Best Bike On The Street

July 2, 2016

Article By: Chris Callen

Photos By: Sara Liberte www.saraliberte.com

Originally Published In The July 2012 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of motocross and love any custom bike of today that exhibits that influence; when that bike happens to be a Shovelhead, that’s all the better. Such was the case with the very slick Shovel that won our “Best Bike on the Street” contest at Hogs & Heifers during last year’s Las Vegas Bike Fest. The man who built it was a local, Adam Wilkinson of O’ School Choppers. Adam wasn’t always a resident of Sin City, infact I he grew up back east and went to school to become a tool and die machinist, a trade he spent three years in after graduating. He was into everything custom from a young age and whether it was jet skis or quad racers, he started early on machining handmade parts. A year after his ol’ man, Chop, moved out to Vegas and started O’ School, Adam joined him and jumped in with both feet bringing all his experience as a machinist. They have been running the shop together ever since. During those seven years, the success from their joint effort took it from a 500 square foot building to an impressive 6000 square foot facility just down the street from Mandalay Bay. Most recently, Adam has added on to the business with a side line he calls the Quad Shop, a full service facility for quads and off-road bikes. This has always been his true passion and a great influence on the “Dirty Whore” pictured here. In fact, that was the reason for the name; so many of the parts are either from, or inspired by motocross bike parts. Yeah, you get it!

Two years ago, Adam was working on this build and bike fest was getting close. He’d put the hammer down to be able to release it in their booth for the annual show, but the amount of work that had to go into it would keep him on a ridiculous schedule. Adam’s machine experience came quickly into play as he began to hand craft parts like the open chain drive primary. Since his basket had a starter gear from a belt drive system, he would make the necessary parts for a jack shaft to operate a starter. He would also have to make his own backing plate to accommodate the use of mid controls. He also designed the license plate mount and taillight. Instead of mounting it to the rear axle, he ran it off the primary to keep the back wheel clean.

Even parts that Adam found like the incredible aluminum fuel tank and fender had to be seriously reworked. The tank was painted when he saw it and he had no idea it was aluminum. After scraping away the shitty old paint, moving the petcock and filler neck, adding a new tunnel and changing the mounts, it became a piece of art. The fender, well, originally it wrapped nearly three quarters of the way around the wheel, but with the oil tank and drop back style battery box he had made there would be little room for the fender to mount. Adam would end up with about a quarter of the original fender, just enough to get the job done, and it looks pretty badass too. I really have to commend this cat’s use of color. Whether it’s the small bits of anodized coating, the powdercoating or the polished aluminum, there is just enough of each to keep it from being gaudy. He’s got a real good eye for balance in it. The Shovelhead motor is just like a timepiece; such a machine by nature and probably the last like it in the realm of Harley engineering. By using the different finishes the way he did, Adam added to the intrinsic qualities that give it that look. The dirt bike pours out here with parts like the obvious Pro-Taper bars and IMS pegs but also in the Joker Machine throttle assembly and FMF pipe cover. The pipes of course were not FMF but made in-house and at the ends, in a stroke of genius, a set of Evo flanges were used as tips. I love when people make cool stuff out of junk. The front of the primary has a nice little handmade touch in the chain guard that any dirt bike junkie will spot a mile away. The use of big, meaty knobby style tires was a perfect fit here and what would any competition bike be without the adornment of sponsor logos?

With some Chopper Shox and their seat pan, an O’ School hand stitched covering would be placed on the saddle to finish this hooker up and get her ready for the street. But as in so many builds, Adam has the “Dirty Whore” in a perpetual state of change. The original CRS frontend was replaced by these shaved Sportster legs and a bunch of things have been moved around and swapped. That’s just what it takes sometimes to make the perfect motorcycle. And from our perspective, this one is damn close to that. Great bike man!