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BOB
IS BACK
- Convert
your Harley to a Bobber
Iron Works
By Dain Gingerelli
(also photos)
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Who
says that nobody builds real bobbers anymore?
The formula followed by many shops today is
to create the look of an old-time bobber, basing
the build on a custom frame with old-style sheetmetal,
and then calling the finished product a bobber
because it resembles one of those early postwar
stripped-down jobs. In truth, those neo-bobbers
are special-construction customs. But bobbing
a real Harley-Davidson is something you rarely
see today.
You'll find real bobbers at Bart Sengelmann's
shop aptly named the Bobber Shop. That's because
Bart makes real bobbers the old-fashioned way,
by converting stock Harleys into cool customs.
These bikes,'says Bart about his bobbers, you
can ride all day, any day, anywhere.'
Oddly enough, Bart developed his bobber line
(if we may call it that) by modifying nay, bobbing
a special-construction motorcycle. My girlfriend
bought this bike from the owner who built it
to look like a stock Harley,'said Bart, “and
then I bobbed it.'Bart says that practically
all the components, including the 1999 Evo engine,
were genuine Harley products. Essentially, only
the Kraft/Tech frame was an aftermarket refugee.
But it was built to stock Harley specs,'explained
Bart, so in effect, we had a stock bike to begin
with.'Bart also could have added that this bike,
belonging to Michelle Moroney, served as the
prototype to his turnkey bobber conversions
for stock Harleys.
The obvious changes from stock include the peanut
gas tank, Black Bike wheels, Hawg Halter brakes,
12-inch apehanger handlebar and the hand-tooled
Hide Core solo seat. Bart took it from there,
concentrating especially on the rear fender
to create the bike's hardtail look.
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To make the bikes look as lightweight as possible,
Bart machines off the bullhorn fender struts,
then forms a steel plate (either 1/4-inch or 1/8-inch
thick, depending on the job') that fits the fender's
outer radius. The plate serves as a gusset between
the fenderâ either of his design or a modified
Fat Katzâ and the swingarm's upper section. He
forms a similar section for the lower portion,
too. Since this bike was bobbed, Bart has decided
to include a fender brace at the rear of the fender
to give the assembly a three-point mount. “I've
been doing a lot of these lately,'adds Bart, especially
to Twin Cams.'
The tight-fitting fender gives the appearance
of a hardtail frame, but oddly, Bart prefers not
to include a pair of traditional-style coil springs
to the solo seat. There's really no need to,'he
says, because the Softail's suspension does all
the work. Sometimes by having two sets of springs,
the ride (for the rider) is just all over the
place,'meaning that while one set of springs might
be compressing, the others are on the rebound,
in essence working against each other. And just
to cover his bets, Bart installs Progressive Suspension's
soft-tail shocks underneath because they work.'
Soft ride or no, Michelle is no slouch when she
rides her bike, so Bart dug into the Evo engine
to give it some beans. I put in a monster cam
(S&S), and the heads were modified by West
Coast Cylinder Heads,'he reported. There's also
a Crane ignition in the mix, and intake and exhaust
are governed by a Goodson air cleaner and Thunder
Header collector exhaust.
The net result is a bike that's fast on the
throttle yet soft on the, uh, butt. But there's
more to Michelle's bobber than just speed and
comfort. It carries with it an element of style,
and it does so at an affordable price. That's
important, too, considering today's economic
climate where money, as much as anything else,
plays an integral role in the custom bike market.
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