Thursday, March 30, 2006

Chopper covered in spoons wins 3rd place at Bike Week

It's kind of hard to find out much information about the 2006 Bike Week that happened in Daytona, Fla. the first week of March, but a friend of ours from Beaver Dam, Ky. took third place in the "most unusual" category at the Rat's Hole Bike Show.

His name is Chuck Weedman and his bike is called "Copious" and as you can see from the photos below, it is most unusual. But more importantly it is unique and very cool. I don't know where he came up with the idea, but it was time consuming.

What most folks do at Bike Week is show off their bikes. Of course there is the Rat's Hole Bike Show that many compete in, but bike owners and builders also show their bikes on Main Street all week long.

Chuck said he had his bike out on Main Street for several days before anyone could figure out how he made it. He said it took a woman's touch and after she ran her hand down the gas tank she stepped back and said, "It's spoons!"

And she was right.

Chuck had the market cornered on spoons for the year it took him to build the bike. He is currently on a quest to count the spoons for a possible entry into the Guinness Book of World Records since he didn't keep an accurate count as he built the bike.

He does have a large box full of spoon handles now though. I told him to engrave each one and sell them for $5 at shows. If you take a close look you'll see that he had to cut each spoon handle off and then grind down the spoon to a pointy scale-like shape. Then he had to weld each spoon over the top of the last spoon to create the reptile scaled look.

The more you look at it the more you begin to appreciate the time that went into it and how unique it is. It kind of freaky because of the organic feel to it. Sure bikes tend to have curvy lines, but the lines are usually clear and concise. On this bike it almost looks as though muscles are holding its shape instead of a skeleton of solid steel.

Not only did he cover it in spoons, but he also modified the frame by cutting out the two front down tubes and made it a large single down tube (seen on the right side of the photo of the engine) in addition to stretching the frame forward and increasing the rake of the front end. Increasing the rake means increasing the angle at which the front end is positioned which elongates the bike.

He also used bright red LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights as brake lights on the rear fender. He positioned them under the spoons so you really won't notice them unless you are looking.

For the gearheads out there it's powered by a 96 cubic inch S & S engine that pumps out about 110 horsepower with a 200mm Avon rear tire and a chromed closed primary drive. Some may notice that it looks like a softail bike and it was before Chuck got a hold of it. Now it's a rigid and for those that don't know, that means it has no suspension in the rear end to soften the ride. For the man's man. LOL

Chuck is hoping to make bike building and customizing his full time job and his shop is called 7 Customs. I might post the number and give you a glimpse of the logo that I designed for him. Which is pretty cool, I might add.

He got a lot of attention at Bike Week and now he's trying to promote the bike and get as much attention as he can. The best part about his bike is that not only does it look crazy, but it only cost him about $13,000. That and a lot of cutting, grinding and welding.

Take a look at the photos and see what you think about it.



4 comments:

Orelinde_03 said...

This is really, really cool! I love choppers, and have to say the more unique the better.

Congrats to your pal for winning.

Plus red is one of my favorite colors!

ZaQ said...

Interesting idea............

Anonymous said...

Wicked Gene Simmons boots off of Destroyer! Where are the ruby eyes on the gas tank it needs? Gene probably would fork out quite a bit of cash if it suited his fancy...

Ozzy Rules!

Unknown said...

Bad ass bike man this is Eddie weeks from the cruz ....really like the bike hit me up on facebook sometime.....