The Rocketeer Debuts At AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building

Our newly designed and hand-fabricated gas tank embodies the central theme of the 2011 Rocketeer.

The introduction of the bike kicked off at the 2010 AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building. The Rocketeer takes several design cues from the 1930’s and 40’s and integrates them into a tight Digger Bobber, which delivers a fresh interpretation on the classic bobber.

Classic looks combined with cutting-edge American components provides a motorcycle platform that delivers outstanding performance, reliability and the elusive WOW factor.

The Rocketeer is an homage to Pulp fiction, which was published as inexpensive magazines from 1896 through the 1950s. The motorcycle captures the romance and danger of that era.

The illustrated Rocketeer book is a superhero created by writer/illustrator Dave Stevens. The character first appeared in 1982. The Rocketeer began as a comic then a movie and now is a custom production Bobber.

The Rocketeer Details

• Engine: Crazy Horse 100″
• Exhaust: Ceramic Coated D&D Exhaust
• Frame: Rake 40 degrees Stretch 1″
• Front End: 41mm Meanstreet
• Transmission: BDL
• Front Brakes: Excel 4 piston Wilwood rotors
• Rear Brakes: Excel 4 piston Wilwood rotors
• Paint: Underground Studios
• Bars: Inverted MotoX bars
• Grips: Leroy Thompson
• Guage: Wire Plus gauge machined into trees

About Brass Balls Bobbers & Choppers
With a strong team at the helm and a slate of innovative, high-performance designs that blend vintage with contemporary, Darwin Motorcycles is primed and quickly becoming one of the leading motorcycle shops in the country attracting new riders and setting trends through their Above Average Bobber program.

Dar Holdsworth, Brass Balls BossMan, sat in to talk with Rick and Joe T in Dallas for an interview before he made his way to Sturgis, SD.

Rick and Joe T talk about midgets, going to Sturgis, Brass Balls Bobbers, Bobby Rahal, David Letterman, Ma’s Roadhouse and interview Darr from Brass Balls Bobbers.

We constructed a photo booth with our friends at Foremost Insurance and had our Brass Balls’ Chopper Girls take pictures with our customers and new friends on the Foremost Insurance Bobber.

Brass Ball Bobbers Pics in Sturgis - Check out our Sturgis pictures from Monday.

Check out the video interview and award presentation.

The cult classic FXR inspired the Brawler GT3. The Brawler includes a rubber mounted power train and killer styling. This bike will handle with the best of them yet is also a convertible. Go for a day or for a week.

Surf over to our Flickr gallery to see are latest pics from Sturgis.

Stop in and get your picture with the Brass Balls Girls

Brass Balls Bobbers & Choppers is set up at the entrance of the Buffalo Chip Camp Ground ( 20603 132nd Avenue Sturgis, SD 57785, and is across from Shade Tree fabrication. STOP IN for a picture of our latest Foremost Insurance bike and the Brass Balls Bobbers girls.

See Monday’s Pictures - Click here for Monday’s Foremost Insurance Bobber Pictures.

The team is showcasing their latest 2011 models including the Brawler and Rocketter. The Brawler has won critical acclaim from Cycle Source Magazine and is being billed by enthusiasts in the know as a rider’s bike.

More details to follow…

Spectro Performance Oil products span the full range of fully-synthetic, semi-synthetic and petroleum lubricants for all classes of “powersports” engine and transmission applications.

The Spectro line also includes a wide range of suspension fluids, fork oils, brake fluids, coolant, chain lubes/waxes, filter cleaners and oils, and protection/appearance products.

American Iron Magazine Review

Chris Maida at American Iron felt the 69 Chopper from Brass Balls was off-the-chain! Not only does it have outstanding ergonomics, it’s responsive and really hauls the mail.

Maida’s test ride includes a round cylinder 92” S&S mill that is backed by a smooth shifting left-side drive BAKER six speed tranny. Included in the build is a BAKER 2.4” synchronous primary belt drive and clutch system.

Gases are addressed by a D&D Performance’s 2into1 ceramic-coated exhaust system with a Brass Balls’ spec muffler.

American Iron Magazine Details

	Click here to see the page 1.
	Click here to see the page 2.
	Click here to see the page 3.

A 69 Chopper-Style Chopper

The Good News
Anyone subscribing after Smoke Out XI will be automatically entered into the Giveaway Bike drawing! The Chopper will be handed out next year on stage at Smoke Out XII.

Current subscribers can enter by filling out the form in the magazine. At next year’s Smoke Out an unbiased good looking babe (Do we have any other?) will dig out the random entry from the pile…

Kick Off in OK
It all started at the party in Oklahoma City, OK. (Click here to read the party report.) During the 2010 Long Road Dar Holdsworth, Brass Balls Bossman, showcased the start of the Giveaway Chopper… a roller that starts the entire project.

Winning a chopper is easy… buy a subscription or just pick up a copy of The Horse Backstreet Chopper and fill out the form. The winner will be awarded at the 2011 Smoke Out East. Good luck to all!

By Chris Callen, Supreme Magnificent Editor in Chief of Cycle Source, Prince Najar, and Bikernet Staffers

7/20/2010

In the motorcycle world, there is a common bond among us. We need to stick together. It’s dangerous out there. The two-wheeled passion runs deep and is thick as 60-weight.

When a brother needs help with a project, we step up. Here’s a perfect example of two-wheeled zeal. Motorcycle rights effort in the U.S. is one of the strongest grass roots movements in the country. The brothers and sister aren’t paid, but they fight daily to maintain our freedoms. This bike build is another example of the crazed monks from the motorcycle mountain worshiping together to form a world class motorcycle.

