Obviously, Johnathan
Martinez's Urban Assault
Vehicle is a far cry from
the EM-50 urban combat
RV featured in the 1981
movie Stripes. For starters, Bill Murray
has never stolen it for a drive through
Czechoslovakia. At least, not that I
know of and I'm pretty sure that would
have made the news.
No, his take is a 2012 molten candy
orange rigid created for Martinez by
Kirk Taylor's shop, Custom Design Studios.
The specs say it took Kirk, Mike
Miller, and Johnathan himself a year to
build. What it doesn't tell you is how
Johnathan dreamed it up a decade ago
and spent the span of time gathering
together the parts. Nor does it say that
Ephraim at Kustom Culture was a good
enough guy to let Martinez pile them
up in a space at his shop, even though
he was.
More importantly, Ephraim encouraged
and hectored Johnathan with
the build. That eventually led Martinez
to Kirk Taylor. He'd run into Johnathan
at several shows, liked his ideas, and
decided to take on the biker's Tetris
project that is turning a parts pile into a
sweet ground-up chopper. That meant
a lot of sweat equity getting paid into
this machine. Sometimes making the
dream real means making parts work
together that aren't a great fit. Kirk
elaborated on that for us.
HB: Why a chopper?
KX Johnathan had dreamed up this
bike 10 years ago. He drew it up at the
height of the chopper craze on a manila
folder. With patience and saved money,
he accumulated all the pieces. The
amazing thing was, as I was finishing it,
he showed me the picture for the first
time. The only thing even slightly different
was the pipe angle, which I thought
was pretty goddamn cool. When that
much time passes, your vision usually
changes but it didn't here. His vision of
the bike stayed crystal clear throughout.
HB: This isn't exactly a bolt-together
catalog chopper from that era,
though.
KT: A lot of the parts were handmade
or modified to fit properly and look good
together. The West Coast Choppers
pipes had to be cut and redone in like
eight places because they hit the points
cover. The rear pipe went under originally
and I flipped 'em. Russell Mitchell
at Exile hooked him up with a beltdrive.
We made it and the mid controls fit. See
the oil bag? It was a Phil Dodge blank. I
had a lot of fun making that fit. The thing
has a weird angle and the rear seat post
was kicked way back. That seat pan
was a West Coast blank. We cut it in the
center for quick access to the oil cap.
Its tail and head are also handmade.
Speaking of the seat, Duane Ballard
used California-compliant dyes on the
seat but they won't stand up to the sun so he's creating new ones.
HB: I like how the bars sit in relation
to the top of the tank.
KT: We took a set of bars and clip-ons,
then put them on the Jerry springer
frontend. One cool thing about those
frontends is the Chevy big-block valve
springs. The handlebars are flipped and
locked in the angle we wanted. They've
got CRG roller click levers off of a
CBR600. Then there's the Joker Machine
quarter throttle. There's a lot of cool stuff
on it. A lot was adapted like those levers"
HB: How does it handle?
KT: His daily rider is a Triumph Thruxton.
You'd expect him to hate a chopper
after riding the Trump but after his first
10 miles, he was like, "It's exactly what I
expected it to be." He's a union electrician
by trade so he wanted a remote
start and the latest ignition to go with
it. That had problems so we talked him
into a kickstart only with a Dyna dual fire
ignition instead. The bike runs nice now
because of that. The kicker pedal is a
Baxter motocross type.
HB: Which of those challenges gave
you the most grief?
KT: Making the pipes fit. Making them
look like they were supposed to be on
there. And the rear fender. It was an
F-ed up blank I had to re-cut to follow
the arc of the wheel. I had to re-cut in
like 16 places. Making it look good and
keeping usable was a hard but it all paid
off in the end."
HB: How does it handle?
KT: His daily rider is a Triumph Thruxton.
You'd expect him to hate a chopper
after riding the Trump but after his first
10 mites, he was like, "It's exactly what I
expected it to be." He's a union electrician
by trade so he wanted a remote
start and the latest ignition to go with
it. That had problems so we talked him
into a kickstart only with a Dyna dual fire
ignition instead. The bike runs nice now
because of that. The kicker pedal is a
Baxter motocross type.
