Purple Passion

October 21, 2017

Article and Photos By: Milwaukee Mike

Originally Published In The March 2017 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

For those who are unfamiliar with the work of Mike Rabideau, allow me to introduce you to him. Mike owns a one-man operation known as Majik Mike Designs and although this is far from his first foray into the spotlight, it is my chance to give him something that has eluded his amazing handiwork until now, a cover bike. Mike has some amazing accomplishments under his belt already, such as winning the Hot Bike tour with an inventive but still very rideable big twin trike a couple of years ago. He completed the whole ride and was the crowd favorite and therefore won the whole shooting match. He then built this bike to attempt to repeat that feat. It didn’t work out that way but it gave birth to this amazing machine. This bike was built around an old frame that had been sitting in the corner being neglected for years. The 33 VL frame was literally cut in half. It came to me via Mike’s friend Carlos as a future project. When the call J came to build a bike for the Hot Bike tour, Mike asked if he would be willing to sell it to me at a fair price and he was down. That was the first step towards making the bike Mike had in his head to reality. The next step was the front end, seeing as Mike already had a vintage frame he knew that a proper old school I-beam springer was the only set up he wanted, so the hunt was on! Mike finally found one in Madison WI that looked to be in fairly good condition. Unfortunately, after a quick strip of the rust and crust he discovered that the front legs were beyond saving. Not to be deterred, Mike got in touch with Bobby over at Kings Kustom who got him hooked up with a replacement front leg and put it all together so they were good as new. Mike knew this was a no brainer, Bobby is a ruler and his work is the shizz. The next step was to get this thing rolling so a call was made to Bobs Cycle out in AZ. Mike ordered chrome rims and spokes with a chrome rear hub and a polished front spool wrapped in high end Avon Rubber.

Now that the bones were a roller, it was time to set up the power. Mike got in touch with the fine folks over at Baker and got a polished hydraulic 6 speed. Because of that, the whole motor needed to be torn down so that the cases, heads and rockers could be polished to match. Terry Scheckles dropped everything to turn my parts around asap because I was in a time crunch. Mike’s next step was to trim and mount the fender and build the tanks. He decided to build the wire buck for the gas tank and sent it off to his buddy Dan Vice, while Mike built the oil tank. Once tanks were done he mounted the headlight and got the frame ready for the fiberglass seat kit. Majik did the fiber, shaped the foam and handed it over to Adam Nisiewicz who did same day service to help with the time line. Things were shaping up. Mike bent up the handlebars and mounted them in the top trees. The next step was to figure out how to make twin master cylinders look proper, it was tricky but I think it worked out quite well. Frank at Speed Dealer hooked Mike up with an internal throttle set up as well as grips and pegs to put the icing on the cake. Now it was time to get the engine back together. For that task it was time for Chris Graves to shine. He helped out immensely with the rebuild and the fitment of the throwback rocker covers, the S&S Super E with the Bare Knuckle velocity stack and the Morris Magneto with a near complete polish job.

When it came time to break down and paint the frame and front end were sent to get chrome plated and Herman did the blackout on the frame with chrome neck axel plates and cradle left shiny. All the tins were then handed over to Kendall to do his magic, the only requirement Mike put on him was that it had to have some purple in it. Kendall went with a subtle theme of highlighting the edges with a dark purple pearl over gloss black. The bike looks black until the direct sunlight makes the purple come to life. Kendall always kills it and this was no exception. Once everything came back from chrome the long road of getting her all back together began. Mike only had a couple of days to assemble it before the Oily Souls show, which this bike was slated to be part of, and very little time to get all his ducks in a row. Kendall arrived the morning of the Oily Souls show with the paint. Mike and Kendall loaded everything in the shaggin wagon and off they went. It was the public premier of this sexy beast, and she was more than well received. Two weeks later she was loaded up to go across the great northern Midwest tour via the Hot Bike Tour. Thanks for the story Mr. Rabideau, it was an honor to get to know this bike and have the opportunity to share your amazing work with the world. It was nice to show off a bit of your work and I am excited to see the new bike that is in the works, and share it with Cycle Source faithful. Just goes to show what a hard-working Wisconsin boy can do with time, tools and immense talent. For anyone that is inspired by what you see on these pages check out the rest of Mike’s work on Facebook or Instagram at MikeRabideau@Majikmikedesigns or give him a jingle tell him Cycle Source sent ya!!