From The Dark Side
Honda HomeComing's Best of Show
It wasn't too long ago when a custom VTX meant a stock bike with a fancy paint job and a grocery list of aftermarket bolt-ons. Those days are long gone, my friends. One after another trick VTXs are popping up like, well, custom Harleys, I suppose. Take a look at this streetfighter/chopper/custom from Rob Jenquin's Brown County Customs Inc.
Rob started by removing the headlight, wiring harness and engine/transmission/rear drive from a 2003 VTX 1800. Those he saved, while the rest of the bike went to VTX heaven.
The first order of business was to jig up and stitch together a new frame. The scratch-built chassis, which positions the rider three inches lower than a stocker, is constructed of two-inch tubing with a substantial 2.5-inch, cross-drilled downtube. In addition to being lower, it's also longer, having been stretched 2.5 inches, and the steering head is set at 40 degrees. To accommodate the massive 300-series Avon rubber and its 18- x 10.5-inch rim, a new swingarm was fabricated with a two-inch offset. Of course, this meant adding a second U-joint to the drive shaft as well, but that was the easy part. To control the rear wheel action and ride height Rob snuck a Tricky air shock between the frame and swingarm. The control button is positioned under the left side of the seat for easy access.
Rob felt mounting the rear brake assembly in the stock location on the right side of the rear end made for a cluttered look. Since clutter just wouldn't do, some serious reengineering to the rear drive took place, which included a custom hub being machined from alloy. By the time he was done the brake assembly had been transplanted to the left side of the rear drive, creating the clean, clutterfree look he was after.
Moving forward, Rob turned his attention toward the front fork. The triple tree is an off-the-shelf Mean Street component featuring an additional five degrees of rake, kicking the front end out to a total of 45 degrees. Since cold-rolling steel takes a bit more work than Rob had time for, he also procured four-inch-over fork tubes from Mean Street.
In keeping with the overall theme of the bike, Rob went with a pair of Pro-One Sinister wheels, bolting his custom hub into the rear. Braking chores are handled by a trio of 11.5-inch Pro-One rotors and four-piston CMP calipers arranged in the traditional manner.
The bars are another of Rob's creations, one of the many accessory VTX items he whittles out in his spare time. As I've mentioned, Rob dislikes clutter, so as you'd expect, all the wiring is run through the handlebars.
After bending up the big hunks of steel, Rob took a breather and began hammering out his fuel tank and fenders. The end results speak for themselves.
Rob does cop to having the saddle built for him. The way this guy works, I'm surprised he didn't slaughter the cow, grill a few steaks and then tan the hide and stitch it up himself.
Because the bike was intended to be a test mule for Brown County Customs' VTX products, Rob decided to leave the engine internals bone stock. That way he could concentrate on ironing out any issues with the basic concept and construction without being sidetracked by engine concerns. That being the case, the only engine upgrades were a set of hand-bent 2-into-2 open exhaust pipes, a K&N filter with one of Brown County's own air filter cover assemblies and a Power Commander to tie the whole thing together.
As with most custom VTX projects, the radiator presented a significant styling challenge. Rob considered several ideas, including doing away with the traditional radiator altogether and running the coolant through the frame, an idea that's only been temporarily shelved until he's got time to do a little more research. In the meantime Rob had a triangular radiator made to his specifications. The water box is hung low, where it's unobtrusive and out of the way. The water passages are contained in the frame with short hoses making the connections between the frame and radiator and the frame and engine. Rob admits he's not crazy about the current radiator setup, but it works just fine. Consider that an ongoing portion of the project.
With the bike up and running, it was time to consider finish options. The pipes were a no-brainer. Ceramic-coated exhausts are hot these days, so to speak, so away went the pipes. As to the rest of the bike, the choices, as they always are, were endless. Trick flip-flop, murals, pearls, metalflakes were all considered. The final choice turned out to be basic black. As Rob says, "This bike was built as a test mule, so paint was the last of my worries. I bought about $200 worth of House of Kolor products and just started shooting. The engine and a few small brackets were done to match with rattle cans."
Now comes the Cinderfella portion of this story. With the Evil Black Bike up and running-and working pretty well, I might add-Rob decided to show it off at this year's Honda HomeComing in Marysville, Ohio. After all, it was built to display both the company's products and his considerable talents, so why not show it off a little? Why not indeed? Rob's home-brewed masterpiece took home not only the top trophy in the custom bike show, but also the $10,000 check that went with it.
Now here's the capper to the whole saga. Rob opened Brown County Customs in November 2002 with the intent of manufacturing a few custom VTX pieces. A self-taught machinist, welder and fabricator, Rob's only prior experience was fooling around with his own bikes. He's been riding since the age of 5 and driving cars when he could take a little spare time away from his day job. And what might that be, you ask? Believe it or not, he runs a string of day-care centers. But I'm thinking after this he'll be spending a lot less time corralling rug rats and a lot more time building custom bikes.