Never before in the history of custom motorcycles have there been so many talented people involved in the industry. In the early days, only a handful of guys were capable of building the caliber of custom bikes we see in large numbers today. And it's not just the amount of bikes involved-it's also the geographic location of the people building them.
We found the HOK candy-violet beauty pictured here tucked so far up north in California that it actually turned out to be in Oregon. For all intents and purposes, Mark Daley and his right-hand man, Travis Linbaugh, at Thunder Struck Custom Bikes are right in the middle of nowhere. That's not to say Medford, OR, isn't a nice place, because it is. It just isn't where one would expect to find a shop building world-class custom bikes.
Mark opened the doors to Thunder Struck Custom Bikes in 1995 after spending the previous 15 years working at a local auto-parts store, along with building musclecars on the side. Mark's brand of choice was Chevrolet, with a focus on late-'60s 427-inch big-block Corvettes. When Mark left his job at the parts house, he didn't look back. His sights were set on building super-clean bikes.
He likes to personalize each bike with its own name; the moniker of this one is "Paranoid." This is also the name he chose for its rolling stock. Check out the rear sprocket and brake rotor, and you'll notice they match the design of the rear wheel. Look up front, and it's the same story-both the front wheel and brake rotor match. Thunder Struck's line of Paranoid billet wheels represents the beginning of an ongoing relationship with Ego Tripp of Lubbock, TX. Mark penned the Paranoid design, and then the aluminum artisans at Ego Tripp CNC-milled each billet-aluminum blank into a three-dimensional reality. Currently Thunder Struck markets three different exclusive designs of Ego Tripp-produced wheels. Spanning the gap between the axles is a Softail-style frame from Xtreme to use in conjunction with a Perse glide frontend.
Thunder Struck's specialty is metal fabrication; without these specialized skills it would have been impossible for Mark to build exactly what he envisioned. Mark told us he fabricated more than 60 individual pieces to construct this bike to the specifications he desired.
Major modifications to the Xtreme frame include 7 inches of stretch to the backbone, in addition to 5 inches of stretch in the single downtube. Mark fabricated a molded-in functional chin spoiler out of sheetmetal attached to the lower downtube. In addition to directing airflow to the front and rear cylinders, it houses the voltage regulator and ignition coils. The spark-plug wires run from the coils up through the frame, exiting into a custom top motor mount Mark fabricated to route the plug wires straight to the cylinder heads.
Drawing from styling cues he acquired from his street-rod experience, Mark modified the bottom of the Xtreme gas tank to flow continuously from front to rear without exposing the mounting brackets. On top he reconfigured the tank to flow uninterrupted into a recessed seat from Rich at Bitchin' Seat Company in Anaheim, CA. Rich covered the custom seat pan Mark fabricated with three different types of foam, then shaped the black upholstery, finishing it with a graphic insert matching the bike's graphic designs. Notice in the photographs how the seat recesses into a molded pocket? In search of a means to create the appearance of a fender-hugging rigid-frame bike, Mark fashioned the seat pocket and installed a Legend air-ride setup. With the air ride laid out, take note of how nicely the Thunder Struck custom fender conforms to the radius of the rear wheel.