Panic At The Show

I discovered this new old school Panhead Chopper at the Custom Chrome North American Championship . And when it was rolled to its competition spot, it was kind of panic at the show among other builders. This custom called Panic is so full of interesting details that in any bike show competitors will fear…Jerry Wasemiller is not a semi-pro custom builder, he is a part time pro-builder at Yolo County Choppers because managing 2 other business, a body shop supply store and a retail auto glass shop. Encouraged by the success of Panic, Jerry now intends to devote more time to custom building. Good for us…Jerry picked a rigid frame from Twisted Choppers (2″ out, 2″ up, 40-degree rake) that he noticed for the 1st time in Sturgis in 2008.  Motor is a one-off 103” Panhead (S&S Cases & Jugs, STD Heads) that was built by a dude named Donnie that Jerry actually never met! For transmission, his choice naturally went for the Baker 6-speed Frankentranny.

For this project Jerry didn’t want mass produced custom parts, or at least a minimum, coming from the distributor big books. Instead, he asked for the support of some of the best at producing one-off custom parts. For the gas tank, Jerry  tried several off the shelf units and of course none worked. Because he really dug the tank Paul Yaffe had built for his gold rigid he asked him about it, and was told to get a sportster tank and start cutting. So Jerry did just that and came up with the shape he wanted but made of too many metal pieces to be sound. So he sent his steel template to Brendon at Fat Katz who worked his magic for a perfect shape and fit on Panic.

The front end that George from Spartan built started the chopper’s brass theme  and is handled by a set of Paughco bars. All the rivets on the bike are welded, holding the brass in place. Kustom Tech from Italy makes some of the coolest brass parts around, so Jerry used their drum brake, mid controls and grips. Like many builders, he spent a lot of time surfing eBay for some rare finds, the way he stumbled on this headlight, taillight, taillight. mount, and shift knob by Steve Belin at Belmit development.  All plumbing on the bike is rigid stainless steel that Jerry bent up then polished. Jerry made the seat pan and upholstery. Paint was sprayed by Alvie in candy red over a special blend of flake, then Craig Judd topped the gas tank and rear fender with a single metal stripe in 22k gold.

Talking about the time he took him to complete Panic, Jerry Wasemiller was apologetic telling me that he doesn’t own any lathe or mill and it adds to his merit that most parts he made were done with on;y a band saw, grinder and belt sander…Yolo County Choppers in Woodland, CA. (no website, yet) Tel: 530-666-1237 (pictures copyright Jerry Southworth for Cyril Huze)

15 Responses to “Panic At The Show”


  1. 1 Steve Carr Apr 13th, 2011 at 8:17 am

    Great looking bike, great style……Great job!

    Steve Carr

  2. 2 Hamilton Apr 13th, 2011 at 9:56 am

    Cool headlight!

  3. 3 2Low Apr 13th, 2011 at 10:01 am

    Very typical of what was built during the last 5 years. Very nice, but this chopper style needs to revived with some new lines, not only with pretty parts.

  4. 4 Jeff Nicklus Apr 13th, 2011 at 10:03 am

    In looking at the top picture of this bike it reminds of the style and flair that a custom builder friend of mine, with the initials of CH, might have built.

    Great job Jerry the bike is killer.

    Over & Out,

    Jeff

  5. 5 Donnie Apr 13th, 2011 at 10:05 am

    Jeff. Hey, who is CH? LOL.

  6. 6 zyon Apr 13th, 2011 at 11:11 am

    Could you not build this bike from any part’s catalogue out there? Great looking bobber but nothing that blows my mind.

  7. 7 Harry Apr 13th, 2011 at 11:42 am

    Zyon. Catalog? Don’t think so.

  8. 8 Sally J Apr 13th, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    Been around custom bikes and paint jobs all my life. I think this is one of the nicest I have seen. Great Job!! CLEAN..CLEAN…CLEAN.

  9. 9 Wiz Apr 14th, 2011 at 12:38 am

    Got sumthun’ from those cute little boys at Twisted, did ya? They do good work. Wiz

  10. 10 olddude13 Apr 14th, 2011 at 6:15 am

    Nice front brake… oh it doe’s not have one

  11. 11 Sid Apr 14th, 2011 at 9:51 am

    Looks too glamorous for me…Don’t like it

  12. 12 burnout Apr 14th, 2011 at 10:23 am

    This bike is nice! Starting a build is easy, FINISHING a build is hard! peace

  13. 13 aft customs Apr 14th, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    An other cool bike from Northern. California

  14. 14 Badams Apr 14th, 2011 at 7:33 pm

    On one side it appears to be a smart build through decades old styling cues, decent off the shelf parts and a couple of cool little hand fab’d pieces.

    On the other side, the US custom scene is stale; this look has been done 1000x. The Japanese, Swedes and Fins are the true innovators of the scene now, as evidence in what can be found at the Cool Breaker and Joints shows, to name a few.

    In the land of unicorns and rainbows, the US scene resets the bar by showing the world why the chopper scene started here; until then I’ll continue to congratulate guys like this for avoiding building TV Show “Club Dynas” and Portly Disco Baggers.

  15. 15 JK Apr 18th, 2011 at 10:19 am

    I have seen this bike many times and its a sweet bike, and remember he built this bike for himself, not to please all you over opinionated people out there. To each their own. If you think you can change what everyone is building by coming up with a new design in the chopper world, go for it and good luck with that. Yolo County Choppers keep up the good work and build what you love!!!

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Cyril Huze