The Great Biker Build Off 4 - Billy Lane Vs Indian larry

speeding through the Badlands of South Dakota are two of the best-known bike builders in the world from the Northeast comes legendary Indian Larry and from the deep south rising star Billy Lane in just 30 days these two artists have designed and fabricated two monster machines and now they're riding hell-bent for leather towards the Sturgis Black Hills Motorcycle classic where the people will choose who will be crowned biker build-off champion of the year this round of competition will be unlike any other because for the first time both contestants are high priests of the retro chopper style Indian Larry has been building bikes for 35 years and Billy Lane for a decade this time it's old school versus new old school just on the coast from Cape Canaveral is Melbourne Florida home of Billy Lane already a two-time winner of the great biker build-off and the Garlin of countless motorcycle publications mr. Lane is fast becoming the hottest star in all of chopper diamond in large part for such wild innovations as this completely hubless rear wheel the bitchiness shop and Gator land is choppers Inc Jeff and born of custom chrome helps Billy carry in an aftermarket frame which of course mr. Lane will modify we're gonna build a dirty old school hardcore chopper that you know I mean I know Larry will appreciate it as much as he appreciates his own stuff we're gonna take a frame we're gonna cut it up we're gonna do a bunch of modifications to it we're using some old stuff that we found this used it's like this who can do better between he and I we think we can and I'm sure he thinks he can so if I'm if I have my way but he's a little bit dirtier than him and I know he doesn't take me lightly because I don't take him lightly so I'm pretty sure that he's gonna go all-out because I'm going all out ready to chop you ready Larry meanwhile 1,100 miles north in New York City Indian Larry is at work on his vision of an old-school jumper Larry's mission is to melt the best of the old with the best of the new winner of bike build-off 3 Larry prepares for another round not only is he a chopper God he's a television and movie personality as well if this weren't enough Larry is a daredevil who enjoys nothing more than plunging full-speed through walls of fire across the river from Manhattan is the baddest most get down shop in the Northeast gasoline alley behind these wrought iron gates a secret plan is underway why don't we start with the geometry the wheel base frame configuration we know we're doing the twist right Larry and partners called in Girard are designing a 21st century version of a 20th century motorcycle so just like that room panic or shall never to bottom magneto in it forget the pipes for now kik-kik six-speed around oil tank wall was just doing the sketches here for this bike we're do at whist a single down tube frame which is our proprietary frame it's going to be a rigid frame the beginning of any bike is of course the frame this frame or what's left of it was given to us by diamond chassis engineer in Riverside California we remove this I'm just using this for a baseline this frame is going to feature a twisted down tube the first step in making this custom tube is to weld one end of a solid bar of steel to the workbench next the bar is heated to 900 degrees Fahrenheit even though the bar is heated to cherry-red it takes 3 brawny guys to give it the big twist first this deal is twisted one way and then the other to make it the most distinctive downtube ever made what's better than like heat and fire and I just you know that's pretty cool meanwhile in Florida Billy's expecting a visitor from the far north tom lengthen of rumble customs in Ontario Canada these are the drawings for the wheels that Tom made for us that initially sent them a drawing like this and I want to make me a wheel real thin rim with a trucker girl theme on it you know kind of little pop culture type of thing and um Tom sent me back these drawings and decided how the trucker girl spin around the rim continuously even when the wheel to stop pretty cool idea so I'm looking forward to seeing that they look good man these things are crazy man and I didn't I didn't even see any spikes I don't know he's gonna do this Billy and right-hand man nip fidella are blown away that's nice just when you thought I couldn't get any prettier man you haven't put me on these things huh what you said is that 340 pound bag of aluminum out of this one starts at 341 pounds all the way from Canada but 50 hours to cut the block or so yeah that's the thing like something like this raises the bar for me now I got to build a bike better than I would if I'd have regular wheels on it so because you know I can't have like the pimping wheels and then some raggedy-ass jalopy bike back at Gasoline Alley it's time to install the twisted