Born-Free 7 Invited Builders Carmine and Jason of Visionary Cycle Products

Its rare that we have "teams" as builders, but sometimes guys just work better together and Carmine and Jason of Visionary Cycle Products in New York are two such dudes. If you haven't seen all the parts that their company VCP makes by now you need to check em out! CLICK HERE for their website.

In addition to running a busy company and working jobs they also find time to build nice bikes. Here is what they say about their BF7 build:

"We are extremely excited to be building a bike for Born-Free 7 this year. We are going to put together a mix of some of our production parts that we make for Visionary Cycle Products along with some custom one off parts for the bike.

 

The base of the bike is built around an OEM early 1937 Knucklehead frame that was modified by going slightly up and out in the front of the frame and shortened and narrowed to rear section of the frame to pull everything in tight and fill a lot of the gaps.

 

The engine for the bike is going to be an early 1950's set of OEM Panhead engine cases that will be setup as an 88" engine. We are running dual front heads with dual Amal carbs which will be modified with accelerator pumps. The internals of the engine are made up of Truett and Osborne custom lightweight flywheels and rods, custom Baisley built OEM rockers modified with roller tips, lightweight cam chest gears, and a custom cam built by Leineweber. The whole engine combination should make for a fast revving powerful engine.

 

The final vision for the bike is basically a trimmed down slimmed down lightweight chopper that can handle the harsh streets of NY where we live, that is capable of weaving through the tight traffic to get where it needs to go.

 

We are really looking forward to being out at Born-Free again this year for the show, and cant wait to see some of the other Invited Builder Bikes that are being done for this years show. See you in June - Visionary Cycle Products"

Stay tuned and be sure to also follow them on Instagram HERE

BF7 Invited Builder : Mark Drews

Finally we pinned down Mark to build a bike for BF. This is no easy task and we are friends. Mark is such a cool dude & super talented. He has built of  the neatest bikes in recent memory and we can't wait to see what he does for BF7. He's up north doing his thing and we probably won't hear from him again until show time so take a look at some of his killer work...I did get a small pic of the the beginning of his build. It's a Pan!!

BF7 Invited Builder-Bobby "The Leg" Middleton

Bobby The Leg is back! From Chicago, he broke through and won the first Show Class People's Champ contest with the amazing white knucklehead and then last year built a killer clean Panshovel chopper for his Invited bike and RODE it across the country to BF6 and got BEST CHOPPER.

This year he is building a supercharged Shovster digger! The .63 XLCH powerplant is coming along and the frame will all be 4130 chromoly with an OG Ness frontend!

Be sure to follow Bobby on Instagram HERE

BF7 Invited Builder : Mick Evangelista

Every year we try to analyze the invited builder group..where they are from, the make of bike they build and their style. We do this to try and make sure we cover different areas of the country and the different styles of bikes being built....This is where Mick comes in. Mick from Mick's Chop Shop in Riverside Ca brings a style that we have not had in our invited builder group before...A tall,long & lean 70's style full show chopper. Mick's sexy Shovel from a few years back won best chopper and the award was given by the one and only Sugar Bear! That says something about the quality and style Mick possesses. This year he's building a classic 70's inspired full show Pan/Shovel that will feature one of his scratch built narrow springer's , a custom frame and some tasteful vintage touches. Look out for Mick's builder video and more build updates soon

 

 

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BF 7 Invited Builder : Jon Rispante

