With about 40 hours of labor into the frame, it was finally time to get the chopper up and rolling. For that classic chopper look, Joe scored a 6-inch-over Springer frontend from Redneck Engineering, and once it was bolted to the 45-degree neck it really gave the bike the low, stretched look Joe was going for. Then Joe decided that not running any fenders would help make the 21-inch front and 18x10-inch rear wheels seem larger than they really are-reminiscent of that exaggerated look Joe saw in the cartoons of his childhood.
Hot rod looks need hot rod power, right? So Joe shoved a 113ci S&S motor between the framerails, backed by an Unlimited six-speed trans and wrapped with a PM open belt drive-plenty of power to break the ol' 300 loose. "Once I had the driveline in place, I stepped back and noticed this funky void between the rear cylinder and transmission. It was like something was missing. So when it came to making the pipes, I decided fill the gap by wrapping the pipes though the hole and dumping them out at the back of the primary," said Joe.
As with all of Joe's bikes, the paint for this chop-a black base with some traditional-style hot rod flames-was sprayed by Joe himself. Laying the paint was a piece of cake, but the transition from paint to chrome on the downtubes took a little extra time and a delicate touch.
We caught up with Joe out at the ROT Rally, and the debut of the Barbwire Hardtail was quite a success. All weekend long the Martin Bros. booth was lined with people checking out the new ride and asking for autographs. When he wasn't hanging out with the crowd, Joe would sneak the bike out the back and hit the Austin streets. When we asked him how it rode, Joe replied, "It's great. I was worried about burning my legs on the pipes, but with the mid-controls my legs are clear of the pipes, and it's really comfortable. The 113 is really smooth; it's a great motor. The only bad thing I would say is that with no fenders, when you get caught in the rain it's a huge mess, especially at the rear; you get this massive rooster tail of slop running down your back."
When it comes to the design of his future projects, it sounds as if Joe is somewhat in a transition period. Sure, he has his own style that's recognized throughout the industry, but that may not necessarily be a good thing. The explosion of the custom motorcycle industry over the past decade has inspired everybody and their grandmother to become custom bike builders. Over the last few years we've seen that explosion backfire, resulting in a loss of originality and straight knocking-off of designs and parts.
"I'm trying to move on to something new," Joe told us. "I'm tired of looking at my stuff, and I'm really tired of looking at all the copycats. Some of the commercial stuff has taken the underground cool out of the industry, and I want to go back to that. One of my next projects is this Buell I'm working on-I'm really excited about it, and it's going to be badass!"
It sounds as if we could be seeing a different side of Joe's design ideas and some interesting projects rolling out of the Martin Bros. shop in the near future-definitely something to look forward to.