You are cordially invited to visit the S&S Custom Bicycles Website, Or to E-Mail Them.
B R & K   I N T E R V I E W :  S & S   C U S T O M S
B R & K   I N T E R V I E W :  S & S   C U S T O M S
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Interview Conducted by BikeRod&Kustom Associate Editor Erik Suttles
Erik: OK, first question is, what bikes did you have as a child that influenced your moving into Kustoms?

Elbucko: I had an original Raleigh Chopper back in the 70's.

DJPARTYBOY: I didn't really get into bikes until about a year ago.

Erik: Interesting! So where did you refine your fabrication skills?
Elbucko: I had done a bit of metalwork and welding before, mainly on custom VW's

DJPARTYBOY: We have really just learnt everything as we went along.

Erik: Wow! I had read that you two just jumped into it headlong,
and the results have been fabulous. How did you two meet and start working
together?

DJPARTYBOY: Elbucko is my brother in law. He brought over an original Raleigh Chopper and a '60s Stingray clone to my house in March 2004, and this just happened to coincide with the first airings of the 'American Chopper' TV series here in the UK. Those Teutuls have got a lot to answer for!!

Erik: LOL! Fair enough! As we have seen from your Essex Girls photos, your choppers have been quite popular with the ladies. Would you say that your prospects have been improved, or if you are in a relationship, has that caused any difficulties? My apologies if that is too personal, but I'd like people to get to know you, as well as your work.

"DJPARTYBOY"
"ELBUCKO"
"Lightning Strikes"
Elbucko: We're both happily married so those photos were just done for Marty Eden's benefit!! We had to do something to rival all his Hawaiian beauties!

Erik: And a great job you did!

DJPARTYBOY: Our wives are thinking of starting a Chopper Widows club. LOL!

Erik: Your choppers have all had some sort of theme going. Is that an essential part of what you are expressing artistically? or is the fabrication and metalwork what interests you the most?
DJPARTYBOY: We both prefer doing theme-based bikes as this allows us to incorporate design features and little touches which would not normally be seen on a bike e.g.the lightning bolts within the frame on Lightning Strikes and the machine gun on The Red Baron.

Elbucko: I think it is safe to say that we enjoy the artistic side, e.g.the design, the paint and all the little details, rather than the actual welding and grinding.

Erik: Very good!

OK, it is apparent that you really strive to make your
projects stand out visually, and that takes some study of other styles and fabricators to make sure you are not just reproducing other's work. If there are any, whose style would you say has influenced you the most, and what examples of their work are your favorites?

DJPARTYBOY: Without a doubt my influence is Paul Jr. It was when I first saw him build the Black Widow bike that I became hooked. My favourite bikes of theirs have got to be either the I Robot bike or Black Widow.

Elbucko: I have a wider range of influences including George Barris, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, and Indian Larry R.I.P. More Old School designers than  the Teutuls, but I do appreciate their bikes and the work that goes into them.
"Red Baron"
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Erik: Yes, I was talking to my Dad last night about Kustom work, and Indian Larry came up in the conversation as one builder that kept things
within the reach of amateur builders, i.e: No full billet bikes. He just kept things real and let the style do the talking. God rest his soul!

It sure appears that you two are having fun with your Kustoms, getting out into the scene, going to shows, etc. For those of us in other countries, what is your take on the UK scene, and how do you see it
going? Where do you see yourselves going with your work?

Elbucko: There isn't really anything major going on in the UK scene at the moment. There seems to be little pockets of activity around the
country but as yet Kustom Bicycle building is still in its infancy. Of course, Raleigh brought out a new version of their 1970's Chopper and the new
Schwinn Stingray is available here, but neither appear to have been good
sellers.

DJPARTYBOY: At the moment we will just continue to enjoy ourselves and
have fun building bikes and try to influence more UK builders.

Erik: Having built your own full Kustoms, would you ever consider buying off the shelf again?

Elbucko: I did buy one of the new Raleigh Choppers, just for nostalgic reasons and I like the styling of the Electra Rat Fink so if one came up at the right price I'd probably buy it.

DJPARTYBOY: I will only buy bikes such as the Stingray now as parts donors as we did with Lightning Strikes.