down tube first the cut-up frame is welded to the frame jig since the real engine hasn't arrived Larry installs a mock-up so that every piece lines up true it's very important to get everything in why so the bike doesn't want to be rough I like to build a bike that you ride with no hands and stand up on to stable bike normally these long front end things it's just an exaggerated wife who doesn't handle that if this is square here at pointing off down here the bike will veer in the direction so you got to keep everything you know I'm set through the bike all straight right this daredevil wears his philosophy on his neck thank God we trust and vengeance is mine saith the Lord that's a middle of two lines backwards so I can read it in the mirror and this is no fear it's a big difference people think no fear and then equate no fear and stupidity it's the same thing which it's not I mean it's like you can be real stupid and real dumb that doesn't mean you're fearless now I'm going to stay old-school but I'm going to make make that leap into a little bit more current time and hopefully I'm going to be able to meld the two together to really still have that feel like you know you're riding out of the 60s but on 2003 equipment and I hope I can nail it so really I got to tell you I'm a little bit nervous about it cuz it's a little bit different departure back at choppers Inc Billy installs a 60 style front end just a springer front end from mando from Denver's choppers been using them a lot we're really happy with them they ride nice and soft they're light I like to pull wheelies so lights good Billy is determined to use a baker six-speed transmission with only a kickstart to turn over this enormous engine no newfangled electric starter from mr. Lane 103-inch SMS engine the cylinder heads are old Harley heads and a DaVinci gave us these carbs and now the raw beginnings of a tank damn fine-looking getting it I've had this tank on my head for a few months the metal for the stretches they start banging on it just getting elongate by about three inches it's not getting taller here than is over here so I'm gonna try and stretch it back out up till now Larry's been the Guru of wire wheels but as another new twist for Billy this time he's going to use billet wheels this particular girl wheel it's the least offensive of all the billet wheels that I see out there out of the hundreds of designs it's still a little bit yucky to me you know but maybe I can get over we'll see at the end of the project how I feel about it I'm still I wouldn't mind this in the rear if Ida spoke to me on the front but we're doing the same matching set check your spacing actors i want to elevate the art of the motorcycle to like the seal and I want like blow the top off and just to make it like it's an acceptable art form as I think it's not only an art form you got strict criteria I have to adhere to we got to ten thousandths of an inch clearance you have to maintain while trying to create abstractly so it is an art form I don't know about this is this actual correct prints back in the deep south it's bending metal Billy style Travis see I ground through it some spots is so thin it there's nothing left I made patches to cover what I messed up weld it all over I'm actually making stronger anyway so maybe it's for the best but I didn't want to have a too thin and have to start cracking somewhere out in the road and have me stuck somewhere of gas one all over the place get all up in my crotch and already lit my ass on fire last time I need to be light my front end how far it is done I need it Suzanne opps tostop orangs office manager but she's a metal fabricator at heart the bandsaw she wants to start welding then cutting a banging metal tips what you want to do a something like this is to start on that line come on a crazy angle let's make a little knot the bandsaw impaired yes I'm basically done for the day I got most of this gas tank done now I never do the same thing twice really want to do something so everything's always fresh Larry ops to install a pre-made tank by Paco boy one little input here placement employ Larry's using a Jesse James fender and chopping it to his knees after the fender shortened Paul and Kano take an inch out of its center and now it's time to weld the two halves back together oh you get any better than that highly confident trained staff right now it's got exact same shape as when it was wire it's just skinnier in just two weeks all of the major components of Indian Larry's bike are in place you basically have the whole motorcycle the taillight and headlight with just a bulb I'll put that on later we're not going too crazy with doing anything we're just going to try to build a nice clean simple tight chopper to the road hopefully dependable road bike and this is step back you can see basically we're going for we just Raya now either