The Great Biker Build Off - Indian Larry vs Paul Yaffe (English)

speeding to New England are two of the greatest bike builders the world has ever known from the West comes superstar Paul Yaffe and from the east comes the legendary Indian Larry in just 30 days these two artists have designed and fabricated two incredible machines and now they're headed for Laconia New Hampshire where the people will decide who will go on to glory and the next round of the great biker build-off it all started a month ago in New York City through the streets of Brooklyn comes a man whose mission is to bring the world of custom motorcycles back to its roots Indian Larry today the workday begins at Larry's shop gasoline Ali today Larry starting to build a chopper which will incorporate the best of the old with the best of the new or a safe so say in just 30 days this bike must be ready to ride to Laconia New Hampshire where 350,000 cyclists will descend on a small New England town and go hog-wild Gasoline Alley is a partnership Larry designs and builds the bikes Paul Cox does the leather work and Gerard Mortal ro runs the business but according to Larry the most important partner is the dog gunner the SHOP dog gunner Indian Larry is a world-famous motorcycle personality for 30 years he's been building old-style award-winning choppers he's a motorcycle daredevil as well and has appeared in movies TV commercials and music videos but at his core where I'm a chopper builder old-time old-school chopper builder but I like the modern technology that's involved so the bikes run better perform better and we have more fun with them this is going to be a true suicide rigid bike it's going to be a jockey shift foot clutch no front brake and kind of like that I like the bill for a change true to form Larry has taken a 50 style panhead reproduction and rebuilt it from the ground up with today's technology when fired up this power plant will be capable of producing over a hundred horsepower all right set that right here ready this is Eddie this is another one of our fabricators the transmission will have an old-style kickstart and a modern electric starter - this can be twin belt drive setup this is going to be a very nice running biking really crews nice smooth fast no vibration they going on the side here hold the starter up and put the bolts in here yeah true to the old style Larry's bike will have a springer front end we don't like big [ __ ] front ends like up the handle crisp we like to ride up go up in the mountains and stuff with them and we really go through the switchbacks in turn we ride them hard and fast doing a couple of things at once for Larry building choppers is a religious act this is the holy grail of motorcycling choppers are like the as far as I'm concerned the chopper is the motorcycle and while Larry builds his old-school chopper 2,500 miles to the west a modern breed of motorcycle is coming to life in Phoenix Arizona Yaffe originals is the shop of Paul Yaffe a motorcycle designer whose sleek one-of-a-kind bikes have taken the motorcycle world by storm Paul won the prestigious Oakland Roadster Show three times in a row and has gone on to win over 100 show since Yaffe machines are definitely not old-style choppers but sleek modern customs today Paul is starting a bike which could blow Larry away without a doubt it will be the coolest one off he's ever built this frame is a is a product of kind of an exercise I've been doing for a couple of years I actually designed the frame there's kind of a anti chopper do every time I do a bike it gives me like 100 new ideas for the next bike what I'll do is I'll just make me a stack of these kind of xeroxed shadows and then what I can do is I can just come in and I can sketch all kinds of stuff on them and I don't like it I just toss it and grab the next one and I can try all kinds of different profiles to the bike until it really sings to me then they'll even goof around with while I'm doing I'll come up with different ideas for pipe designs and triple trees and maybe Forks and I had some wheels that I thought would be cool and and this year's you need the heart of the beast got a freak for his bike Paul chooses a motor built by TP engineering capable of producing 143 horsepower at the rear wheel and for his frame Paul has pushed one of his radically modified custom frames even further I've taken this thing and I've stretched it out seven inches and it also would normally be much higher we've also dropped the neck four inches and then I've added rake and rake as the angle of this neck that's what that word means what Paul means is that the front of the frame is seven inches longer than normal four inches lower and the angle where the neck meets the frame is more extreme it's much closer to a dragster than it is a chopper so lo long tons of horsepower big tire with the primary on this thing is going to be able to handle whatever I throw at it and yeah this thing's gonna be a beast I'm going to bend this wire the shape of that part that's the bottom level thing Paul's bike will feature an oil tank which not only blends in with the streamlined profile but