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Cobra, was a small
two-stroke pipe manufacturer run by Tim McCool and Ken Boyko back in the
early '80s. They moved into the Japanese street bike market in the latter
part of the decade, riding the increasing popularity of the Cruiser market.
Then in 1994 they stumbled on an interesting marketing idea - they built a
full-blown custom using a Honda Magna as the basis for the project. The bike
was a hit and their pipe sales took off. From '94 on, seeing what Cobra did
with a metric cruiser each year has been one of the highlights of the
motorcycle industry trade show each spring.
Well, good business dictates expanding your market, so Cobra started looking
at the Harley world. They realized that there was room for another pipe
manufacturer in the market and they decided to go after their part of the
pie. To get a little attention they decided to build a custom bike that the
V-twin market would notice, so Boyko and McCool brought in their favorite
fabricator, Denny Berg and sat down with their in-house design guy, Mike
Rinaldi. They poured over magazines and books trying to come up with a style
for a custom Harley that no one had done before. They didn't fare so well,
because everyone had done basically everything already. But there was a
bright spot - only a handful of people have done boardtrack-style bikes,
namely Ness and Milwaukee Iron.
Armed with a Rinaldi sketch everyone liked, Berg took control of the
project. His first stop was Harbor Freight where he bought a pipe bender. On
his way back to the tiny 1,000 square foot shop he calls home he made one
other stop at a Harley dealership where he picked up a TC88 motor and
transmission, along with a Dyna swingarm.
The project dictated Berg build a frame so he assembled the motor/trans/swingarm
combination to get a starting point. A single tube frame made sense - it
would offer the most nostalgic styling. As he bent tubing for the frame,
Berg bent smaller tubes to run inside the frame to house all the wires and
hydraulic lines. With the basic frame design crafted, Berg needed to come up
with a swingarm design and some rear suspension.
He grabbed a KT Components Softspension torsion bar and a set of Progressive
Suspension softail - style shocks and sat at his workbench. A few sketches
and a few wasted pieces of tubing later, he developed a rising rate mounting
system that would give the rear four and a half inches of travel. Then he
stripped the covers off the shocks to give them a sleeker look and built the
swingarm framework to connect the shocks to the single tube chassis. The
design not only looks right on this bike, it also allows the bulky parts of
the suspension to mount low so the visible area can look spindly - a plus on
a boardtrack style bike.
With the steep fork angle he designed in the frame, a minimum of travel
would be possible up front. A set of 2000 H-D Sporty lower legs were given a
ride in a lathe while Forking by Frank made some seriously short tubes for
them. A set of GMA trees were also given a low-fat diet on one of Berg's
mills before being installed.
The 21 - inch Performance Machine Vintage wheels that Boyko insisted be part
of the project were covered with Metzeler Enduro tires and treated to a
combination of bead blasting by Berg and polishing by QGI. Berg installed
the wheels and started manufacturing the caliper bracket for the front
brakes. By using a P.M. mini-rear rotor and a pair of P.M. mini-calipers,
Berg kept the front brakes looking small while still offering good stopping
power. Out back a P.M. Drive Side pulley/brake fits his swingarm design
perfectly.
The one - piece gas tank and seat assembly was formed with modeling foam
first. Berg called on his experience building similar tank designs for mid -
'70s road race bikes to get the lines just right. He incorporated an air
inlet for the Mikuni carb, a pop-up gas cap and a LED tail/brake light in
the flowing shape. When the actual the actual tank was cast in fiberglass,
Berg reinforced the seat and fuel cell areas with carbon fiber. Then, before
mounting it on the frame, he welded a flat panel on the frame to help spread
out the seating area stress.
Denny knew this bike needed a rear fender, so he shaped a thin bicycle -
like unit for the rear. He built it into the swingarm and started drawing
lines to find out what would be the minimum length possible. Once he decided
on a look he hacked the excess off. As he was sweeping up the shop that
night before going home, he picked up the section that he cut off and laid
it on the front tire. The next morning when he came in he realized the small
cut - off looked like it was made for the front so he incorporated it into
the design.
Now it was time for Berg to have some sheet metal fun. He started by
building a housing around the Dyna transmission/oiltank that resembled the
belt drive units of old. Then he moved to the Rivera belt drive and
constructed covers and plates to give the unit a diamond primary feel. At
this point the bike was coming together quickly and Berg broke out the
Harbor Freight bender to make some handlebars. Once satisfied with the shape
he installed a set of P.M. controls and a pair of 1926 - style H-D grips.
You might notice the absence of a rear brake lever - that is because the
front brake line runs to a proportioning valve that operates both front and
rear brakes simultaneously. Next he installed a pair of 1954 - style H-D
pegs and built the shifter from a few Electra Glide shifter pieces he had in
the shop.
Berg sent all the paintables to Damon's in Brea while he treated all the
metal surfaces possible to a date with his glass bead blaster. Once the
blasting medium was wiped off, each part was then covered with clear enamel
to preserve the "rough metal" look.
Finally the bike was reassembled and the other three were allowed in Berg's
shop to see it. McCool immediately started measuring it for pipes and ran
back to the Cobra shop. When he returned a couple days later he had the
slick looking duals - including a new finish treatment idea he came up with
(nickel plate, burnishing, then chrome) - ready to install.
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