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This month, we're celebrating the art of the chopper with three unique interpretations of that classic style from the 2023 Born-Free Show. We kick things off with a reimagined Panhead by the crew at Wrecked Metals. Then a mind-melting long bike by Luke Morris of Chopper Merchandise. And lastly, Scotty "Junior" Dettwiler shows off his BF14 people's choice award-winning Shovelhead.
Wrecked Metals '59 Panhead
Wrecked Metals (Instagram) in Boise, Idaho has been building traditional hot rods, classic cars, and choppers for the past 17 years. Shop frontman Matt Whitlock, along with his two-man crew of Sean Rodgers and Ryan Stallcup, specialize in restoration, fabrication, and customization.
This '59 Panhead chopper is Matt's personal bike, which was built as a result of being invited to display at the 2023 Born-Free show. His goal with the build was to reinterpret his own Panhead, which has been in his possession for over 20 years.
"The original bike was purchased around the year 2000 and has been through a few changes over the years," says Matt. "For Born-Free, we used the original motor, transmission, forks, magneto, and rear wheel. For the rest of the build, I set out to show what our shop is really capable of."
To help realize his vision, Matt's buddy, Mike Goekan, donated parts from his personal stash. The haul included the frame, Panhead sidecar loops, generator Shovel engine mounts and a set of rear dropouts of an unknown origin. The Wrecked Metals team then combined the parts to create a hardtail frame to house the Panhead motor.
The Panhead's bodywork is 100% custom and was all built in-house. It consists of a custom fuel tank, oil can, rear fender with its integrated brake light, and a custom upholstered seat pan. The WM team also fabricated the bike's twin, straight-through exhausts, forward controls, hard oil lines, and a long list of bespoke stainless steel items. For the front end, they opted for a UL springer fork, which has been narrowed to keep proportions tight.
"We put hundreds of hours into the bike and didn't want to cut any corners," says Matt, and there's no doubting that claim. Once the bike was mocked up, it was torn down again so that many of the parts, including the frame, could be chrome-plated or polished to a mirror shine. The icing on the cake, however, is the vanilla flame job completed by Matt's go-to paint guys, Chemical Candy Customs.
At Born-Free 14, the Panhead was given the Builders Choice award and the Harley-Davidson Design Team award. Matt and his team's efforts also landed Wrecked Metals an invite to the 2023 Mooneyes Hot Rod show in Yokohama, Japan, where the bike will go on display for Japanese chopper fans to enjoy, too.
Chopper Merchandise '57 Panhead
Long bikes never fail to turn heads or raise eyebrows. This stretched-out '57 Panhead is the work of Luke Morris of the apparel company Chop Merchandise (Instagram) and creator of the Party at the Pen Show. Luke inherited an obsession with cars, drag boats, custom vans, and motorcycles from his father, so, as he says, it's in his blood.
"The bike has a long history dating back to the late '60s," Luke says. "It was originally a 1957 police bike, which was later acquired by the El' Forastero MC. A man named Moose chopped the frame for another club member named Poet. Then, decades later, Michael Gelts bought it at a swap meet from a former member and got it on the road."
The ex-police-bike-come-MC-chopper was Luke's all-time favorite long bike. In 2022, on an annual ride with mates, a chance encounter presented him with the opportunity to purchase it. "We were riding through Montana and stopped at Vintage Technologies. I saw the bike in the back of the shop, all torn apart and with one leg in the grave. I knew I had to have it and made a deal with my buddy, Chuck, to buy it."
With the bike in his ownership and Born-Free 14 fast approaching, Luke set out to rebuild the bike, retaining its overall look but cleaning things up and finishing it in his own style. Starting with the frame, Luke installed a fresh set of down tubes, added a top motor mount that runs the length of the backbone, and boxed in the neck to stiffen things up. For a cleaner overall finish, he added a fin where the frame and rear end dovetail, boxed in the seat section, and smoothed out the axle plates with some hand-finished molding.
The swooping exhaust pipes were an idea Luke had from the very start of the project and they've been finished using custom-made tips. The rear hub is a creation Luke developed with Vintage Technologies that uses a Hallcraft setup to match the look of the front wheel. As for the elephant in the room, the bike's exceedingly long front end, it's a 30-over (30 inches taller than stock) setup by Mick's Chop Shop.
The seeming lack of footpegs on this bike is a hat tip to clubs like the El' Forastero MC and legendary chopper builder Tom Fugle, who never ran pegs. But seeing as Luke didn't want to rest his feet on the polished engine cases, he built trick pegs for the rider and passenger that slide into the frame to recreate the classic look. Other unique touches from Luke's imagination include a handmade rose at the back of the sissy bar to match the fuel tank, a brass crow's head intake for the Linkert carb, and a headlamp that sits in the cradle of the frame. The hooked-back, Denver's Choppers-style handlebar is custom, too, and features an internal throttle assembly for a strikingly clean finish.
With bikes as extreme as this, many people assume they are purely for show, but for Luke, nothing could be further from the truth. Luke built this bike with the intention to ride it and it'll soon accompany him on a two-week trip through the Pacific Northwest. Riding a bike of this style isn't for the faint-hearted, but I think it's safe to say Luke will enjoy every minute of it.
Junior's handmade '78 Shovelhead
Scotty "Junior" Dettwiler may only have three years of experience building bikes for customers, but he's got a over decade of knowledge, thanks to a long list of personal projects. Junior's Handmade (Instagram) is Scotty's one-man custom shop, where he offers custom fabrication, one-off parts, and complete, show-quality builds.
Scotty's workshop ethos is centered around building bikes that are designed to be well used. To many riders, a single-brake, suicide-shift chopper isn't the kind of motorcycle they'd picture themselves riding for any length of time. But to a seasoned chopper rider, this Shovelhead is the epitome of perfection — which is why Born-Free 14 attendees voted this bike the winner of the People's Choice award.
"The donor bike, a 1978 Harley-Davidson Shovelhead, belongs to my friend, Mark," says Scotty. "It was a failed build from another shop that was so terribly done it needed to be cut apart and started over from scratch!"
It's a sad story that is echoed all too often in the custom scene, but lucky for Mark, Scotty won't settle for anything subpar. The goal here was to build a bike that, despite its size, appeared small thanks to a tight footprint, narrow profile, and compact design. Scotty kicked things off with the fabrication of a custom frame that sat three inches up and 2.5 inches shorter. It's a completely custom-built design, aside from the engine cradle and a Shovelhead neck. He then added matching 19-inch wheels and stretched the front end 10 inches, which resulted in a wheelbase similar to that of a short springer.
Aside from the engine, wheels, rear brake, and a few mechanical components, everything on Scotty's chopper has been made by hand. Using traditional metal-shaping techniques, he fabricated the bike's mid-tunnel peanut tank, which seemingly floats over the frame's backbone. Nestled behind the engine is a custom-made floating oil tank that's molded into the rear fender. The fork legs wear one-off sleeves to beef them up and the bespoke hand shifter features custom engraving. The list of one-off parts goes on to include the handlebar, foot controls, oil lines, kickstand, air cleaner, and countless brackets.
As you'd expect, the twin exhaust is custom, too, and it's a work of art. Along with an aggressive look, the front header snakes its way between the frame and engine with millimeters to spare. Details like this are a testament to Scotty's attention to impeccable build approach.
Finished in a nardo grey and cream paint scheme and complemented by bucketloads of chrome, Scotty's Shovelhead cuts a fine figure and, according to the man himself, it handles as well as any street-going motorcycle should.
