The real heart of this machine is the glass (no pun intended) tanks, painstakingly created by Kildee Scientific from Pyrex glass. The fuel tank required three iterations (the first two broke), and since cutting a tunnel in the glass would likely have resulted in a third shattered tank, a redesign of the frame was also required. The finished unit is now mated to a rubber-layered cradle and capped with a vintage wheel knockoff. The oil tank is also Pyrex and is judiciously mated to the tail section with raw metal. Furthering the dichotomy of a glass motorcycle, the suicide shifter is made from a ball-peen hammer. Nonexistent manifolds required the crew to create their own, and, to keep things interesting, they added a 10-degree forward tilt to each dual-throat carb. Additional details include a headlight that served as a police car's searchlight during the '50s and LEDs in all of the glass, transforming the bike into a rolling lava lamp at night.
Facing a limited calendar and a long drive, Alan chose to pack things up and enlist help along the way. A two-day layover at Killa' Cycles in Dallas, TX, helped finalize a few details, as well as the glass coating on the exhaust. Final construction was done in parking lots and trailers during the balance of the trip. The finishing touches happened at Bike Week right on Main Street with the help of Warren Vesely of Scooter Shooterz. The final show went as you might expect, with many a custom bike enthusiast trying to fit Alan's square-peg building style into the round hole of established design. With its chaotic buildup in the past, the Glasster now rests comfortably in the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, CA, where onlookers continue to make a vain attempt at describing it.
Because the build of this bike utilized the skills and talents of a large group of people scattered across the country, Alan would like to give them credit for their efforts. Thanks go out to Ford Stell, Dave Scott, and Scott Martindale from CCI; David Demarest of Weber North America; Gloria Ishimoto of Daniel Boone Company; Todd Townsend from Optifloinc; Tim Dorin of Killer Glass; Phil Trenery from Precision Tooling; Bob Maiden of Kildee Scientific; Killa' Cycles' Mario Cavazos; Barbara and John from Bulldog Leathers Daytona; and Warren Vezely of Scooter Shooterz.