also hides other working parts less is more right so lots of things put into tight spaces so you can just really kind of appreciate the true form of the bike and nothing interrupts you nothing stops you I kind of gives you a little idea what our oil section is gonna look like back in Brooklyn Larry cuts right-angled notches in his rigid frame to hold the battery box if the cut part is frame away and then we're going to plate the frame to get our strength back food food in all the years that Indian Larry has been building motorcycles he's been independent I just don't have any club affiliation except the Coney Island Polar Bear Club of course I used to swim between 1/8 to 1/4 of a mile in water it was like 35 to 36 degrees it feels good it's real healthy for you that independent spirit has pushed him to master every aspect of motorcycle construction over the years I didn't want to depend on anybody I wanted to know how to do absolutely everything had to do with a motorcycle and the funny part of it is the more you know the less you know that's the funny part of the whole deal there are precious few builders in the world that still know how to lace up a wheel should be easy enough I think let me find the valve stem hole yeah you know I like a bike to look at like a like a hunting watch when you back you look in there it's all mechanical and gizmos going on and movement going on the we see a lot of little parts in there it's more of an art actually then science building up a spoke wheels to me it says just elegance Top Gun Larry has [ __ ] up hundreds of wheels but this one will prove to be a [ __ ] this this is the cost of this type of pattern and who came up with this because normally I go one in and one out put all these on the inside as a nightmare just to add to the confusion Bambi Larry's wife shows up with their feisty little chihuahua I can't order I can't be distracting sweetie all right nightmare bye pants all right let's get the pair the wheel I was tortured by the wheel but I finally got the pattern got it pretty well trued up it's coming together tight a motorcycle has to have at least one spoke wheel these custom bikes were just all the the wheels are just cut out of billet or it's um it's just there's not enough mechanical to solve it so it's just a slab it's a dead object but when it comes to wheel design Paul couldn't disagree more the wheels on his new bike are going to be cut from billet stock by a computer-driven lathe Fortin part is like the spokes sections there's different treatments we can do them to get them to reflect light you know when the wheel spins it'll kick all this light back at you and I catch you like jewelry Richard Albertson of weld wheels will do the manufacturing I got it go off a deal all right we can do that for this is our warehouse for all of our manufactured parts get one warehouse we manufacture and sell a ton of parts to a lot of other bike builders and stuff in the country and sometimes internationally and a lot of our production stuff what we consider stock is pretty wild by today's standards so I'm lucky I have the opportunity I can come in and pull this is a stock fender of ours I could pull this off the shelf and basically put it on that bike I'll do a little shaping to it to make it a little unique but it's trichter so it's so it doesn't need too much help which helps us make pretty quick work what I'll do I'll end up drilling and mounting this I like all the nuts and bolts in the fittings and the linkages and the mechanical nosov it I like to see all the mechanical nosov an object all these bikes now let's smooth it out and hide everything well they might as well be building sailboats or like a refrigerator where's the the gizmo nosov it oh my God look at this it's a machine you know you're like looking into the the mechanism of the universe the oil filter was a pretty cool idea these guys came up with to locate the oil filter inside the primary and I want to leave this clean I don't want it to be cluttered so I haven't oil filter out of there and letting it not be hidden inside of this primaries kick-ass for me it's helping me do my job of keeping this thing looking naked so in contrast larry's oil filters are boldly mounted easy to change yeah it's just you know riding down the highway just swing you leg up that's all there is to it this is what we got done yesterday we're a lot of frazzled nests today we're going to mount the oil tank we're probably going to get to the gas tank I'm working on the front exhaust pipe I got the one piece coming down and I'm going to fit this p-tech exit underneath the frame it's going to be a little notch or it fits over like this I don't know anything in life I just show up and go with the flow I'm not a religious person but I'm a very spiritual person spirituality is it's instinctive and more I believe more of a Zen type of thing and stay in a moment you'll get the right answers two correct answers every motorcycle is always a spiritual experience choppers specifically are very integral parts my spirituality I mean when I go out for a ride or stuff and I'm exactly in a moment it's like meditation