it's a sunny day in Melbourne but Billy and Nick are still under the weather sit Nick's not here I didn't expect him to be you went out partying me or last night this usual I got two hours of sleep is worth it it's a good trade but the pressures on because today is day 20 the final day of the build my plan today is I'm finish this gas tank up this is the hardest thing I got to do on the bike and then put the oil tank in the back fender and [ __ ] bar make some exhaust pipes the gasoline le team decides Larry's tank needs one more retro touch Paul gets to work so this is the tank that we're starting with it's a smaller version of the pork store that Larry likes to use in the old days people would either cut them out or hammer them out either cut out the side and switch it to the other side to get a dish defect or just outline it with round stock to get a really prominent edge and then just hammer this [ __ ] so I'm going to do it like that save some welding and some potential weeks so this will give me a rough idea how much stock I'm going to need the shape is nice the outlines nice we're now going to curve it around around the tail tank to give this crew ah back at choppers Inc Billy's bike is going to be a memorial to Georgie juban whose life ended tragically earlier this year this is defender we're going to use uh Nevada bike and the [ __ ] barn is actually one we built for my buddy George's bike his girlfriend murdered him in January so hey me ride with us anymore his motto was you know hooray for today tomorrow I mean you know he was one of those kind of guys I mean we all try to think that way but he lived it every day was Friday that's him just cruising down the road loving life see these are these are these randoms right yeah they're just their mistakes as usual Billy makes his exhaust system out of factory reject pipes like that midnight again and we're just finishing up so we're pretty much done with all the fab work there's a few little details to finish up but all the major things are done Larry is gonna have to work his ass off if you want to beat this thing because this bikes insane absolutely Joe Richardson has laid down a pure black base coat on Billy's tank nice the first step in Billy's intricate paint job stripes of silver leaf only microns thick a huge chopper fat in the 60s leafing is gaining momentum again meanwhile at custom auto design in rural Connecticut Robert Pratt key is at work on Indian Larry stoved in masterpiece first he sands down the base coat of root beer metal flake then he fills the cavities with glue to hold down sheets of sterling silver leaf Robert gives texture to the silver leaf with a delicate touch of a master artisan what truly old-school hot rod bike would be complete without a flame job robert's ready for finishing touches he adds Indian Larry's logo in gold leaf and combination metal leaf paneling day 28 at choppers Inc the tank is finally back from paint I was like oh man it looks blue with that pearl in it man yeah looks really good Joe there's that peace and beautiful it doesn't mean I'm gay or nothin okay it's a queer so sexy it's gonna be a shame for me to scratch that all up you know my to this emblems off of 41 Chevrolet it's the front half the back half we didn't have so I made a piece for it Joe massaged it and then um this is from a 1934 Hudson Terraplane hood hood emblem let's see if I can ride it from st. Louis to Sturgis without spilling a whiskey okay here's our frame we just got back in the chromers and I'm gonna start putting this right together after it's polished and plated with the correct polishing and plating the sunlight hits it in the facets pick up the sonic looks like diamond sparkles Larry's engine arrives from accurate engineering it's truly wild marrying two radically different harley-davidson head styles the biggest thing that a layman would say is this has a cover take all the pancakes it's like a dishpan kind of head and this was a shovel head because before we split the box here it would look like sort of like a shovel you know the blunt end of the shovel so that's mostly what the layman sees but there are other internal differences in here the whole trick in this engine is to blend out all the differences and make both heads exactly the same but yet have two different looks going on and you know for me it can't be odd or strange enough you know and it's totally more of a mechanical look everything's like it's all about the mechanics for me got it something over a little bit okay there we go we're putting in this fine Baker transmission sitting on in the Lariat just efficient plate hopefully everything will fit we're going to slide it back the transmission and get it in there with only two days to go Billy dives into assembly long hair might have been working for Jesus but I don't work on a bike now that is beast of a custom engine put together