Hollow Point II

Hollow Point II started as a basket case that arrived at the shop in four milk crates and a wheelbarrow. The motor had been apart since the Reagan administration.

The frame is a Paughco wishbone with four inches of stretch and six degrees of rake cut into the neck by hand. The tank is a hand-formed two-piece we made over a buck we carved out of poplar — it took three attempts and one very bad Tuesday. The oil bag is ours. The exhaust is ours. The seat pan is ours, wrapped in leather by a saddle maker two towns over who has never touched a motorcycle.

Paint is fourteen coats of black lacquer with hand-laid gold leaf, cut and buffed over eleven days. Under the right light you can see through it.

The motor is a fully rebuilt 74-inch Panhead — S&S flywheels, new valves and guides, ported heads, and a Linkert carb rebuilt by a man in Ohio who only answers the phone on Thursdays. It starts on the second kick, warm or cold.

We put four hundred miles on it before we photographed it. Whoever wins this should put on four thousand more.