RIGID HARLEY S&S EVO BIG TWIN CUSTOM CHOPPER, "SPARTANKILLER"

My name is Harold McGruther, nd I'm a nerd who isn't man enough to ride this bike as it was intended. Consequently, 'm selling it. Truth be told, am much more comfortable building motorcycles than I am riding them. California freeways are scary, nd I'm a pussy.

The following text is from the feature Hot Bike magazine did on this bike earlier this year, tory by Dick Gazinia:

Disciples of today’s ’70s-inspired chopper craze know the defining characteristics of their favored genre like the patchy spots on their period-correct beards: long fork, all sissy bar, azor-thin king-and-queen seat, kinny Frisco tank, nd more metalflake than the parking lot at Dodger Stadium on Che Guevara Day. The middle-aged owner/builder of this tidy S&S-powered boneshaker watched Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In as a kid, o he knows the muse all too well. Harold “McGoo” McGruther could have channeled Grand Funk Railroad for inspiration on his fifth ground-up custom, ut late ’70s BMX and electro pop are his jam. If the official soundtrack of today’s Born-Free generation is MC5, cGoo’s is The Human League. Same decade, ery different vibe. Scan the SpartanKiller’s lean silhouette and new-wave paint job and this fact becomes crystal clear.

McGoo’s contrarian nature and tweaker’s disdain for idle hands were the twin forces that compelled my friend to chronicle his bike’s glacial evolution in a build thread on chopcult.com four years ago. George Counes at Spartan Frameworks built the stock geometry DOM steel chassis that Duane Ballard’s wife Lisa won in a raffle at the Atomic Throwdown in 2009. MoCo nihilist that he is, uane sold Spartan’s door prize to Harold for a song. A phone call to Kutty Noteboom at Hippy Killer in early 2010 got the gears turning on a 96-inch S&S Evo mill, nd a project was born. From its inception McGoo’s plan for the SpartanKiller was to build a bike that melded power and purpose with ease of operation and style.

From its inception McGoo’s plan for the SpartanKiller was to build a bike that melded power and purpose with ease of operation and style. Exactly what “style” was something ChopCult readers would wait almost 30 dog years to see, ut several twists and turns along the way are worth repeating. As is the case with most things complex and custom, cGoo’s SpartanKiller sometimes bobbed in a sea of apathy and disillusion, epending on the intensity of outside forces. Other friends’ projects, or instance, ook advantage of McGoo’s obsessive/compulsive nature on a regular basis. A sissy bar here and a seat pan there don’t require a lot of time individually, ut build enough of them for other people and you’ll add years to your own project’s incubation. Such was the case with the SpartanKiller, hich is why McGoo was ecstatic when master builder and fellow BMX nerd Cole Foster offered to save his bacon.

The original copper and brass gas tank Sacred Steel’s Jason Wilson crafted for the SpartanKiller was more steampunk than McGoo’s sterile sensibility could embrace and would have been spoiled by the ’70s-era racecar paint the one-time Mongoose bicycle designer had always envisioned for his machine. So it was kismet when McGoo visited Cole in Central California in the spring of 2013. There in the Hot Rod Hall of Famer’s overstuffed garage sat Tom McEwen’s 1978 NHRA championship-winning Corvette funny car in metallic silver and glorious CMYK. “The Mongoose” had recently been delivered to Salinas Boyz HQ for a full paint restoration, ing Cole presiding.

You could have smashed the serendipity with a planishing hammer: A master builder and a chopper neophyte sharing talent and tall tales in the shadow of the funny car that kicked the BMX industry into high gear in 1974. After bullshitting about Moose Gooses and laidback seatposts, ole gave McGoo a clinic on metal shaping that left the chubby spoke sniffer scraping hot, et pieces of his blown mind off Cole’s ’71 2800CS BMW. When teacher and student were done picking each other’s brains, ole knew the skinny on MotoMags and McGoo had the coolest aluminum gas tank ever to grace the backbone of a garage-built chopper.

When teacher and student were done picking each other’s brains, ole knew the skinny on MotoMags and McGoo had the coolest aluminum gas tank ever to grace the backbone of a garage-built chopper.