from sources new and old is in the chassis Billie's confident he's as good is on the road is the first build off that I didn't laugh and have a good time instead of freaking and stressing I think Larry's my free pizza we like to have a taller girl belt and this thing here is called the traffic cop it's wrong somebody cut you off in traffic good job Bobby smash the mirror with it there's a big fat mouth need to get set up real quick it's old school stuff and now another old school touch a kick start only this could prove to be a big headache for mr. Lane Billy installs an open chain drive he calls it the meat grinder one slip and your toes are toast what do you think we did pretty good right we have this bike basically at least 90% together this is the first time and three build offs that we've like Matt bid against the liar so it's pretty cool to be that way but there's always room for disaster when it comes to this kind of thing then when we get running what I'm gonna call Larry and say listen we're gonna fire it up my list of the pipes to his telephone it is giggle back in Brooklyn at gasoline alley we just got the paint back in from Robert a custom auto design this is real silver relief and real gold leaf into the public these two piece probably about five thousand dollar paint job it's it's an expensive job all right okay you can let go we got a rear ER and holy and all that was donated to us by performance machine for this project No the ability racing I have to make sure this thing is super tight I think Billy's got the same idea that's me wild child feral child you know like this on you all right here we go look at that it's like it was made to go on there I'm just fishing the bike up right now basically I gotta put the exhaust pipes on it things are rolling along at choppers Inc time to add fluids and now the final test kicking this retro monster over oh damn it I kick through it but I can't get it fire Billy's hit a wall so how will things go for a Larry put a little transmission a little minute almost ready to start this and now the moment of truth the sweet sound of success down in Florida the struggle continues there's no feeling in the world like the feeling when all the love has run out for you we're gonna fire it up and I listen to the pipes to his telephone it is a giggle ain't nuttin air man I blow though like a doctor with a patient Larry listens carefully to the heartbeat of his engine tuning and refining we're ready to go the magneto was put on a really weak spark to the spark plugs so I did some little tricks to it hoping that fix the problem that I have hey Jackie you see this change weapon well I got everything finished basically got the bike started needs a little bit tweaking few adjustments here and there I pack it up and go to st. Louis you ride with Larry the bike starts but it's a punishing ride to Sturgis for even the most well tuned machine Billy's got his work cut out for him Billy and Indian Larry meet in st. Louis Missouri the Gateway to the West for their thousand mile ride to Sturgis that's a lot of welding holy book every see them although the gang is raring to go Billy's bike is still not firing right I've been trying for 10 days to get that bike running right and I've been able to now here we are in Milton country my only other options are walk push it I would help Billy in any way I can I sit there for his right face I don't even care if he wins these chopper king's head off to local shop liquid illusions to take a good look at the problems and to see each other's rides for the first time since brazen attraction very nice I didn't win the track nice think about getting outside but now show-and-tell is over that last two long haired guys this is gonna turn to the great biker fix off instead of a biker build-off 9:10 p.m. a day behind already and time is of the essence so what's in it for Larry real friendship and Brotherhood is more important than like all the money and all the stuff okay unable to kick-start the engine they jumpstart the bike with roller bars using the power of Larry's bike Billie's engine roars to life they've gotten the bike to start but is it tuned for the long run I mean as soon as I open it throttle it was just spitting and popping you know if you need a gallon of milk from the corner or something it's all right maybe some cigarettes but you want to go from st. Louis to South Dakota I don't really recommend it immediately go to a small carburetor but I know our hands are tied with what we got that's my smaller carbs might do the trick but there's no such thing as a 7-eleven for bike parts nothing in some carburetors in the morning see small cars midnight the producers make Indian Larry an offer since the bike doesn't run he can force Billy to forfeit but Willy Nano has no door though it just doesn't seem like the right thing to do we didn't get to go for a ride