Four Aces
Four Aces
A winning hand for cruiser enthusiasts
JON F. THOMPSON
HERE’S A SCENE STRAIGHT OUT OF THE NEW West, IN which players are gambling for a piece of the cruiser action. “Cobra Ken” Boyko sits examining his hand, his black, silver-conchoed hat pulled down low over narrowed eyes. He picks up his last card and with a white-hot bolt of satisfaction, finds he’s holding four aces.
If this were real poker, Cobra Ken would spread his aces onto the green baize and rake in the pot. Instead, he'll ride off into the sunset on ’em. Boyko’s aces aren’t cards. They’re four immaculate Honda Shadow American Classic Editions conceptualized by Boyko and his partner Tim McCool for their company, Cobra Engineering, and built by the wizard touch of Denny Berg, proprietor of Time Machine, a tiny specialist shop in Huntington Beach, California.
This four-of-a-kind is an interesting hand for at least three reasons. First, Cobra’s initial foray into the custom market was hugely successful (those first Cobra customs-a Suzuki, a Honda and a Kawasaki also built by Berg-were featured in the April, 1995, edition of Cycle World), so these Four Aces have history as a kickstand. Second, cruisers are hot properties now, so the market probably is ready for new lines of custom accessories. Third, Berg is one of the country’s preeminent motorcycle craftsmen. Having him deal these Aces ensures that the bikes not only will be beautifully constructed, but that they'll work.
The project began as an exercise to showcase Boyko’s Cobra Boulevard accessory line, using Honda motorcycles, to show what a little imagination can do to a custom bike.
Boyko explains, “The response to the first Japanese customs we built was so positive that we decided to give people some additional ideas on the directions they could take. We want to open people’s eyes to the fact that you can build something really special. There’s not two Harleys out there that look the same, and that’s what we want to do with the Japanese motorcycle. So we went to Honda with the concept.”
Honda executive Gary Christopher picks up the story: “We thought it was a terrific idea. By virtue of what custom bikes are about, people like to individualize their motorcycles. We knew that Ken’s idea of taking the Four Aces in four different directions would be a lot of fun, would inspire a lot of owners and spur their imaginations. So we provided the bikes and a few bits and pieces.”
Berg took delivery of his Aces in late summer of 1995 and stripped them to bare frames. All were built over the next few months.
The first bike to be completed was perhaps the most outra geous. That would be the Chopper, a reflection of what might be the most infamous of all American motorcycle styles. Berg began by sectioning about three-quarters of an inch of material from the top frame tube just behind the steering head, and tipping the head’s top rearward. The result? About 5 degrees more rake added to the already-relaxed geometry of the Shadow. Then, he molded in the open areas around the steering head with 18-gauge steel, smoothed over rough frame welds with Bondo, and, following the same procedure he would use with the other three Shadow frames, removed all unnecessary tabs, hangers and pickup points.
The Chopper’s skeleton done, Berg turned to its bodywork. He began with a stock 1986 Shadow tank, adding a longitudinal center peak as a visual trick to make it look smaller, and to provide a hint of the Triumph tanks sometimes found on the classic choppers of the 1960s and "70s. He modified a Cobra fiberglass rear fender to provide the profile he sought and installed a Suzuki Intruder taillight. He decided against a front fender-“ They’re for sissies,” Berg grins-and machined the fender-mount lugs off the fork legs.
The bodywork wears paint by Damon’s Creations in Brea, California-all four bikes got the Damon’s treatment-in this case a tasteful flame job because, Berg says, “That’s classic chopper stuff.”
Berg extended the stock Shadow fork by 4 inches, and installed shocks-provided by Works Performance for all four bikes-shortened by 3 inches. Wheels are a 16-incher in the rear and a 21incher up front; the front brake consists of a rear rotor from a Honda VFR750 and a tiny Grimeca caliper. The reduced size of these components, Berg says, makes the 21 -inch wheel look even bigger. As on all four bikes, tires are by Metzeler.
The foundation set, Berg now turned to the details. He installed forward foot controls by Cobra, a seat from LeMans, and an ape-hanger handlebar with an 18-inch rise. Then he added a pair of 1926 Harley-Davidson horn buttons to operate the chopper’s electric starter and its horn, routing all electrical wiring from the switchgear down through the handlebar for a clean appearance. He milled the lettering and mirror mounts from Honda clutch and front brake master cylinders. Then, he says, “I neutered the levers-I cut their balls off,” meaning he removed the safety-oriented lever ends. Next, he added a tiny 5/4-inch headlight and an even smaller 214-inch speedometer. Then he built an elegant tubular sissybar, and finally, bolted on that outrageous bird-shooter exhaust system, a Cobra prototype built by McCool.
