From The Pages of The June 2015 Issue
Article By Roadside Marty Photos By: Darren McKeag
Anyone who’s a regular reader of Cycle Source has at least heard of The Choppertime Bike Show at Tropical Tattoo in beautiful Daytona Beach that happens each Bike Week and Biketoberfest. The show is always held on the Thursday of each event so the next time any of you ask me or Willie when the show is you’ll already know! Willie and his crew along with the help of several sponsors do a fine job of pulling this show off, I’m thankful that Willie has allowed me to get on the mic for the last twelve years and call out the winners as well as add a little commentary during the festivities! Now a reputation for a show like Choppertime doesn’t come easy so you can rest assured that you will see some of the finest custom bikes and choppers of all makes, models, years and sizes represented. One person who had no trouble finding his way to Willie’s last year was none other than Charlie Terwilliger, the man who holds the title to this fine piece of Milwaukee Iron! Now anytime I see a Slab side Shovel I always take note, but when I saw Charlie whip this ride into the parking lot with some serious skill I knew this cat had to have built this bike from the ground up. You could just tell that he knew every little thing about this machine. As Charlie headed over to register for the show I made my way casually over to where he had parked and started to let my eyes take in all of the major as well as minor details that make a custom bike a true custom. Charlie saw me eyeballing his ride and made his way over to find out who I was and what I was about. I learned right away that Charlie was very humble about this bike and how blown away by it I was. Charlie didn’t build this ride to impress anyone or to win any shows, he just built what he’s always liked and it works for him! See, Charlie comes from a motorhead background where growing up he rode dirt bikes while watching his Dad and his friends ride around on chopped Panheads and Shovelheads. He said always preferred the no rake just stretch look that’s commonly referred to as the de rake style aka St. Louis style, rather that the long low stretched out long bikes. This build originally started out with an Evo motor and transmission but when Mark Stevens from Rollin’ Bones Motor Co, whose beautiful ‘47 Knucklehead was featured last issue, called Charlie with an offer on a ‘66 Shovel and transmission he didn’t hesitate to put the Evo up for sale and buy the ‘66 from Mark, that must’ve been one helluva deal if you ask me! Now that the direction for this build had changed Charlie started to think of what he wanted to do. One night while hanging out in a friend’s garage he saw a complete front end off of a 95 CR 500 that obviously needed a new home, the more Charlie looked at it he figured it to be about 6 to 6 1/2 inches over a stock narrow front end. With the front end secured he gave the fine folks over at Paughco a call with his measurements and told them that he wanted a stock Sportster rake so that the bike would feel light and handle just as good, as usual Jason and the crew at Paughco had done a phenomenal job on the frame and once it arrived at Mark’s Charlie wasted no time in starting the mock up!
Now from the beginning Charlie had his mind made up on using mids for this project which isn’t an easy thing to do when your running a generator motor so after a few drawings and some visits with a few machinist friends they come up a few different inner primary combinations until they settled on the bitchin mounts that started out as a set of stock Dyna mid controls, let that be a lesson to you the next time your wandering around the swaps and you see a set of Dyna mids for 40.00. Charlie just couldn’t resist throwing a nod to his dirt bike roots so he cut up a few sets of pegs for him and a set of pit bike pegs for whenever he wants some company! He also hand made that badass exhaust pipe by using a silencer off of an ‘02 YZ 450 that he gutted which meant putting two Evo flanges with a gasket between them to run a two into one as well as a way to help get them on and off. In my humble opinion you just can’t go wrong with the look of a Frisco mounted Sportster tank like the one Charlie added a new tunnel to so he could get it to sit nice and high on the backbone. The rear fender and oil tank came from the swaps and both were massaged into place! According to Charlie if you’ve ever met Mark’s best friend Larry you will immediately know what a ball buster he can be so once Charlie had the wheels powder coated brown to go with the brown seat and almost instantly Larry started to call it the Iraqi Chopper because of the military look it had which is why Charlie went with the semi military paint job. The rear brake is off a late model Softail, while the front brake is actually the stock CR 500, to which Charlie says that it actually works better than he thought it would. If you’re asking yourself where that wicked looking headlight came from just try to remember an excellent bike in its own right…Buell, Charlie said he loves the Paris Drakkar look that it gives the bike. In the end he ended up using Pirelli Endurance tires front and rear. All in all I think Charlie did one helluva job making everything work together and perform flawlessly, I can’t think of any other way a custom motorcycle should perform! In closing Charlie wants to thank Mark Stevens for all of his help as well as sharing his knowledge and teaching him so much, Mark’s mechanic Jimmy Johnson for putting up with every question that he’s ever asked, Dave Hibbered for the quality machine work, Brian Springstead for making sure that all of his welds would hold and Jimmy Underhill from East Coast Customs for the late night paint job. Thanks for letting us feature your ride Charlie you definitely earned that trophy at Willie’s and I for one can’t wait to see your next build!
IRAQI CHOPPER TECH SHEET
Owner: Charlie Terwilliger
City: Conklin, NY
Fabrication By: Charlie T.
Year: 1966
Model: Flat Side Shovel
Value: More Than I’ll Ever Get For It
Time: 6 Months
ENGINE
Year: 1966
Model: FL
Builder: Rollin’ Bones
Ignition: Auto Advance Distributor
Displacement: 74 ci
Pistons: Wiseco
Heads: Stock Rebuilds
Cam(s): B Grind
Carb: 38mm Mikuni
Air Cleaner: K&N
Exhaust: Charlie T. Custom
Primary: Custom-Charlie T./Dave Hibbert
TRANSMISSION
Year: Early 4 Speed
Make: Harley-Davidson
Shifting: Foot
FRAME
Year:
Make: Paughco
Rake: 29.3 Stock Sportster
Stretch: 7” Up, 3” Out
FORKS
Type: Inverted 1990 Hondo CR500
Builder: Showa
Extension: None
Triple Trees: Showa Modified
WHEELS
Front Wheel: 1990 Honda CR500
Size: 21”
Front Tire: Pirelli Scorpion Mt Dual Sport
Front brake: Nisin
Rear Wheel: Harley-Davidson
Size: 18”
Rear Tire: Pirelli Scorpion Mt Dual Sport
Rear Brake: Late Model Harley-Davidson
PAINT
Painter: Jim Underhill-East Coast Customs
Color: Custom Green Mix
Type: Basecoat
ACCESSORIES
Bars: Off The Shelf – Modified
Risers: Two Piece
Hand Controls: Harley-Davidson – Modified
Gas Tank(s): Custom Sporty
Front Fnder: None
Rear Fender: Custom
Seat: Swap Meet Special
Foot Controls: Harley-Davidson Dyna
Oil Tank: Custom
Headlight: Buel
Taillight: Swap Meet Special
Speedo: Na, I have a mirror to see flashing lights!
Photographer: Darren McKeag
