If you've been around for a while, you've undoubtedly heard the stories about the boys from Redneck Engineering (RE). We're going to leave the long tales about the men behind Redneck for the campfire or road trip, but legend has it that some of the yarns are even true. While you'll discover that these guys are technologically savvy, their crusade and success-so to speak-has been carried by hardtails. Rigids, kidney-busters, old-school-whatever you want to call them, they epitomize the core essence of American V-Twin motorcycles. Not made for the timid, these stripped-down scoots with no rear suspension (although some do call a slightly underinflated rear tire a shock absorber) are light and fast bikes.
Current preferences and styles leaning toward retro and cutdown have provided a renaissance for the hardtail frame. Redneck saw such business from its hardtail frames that the guys there couldn't think of much anything else. At every show the crew attended, they'd get asked when they were going to build a bike with a suspension-Redneck-style. Demand was so high for the company's rigids, it was hard to keep up with orders; they were often six to eight months behind production as it was. With expansion (Redneck has about 20 employees) and hard work, the crew got caught up, giving head frame guru Nobody a chance to think outside the box. There's no doubt that shockless scoots are mean-looking machines; even Harley Davidson saw that more than 20 years ago, achieving its largest success producing bikes that resemble the machines of times past. Of course we're talking about the Softail, with horizontally mounted shocks hidden under the frame. They were a big departure from the two traditional vertically mounted shocks found on rides for more than half a century.
Not wanting to merely duplicate what was already widely available in the aftermarket, Nobody got to thinking about his version of a Softail-style frame design. He wasn't just pondering the project; the redneck from South Carolina is also an expert in CAD (computer-aided design), engineering, and computers in general. Firing up his Sideworks program, Nobody came up with the look and geometry that would make a superior visual and great-handling chassis. He finally decided on two rear suspension designs-the first with shocks arranged much like the OEM H-D style and another with an exposed monoshock. All of this work was for the customer, as Nobody himself thinks everyone should ride rigids.
In fact, Redneck refers to the new rear suspension frames as "FCA" (For Candy Asses), "FCA-MS" (the monoshock version), and "FCA-HS" (hidden shock). Getting the shock to look right, operate optimally, and exceed Redneck's high handling standards was no easy feat-but more on that later.