Silver Bullet

February 27, 2016

Article By: Milwaukee Mike

Photos By: Michael Sevelo

Originally Published In The June 2013 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

About two years ago, Cycle Source ran a cover of a righteous Pan built by an unknown, but very talented builder in NYC. His name is Iliya Hamovic, and the bike we featured was called the American Dream. I told everyone then to watch this guy because even though that bike was the first he had built from the ground-up, there was a quality that is hard to come by. I knew the future was going to hold some amazing machines built in that no-nonsense Brooklyn style. I am here to show everyone his next offering in what I think will be a long line of bikes that will dazzle your senses and inspire everyone to get busy and make your motorcycle dreams come true. Shortly after Chris and I were in Brooklyn to shoot the American Dream, Steelborn Choppers outgrew its humble beginnings and had now taken over a new spot that has about five times the space that it once had. This is not an easy feat in a city where the rents here are just as high as the buildings in downtown Manhattan. But the work has come to Iliya, and as this is a one-man operation, he keeps very busy. Even though the shop is that much bigger, it is still packed with customer builds and personal projects as well. After talking to Iliya upon his return from Daytona, I found out he is going to be extra busy. One evening on Highway 1, he was cutoff and had to lay t h e Pan down. Upon further investigation, he found that along with an immense amount of dings and dents, the frame had cracked down near the transmission plate. Being the Croatian perfectionist that he is, a repair was not going to cut it so he will be jigging up a whole new frame to fix it right.

As I mentioned earlier, Iliya started this bike as he does all his ground-up builds, by constructing a hand-built frame. He makes it on a frame jig built out of an I-beam that he set up. This particular build has the Steelborn style that his more popular bikes have, and it is because the geometry just works for the streets of NYC. In this case, it has 0 lift with a 29.5 degree rake and a 4” stretch in the rear to make it comfy for highway cruising as well as bopping in the city. Of course everything is expertly assembled. Iliya prefers plating his frames rather than painting or powdercoating, so this is a very labor and time intensive process. All the welds must be clean, and all the curves and complex angles have to match precisely. If you didn’t already know, nickel plating shows off every flaw like it is under a microscope. In the case of this frame, it is first dipped in a rich copper and then given the gorgeous brushed nickel finish that makes this bike look so amazing. On this particular bike, the rear fender was given the same treatment and although it is mechanically fastened to the bike, it flows like it is growing out of it. It has a very organic flow and beauty that looks phenomenal from every angle. As you can imagine, this takes countless hours of welding and grinding until it meets the high standard Steelborn demands. Topping this frame is another piece of rare beauty: a Steelborn Choppers’ tank with an unusual finish. After construction, the tank was sent to Robert Pradke for a finish of palladium leaf that was then turned and clear coated. This is the only paint on the entire bike, as was the plan.

The drivetrain of this bike started as a ‘73 Shovel, but was torn completely apart and bored to fit an S&S 93” top end. The stock heads were flowed and opened up to give the motor the room it needed to freely breathe. Of course a Morris magneto was chosen for the ignition. All the work on this engine was done by Iliya and Alex Lerner at SLNYC. As I said, it is a 93” cone with a 4 1/2 “ stroke; a proven build that delivers power and longevity. The entire motor and the Baker 6 in a 4 was polished to a beautiful luster by Angel (Indian Larry’s old polisher), and if you look close, you will see why he is still doing what he does. Tying the two together is a BDL 3” belt drive with a Baker support— again, all polished. An H-D 39 mm frontend with a set of Bling’s Cycle trees were installed after being rebuilt and stiffened up a bit with progressive suspension for the wonderfully “smooth” roads in the 5 boroughs. As well as this motor runs, it also needs to stop. Twin 6 piston PM calipers grace the front and take care of keeping Iliya out of trouble when it’s better to stop than fly past. This amount of braking exceeds even sport bikes and affords a bit of safety which is a total necessity on these mean streets. Iliya told me he wouldn’t have run front brakes if he lived in the plains, except this is NYC baby!

The front legs were also shaved and of course polished with only the brake lugs left for the obvious reasons. When it came time to choose the wheels, a combination of a rear mag and a front spoke may not sound like it would work , but the pictures show otherwise. The rear is a stock black and grey HD mag, polished by Angel, and the front is a 40 spoke Sun rim. As always, both wheels have Metzeler tires. Because of Iliya’s upbringing in Croatia, they were what you used if you had a vehicle that was built for performance, and this qualifies! The seat sits on a Paul Cox RigidAir and it makes this bike a real Cadillac to ride on all surfaces. All the plumbing is bent stainless for both gas and oil, and all done in-house. The “less is more” principle is hard at work here and the bike wins looks from all who walk passed her. This build can stand as an example of how flawless work and simplicity will always win over paint and shine. This was proven as she won “Best of Show” at the BMR last year, and “Best of Show” at the Editor’s Choice event in Daytona. It also garnered “Best Shovel,” too. Yet she is not a show queen; this bike was built to ride and loves to get out and stretch her legs. Despite all this, Iliya likes to work on only one bike at a time and make one-off pieces for only one particular bike. Iliya said, “It is like a tattoo. You get a picture in your brain but can only do one part at any given time so it takes shape slowly, with a little pain and suffering, but in the end, it all comes together and is totally worth it.” If you like what you are seeing here, be sure to check out Iliya’s work on the Web, and like I said before, I can’t wait to see what comes next!