The brutal minimalism of land-speed bikes is downright magnetic. So it doesn’t shock us that that’s the place Corban Gallagher discovered inspiration for his newest {custom} construct. Correction: his first {custom} construct.
It’s true—whereas Corban has dabbled with modifying bikes and vehicles up to now, that is the primary time he’s pieced collectively an entire {custom} bike. And what a debut effort it’s. Powered by an S1 White Lightning engine, this low and lean Buell hardtail dragster is pixel-perfect.
“I’m a nuclear chemist,” Corban explains, “and spend about 70 to 80 hours a week in my shop, building nuclear devices for everything from oil and space exploration to military and various research uses. I have a lot of downtime in between certain lab processes, so I take on different things to keep me busy during that time—like learning guitar or building air cannons.”
“A friend of mine turned me on to the Handbuilt Show, and I made it my goal to build a bike in nine months for this year’s event. So I bought a bike lift and parked next to my desk, and would work on it any free moment I had.”
The donor bike for Corban’s bold mission was a 1998 Buell S1 White Lightning—however all that is still of the basic Buell are its entrance forks and Sportster-derived engine. Corban scrapped the remainder, then went on the hunt for a fabricator that would produce a inflexible body within the type he was after.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the photo of Rollie Free setting the land speed record on his Vincent,” says Corban. “I wanted to create a low, long bike that mimicked the lines of those old salt flat racers. Big Al at Bitter End Choppers really came through with the perfect frame for the line I was looking for.”
The Buell S1 White Lightning was initially a hopped-up model of the S1 Lightning. Corban managed to get his arms on one with Buell’s ‘Thunderstorm’ spec; an engine bundle with upgraded heads, a greater cam, a lighter flywheel, and better compression pistons. Advertised numbers again in 1998 have been 101 hp and 129 Nm of torque.
The engine was a good runner, regardless of wanting “like it just got dragged out of a swamp.” Corban rebuilt the heads, changed the worn-out clutch, and put in a DynaTek 2000i programmable ignition. Other upgrades embrace a recent CV40 carb, a TC Bros air cleaner, and a two-into-one chrome steel exhaust system from Cone Engineering.
Corban repainted the motor too, then dressed it with finned covers from EMD in France. The finned theme continues additional again, the place an identical oil tank from Lowbrow Customs is tucked neatly into the body’s rear triangle. Perched simply above it’s a trendy leather-based seat from Alex Leathercraft in Germany.
It’s a tidy setup, however there’s lots happening. The seat sits on a small shock, which attaches to a bracket that Corban designed to interface completely with the oil tank. The seat’s higher bracket is his handiwork too, and options an built-in mount for the bike’s discreet LED taillight.
Getting the bodywork proper proved to be a tedious course of. Corban began by ordering a custom-made aluminum fairing from Omega Racer in Thailand. But by the point it had arrived, he’d modified his thoughts in regards to the course he wished to take the design in.
“I impulse buy vintage and new gas tanks,” he explains, “so I tried out maybe 10 different tanks to get the line I wanted. Ultimately, I landed on a 1.6-gallon gas tank from Lowbrow Customs. But once I decided on the fuel tank, the Omega Racer fairing didn’t flow correctly.”
In the tip, Corban ended up shelving the Omega half and ordering an inexpensive plastic nostril fairing off eBay. Corban trimmed it down till it regarded proper, then retrofitted the headlight that had include the Omega fairing. Everything’s bolted to custom-made brackets, with the first fairing keep’s attachment level doubling up as a mounting level for the brand new speedo bracket.
Tucked behind the fairing are clip-ons that Corban constructed by turning down some spherical aluminum inventory and matching it to generic aftermarket clamps. The vintage-style controls are Moto Iron elements, and the grips come from Biltwell Inc. Take a more in-depth have a look at the foot controls, and also you’ll spot some Sato Racing parts too.
At the other finish of Corban’s Buell hardtail sits a repurposed Honda Shadow fender, mounted on handmade struts with invisible fasteners. The Buell forks and brakes made the minimize, albeit with {custom} rotors and pads. The wheels are model spanking new.
“I did splurge for a set of Dymag MotoGP wheels,” Corban admits. “Whatever else I needed, I would fabricate myself. I try my best to repurpose as much as I can—for example, I found that many of the capsules I normally use to encapsulate radioactive material make for great spacers and various brackets, which saved me a lot of added machining.”
“This was also my first time painting a bike and I had to do it in an active machine shop, so it was challenging to keep the paint free of airborne debris. I was shooting for the ‘AMF Harley years’ look, with a bit of old school Montreal Expos thrown in.”
The dangerous information is that Corban doesn’t know fairly how briskly his Buell hardtail is. Since he completed it simply in time for the present and didn’t need to danger damaging it, the preliminary shakedown was light. But the excellent news is that now that Corban has popped his {custom} bike construct cherry, he’s already busy with the subsequent mission.
“I was so stoked from this, that I started a new build for next year’s Handbuilt Show the minute I got home. The show is held in Austin at the same time the MotoGP is being run at the Circuit of the Americas, so I want to build something that was in the spirit of both events. It’s a poor man’s GP bike, with a 1997 Sportster frame, a 1996 motor that I’ve rebuilt with tons of mods, a custom mono-shock swingarm with hacked-up suspension parts from a Ducati SS, Buell XB wheels and forks, a 1950s style Norton Manx tank, and full race fairings from a 1970s Triumph Trident.”
Yes, we’ve seen a teaser. And sure, it’s as wild because it sounds.
Corban Gallagher Instagram | Images by, and with particular due to, Myke Toman
Source: www.bikeexif.com