Erik: Do you feel the re-release of old designs such as the Raleigh Chopper are good for the movement in general, such as getting the younger kids interested, or do you feel that they take away from people getting into creatively producing their own designs? Are they popular with the kids, and have you seen them being ridden, rather than just catching eyes on the store shelves?

Elbucko: I think Raleigh re-introduced the Chopper mainly to cater for the nostalgic over-40's market and at the same time hoped it would catch on with younger kids as well. Unfortunately it hasn't happened, I think I've only ever seen a couple of kids riding one and the same with the Stingray. I think if they had been more popular it would have led to more kids kustomising their bikes.

DJPARTYBOY: The UK prices for bikes don't help matters. Even for spare parts the shops charge a fortune. We have to keep importing parts from America for most of our bikes.

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Erik: Hmmm! It makes one wonder what the kids would want their Kustom bike to be like. I agree that nostalgia plays a huge part in these
re-releases. If you were to design a bike for what kids today want, what would it be like?

Elbucko: Unfortunately, if we wanted to make a bike for UK kids and we wanted to be successful, it would have to be a dual suspension mountain
bike! That seems to be all they want. I don't think you could get a more appealing, to kids anyway, kustom-looking bike than the Stingray and if that
didn't sell in the UK, nothing will!

Erik: What advice would you give to people wanting to get started in building their own kustoms?

DJPARTYBOY: DON'T DO IT!! LOL! No seriously, just go for it!

Obviously you will need to do a bit of preparation and ensure you have the necessary tools and materials; but there is nothing better than just getting out there and building something yourself.

The first couple of bikes you build will probably look terrible, both aesthetically and construction-wise, but after a few attempts you will find that everything starts to come together. You'll start to design more
practical, yet still radical designs. Your fabrication, welding and painting skills will improve and your finished bikes will become altogether more polished and professional.

But for a first time builder the main thing is to get building. You can sit and design a hundred different bikes but until you get out there and build one you'll never realise the million little things that go into ending up with a bike that you'll be proud to ride.
"Arachnid"
"El Loco"
Erik: Can you describe the creative process that led to one of your Kustoms, from initial concept to running changes made- all the way to
completion?
          
Elbucko: I'll try and lead you through the process that I used for one of my bikes, The Red Baron.

Initial Concept and Design.

When we decided to enter the Chopperbicycle.net Bicycle Build Off 2,
we decided that DJPartyboy would design our first-round bike, which ended up as Lightning Strikes and if we were lucky enough to make the second round I would design the next bike.
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I had already drawn up a design for a long-forked, traditional-looking Chopper design and one day while browsing the online bicycle parts dealers I noticed some of the parts available incorporated the German Iron (or Maltese) Cross. This gave me the idea of changing the design slightly to incorporate some of these parts and use the theme of the legendary World War One pilot Manfred Von Richtofen (now more commonly known as "The Red Baron") and his bright red Fokker Tri-plane.
It didn't take long to change the design and add the small design details such as the Iron Cross within the frame and the Machine Gun. Now it
was a matter of waiting to see if we made it through to the second round.

Fabrication.

When building a bike now I always like to draw out by hand a full-size plan of the bike. To do this I draw a scale drawing of the bike on my PC using Paint Shop Pro. I then print this out on a
sheet of A4 and work out and mark on the this print out key measurements points based on a known fixed dimension, eg the wheel diameter. Using these key points I can transfer the design onto a full size drawing. The paper I use for this is the back of normal household wallpaper. I cut two pieces of the required length and join them together with thick masking tape to get the required height.
"Hellbound"
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I find that having a full-size plan makes cutting and bending tubes much easier as you can just keep laying the tubes onto the design as you bend them until they are perfect.

From then on fabrication was fairly straightforward, although as with all build-ups you are constantly running into small problems which need to be solved. For example, on this design I wanted to use a pair of standard BMX forks to hold the rear wheel and give a clean uncluttered look. The problem with this is that standard front wheel drop-outs do not give (or need) provision for wheel adjustment to ensure the chain is tensioned correctly. To get round this I had to cut a pair of rear drop-outs from a spare frame and weld them on.

