Iron Horse Cycles

We are at the 2023 Piston-powered Autorama in Cleveland, Ohio. And in front of me here is this fully custom chopper built by Jim Messina and it's your ride of the week. This is his chopper. We built this beautiful bike here and you're also the owner of Iron Horse Garage where this comes out of and where are We're at a park in Ohio right up the street from Rock and Roll City Harley. We've been there for about 10 years now and We got a metric section and an American section so we do a little bit of everything. Okay and now this is your own build, your own bike right here. When did this come together? What year? When did the build take? We just finished it about two weeks ago. We finished it up. It works for a couple of years now. Just getting everything together and a lot of one off parts we made for the tank, the oil tank, So for the motor here you got an ultimate engine. How many cubic inches was that? It's 127 inches with a Baker 6B transmission. Then it's got american suspension 12 over front end on it with all PM wheels and calipers and controls and everything. Okay. Did you start with the ultimate engine and then kind of build around that or did that come in later? Yeah we got the frame first, got a rolling chassis, then put the motor and everything in there. Got an open belt drive and all that. So you've told me you've done all the fab work here. Actually it's a wrap the guy put on there. So it's all wrapped in vinyl. This is just, you want to go with an old rustic look and make it look all old and stressed on there. Okay, who did the wrap? And you got kind of, on the front end here you got this really long fork, you said it was, what was the size of the fork here? That's 12 over than stock, all American suspension. 12 over, yeah you got a really interesting suspension system here. How does it ride? It's pretty good, Springer's got a little bit more bounce to them going down the road, especially in Ohio, but don't ride too bad. Are you taking it on the freeway, getting it up to speed or is this more of No we'll ride it on the highway and everything too. Okay, perfect. How you said you've just finished this, is there any other additions you're making later on or is this a completely finished build, are you going to take it to shows? Yeah, we're going to take it to a couple more shows in Ohio, they've got that one at the ball in a couple of weeks. But yeah, we're going to take it to a couple more shows and just get it on the road and start riding now. Awesome. Do you got anything in the works as far as other bikes or do you build one and kind of ride it show for a while or do you j Yeah, I myself, I got three more projects I'm working on now and then we've got a customer's bike, we're doing with a 34 inch roaching front tire on it. Were trying to get it done for this show but we didn't make it. Perfect. Well is there anything we didn't catch here, any key aspects of the bike you want to hit on? No, I mean we've got a big 330 inch back tire on it, all the body works molded down there so it gives it a nice smooth look. But I mean besides that, pretty much bare bones anymore. Yep. We've got a really cool bike again Thanks for stopping by. Guys, this has been another ride of the week, really beautiful bike here at the Piston Powered Autorama. Make sure you're checking out Motorcycle and Power Sports News for some more great ride of the week content. You can follow us on YouTube and on our social media pages, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and just keep checking in guys.