Nothing that can be ridden on the street nor compete for a world championship of bike building. Not what most people would expect from Danny Schneider at Hardnine Choppers in Switzerland after all the media exposure his custom DMX received last year. Danny builds what he wants with the money of the day…
One lousy night in Bern, Switzerland, in the Hardnine Choppers garage, Danny and his buddy René where scouting parts on the internet when Danny ended up by accident on what looked like a vintage Triumph Flat Tracker actually for sale by a museum in Illinois. The patinated (well pretty worn out, in fact) little bike was worth $1000 and had some history behind it. The museum owner wanted the ‘Cub” to be in good hands, so Danny promised he would take great care of the bike and rebuild it the way it would have been looking like in 1958. To get it back to good old Europe was a hell of a job, as this 250 cc model was built exclusively by the Coventry plant for the US Flat Trackers. Getting all the paperwork done to be able to ship the bike to Bern took 3 months of research for an eventual title that race bikes don;t have anyway…. Another 200 emails and 2 months of wait later the little ‘Cub” finally made it back to Europe, arriving in Bern, Switzerland in June 2010.
While the bike was still on its way to his shop, Danny had already estimated the gas tank mensurations from the ebay ad for sale and built a new one holding both gas and oil. Bad idea: “I finished the tank pretty fast, and send it out to Japan where famous artist Mr G was willing to give my bike a very special treat! I shipped him the rear fender, gas tank and the number plate and a week later it came back as the best shit I’ve seen in a long time!” And of course the finished gas tank didn’t fit on the received bike. I made a 1″ length mistake and had to cut and modify the frame to stretch it. Danny says that all the rest of the project went smoothly and pretty fast. Kind of, except that he had a total of 316 rusted parts to clean before priming and painting.
Danny had to proceed some slight surgery on the 250 cc engine as well. “When I took the head off, it looked like that a whole mouse family had lived in here for ages!” He brought the engine to one of his friends who owns a place called Triumph City – a garage his grandpa opened near Bern back in 1932! Despite the fact that he had tons of vintage parts, most of the US Tiger Cub ones were missing! It took them almost 2 month to rebuild this engine, as they had to fabricate valves and so on. Finally after almost 7 month of work the bike was running again.
Danny to add: “ I test-drove it in the street and felt like Johnny Rocket because it has no brakes, but it was the best test ever! This bike actually brought me back to having fun building bikes and I’m proud of this work more than ever! For me its the best and coolest bike I’ve ever done!” Right now Danny is working on a new BSA A7 project. Most likely, this bike will look more like what people and magazines would expect from him.“ Hardnine Choppers.
Awesome bike! Great work Danny.
Fun Toy.
That’s dedication man!!!! Excellent job. peace
I owned a Triumph Cub in 1961. 5 or 12 hp. Bought it from W&W Triumph off the Gulf Freeway in Houston, from the proprietor, a Mr. James Whitlock.
Red & white and pre-ridden to the brink of failure, everything went out on that bike one right after another. The rear sprocket was so worn that the chain skipped teeth on take-off. Clutch slipped.
It wasn’t until 39 yrs. later that I got to meet Mr. Whitlock and a rag-tag group of his M/C racing buddies at the Del Mar Nationals (and swap meet) in 2000.
Immediately after telling him that it was I who bought the little Cub in ’61, he replied, “I’m sorry but the warranty has run out”.
Boy Howdy.
On Lord….these colours make me crazy!
Great nostalgic We built trackers to campaign on AMA circuit using Rickman-Metisse frames ,Cerani forks and 650 donors with 850 jug kits. Gave the XR750′ s all they could handle.
OSSA DMR frame was a pretty good candidate for a Trumpet twin as was a 500 Maico. These kind of builds keep the era alive . Thanks.
SWEET!! Wiz
This guy is the most OVERATED builder of all time, and the biggest problem is that he thinks he is cool. Leave your bikes in your shed.
you mean OVERRATED right!?
this bike kicks ass!!! awesome job!
overrated?? no way.
Damn Paul. Thanks for letting us know your opinion. Not that anyone really cares.
Not only is Danny a good friend and a great person he’s also a kick ass builder! We need him out here on the West Coast to build some more bad ass bikes!
ROCK IT DANNY!!!
chopper doll…. that you?
Whats the matter Paul, did Danny steal your lunch money and your girlfriend when you were in highschool? Seriously, do you remember what your mom and dad taught you when you were a kid? “if you dont have anything nice to say, then dont say anything at all.”
Nice job Danny, always good to see you in person and in print!
And one last final thought to all you haters, to paraphrase Rodney King, ” can’t we all just get along? “