W H E N T H E
"Kustom King"
D I D B I C Y L E S
The "Muscle Bike"came out of the
hot-rod and kustom culture of '60s California. To capture some of this
hipster cachet, the major bike
makers introduced their own takes
on the concept. Only one of these
makers went to one of the original
kustom kats for design input-
This page's bikes and images
from the collection of
With His Commentary.
Right: Those darling moppets from the Family Affair TV series are shown with their Iversons.
His is the Mini-Indy model; notice the Mag wheels. Hers is the
Mini-Miss.
Right: This bike is all original/correct 1969 Dragstripper. This bike has the shock-type sissy bar (some of the later models did not). All of the 1969 16"x20" Dragstrippers were painted this "retina burning" Orange originally. This orange color is actually a two-stage paint process similar to the candy apple custom paint jobs that Barris was doing on his custom work back then. A yellow base was applied & then the orange-tinted clear was shot over that to give the color that extra 'glow" that the Iverson advertisement described. These bikes are very scarce today but do not command high prices because they are relatively unknown.
Lower Right: 1969 Barris/Iverson 16 X 20" Dragstripper. The bike featured a Messinger "spoon"-style bucket seat, tall sissy bar with padded Messinger headrest, 16" front rim with drum brake, 20"x2.125" racing slick rear tire, & 3-speed console shifter with dial indicator. The red color on this bike is the only thing on this bike that is not correct. Growing up I wanted an Apple Krate so I painted my Dragstripper red. This bike was restored to duplicate that childhood bike.