The recipe is pretty simple yet it's really hard to find guys who can do it correctly. That is building a traditional 50's/60's style British custom without over doing it. Jon Rispante is in a very small group of guys that understand what these bikes should look like and have the skills to build one. Jon has built some really cool bikes over the years. He brought the killer swing-arm Pre Unit "The Grass Hopper" to BF2, built a period perfect BSA dragster for BF3 and now is back as an invited builder for BF7. He has just checked in with his first update....he writes:
I'm building a 1950 Triumph Thunderbird this year. I purchased the start of this project about 12 years ago and have been slowly collecting the pieces for it since then. My favorite style of custom Triumph's are from the mid 1960's. That
transition period between a fairly stock bike and a raked out, extended front end, full on chopper. My Dad graduated in '67. The bike he customized and rode to High School was a '64 TR6. As a kid I loved looking at the old photos of his metal-flake blue custom. I will be building my '50 as if a 17 year old kid would have in the mid 60's. No fancy CNC parts, perfect TIG welds, or belt drives... As a kid still in school and pumping gas at the corner Phillips 66 station, funds are limited... I will be saving my lunch money for chrome and will be doing all the work myself including the Watson style lacquer paint, polishing,
engine rebuild, etc... Also, full show bikes are nice to look at but since this will be my only means of transportation, it has to work and be within "regulation"... That means brakes, lights, and mufflers. Jon       

BF7 Invited Builder : Paul Cox

I have said this many times but has never rang truer...one of the hardest things we do is select the builders, but it is also can be one of the most fun & rewarding. We have had some really cool & interesting guys come through this process over the years and Paul Cox is one of those guys. It's really crazy how all this works...I remember watching Paul & Larry on Biker Build-off ( yes I watched every one & love them)  and being blown away with what they were doing..... flash forward a decade or so and now I'm putting on a show & he's in it...that's nuts!  Paul's body of work is amazing and goes way beyond building motorcycles. He is a old world craftsman, an artist, a true professional and a gentleman....builds a mean chopper too. Last year Paul went above & beyond to show the Born-Free crowd what he was capable of and he definitely delivered. He's back this year and just sent in a few pictures and words on what he is up to...     

 

I’m very proud to say that I’ve been asked back to be a part of this year’s Born Free

Show #7. When I built my bike for the show last year, The Guillotine, I felt really driven

to pull out all the stops and basically re-invent and re-engineer everything involved with

the project. This tends to be my approach to most things in my world, especially

motorcycles. I see something in front of me, and have a need to change, improve or

completely make it over from scratch. I feel a painful excitement when I know what I

“want” to do, but also know that there is not enough time to truly achieve it with balance

and grace. It’s a daily struggle. There should be a 12 step program for those of us with more ideas than time.

Anyway, as I planned this year’s attack, I had already started thinking of how to make

this ’46 Knuckle crazy from top to bottom. Huge displacement, about a dozen carbs, 5

magnetos, exposed flywheels with fully engraved cases inside and out. I was planning

an even crazier girder fork than last year with a frame full of steel overlays and lugs set

off by plating, paint, leafing and stripes. Then.... A certain peace crept up from my loins

like the warmth you feel slipping under the blood stained water of a slit wrist bathtub. I

said to myself, “This time, for once, I want to keep it simple.”

 

I picked up a 1946 HD Knucklehead FL engine from my friend and artist John

Copeland. This engine was originally owned by another pal, Andy Camay who sold it to

me years ago, then I sold it to John. It sat up on a shelf behind the bar at Black Bear for

about a year before I got it back for this project. Keeping it in the family. I’ve got the

engine completely apart, down to the bare cases at this point. My approach this time

around is to build a super clean and fun machine with classic details and a few modern

twists. As much as I appreciate original iron, I’ve never been a restoration guy. I’m a

chopper guy. So, if along the way I feel the original heads need more fins or external

drains, I’ll add em. If I want to shave some fins off the original cylinders or cut the relay

block off the cases, I will. I may do a dual Linkert set-up, but beyond that, I’m just going

to build a straight forward 74” Knuckle engine.

