In his small shop in Owensboro, Kentucky, Mike McFadden of M&M Customs has built a few notable customs and cafe racers that have captured my attention. I always admire custom bikes made to be ridden, especially when they look like rolling art pieces. Something uniquely beautiful making you proud wherever you ride it. “Holy Moly” is Mike’s second creation I am featuring and having it headline my weekly news is well deserved. Recently unveiled at the 2014 Mid-Ohio Vintage Days judges agreed with me and gave this custom both the Best of Show and People’s Choice awards.
The story of this custom Honda CB450 starts when in 2013 McFadden was given the chance to take a couple of his builds to the 110th Harley Davidson Celebration AMD Invitational bike show. During a couple of days he incessantly walked the Harley museum looking for inspiration for a new project. His brain rich of visual and mechanical inspiration, he returned home decided to create a board tracker style bike the way the Japanese could have done it in the early days of racing…
McFadden knew right away that building a Japanese flavored board racker would require something to make it stand out and separate it from the already created multiple Harley and Indian versions. To free his creativity, only the neck and motor mounts were kept from the original factory frame. A twin tank set up with an exposed backbone and a mono shock suspension inspired the final frame geometry. The battery and electrics are housed in the one-off tail section along with the brake lights. Swingarm was sourced from an old bike he had cut up previously and extended by 2″. Bars where made from the cut up originals. Interestingly, the custom made seat is held in place thanks to a magnet against a metal brace.
Admirer of the art-deco style and of all its automotive applied variations and evolution, McFadden didn’t want the expected (on this type of bike) typical round number plate on the front wheel. So, he fabricated a more classy Flash Gordon like design. With the help of Ride Wright Wheels he was able to secure a beautiful set of 21″ 3.50 Soft Lip Exotica wheels wrapped in a set of Continental Conti Custom Attacks, a set largely responsible for giving the bike its final stance and appeal.
Although he is color blind (!), McFadden is also a long time painter (he started to experiment colors on his bicycles at age 14), with the help of his “eyes” (Joe Jones, Jim Warren, and PPG Rep Richard Shofner) he picked a color scheme of B/C Brown Pearl and Vanilla Cream with black for outlines. It’s only when the paint was applied that he was able to source in a thrift shop the matching color distressed leather from which he made the knee pads, grips, and seat. Builder friend Jeremy Cupp of L.C. Fabrications supplied the brass tank and carb caps along with the brake fluid reservoir. DEI provided the wire covering and pipe. wrap. And those foot pegscome from an old 80’s Bmx bike…
The motor received a 500 kit with a Mikuni VM34’s to wake it up and a smaller rear gear was installed. Enough to make this custom CB450 a pretty decent ride although equipped with tall wheels and relatively fat tires for a board tracker. A very slick around-town and country road bike. M&M Customs.
Gorgeous.
Very slick. Imagine if our US manufacturers would produce something like this for $6000 to attract a younger generation.
Excellent work.
Stunning bike, well done!! Looks both amazing, and fun to ride
I agree. Lots of youngsters would like one just like that. Hello Harley, Indian & Victory?
Beautiful work. My best to him for his continued success. Later Jay
Nice feature Mike!
Most sanitary bike that have seen in years
Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! How nice to see a custom bike with a great rear fender instead of a bare back tire and stupid cantilevered “diving board” seat! This thing is sweeter than any of the latest high dollar “limited production” bikes seen here recently. NICE!!!
which youngsters are talking about…?
Mike, we’ve been friends feels like forever now and your talent never ceases to amaze me. I knew from the start, this was going to be my favorite.
Now that is a work of art !!!!
Yeah I know it’s a metric
But talent is talent & it takes some to make a bike like that !!!
Very Nice !!!!
Wow – beautiful. But that bike is screaming for a springer style seat – just sayin’
Great work ~ Joe
That’s the nicest Honda I’ve ever seen.
Those rims & spokes are sick.
True creativity knows no racial divides.
A very nice, uncluttered, tasteful, machine.
Nicely done & different….
Honda small bore….. Why not.
-nicker-
BAD ASS ! Great job, looks amazing !
Great looking bike, very well done
Gee, isn’t it great to see that everybody agrees 🙂 ? Ain’t it refreshing too to see a bike that looks like one ?!
One of the nicest motorcycles I have ever seen.. A true work of art – I really like the ‘FXR” style open Triangle where the shock is.
nice work . real clean looking
Well done!
Another stunning creation to add to the collection.
It’s good to see the little guy knock one to the moon, proud of you Mike!
My first bike was a CB450. But it didn’t look anything like this!
The original 450 was known as the Black Bomber, again, it looked nothing like this.
This bike is very interesting to look at, but Jeezsis, I wouldn’t want to ride it.