that's you know I'm in the flow it's 5:00 a.m. in Phoenix and Paul Yaffe is on his way to work born in the Los Angeles basin in the San Fernando Valley I didn't graduate from high school you know I sold drugs to the entire high school got high you know every day yeah it's just a sociopath or whatever there's nuts you know so um lot LSD every day just constantly you know I used to paint my fingernails you know with it and you know suck on my fingernails all day long didn't do anything really finally I had a really bad accident I thought 150-foot cliff and my parents actually paid me to go to this drug abuse program three years four years five years no nothing I just stopped just like that one day I did one day I did how long until I stopped drinking about eight years ago yeah 98 years yeah don't smoke don't drink don't do any drugs it's a much better life I mean without without drinking now with my head clear you know I mean all my kind of creative stuff you know was coming out I had tons of this energy and I'm you know to do something with I look at this shop in 1991 I had a such a huge appetite for anything that was new and radical and I wake up in the morning and I feel grateful I feel happy I love coming to work today yeah the originals employs 71 people and does over six million dollars a year in sales this is a take F I manufacture a lot of products I manufacture a bunch of different gas tanks it's probably going to sit right about like that and then I'll tack these two pieces together and make them fit over this then I'm going to make a stretch cap where I'm going up I'm going to kind of stretch this all the way back to a point it's going to come to a claw Paul's right-hand man Ronald Dewey goes to work on the Yaffe tank crooked that's what it is is crooked now we kind of like that pointing down the center of the bike but that might be somebody else's character but in a mine at gasoline alley Larry mounts a mustang tag made by Paco damn straight the show producer Hugh King has brought a challenge from Indian Larry buy a laptop computer well at the risk of sounding like an egomaniac like I'm the best in the business I mean it's just that simple never heard of until last week and larry has a few choice words to say about modern style customs yeah these bikes become fat big pig piggy and slovenly and sluggish and they're not agile it's a good thing we're not racing to Laconia yeah good for you good for you we're gonna get Larry lay another some something's gonna burn let's do it I'm on a mission to kick his ass here at this stage in his life Larry isn't one with the world but it wasn't always so I did uh five years of prison for bank robbery when I was pretty young sixteen seventeen years old something like that uh yeah I got what I deserved I mean I it's you know you can't do what I was doing I mean you can't do that actually had stents my advice don't do what I did it's Arizona Bike Week in Phoenix and hundreds from across the Southwest have come to see Paul's latest creations in addition it's day 20 of the build and Yaffe must finish the fabrication of his discovery bike today and send it off to paint if he is still to meet the 30-day deadline in the last seven days I've slept 15 hours I gotta get this thing done in a few hours and I got a rocket party going on I'm gonna miss it the major components still not done is the exhaust system it's Indian Larry you as refresh your happy we're almost there man I don't know where the my seat is yeah god I supposed to be here at 2:30 with my seat it's also day 20 at gasoline alley by this evening Larry's got to complete the fabrications of his bike and send it off to paint but he's got a long way to go pulse right on right yes I'm Romie alone okay he's in his quest for the perfect bike Larry seeks parts from outside the motorcycle realm this fender is just it's just Joe a generic kind of boat trailer fender we like because they're pretty hefty unlike a lot of a lot of defenders you get motorcycle friends very thin and flimsy and eventually we'll put a strip in the center so what we're doing is just setting this up it's the rigid air-ride balls proprietary thing that we do where you can ride true rich it'll you can come up right on a cushion of air it has an onboard compressor you can raise it up and then dump it as you see fit it's 6:00 in the evening and yeah Pease bike is still not complete most of the work is done but the final element the seat is missing finally it arrives and it's a perfect fit well trim it down here a little bit foot flows right into the fender the entire rear end of Paul's bike will rise and fall on a cushion of air I like that a lot I love it I think it kicks ass sorry Larry late in the afternoon Yaffe unveils his creation that's it as the Sun sets behind the Manhattan skyline Larry's bike still lacks a key old-style components a [ __ ] bar for what through the ah [ __ ] guys you want camera doing before work right their camp broke right right there right down right down Oh ready no one come close to you ah this bike will also be a tribute to Edie Big Daddy Roth and Big Daddy Roth