Malibu Classic

February 26, 2016

Article And Photos By: Grizzly

Originally Published In The January 2013 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

Slik Janssen from Germany needed something different. He began to pull apart his trusted long bike that he had named Stampede. With the main components from that chop, and a lot of stuff he had lying around in his barn, the Malibu Classic began to take shape. A while back, I visited Slik to do a photo shoot for the Dutch magazine, Bigtwin. He was a member of a club called the Lonesome Brothers and still lived in Holland at the time. His long bike was not only featured in the Dutch mag, but also made it into the American Paisano publication, Biker.

In that article, Slik stated his main source of inspiration for building that bike were the drawings of Dave Mann. To his and my surprise, we discovered David Mann himself had done a drawing of Slik’s bike for that very same issue. It was a drawing of Slik riding through colourful fields of tulips with a Dutch windmill in the background. How cool! Slik is probably the only European biker ever painted by this great American artist and cult figure! The bike called Stampede had an eighteen inch overstock frontend, high apes and a car tire in the rear. Slik rode it in that condition for eight years. Recently, he decided it was time for an easier handling bike; a smaller, more maneuverable lane splitter. But in order to create a new bike, he would need money; money that he didn’t have lying around somewhere.

Selling Stampede was not an option. There were just too many good memories. He therefore took the chopper apart, carefully stored the parts that defined the looks of Stampede, and decided to use the Pan-Shovel motor and the gearbox to build his new bike. Slik had just finished his new lane splitter when I visited him in Germany. I found out that he is now living with Leonie, a really cool Sportster riding chick he recently met. They both share a love for bikes as well as a love for Mexico. They have turned their house into an attractive Mexican adobe. Not one corner escaped their interior design skills. I like it!

Over lunch (Leonie is a great cook), Slik started telling me about his new creation. He explained, “I loved Stampede but it was a big bike; maybe too big for me to handle. I rode it a lot though, but I definitely wanted something else. To keep things affordable, I took the gearbox and the fast Pan- Shovel motor from Stampede. That motor is an 88 cubic incher and was custom assembled for me by Bikehospital in Waddinxveen, Holland back in 1997. Despite all the miles I did, it still runs strong and it needed no extra work at all. I bought an old Swedish Edlund frame with a cast iron neck and a retro Springer frontend for little money at L&L Choppers. Besides the powerplant, I also decided to use the brakes from Stampede. All other parts come from dusty corners of my barn; parts that were leftover, things I had swapped or stuff that I had bought for a knuckle and a dime. Nothing used for the lane splitter is new.”

For instance, the rear wheel was assembled by me from an old hub and a rusted rim I had. Even the spokes are a used set. That peanut gas tank you see, I got that by trading a Mustang tank I had. The bottom of the peanut was trashed so it took me quite some time to restore the damn thing, but in my eyes it looks just tits! The trimming on top of the tank is actually a side ornament off of a Softail Deluxe, and I found the seventies’ gas cap somewhere in a box of goodies in the house. The rear fender comes originally from an old Ural Dnepr sidecar. I narrowed it and bobbed the tail end a bit.” Slik did not just restore, reuse or modify parts, he also made some completely by himself. Parts like the sissybar, the h-bars, the motor mount and the pipes were made by his hand. Slik said, “I wanted the latter to look like Panhead pipes so I made them to go next to each other instead of underneath each other. That made fabricating the mid-controls a bit harder, but I managed.”

To give his new bike a personal touch, Slik used cheap shit like beer bottle caps as covers. He also mounted a question mark on the frame as a tribute to the great Indian Larry and incorporated some little bronze details using stuff he found in the trash. Besides doing all the wrenching, chopping and welding, Slik also painted the bike himself using nothing more but spray can paint. He also painted the industrial air filter and glued an old car logo on it. “I think every homebuilt bike should have a name. In my case I decide to call my new ride the Malibu Classic. Hey, Malibu ain’t Frisco but it comes close and the bike does look classic, right?” he said with a big smile on his face. Slik’s Malibu has been built with very little money and a lot of love. He ended by telling me, “Once I build up my Stampede long bike again, my dream is to end up as a little old man with a shitload of cool choppers in my garage.” Nice!