BREAKING

Feature Bikes

Scarecrow Sporty

From The Pages of The October 2014 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

Article By: Chris Callen Photos By: Jeff Cochran

Feature 2a

I first saw this bike in the back of the Limpnickie Lot during Daytona. Jeff Cochran was in the middle of shooting about a dozen bikes; I think he even shot my Panhead at that show. In any event, I saw this sporty and Jeff mentioned that he was shooting it for a friend and didn’t have a magazine in mind for it. I dug the bike and told him to send it our way. Jay Wright, the owner and builder of this here sweet ass little sporty started wrenching on motorcycles at the age of 21. He was fresh out of the Marine Corps and took a job back home with Marshal’s Motorcycles in 1990. He worked there until the placed closed about five years later. Even though he would go on to become a lineman for the power company, he has always had a full shop at his house where he worked on bikes in his spare time. A few years ago all this would change when Jay’s two loafin’ pals Jeff Hagy and Chuck Brunner would come to him with the idea of opening a shop. Jeff was a Master Tech at the Local H-D Dealer in Muncie and Chuck was the service writer there as well. The three men agreed to launch “Scarecrow Cycles” and with the combined experience they were up and rockin’ pretty quick. Jay started out just working with the guys in the evenings, he got the old stuff, shovels and pans, which is how he likes it. He’s known as the shop jester and you can tell from his squinted eyes and half a grin that he’s earned that title.

Feature 2b

As good as things were getting they knew they needed a bike to showcase the skills of the shop. Jay had a chance to get a donor bike. He bought this hulk of a sportster in back of a Harley dealer with the equivalent of the Valdez oil spill under it. He thought it would serve dual purposes in that he also wanted to do a project with his son. It didn’t go exactly as planned, his kid bailed but Jay stayed on task. He started out by getting some time at the Led Sled facility one weekend while Pat and the boys were outta town. Joe was a big help and in one weekend they ripped the bike apart and back halved it.

The motor was pretty solid, they did throw some Buell heads on it and punched it out to a 1200, but other than that the fabrication and aesthetics were the main deal. In spite of Jay being a painter he enlisted the help of Lloyd & Jimmy Johnson who killed the design and finish. You see they were all working towards a deadline to get this build done for the Indy Motorcycle Expo so the shop could show it. Now, Jay has a standing rule about showing a bike that hasn’t been ridden so it would need to have some time before he would let it be entered and wouldn’t you know that at zero hour, just a hundred feet into its maiden voyage, the tranny locked up. Now, this was the end for sure, or at least it would have been if not for the help of all the cats at the shop and his girlfriend. Fifty bucks worth of parts later he was back on the road. Jay had to work and his girl and Joe took the bike to Indy. He won that show and it was the perfect way to launch Scarecrow.

We’ve had this one on hold for a little bit and since the bike was finished it actually went to another one of their group, Larry Reed, who hangs around the shop a lot. So in a way it still stayed right in the family. These cats are sure to turn out some great bikes in the future so watch their Facebook and stay tuned.

Feature 2c

SC-1 Tech Sheet
Owner: Jay Wright/ Scarecrow Cycles
Builder: Jeff Hagy/Scarecrow Cycles
City: Muncie, Indiana
Fabrication By: Scarecrow/ LedSled
Year: 1986
Model: XL
Time: 2 months
ENGINE
Year: 1986
Model: XL
Builder: Jeff Hagy/Scarecrow Cycles
Ignition: Dyna
Displacement: 1206cc
Pistons: Weisco
Heads: Buell Thunderstorm
Cam(s): Andrews
Carb: Modified CV
Air Cleaner: Forest Stall/ Cycle Machine
Exhaust: Owner Built
TRANSMISSION
Year: 1986
Make: HD
FRAME
Year: 1986
Make: HD
Rake: Stock
Stretch: Stock
FRONT END
Year: 1999
Make: Stock XL
Extension: Stock
Triple Trees: Stock
WHEELS
Front Wheel: Avon
Size: 21”
Tire: Avon
Brakes: Stock HD
Rear Wheel: Avon
Size: 16”
Tire: Avon
Brakes: Speed King
PAINT
Painter: Lloyd&Gini Johnson/ LA Designs
Color: Root Beer Candy/ Silver House of Colors
ACCESSORIES
Bars: CCI
Risers: Swap Meet
Hand controls: Modified HD
Gas Tank(s): 1986 Sportster
Rear Fender: Led Sled
Seat: American Rides Choppers
Foot Controls: American Rides Choppers/ HD Modified
Oiltank: Led Sled
Taillight: 1946 Chevy Truck
Headlight: CCI
Speedometer:HIGHLY OVERRATED
Photographer: Jeff Cochran

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