Having completed the most outrageous bike of the quartet, Berg turned his attention to the Oldie, the understated antithesis of the Chopper. Boyko’s goal for. this bike was to achieve just a bit of the classic Electra Glide look, and for that, no changes to the frame-beyond the usual smoothing and tab-removal-were necessary. Instead, Berg started by lowering the bike’s suspension by 2 inches. He moved on to its wheels; they’re 15-inch chromed Sun aluminum rims, custom-drilled for the 52-spoke Honda hubs by Buchanan’s. The front wheel uses a Cobra prototype right-side hubcap.
Berg installed Cobra floorboards and fiberglass fenders, a LeMans seat, and a drain-pipe-sized exhaust system. To help provide a vintage look, Berg bead-blasted the cylinder heads to expose bare aluminum-that’s the only change made to the Oldie’s engine.
He then moved on to the Oldie’s fuel tank. To achieve the classic American double-filler look he wanted, Berg welded aftermarket fillers to the top of each side of the tank. The right one is real, the left one is a dummy-unscrew its cap and you’ll find, in a bit of retro-’90s whimsy, a fresh condom stashed there.
To accommodate the tank-top instruments, Berg welded in a vertical tube leading from the Shadow’s standard filler position through the bottom of the tank. This carries the speedo cable and dash wiring. An aftermarket dash piece made of ABS plastic cradles the bike’s speedometer. Berg then fabbed a three-rail luggage rack that can accommodate a very neat snap-on pillion seat, and he built the bike’s handlebar, bolting it to reversed mounts.
He grins and says of the bar, “It’s 38 inches wide, exactly the width of my Barcolounger at home. See, I research this stuff; I don’t just guess at it.”
Finally, Berg added a Cobra spotlight kit and an aftermarket copy of a 1936 Harley-Davidson hom, and capped it all off with a Cobra tombstone taillamp. The result is an Electra Glide that isn’t, a pretty piece of affordable deception that is indeed as comfortable as an easy chair.
Equally comfy, and a good deal more stylish than any Barcolounger, is the streamlined sport-cruising Bagger, identifiable by a fairing and tank that appear, at first glance, to be one piece. They’re not. Says Berg, “It’s the stock tank and a 1988 VFR750 headlight and replica fairing. I just made those tank extensions out of 18-gauge steel so that it would look like the old Rumis and Güeras that had their tanks and fairings in one piece.”
Berg also made many of the bike’s other most notable parts, including those saddlebags. He started with a pair of 1965 Electra Glide bags, cutting them in half and tossing the tops. Doing the fiberglass work himself, he added the same flip to the rear of the bags that the tip of the Cobra fender exhibits, and he built the lids with the same edge curvature as the stock Shadow Ace sidecovers. Those bags are deceptive, by the way-though they do contain small storage areas, they’re really little more than streamlined covers for the shocks.
Berg also built the floorboards, which he calls “longboards.” He says, “Sometimes you don’t know what things are gonna look like until you get them done. I finished them late one night and when I got in the next morning they still looked pretty good, so I guess they’ll stay on.”
Also sure to stay on are the 18-inch Sun aluminum wheels, again with spokes by Buchanan. Also, that tiny custom hub cover on the right side of the front wheel. Berg explains, “I just wanted to smooth it out. It’s the lid from a saucepan at home-boy, she’s gonna be pissed. But when we were building stuff in the ’60s, that’s what you did, you used what you had.”
One thing Berg had was a stock Ace taillight, so he used that, flenching it into the Cobra rear fender. Just for fun, he built the tumsignal bulbs into the taillight. He also had stock Ace fender rails, so he smoothed their profiles, eliminating the step the Stockers had, and pressed them into service.
Though the frame is largely stock-it got the smoothing treatment given to the other Aces-the Bagger does get some choice chassis parts. Works Performance shocks and a modified fork lower the bike by about 2 inches. Low-profile Metzelers are used, with a smallish MBS in the rear to provide the look Berg wanted. This bike’s brakes, its only truly high-performance items, are by Braking, though Berg had the calipers chromed and the stainless-steel rotors polished. The seat is a LeMans piece, and the exhaust, almost identical to that of the Oldie, is from Cobra.
