 38” thigh-high Big Boss with leather covering mostof your leg.

From there, you choose your leathercolor. We have now expanded our leatherpalette to include red, burgundy, burlapand black tie (a high-shine, glossy finish).You can then choose from leather liningslike black, buckskin, red, tobacco and plat-inum. Two-toned boots using what we call“rough-out” (which is simply using therough side of the leather on the outside ofthe boot) have become quite popular late-ly. After you’ve picked the style andleathers, you need to specify from a vari-ety of Vibram soles, safety toes, threadcolors, and so on.

Because we’re a small company with justone factory and all operations under oneroof, we can get pretty specialized on theproduction line. For example, you can add

extra straps to our Bossboot and specify a differ-ent leather color forthose straps. We caneven install your ownhardware on a pair ofboots. (IW EditorStephen Berner took ad-vantage of this servicewhen he ordered a pairof Morrison boots atSturgis in August. Heshipped his hardware tothe factory and whenthe time came, weadded his parts). If youneed a knife pocket,that’s an option too—

and we can craft that pocket to fit the mea-surements of the knife you carry.

We understand that a pair of Wescoboots is a significant financial commit-ment, especially with the current state of

the economy. Building you a pair of bootsworthy of your hard-earned cash is notsomething we take lightly. We consider itan investment. In following installments,we will take you through the process ofbuilding a custom boot.

About the author: Roberta Shoemakeris the granddaughter of company founderJohn Henry Shoemaker. She has been atthe helm of Wesco as President and CEOsince 1998 and worked for the companysince 1973.

Reader Service No. 38

Reader Service No. 37

*RESOURCEWest Coast Shoe CompanyScappoose, OR www.wescoboots.com

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