This year Las Vegas Bikefest (Sept 30-Oct 3) was celebrating its 10-year anniversary with about 30,000 bikers traveling to Sin City to enjoy all the biker events. One of the crown jewels of the long weekend of festivities is the “Artistry In Iron Bike Show” where 20 of some of the best custom builders are invited to compete for the title of Las Vegas Champion. Voting is done by show participants and when it was time to count the ballots the clear winner was “Lady Luck”, a very clean and sophisticated green little retro Chop built by Chris Richardson of LA Speed Shop in Alhambra, CA. Chris started his shop 4 years ago, but has already about 15 years of experience customizing cars and bikes for himself and friends. Built in a record time of 6 weeks, details on the bike show that Chris Richardson must have dreamed this custom during a long time and that he knows how to execute detailed fabrication and assembly under time pressure.
Chris started with an old frame that he had traded for some engine cases a while back. Then he found a Springer front end on eBay that he started to chop up, narrowed 3″ and lengthened 5″ with rear legs made out of 1949 Ford rods. He made the oil tank out of an Offenhauser Chevy 409 valve cover and then cut up a Sportster gas tank to his liking (narrowed and tunnelled.) The vintage BSA rear fender was also another great eBay find. A lot of the parts were custom made by Chris.
Engine is a 1947 Knucklehead replica with a Linkert M74 carburetor fitted with a Buck Rogers Bird Catcher air cleaner. Driveline includes a jockey shift RevTech tranny and Primo 1 1/2″ open belt drive. Front wheel is from Excel in size 21″ dressed in Avon Speedmaster (no brake.) Rear wheel is 19″ with star hub wrapped with a Coker tire and using a mechanical brake. Lines are brass custom made at the shop. Chris good friend Casey Johnson from Headcase Kustom Art painted the bike. It’s a metallic Sea Foam Green base coat, with green micro flake paint highlighted with green candy and some gold leaf with lime green pinstriping. LA Speed Shop. (photography courtesy Jack McIntyre)
Fantastic looking bike, congrats on the win, looks well deserved!
VERRY NICE!!!! OLD SCHOOL RULES!!!
She is a beauty!
WELL DESERVED TO WIN THE ARTISTRY IN IRON SHOW!! ITS A AMAZING BIKE . PLUS CHRIS IS THE NICEST GUY!! PROPS!!
Great looking classic bike. Keep up the great work.
Nice bike very well done
Great details
Damn nice looking bike. I like the air horn too. Of course I’m a little biased.
je fond devant une meule aussi……… parfaite.
Lean.
Watch for more of this in the 49 states. Any M/C that has no corking is a 49’er.
After we punch California a few more times in the face (thus legalizing marijuana), we’ll start on “state-man” Moldenado (R) who created the “500 permits” per year cap on special-construction builds (encompassing all home-built vehicles in one lump group [i.e; cars, trucks, motorcycles].
Yeah, that’s right, on the first business day after January 1, 2011, the Calif. DMV becomes a campground at the front door. Every builder in the state tries to be one of the first 500 to get permits.
Frickin’ B.S.
HOPEFULLY the state will slip into yet a deeper recession, and need money desperately, ditch some of their clean-air restrictions and the public will vote to allow more special construction machines on the roads.
I can’t tell from the pictures, does this bike have a H-D narrowed springer? If he made it it looks great, if he didn’t where did he get it? If anybody can help, thank you very much. What a great bike, very practical, talk about a lane splitter.
Very nice. Clean and lean. This shop puts out very nice old school bikes.
I missed the show this year, so I don’t what what kind of competition this bike was up against. But, judging from the photos it deserves the win. Beautiful bike with some cool knicknacks.
Kirk Perry… Great name for a shop… “49’er Cycles”… Build some cool old school stuff and tell the Cali’s ” If you want one, move someplace more biker and industry friendly!!!” California is a sinking ship!
Very sweet chop, Chris. You certainly know how to do it right. Congrats.
@ bajerry,
I don’t know for sure, but it looks like a Paughco springer to me… maybe go to his site and drop him an email to be sure.
That was my vote! Great job Chris
hands down my favorite scoot there
Copper Mike Cole
Old School w/alot of talent.
This is a true work of classic art . One of the best looking bikes I’ve seen in a long time , and executed in the purest form of real H-D customization . Thank You ,sir .
I like it a lot – very fresh and clean like a nice Spring morning. Love the simplicity old school feel of this bike and no big ass tires great job.
The V-Twin® cases look real good. Liking the blank I.D. boss a lot. Liking the cam cover a whole lot, and their rocker covers. I even like the pebble-grain finish. That took some thought.
And, you used a RevTec transmission.
So, those two factors suggest that you used the cheapest, best looking, most realistic, knuckle motor you could find, which was the V-Twin®, then maybe pulled the motor apart, then made it a “Richard Built” motor.
And then when looking for a transmission, you chose a “better than V-Twin’s assembled replica 4-spd”, Rev-Tech™, which is one step above in assembly, and you could probably use the Rev-Tech™ trans. right out of the box.
If so, then that’s the core of independent building today. How to build a nimble free-breathing mill.
••••••••••••••••••
Overall, the entire photo is a snap-shot of *”Valley Consciousness”, right down to the rocker/suicide clutch friendly skate board stomps.
I have a ’46 upswept shotgun (KH) barrel-muffler Knuckle up on the lift next. Tin is painted. Heads are at Accurate® being re-manufactured (rocker arm bushings being reversed, valved, painted, lidded, anything they needed). Flat-rate price $1K.
* “Valley Consciousness” is an ever-changing style that’s generated from speed-shop customers, swap meets attendees, and state prisons within a continuous (north/south) valley which runs 10-20 miles inland, parallel to the Pacific Ocean, between two mountain ranges, from the Mexican border to Eureka (at the border of Oregon).
Every California M/C builder of any merit comes from the “Valley”.
All “hip-real” lingo worth repeating comes from the “Valley” – or from the wit of the Hells Angels here in California.
The only real way to extend a stock Harley springer is with the early Ford radius rods. Many years ago we were at this ol’ boys welding shop working on our scoots when I stepped outside to take a leak and while I was peein’ I looked down an’ here’s a set of radius rods someone was usin’ as fence posts around their garden. They wound up on my buddies ’37 Flathead chopper! Who says there ain’t a God! Wiz