2007 SEMA Show: Top Ten Bikes

When it comes to the SEMA Show, you can bet on seeing automotive creations beyond the bounds of imagination, parts and accessories borne from the minds of the truly creative and sometimes crazy, and attention-grabbing booth babes who defy gravity while staying just a thread’s width of indecent exposure. So why not add some hot bikes into the mix? There were quite a few to admire, some old-school and others with nary a click on the odo, all of them works of art.

By Thom Blackett Photo credit: Staff

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If you know cars, chances are you know the Cherry Bomb name. We all had and still have rides cruising through our neighborhoods, blasting an unmistakable exhaust note capable of shaking Mom’s prized crystal off the living room mantle. What you may not have realized is that motorcycle’s can be Cherry Bombed too, as is the case with this sweet Harley. With South Dakota plates, there’s no doubt this bike’s bark has been heard along the streets of Sturgis.

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Vicious Cycles is responsible for the black and red custom chopper pictured here. Features include a Springer front end, some artful exhaust work, a bounty of chrome, highway pegs, a fat and a speedometer located next to the rider’s left knee. That’s a clear indication of style over function, but Patrolman Pete will be happy to see that there’s one hooked up somewhere.

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Look closely and you can see why the builders of the bike pictured here named it Split Tail. Though it looks blue in pictures, Split Tail is actually purple with copper accents and features a modified Springer front end, Weber downdraft carbs, a gooseneck frame, and disc brakes. This was one sick looking ride, and just goes to prove that all the aftermarket Harley parts in the world won’t deliver a bike this distinctive.

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Blood on Blood is the name, but we’re not sure if it refers only to the paint scheme or all of the effort that went into building this two-wheeled creation. The color, by the way, is called Hot Raspberry and it covers a rigid frame with small airbags suspending the seat. There are no gauges, and notice that a few decorative heatshields are all that stand between a couple of hot exhaust pipes and the rider’s right leg. No one ever said looking cool would be painless.

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Anyone who knows custom bikes knows the name Arlen Ness, one of the best custom builders out there. His company, Arlen Ness Motorcycles, created this 1913 Sidecar replica that was shown off at the 2007 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Included are a Ness Springer front end and a 2006 Harley Evo engine built up by Ness with S&S hardware. To heck with crotch rockets – this is how to ride with your girl in style.

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Hailing from my neck of the woods is fellow New Englander Dave Perewitz, creator of the unusual motorcycle pictured here. Built in 1978, Dave started with a ’64 Harley-Davidson XLCH, incorporated an Arlen Ness frame, and tweaked a 900cc Sportster engine with a supercharger and Weber carbs. Perewitz finished the package off with some groovy paint, a good amount of gold and chrome plating, and a Honda 350 fork fitted to the front end. All in all, a cool piece of history that demonstrates just how far custom bike design has come over the past thirty years.

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Bourget Motorcycles calls this the Aluminum Retro Chopper, an appropriate name since most everything you’re looking at is aluminum. Builders start with what they call a T6 Aluminum frame and then create the fenders and tank from anodized billet aluminum. To some the bike may appear to be largely chrome-plated, but in fact the only chrome on the bike covers the exhaust pipes. If you like what you see, contact Bourget – the company is taking orders.

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Every once in awhile an idea comes along that makes you wonder why it wasn’t conceived sooner. Interchangeable motorcycle fairings is one of them. BAM Ink builds complete motorcycle bodies, solid components from the tank to the rear fender, which can be swapped out whenever the owner wants to switch up his ride a bit. Interchangeable panels are nothing new on motorcycles, but as far as we know the concept of changing an entire body is a first.

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Few items on this earth can sit between two Porsche 911s and steal the show, but that’s just what Carl Brouhard’s Fourgiven motorcycle achieved at the 2007 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Fourgiven features an air suspension system and a V-Quad Harley-Davidson engine built by Greg Nelson.

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Since it has four wheels, we’re calling this one a quadracycle instead of a motorcycle, but either way it clearly qualifies as a top-10 bike. Like the Aluminum Retro Chopper, Bourget Motorcycles created the $90,000 Shredder F-80, complete with a small-block 383 Chevy V-8 engine cranking out 425 horses. Not bad, especially considering this four-wheeled cycle weighs less than 1,900 pounds.