yet I'd like the Williams rebuilding like the winter but like bottom line is like whoever wins wins they call it a night but must leave at the crack of dawn if they have any hope of reaching Sturgis in time right and early the next morning the gang reconvenes Larry Couric of mid USA motorcycle parts comes to the rescue with a new set of carbs you can smell like gasoline when you woke up this morning today I will go like and I wasn't really smelling it oh yeah that was pretty good 9:10 a.m. problem not solved well bike still runs like hell after everything we did last night and this morning so far this thing's all spitting and pop and leaning out all over the freaking place it's stories sad it's real sad I don't have any ideas but I just early and be honest I'm stumped really yummy better with these barbers saying about ready to give up a cassette no I'm not saying to go 10:35 a.m. one last chance yet another set of carbs this time even smaller I'm gonna try the small carburetors and see that faces it doesn't fix it I'm gonna pulverize it with this hammer my options are starting to really run out awesome the new time were supposed to leave is like 3540 minutes let me clear it out actually runs was running really really good and then I want to turn around here in several again deadline time biker build-off producer Hugh King puts it to Billy will he ride his entry bike to Sturgis right now or forfeit - Larry you're gonna ride this one out of here give me like all tomato no write it I'll write it I'm ready to go we put the air cleaners on it rather than forfeit Billy takes a chance on the unrolled tested bike ready Billy snake so I hope so I am on a bike I'm ready to get on a highway on him running a day and a half behind already Billy Larry in there crews finally set off for the grueling 980 mile trip off to Sturgis we'll travel straight across Missouri through Iowa and the length of Nebraska before heading north over the Black Hills straight into Sturgis the stress and turmoil of the last 30 days just melt away once these monster builders are finally on the road vice riding pretty good I'm surprised it's a little out of tune but it's not that far out all [ __ ] of competition and carburetors disappear from their minds to long haired guys cutting loose in the wind this is what it's all about these are rigid hard core old-school bikes potholes be damned that's one rough ass highway Billy's chain drive is as flesh tearing finger eating scary as it looks I didn't make it to be safe just pretty our heroes tear through the heartland of Nebraska on their lean mean choppers making up for lost time and then some at last they vote her into South Dakota it feels great I was like some awesome speeds I like that I like this is actually the best bike I've ever ridden that's one I've ever built best best bike them my whole life over it just over these hills is Sturgis where the real competition starts in the morning Billy and Larry will arrive soon as long as the roads stay clear but you never know what you'll run into in the Dakotas finally Sturgis Motorcycle Week the granddaddy rally of them all each August the population of this otherwise sleepy town swells to over 800,000 as chopper lovers and motorcycle enthusiasts alike head to South Dakota for a week of booze fans and bikes just off the strip is the main street Road house site of Discovery's polling place this is ground zero for chopper dump and it's d-day for Billy and Indian Larry who will win the trophy Indian Larry's root beer metal-flake masterpiece or Billy lanes black and blue bling-bling then check out the rise before casting their votes this is heads-up competition here guys these are the two classic fellers go over there and go away two choppers Inc that was awesome by our exhausted by the rigors of fame the choppers Inc crew takes a break so hey goodness you're met still warm as the ballots are counted Indian Larry blows off steam and now the moment of truth and the winner is unbeknownst to the producers Larry and Billy have a different idea about how this contest ends sorry you I didn't like this we don't have any winner here I don't deserve to win Billy doesn't deserve the win I don't deserve to lose Billy doesn't deserve to lose this is a draw this is a disaster we're gonna cut control-v in half all right where we gonna go over here happily the chopper gods have spoken how can there be winners or losers in a game where these two awesome steeds were created one thing is for certain Indian Larry and Billy Lane together made old-school chopper building the real Victor here riding the traditions of the 1960s into the 21st century and beyond

Channel: alca61

Views: 2,128,988

Rating: 4.7269754 out of 5

Keywords: billy, lane, indian, larry, harley, davidson, motorcycle

Id: IgLJ0KSiIEA

Length: 44min 46sec (2686 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2011