Sick Knuckle

July 16, 2016

0Points

Article By: Chris Callen

Photos By: Steve Kelly

Originally Published In The August 2012 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

I remember the first time I met Doug from Sick Boy. It wasn’t where most people will find him, hustling shirts at his stores in any of the big rallies. No, I saw him go flying by on an old Knucklehead that I was immediately in love with. It was as basic as you can say a Knuckle is with a little tank that had a bitchin’ paint job on it. A little bobber, but man it was in a sea of super choppers at Daytona and stuck out like a sore toe; I love that too. All these years later, knowing that Doug works h i s business like he lives his life, and rides that Knuck, at 110 miles an hour, it makes sense that the name of his company is Sick Boy. Doug first scratched enough change together to get a bike in ’87, a Sportster, and in spite of what he’s had to drive for work over the years from 18 years old on, he’s always had a motorcycle registered in his name. He went to Daytona for the 50th and handed out flyers for the motorcycle rodeo out at Volusia County Fairgrounds as a way to pay for his vacation. Later, this made it a natural thing when he had a chance to do similar work for Sturgis’ 50th when he stayed at the Buffalo Chip with his girlfriend in a tent, listening to Steppin’ Wolf. The motorcycle business was getting into his blood and he decided to start working for a friend of his that was a leather vendor. Once he saw that he could make the same money in a week that he had been making in a month, he quit his fulltime job and never looked back. That was around ’92, and some seven years later he would launch Sick Boy in the parking lot of J&P Cycles in Sturgis with one T-shirt design. He remembered, telling me this story , that at first, s o m e of the customers thought the shirts said “Sick Bob.” The old English lettering needed an adjustment. But John Parham saw something in Doug and by the time J & P launched their 2000 catalogue, Sick Boy would have a full page of products in it. Doug still believes this was the difference of him making the business into what it is today.

In the early days, Doug and his wife Misty sold Sick Boy shirts right along with leather goods, about half and half. It was Misty’s idea to ditch the leather, and it was perfect timing. It was 2001 and Jesse hit the TV so the whole scene was blowing up. Today, Sick Boy has some 120 different designs and is at ever major rally across the country, but what about the bike? So Doug found the Knuck on e-Bay about three years ago as a running project. It needed some tinkering, but not much really. He took a bunch of crap off of it to make it into the bike he wanted it to be, but for the most part he was riding it immediately. I asked him why, with all the bikes he has including a top s h e l f West Coast style chopper, and he told me the deal. Doug’s first big twin was a Shovel. It had a ten over front end and a Captain America paint job. Back then, he said, they were real choppers and riding an old bike just made him fall in love. It’s a feeling on the inside, he described, that you can only get riding a bike like the Knuckle after getting off a more modern bike.

So with some little tricks, he had it up and running for a while, even taught Misty to ride on it; yeah, her first ride. Doug said it was so slow, he knew she wouldn’t get hurt. How about that story; learning to ride on a ‘47 Knuck? F o r a while, it was the only bike they had to ride. As a matter of fact, in Myrtle Beach, Misty was forced to ride the fender of it and upon seeing this, a gel pad vendor felt so bad he gave her a free pad. Little did he know this was of little concern for people who get to blast around on a classic. As most old bikes, the story of this one is a story of constant metamorphosis. Over the years it has had little things added and removed to get it to the state you see it in here. One of the last was scored during a trip to the Limpnickie Lot a few years ago when Doug met Jordan from Union Speed. H e was commissioned to make this slick little tank, and once he had it inhand, his good friend Larry Hook threw on some gold leaf and stripes, while Doug himself finished off the paint. A classic white chopper seat, one fit for Misty to ride this time, and it was all set.

So the bike is badass, but why is Glenn Hughes sitting on it you might ask? Well, the only thing Doug loves as much as motorcycling or his business is music. Doug is a big time fan of music and musicians and has become great friends with Glenn over the years. Being a bass player myself, Glenn has been a hero of mine forever and when he was in Doug’s booth doing a book signing this year at a show in Boston, we coerced him into doing our Full Throttle Rock column which you can read in this same issue. It was a great weekend talking music and motorcycles. I can’t thank Doug and his wife Misty enough for sharing it with me. Stop by and see these cats in Deadwood during the Sturgis Rally or hit them up on the Web to see when they might be at a town near you.