Similarly with the seat post. Initially the design
called for a simple seat post but I soon realised that the frame would need extra strength in this area so I added two thin tubes going down to the rear forks and a curved tube going forward onto the main frame top tube.

"Big Wednesday"
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Painting and Final Assembly.

Eventually fabrication was complete and the bit I personally hate
the most begins, the tedious grinding down of the welds and then the filling and sanding of all the joins to ensure the frame looks smooth. I must admit because I hate this stage so much I tend to rush through it and end up with filling that although presentable is far from perfect, but as the bikes are just for myself and not customers I can live with a few imperfections.

Once that's out of the way it was just the relatively simple matter
of spray painting the frame, forks and handlebars in a nice bright shade of red. We use automotive spray (rattle) cans, as at this stage we can't justify the large outlay for a decent compressor and spray gun. At this stage, I decided to add some final paint detailing to the frame by adding small white sections at the front and rear drop-outs to mimic the Red Baron's plane and then applied water slide transfers of the bikes name to the top tube, the original plane's registration number to the frame just below the seat post and iron crosses to the bottom of the forks.
The final design change I made was to change the original 5- spoke Mag BMX wheels and whitewall tyres for some 4-spoke Mag wheels and all-black tyres that I feel suit the theme better.

Conclusions.

Although we were eventually beaten in round 2 of the Build Off by Suicycle's great bike, I was personally very pleased with the way the bike turned out and the reaction it has received, both on the CBN website and when riding it around.
"Chrome Boy"
E A R L Y    P R O J E C T S :
Erik: So, if you two were planning to found an organization to help those with chopper addiction. Choppers Anonymous perhaps? What would the 12 steps consist of? Lol!

Both: Step 1 - Get inspiration. Look at Chopper Bicycle related websites such as Chopperbicycle.net and see what other people have come up with and if possible learn from their mistakes.

Step 2 - Keep it simple. At first, design something with straight tubes and use as many ready-fabricated parts as possible. It's much better to complete a simple first bike than never complete a more complicated design. That can come later.

Step 3 - Keep it cheap. Check out your local rubbish or garbage dumps, it's amazing what some people throw away and old BMX bikes are an invaluable source of steering tubes, bottom brackets, cranks, wheels, etc. Also check out local swap meets, garage sales and in the UK, Car Boot Sales, for a great source of parts.

Step 4 - Get some decent basic tools and equipment. At the very least you'll need Spanners, Allen keys and screwdrivers. If you intend to fabricate frames you'll need Hack-saws or a Sawzall, an Angle-grinder and a Welder or Brazing equipment. It may be possible to rent some of this
equipment at first or get the welding/brazing done professionally.

Step 5 - Be careful. Always take sensible safety precautions when using Grinders, Welders, etc. No bike is worth getting injured or worse for!

Step 6 - Be prepared for problems. No matter how carefully you design you will invariably run into small niggling problems as you fabricate. These can be extremely infuriating but don't give up as they can nearly always be solved.

Step 7 - Be imaginative. There are only so many possible frame designs but there are thousands of ways you can tweak those designs to add your own touch of individuality, whether it's the paint scheme or the final combination of wheels, tyres, seats, bars, etc.

Step 8 - Let others know what you're doing. Join an online Chopper Bicycle Forum and don't be afraid to show other builders what you're up to. No matter how basic or boring you think your bike may be, most other builders are Chopper Bicycle fanatics who just love looking at bikes, yours
included!

Step 9 - Don't give up. There will be plenty of times when you feel that you'll never ride this bike (normally while tediously rubbing down filler!) but stick at it and eventually you'll get there.

Step 10 - Get out on the bike. Once the bike's completed get out there and ride it. If possible meet up with fellow enthusiasts and ride together.

Step 11 - Enjoy yourself. Unless you're a professional builder, chances are you are doing this as a hobby. If you're not enjoying it why are you doing it?

Step 12 - Never stop. Once you finish one bike begin planning the next. There's no such thing as the Ultimate Chopper Bicycle. No matter how good you think your current bike, or another person's bike is, it can always be topped. Build On!

"Insania"
"Schlopper"
"Silver Flame"
You are cordially invited to visit the S&S Custom Bicycles Website, Or to E-Mail Them.