With photos of the Mongoose funny car in his iPhone, cGoo returned to SoCal to find a painter who could tap into his late ’70s muse. Enter Pete from Hot Dog Kustoms in Oceanside, alifornia. Hot Dog painted Duane Ballard’s Kosmosaki for Born-Free in early 2013 and sprayed dozens of megabuck choppers for Sandy Bullock’s ex-husband for nearly a decade. After picking up what the BMX nerd was throwing down, ete got to work on the SpartanKiller’s aluminum tins. The bodywork and paint around the cast-alloy Biltwell Mako taillight welded to the SpartanKiller’s narrow ribbed fender is especially clean, nd cribs the magenta, yan, nd yellow stripes from McEwen’s ’Vette perfectly. In finished guise the SpartanKiller harkens back to the BMX bikes of its builder’s youth to create a look that screams Starsky and Hutch, ot Sonny and Cher.

This bike's gestation and pedigree are well known among chopper kooks in SoCal. I chronicled the build meticulously on JockeyJournal dot com, nd a Google search for that story (Bike name Spartan Killer or Spartankiller) will glean more info than you could possible want to know.

Specs and Miscellaneous other Details:

93 c.i. S&S engine, ebuilt 7-8 years ago, ess than 150 total miles since assembly for this project (like I said—I hate riding choppers!)

5-speed electric start transmission, rand escapes me. Ultima, erhaps?

Frame: Spartan Frameworks; 0 up, out, 4-degree head angle

Primary: Tech Cycle Paul Cox signature design, 30 open chain primary; custom crafted Troy Fab tension adjuster

Forks: 39mm Sportster Narrow Glide trees, ored to 41mm to accept H-D Big Twin stanchions

Biltwell bits include: grips, ako taillight (welded to custom alloy fender) Zero Drag handlebars, hiskey throttle

Hand controls: Kustom Tech, ade in Italy, rushed raw alloy finish

Foot controls: custom build stainless steel units, y yours truly; brass toe pegs and foot pegs

Stainless steel custom oil bag

Duane Ballard custom leather upholstery

19" Sportster 9-spoke mags front and rear; 4.50 x 19" rear Firestone/3.25" x 19" front Firestone

Custom paint by Hot Dog Kustoms

Custom aluminum gas tank by Cole Foster

Recent tune up and main oil seal replacement by Rico Fodrey at High Bond Modified, omona, A

Problems:

This bike is a mother scratcher wrapped in a golldang so-and-so to ride: brutally abrupt, uper fast and torquey, arsher than crapping a pine cone on the old pooper. That being said, hen you roll up at your favorite watering hole on this beast, anties will drop faster than you can say, Sorry scooter tramp—no back seat!"

The Mikuni 42HSR carb could use some jetting. She runs fine, ut Rico at High Bond Modified is convinced she would run more smoothly/less like a funny car if someone who knew what they were doing threw it on a dyno. I'm stupid, o I just fire it up, et it idle till it's warm, hen pop the clutch and go. Smokey bake shows for everyone.

Terms of sale: If you win this sweet auction and you live anywhere farther than across the street, ou are responsible for arranging 100% of all transportation to its new home. I'll gladly meet any tweaky trucker you send my way to hand over the pink slip and keys, ut I won't loan him straps, elp him load the bike into the back of his cement mixer, r lift any finger that might skunk me out of a sale should things go sour. Been there, one that. Sucks every time.

$500 deposit required via PAYPAL ONLY within 48 hours of auction close, nd cash or cashier's check only if sale is local pick-up. If you prefer to pay for the total via PAYPAL, 'll throw in 2 free Biltwell t-shirts and a new pair of grips in your choice of style and color.

FULL PAYMENT DUE 7 DAYS AFTER AUCTION CLOSE.

I have title in hand, nd CA tags are good through April 2016. This is a chopper, aby, o it is a quirky hand-built bucket of radness… that also means it's a temperamental monster of testosterone and erectile hyperactivity—NO WARRANTY, AG-BACKS, EST RIDES, EMON LAW BS, TC.

I know the market for machines of this caliber and pedigree all too well, o I've started my auction with a fair reserve and BUY IT NOW option. Bid with confidence—I'm as honest as they come.

On Dec-18-15 at 20:20:59 PST, eller added the following information:

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