was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century in the 60s and 70s his outrageous custom cars and notorious characters stirred the imagination of young people around the world she's pretty much instrumental and responsible for my career as a reason I'm in this business so I figured we'll kill two birds with one stone okay oh this is nice it's exactly what I had in mind [ __ ] back here it's perfect what do you think daddio daddio is just beatnik enough you know now Larry's signature touch-up Alomar in Phoenix yeah these bike goes to paint Gary crisp of the paint shop lays down a silver metallic base coat these stripes are covered with silver leaf which is modeled by a twist of the thumb black pinstriping will highlight the silver leaf the silver stripes will blow through the candy giving a subtle but elegant appearance to Paul's machine meanwhile in East fir'd Connecticut a three-hour drive from Brooklyn the gasoline alley crew checks up on their paint job are you Lee how are you we going all right Robert Pratt key the painter has already primed the parts and is now laying down the gold metal flake base coat that'll probably inspire you when you see the whole you know when you see the whole thing coming this is perfect beautiful after Larry signs off on the base coat Robert prepares the tank and the fender for a ruby red star which will be the background of a multi-layered graphic so that's perfect I'm happy when the ruby paint is dry Prad key peels off the mat it's a good base there's now he's making another plastic mat with the names Indian Larry and gasoline Ali using a fine touch robert cuts out the letters then he applies gold and silver colored glue to which gold and silver leaf will be applied a gold leaf used to be very big very popular in the 60s there was quite a bit of it on motorcycles cars I use it anytime on any any opportunity I possibly can because it gives such a nice impact now Pratt Key removes the plastic mask and only letter shaped areas covered with glue are left this is tissue paper next he lays on the gold and silver leaf finally Rob brushes the excess leaf away gold leap is so thin then a slight mistake can make it crumble to dust place it and turn it Robert lays a sheet of plastic over the tank and makes a cutout in which he will airbrush the ratfink ed Big Daddy Ross most notorious and unforgettable character very good very good I'm happy pressure and yeah feel and well day 29 Italy take the rest of the 29th dejan for me to tell you everything I got to do the bike must be assembled and ready to ride in less than 12 hours I'm excited about the bike I wish I had another week to work on it I don't have to just show this thing at a show I have to ride this bike through New York and into New Hampshire so this bikes got to be mechanically perfect it's got a run and do everything perfect it's not like I have time later to tune in tweak with things and now I need to do some work yeah so we're gonna get some stuff done though but the rear light and license plate bracket is not finished and Paul starts to lose his cool tomorrow is the last day the bike is running tomorrow I still have to have the part plated you keep promising me man this I mean I this is I think this I'm totally strung out here now that doesn't that doesn't matter I need this part today and I don't have it the whole bikes playing around this part you really put me in a bad situation you really making me look like I'm sorry doesn't work sorry doesn't cut it that this is what I'm glad you're sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I chose you to make the part I didn't have somebody else do it the first place I should have just done that so now tomorrow is a deadline I have nothing plated nothing finished I don't even have a part god the puzzle is coming together on a happier note the exhaust system is back from powder coating say black is beautiful and it's perfect so with this major piece finished the assembly is back on track that's where that's going but while mounting the rear wheel disaster strikes again now play there goes the plating it's done it's gotta go back to the player we just have a huge chunk out of it no see right here see where all the chrome peeled off that's all back down to the nickel see this that's what it is so just we just it just crunches like aluminum foil send it back to the player and replay yeah have him get out of it he says he's gonna try to get it back to us tonight meanwhile the assembly continues yeah it looks great really give it some attitude I'll tell you we didn't we didn't waste one inch of room on this thing there's something everywhere notice how as it starts to come together everything starts really getting clean you know all the little everything is hanging out every place that's good tucked in and everything such did not lead and you really start seeing how certain grandma's at 11:00 p.m. the rear wheel is miraculously back from chrome now the moment of truth has arrived I just have to mount a tire on this wheel without having the chrome come off and I'm and I'm home free you know the top of the tank it's a great seems nice retro write about like that oh