Berg says of the finished product, “It’s not really a cruiser, it’s just a big streamliner. I really didn’t know what it was going to look like. But I like the way it turned out.”
Which leaves the final of the Four Aces, the HotRod. Berg says, “We used to call these dragbikes Diggers; I wanted this one to be a racebike that looks barely legal.”
He succeeded nicely, thanks in no small part to extensive modifications to the Hot-Rod’s suspension and engine. The fork is from a CBR900RR, extended internally an inch, revalved and mounted in billet tripleclamps. At the rear, very short Works Performance shocks drop the bike by about 3 inches from its stock height. “That’s about as low as you want to go,” Berg allows.
The low look is aided by a pair of Performance Machine wheels (the rear one welded to the stock Honda hub) wearing low-profile rubber-that’s a 185/55 on a 6-inch rim at the rear, providing what Berg calls, “a Santa Ana lowered-pickup look.” Brakes up front are stock CBR900RR items, but chromed and polished.
Berg wanted the bike to look narrow as well as low, so he 86’ed the bulgy sidecovers and relocated the battery and electrical components to a position under the LeMans seat, welding contoured, frame-hugging steel panels where the covers and components used to be. Though the frame is painted the same color as the bodywork, Berg had the swingarm powdercoated silver, and then gave it double coats of clear for an aluminum look.
The frame and chassis handled, Berg turned to the engine, which he stripped down to its cases. He installed high-compression pistons, ported the heads, and while the engine was apart, chucked the barrels up in his mill and cut three-quarters of an inch of finning off them. He also removed the bolt-on fins from the heads. Then he installed high-lift cams from an ’86 Shadow-these fit straight in but must be retimed because of the different firing intervals between the standard Shadow engine and the Ace motor. When he put it all together, he omitted the left engine sidecover. The result is a motor that looks as though it could be at home at a Superbike race or on a dragstrip.
Finally, Berg got around to the Hot-Rod’s minimalist bodywork. He began with the tank, to which he added a flush-mount, aircraft-type fuel filler. Then he got his hammer out and dished the sides. He says, “I just made a cardboard template and used a couple of hammers. It’s not that hard to do. You use a swipe of Bondo and some sanding-it’s just metalwork.”
He also built a pair of lightweight fender rails to hold a Cobra fiberglass rear fender he bobbed with his hacksaw, and fabricated a license-plate bracket, to which he added a Ness taillamp. The front fender is from Air Tech, modeled after a Mike Velasco racebike item.
Pipes are unbaffled Cobra prototypes; brake lever is from a 600 Ninja. The shift lever may be the most special piece on the bike-it’s titanium, from Freddie Spencer’s 1984 HRC 750 Daytona Superbike.
A final touch is that handlebar, built from 1-inch mild-steel tubing, and what Berg calls his “church” levers. “They’re holy,” he says. Inspection reveals that he’s drilled holes through the clutchand brake-lever-end balls, and chamfered the edges of those holes.
Of his creation, Berg says, “You won’t haul-ass around corners with this bike, but when there’s a nice open straight stretch of road, wick it up!”
Wick it up is exactly what these four bikes are poised to do to the custom-bike aftermarket. Take a look at them. Cobra’s Four Aces couldn’t be more different. It’s all the more amusing and surprising that these bikes once were identical, four peas shucked from Honda’s Marysville, Ohio, pod.
Honda’s Christopher says, “Designers need to push the edges of the envelope to show people what can be done.” Adds Boyko, “I think we’ve more than accomplished our goals.”
It’s possible to build near-duplicates of the Chopper and the Oldie by ordering parts from the Cobra Boulevard catalog. That leaves the Hot-Rod and the Bagger, which you can’t duplicate with bolt-on parts from any catalog. So why build them?
Berg explains, “I think you have to take the Bagger and the Hot-Rod as expressions of just how committed to motorcycling Cobra is.” That commitment means that Boyko, McCool and Berg, men who dealt the Four Aces, aren’t done exploring Japanese-built cruisers.
“I’ve been thinking,” Berg says, “We could do a neat Vincent-like cafe bike, or a cool XR750 look-alike. How neat. How cool! There’s just lots of good stuff coming up.”