HB: Which of those challenges gave
you the most grief?
KT: Making the pipes fit. Making them
look like they were supposed to be on
there. And the rear fender. It was an
F-ed up blank I had to re-cut to follow
the arc of the wheel. I had to re-cut in
like 16 places. Making it look good and
keeping usable was a hard but it all paid
off in the end."
HB: So where's the car part? It's
your signature move, Kirk. Where is it?
KT: We always like putting a car part
on our bikes (laughs.) One's the top motor
mount. We created it from the steering
shaft on a car. Cars weren't the only thing
we borrowed from, though. There's also
a Le Mans pop-up fuel cap from a boat
I believe Mooneyes sells now. The wire
looms on the taillight are fishing line loops
from a fishing rod. We also used Fender
guitar sleeves for the rear fender wiring
because there black with chrome tracers.
Make sure you look under the gas
tank too. It's got gears like a Swiss clock.
HB: Tell us about your personal
style when it comes to bike building.
KT: I like traditional. I like classic
chopper lines combined with maintaining
practical riding. That's because I grew
up in the machine shop and I've been
around motorcycles since the early '70s.
Without keeping myself locked in, I'm
kind of doing what Roland's doing-introducing
sportbike stuff to the V-twin
world. Rigids and rubbermounts are me
though. The sport bike stuff is much
cheaper and offers great handling. I'm a
deadhead who loves cars too, and as you
pointed out, I like to put a piece of them
on our bikes. It's like an homage to your
roots if you want to get all artsy about it.
it's nice to go around the world and see
what other people are doing. I got 'frisco
style in my blood but it's nice to introduce
other aspects.
| OWNER | Johnathan Martinez |
| SHOP | Custom Design Studios |
| SHOP PHONE | (415) 382-6662 |
| WEBSITE | customdesignstudios.com |
| YEAR/MAKE/MODEL | 2012 CDS Urban Assault Weapon |
| FABRICATION | Kirk Taylor |
| BUILD TIME | One year |
| YEAR/TYPE/SIZE | 2012 Evolution 80 ci |
| BUILDER | H-D |
| CASES | H-D |
| CYLINDERS | H-D |
| HEADS | H-D |
| AIR CLEANER | Chicago Chopper Works |
| EXHAUST | WCC/CDS |
| YEAR/TYPE | 2012 Powermax |
| GEARS | Powermax |
| CLUTCH | Rivera Pro Clutch |
| PRIMARY DRIVE | Exile Cycles 3-inch open belt |
| YEAR/TYPE | 2005 Chicago Chopper Works |
| RAKE/STRETCH | 47 degrees total/6" up, 4" out |
| FRONTEND | Dr. Springer |
| LENGTH | Long |
| TRIPLE TREES | Dr. Springer |
| FRONT | |
| BUILDER/SIZE | DNA Specialty 21x2.15-inch |
| TIRE/SIZE | Metzeler 80x90x21 |
| CALIPERS | Hawg Halters Inc. |
| ROTORS | Hawg Halters Inc. |
| REAR | |
| BUILDER/SIZE | DNA Specialty 18x5.5-inch |
| TIRE/SIZE | Metzeler 18x200mm |
| CALIPER | Hawg Halters Inc. |
| ROTOR | Hawg Halters Inc. Sprotor |
| PULLEY | Hawg Halters Inc. Spotor |
| PAINT | |
| Manufacturer | Dupont Starry Night graphics, Matte clear |
| PAINT/GRAPHICS | Danny Long and Kirk Taylor |
| PLATING/POLISHING | Dechromed |
| POWDERCOATING | R.S. Performance Coatings |
| FRONT FENDER | None |
| REAR FENDER | CDS |
| GAS TANK | CDS |
| HANDLEBARS | Pro Taper |
| GRIPS | Joker Machine |
| MIRRORS | CDS |
| HAND CONTROLS | CRG Roll-a-click and Brembo |
| FOOT CONTROLS | WCC |
| HEADLIGHT | Johnathan Martinez |
| TAILLIGHT | Johnathan Martinez |
| LICENSE MOUNT | Boyce Bros |
| SEAT | Duane Ballard and Kirk Taylor |