yeah so cool success the back wheels ready to be mounted and now the finishing touch at 12 midnight Paul sleek slammed bike is ready to be launched now will it start the 120 cubic inch motor fires up on the first try tomorrow Paul will put his creation on a trailer headed for Brooklyn and Indian Larry's it's day 30 at Gasoline Alley and at last the sheet metal is back from paint I want it to be as wild as possible but not this tasteful like some of these yuppie softails I see like a water splash this is really a late 60s kind of paint job this isn't i you know personally I feel this tank is beautiful all right final assembly of Larry's chopper begins jump it back come on in okay that's fine okay I got the shift I got yeah I hope they don't watch us we put the channel locks on this nut I'll get in that step there add back colors back then all the way office what are we doing all right so a couple of washer some hex bolts I think I got a few things like this we 100% perfect yet that's right Wow okay we lined up over there for Larry his planks are much more than cool machines we definitely treat the bikes as art this is far as I'm concerned one of the highest art forms because it combines all the media sculpture painting as well as the mechanics and it's just a lot more than any single media it's an adrenaline producing transporter not only a work of art like any plate the idea of dual carbs is to get more fuel and air into the bite it's a pretty unusual setup on this my leg will go right between here today control while final assembly continues Paul Cox is working on the seat the design will be an embellished version of Larry's logo so I've had the skin out this is a vegetable tanned leather that's made for cooling Buffalo is nice to work with it's got a nice grain a heavier sort of chunkier grain to it wetting the leather softens it and makes it easier to work with what it's going to look like finally Paul fixed the leather cover which he's dyed blood-red over the seat it's 11 o'clock the midnight deadline is approaching many would be panicking but not Larry no idea not really not really into time well Indian Larry's homage to Big Daddy Roth is complete now it's time to turn it over right hold on Larry takes daddio out for its first test run a 28-foot trailer loaded with yappy bikes has made the 2,500 mile trip from Phoenix to Gasoline Alley Paul's bike is wheeled down the ramp and in Tulare shop the Gasoline Alley crew gives it a very close inspection Paul Yaffe arrives soon after this is the first time the two monster builders have met face to face oh here's the infamous Paul I don't good to say they don't pretty nice you get any eye it's like it's beautiful yeah so that they're too beautiful we're gonna have to just get in a steel cage and settle this thing right is pretty damn nice no I have my guess is it's anybody's game that's my guess I'm gonna pull out good luck the ride will take our bikers 300 miles Dorf through four states New York Connecticut Massachusetts and New Hampshire escaping New York City was easy enough the bikes are humming and the riders are in the wind the pact worse through Hartford Connecticut headed for Massachusetts larry's bike is running so smooth he decides to get back unbelievable I can't believe it I'm [ __ ] right now thank you so much don't tell anyways there's less to remember so he's getting the wheel at dusk the riders crossed the New Hampshire state line finally at midnight Laconia it's opening day of Laconia Bike Week it started in 1923 when 150 bikers rallied here to race and party now 80 years later three hundred and fifty thousand bikers from all over New England will descend on this tiny lakefront resort for a week of Hell raising Paul and Larry's bikes are on display in the discovery booth at Bike Week headquarters they've worked round the clock for 30 days to build their awesome custom motorcycles now it's up to the people to decide which bike will rule to wow the crowd Paul has a secret weapon Larry has some smoke and mirrors to both bikes are masterpieces but will the crowd go for the old-style chopper or the new style customer so far I am like your true you like I like the middle extra security gorgeous I can't decide that old job stop two-time biker build-off winner Billy Lane is here for the occasion Hey Hey so what do Paul and Larry have to say the young builders do what your love do what you love to do and now the moment of truth the winner is announced by great biker build-off producer umeri and after a very close vote the winner is the third great biker build-off is over and though Paul Yaffe fabricated one of the sleekest customs ever in the end the crowd went for Larry's old-style chopper but as these two legendary builders head for their next challenges a bond has been formed and two bikes have been created which will take motorcycle design another step into the future

Channel: gasky28

Views: 1,110,074

Rating: 4.6269741 out of 5

Keywords: The Great Biker Build Off, arte sobre ruedas, indian larry, paul yafee, chopper

Id: mqvMhlO28Nk

Length: 44min 24sec (2664 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 12 2011