All it takes for a brother to seek out inspirational notions from motorcycle mentors, is to pick up a phone, or drop an e-mail to another prophet. We always stop and take the time to share concepts, notions and resources. Bikers stick together or projects like the Brawler wouldn’t become a reality.

Dar Holdsworth of Darwin Motorcycles, a.k.a. Brass Balls Bobbers and Choppers, was looking down the road and thinking of possibly adding a bagger to his lineup of bikes. He brought his idea to our own Chris Callen. Chris was quick to add his opinion that the lifetime of the bagger products, although in high swing right now, was somewhat short, had already been satisfied by many companies in the aftermarket world and that baggers are also like a last stop in the natural evolution of a motorcyclist. He explained to Dar that with that in mind, it might be cooler to build something more in the middle of the road; a bike that handles well and can also be ridden in comfort on long trips, something like an old FXR. Dar agreed that this was a possibility and told Chris that he always aspired to build a sport bike platform and that the FXR may fit that category.

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As the design process began, sketches were passed back and forth and a few other people got involved. Keith R Ball, or Bandit, of www.bikernet.com, and Roadside Marty were also consulted on the design concepts.

“FXRs were probably the best bikes H-D every made,” Bandit said, “That’s why their touring bikes continue to use that tight configuration. We just need to give it attitude.”

All having different visions, Bandit would draw up tight stretched versions for today’s rider, and say it had to be more ergononmic. Roadside threw his sketches into the mix and Chris came back with the need for a steep rake with mid controls. Dar’s ten-year-old son, Will, even put his two cents in with a drawing of his own. Before long there was an impressive body of work sitting right before him. Dar used all of these ideas and designed a steep rake of 27 degrees but added an extended swingarm to give it a little length as well.

He used sport bike inverted forks and an FXR style 2-shock design. Mids and tracker style bars were thrown in and the rider position became a natural fit for any cafe cycle nut. In spite of all the progress with the design, the bike needed a name and his son Will finally came up with it: The Brawler. It was perfect for a bike that was fought over by design ideas from different generations and geographic locations; it had an instant sense of aggression and was sure to be a favorite of angry young men everywhere.

This bike looks great on the kickstand and has a real classic nature. The combination of Raptor handlebars with motocross grips along with the mid controls mentioned above, gives it a racy look. The gas tank is inverted, in the Bonneville tradition, so your knees can tuck in behind the fat tank for sport bike type wind resistance and added comfort. The solo seat has a slight rise in the back to match the camel hump fender which again enhances rider comfort and also adds support when you twist it up, in keeping with the ’50s café style. The inverted forks and extended swingarm give the bike a long stance like a dragger sport bike custom and also lends itself to the beneficial handling characteristics.

The Brawler fits me well, but there is still plenty of room between the handlebars and controls for a much taller rider. With a twist of the ignition switch, tucked neatly under the left side panel, the 96-inch rubber mounted S&S engine fired up and sounded great with a custom 2-into-1 D&D exhaust. There was very little engine vibration at idle which is not common with a rubber mount and struck me as odd. When you pick the bike up off the stand, it almost balanced itself. The geometry of this frame had me excited from that moment on. I found I was able to handle slow maneuvers and easy to do figure eights.

I was completely amazed with the control of this Chopper guys frame and tire combination. Slow speed maneuverability was a breeze. It felt light, agile and was best balanced motorcycle I’ve ever ridden.

Needless to say, in town it’s a dream to ride. The extended swingarm maked it easy to launch the bike from light to light; it was also quick to stop.There was no vibration on the highway which is the essential design of rubber mounted chassis, so it didn’t expect any. I seemed to sense even less vibration on the Brawler compared to other rubber-isolated models I’ve ridden. I’m still not sure how Dar accomplished this but it was a comfortable surprise.

Technology continues to improve touring bike handling and Dar was taking advantage of the latest developments. You can cut lines on the highway at high speeds and maintain complete control. The bike stayed stable and didn’t dive into the hardest corners, which by the way are hard to find in Oklahoma City.

Brass Balls’ Brawler in the Pit for Suspension Modifications

Dar, riding the Brawler, went out to Suspension Technologies ( http://www.suspensiontechnologies.com ) and ran the VIR’s Patriot Course to evaluate the handling characteristics of the motorcycle. Mike Alex, President of Suspension Technologies, adjusts the Brawler for mid-speed corner compliance. Each shock from Suspension Technologies comes with a dyno sheet so the enthusiast is assured that each shock is compliant in its damping characteristics.

I did manage to find some outside Dar’s shop and we set upon putting it through its paces. The foot pegs were ground at about a 45 degree angle and can be used as feelers. They fold up so you can push the lean angle even further.

I really enjoyed the Brawler by Darwin Motorcycles, the builders of Brass Balls Bobbers. The price starts around $24,000 and you can use the “Build-A-Bike” tab available on the Darwin Motorcycle Web site to add options and make your Brawler unique.

Dar is proud to say he goes out of his way to use only the finest American made parts available on each build, plus he makes a point to use hometown businesses for powder coating,frames, and local machine shops for manufacturing components they can’t make in-house. Every motorcycle is hand-built from start to finish in his Darwin Motorcycle Oklahoma City facility.

Dar is the boss, yet he works on many of his motorcycle personally and inspects every motorcycle build in the Darwin shop, and his high standards of quality are what make his line of motorcycles world class award winners and show stoppers.

Stay tuned to Cycle Source and Bikernet as we are already scheduled to ride the upgrade of this model with a much larger engine during Sturgis.

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