Chi Town

When I walked into the lower level of Chicago’s McCormick Place on Friday, all I found was chaos. The space looked for all-the-world like one giant pile of used parts, partially assembled racks of T shirts, and miscellaneous motorcycles. In other words, one giant Cluster-F. Eventually I did find Colleen Swartz, of Cycle Source fame, and between setting-up a booth for bike-builder Dave Cook, she explained my duties as a judge for the custom bike show that runs in conjunction with the swap meet.

When I walked in on Saturday morning, the disorganized piles of stuff had somehow morphed into a series of neatly arranged racks of parts; both old and new. Vendors of every stripe filled the hall, and in the center a variety of shops and individual builders displayed their custom bikes.

Chief cook and bottle washer, Colleen Swartz kept the award ceremonies moving and on time.

Baggers were everywhere; and not a dog in the bunch. Among the bevy of beautiful two wheelers, Dave Dupor, owner of D&D Custom, brought his personal project: one Porsche-blue bagger that was simply over the top, complete with too tall one-off wheels, 8000 watt stereo, their own version of the H-D frame mount fairing – with Porsche headlight of course – and air suspension on both ends.

On the other end of the spectrum was an Ironhead Sportster with a twist. Instead of using the integral Sporty tranny, the builder, Mike from Twisted Spoke Bikeworks out of Savanna, Illinois, cut the case, eliminating the transmission, and fabricated a new rear engine mount. Next, he mated the Ironhead to a separate five-speed transmission.

The Porsche-Bagger from DD Custom Cycle, painted Porsche blue, with a Porsche headlight in the “Road Glide” fairing.

It’s always nice to see people who can think outside the box. And speaking of outside the box, Dave Cook brought his old skool four-cylinder creation. If you look close, it’s a Honda motor mounted north-south instead of east-west. Among other things, Dave had to build a bell housing from scratch so he could mate the Honda motor to a BMW three-speed transmission. Of course he somehow stuffed a four-speed gear set into the three-speed case. The list goes on and on. At the front of the bike is one of Dave’s unique fork assemblies. Stopping is by perimeter brakes, each rotor cut with a water jet from a bank of stainless steel, squeezed by small two-piston calipers neatly mounted inside the fork legs.

By Saturday evening, the neat racks and stacks of parts digressed back into their natural state and became piles of assorted motorcycle stuff, before being loaded into a long line of pickup trucks, vans and trailers. By that time though I was on my way to Milwaukee to stay with Colleen and JP, before driving the rest of the way home on Superbowl Sunday – just in time to see the Packers beat the Steelers.

The very one off four-banger of Dave Cook. Stainless frame, Honda motor mated to a BMW transmission, with Dave’s own fork and perimeter brakes both front and rear.