 

Another neat piece I’m working with on the project is a 1970’s era Little John 5-speed

overdrive transmission. This predates the HD 5-speed by about 10 years and is an

overdrive instead of just a close ratio. James, from Dudley’s Basement, a decades old

and respected Long Island bike shop, turned me on to this set-up. He had most of the

parts to build two of these rare gear boxes. I’ll pick the best parts of what I got from him

and try to assemble a reliable Little John trans to run behind the ’46. The shift lid is

specific to the Little John case because it has to be longer and guides an extra shift

fork. It’s a ratchet top style, that I may convert to non-ratchet for a simpler, more direct

shift pattern. Either way, it will be hand shift.

 

For the frame, in the light of my new-found aesthetic clarity, I’m going to hard-tail an

old Shovel frame I’ve had knocking around the shop, and clean up the original casting

for light molding and paint. I even thought about going super-sanitary with a tube neck

and no castings, but I do love the organic feeling of massaged lugs and mounts. I’ll

paint the bike here at my shop, and probably have my daughter Dylan jump in to help out.

The sheet metal is still a toss-up whether I go high or low with the tank. I have a little

piece of fender that I’ll probably start with, and maybe work some rod around the edges

to set off the shape. I’m still undecided on the oil tank, but I may weld up a couple old

spun aluminum cylinder halves that I have from a spinner in Queens. Otherwise, I

always dug the woven stainless horse shoe tanks that were being made in the Bronx

years ago. I had considered doing one last year, but didn’t. Maybe this time I will.

For wheels, I have a little spool hub for the front, and an aluminum Barnes quickchange

racing hub for the rear that I had already laced to a 17” Sun rim with stainless

spokes. This hub runs 4-bolt rotor and sprocket. I have a pair of Pirelli Scorpions laying

around for rubber, but I’ve been putting dual-sport tires on choppers for about 14 years now, so I may look into some other options there.

These are my general ideas and direction at this point. So far, I’m loving the feeling of

this project, and it’s a nice contrast to all the ones that I’ve done where I felt like it had to

be crazy and over the top. I still have a long way to go no matter how you look at it, so

it’s back to work for me right now. Good luck to all the fellow builders with your projects

and I cant wait to see. P

BF7 Invited Builder : Jordan Dickinson

Jordan returns to Born-Free 7 as an Invited Builder which started for him two years ago as a Show Class Magazine People's Champ contestant. Jordan is known for his intense metal fabrication skills, but does it in a way that is so subtle most of it blends seamlessly in the finished build and seems natural.

He's been heavy on it building his frame for his BF7 build and it's gonna be one for the books! The frame is inspired by the early Harley race frames like Petralli's streamliner/late DAH and is completely scratch built. The frame will house a knucklehead motor and the whole bike will be geared toward the 1930's race style.

Go follow him on Instagram HERE

Check out the process Jordan goes through just making the neck on his BF7 frame!

 

BF 7 Invited Builder : Oliver Jones

 

Baltimore's favorite son Oliver Jones is returning for his 2nd year as a BF builder. He shook up the group with his blacked-out Kim-Tabbed , Dual Karata Magged Shovelhead at BF6 and promises the same for this year. Oliver checked in last night and here is what he had to say...  Hello booster!
Here are the images as promised.
the design has changed slightly since I made this sketch last July.

The bike, in a nut Shell Is going to be an ULTRA HIGH PERFORMANCE build in a chopper silhouette.

The 4spd frame will be modified to fit the Billet 107 C.I. 12/1 generator shovel motor. with about 2" up in the front and -2" in the back to shorten it.
Im using Sorensen Performance billet cylinders and heads on NOS STD 3 13/16 bore cases, Custom making, my own version of  Kennedy rocker boxes. Velva touch lifters, and all EVO style internal oiling, Zippers cam, ignition and Strociek roller rockers.
PURE POWER oilfilter filter, pingle shifted, clear primary BDL lock up clutch, Sputh cam cover, some hidden carbon fiber parts, and a very special starter setup!,
The front end is a +8" over 33.4mm.  I am Builing something really special for the wheels, but cant  give that up just yet though...

Things are moving forward and i should have a roller soon!