Imagine running a busy shop where things are good, but you're always striving to be better. Your day planner is full-so full, in fact, that it's booked solid months in advance, and time has become your most precious commodity. Do you take on a new build if it would mean more business, even when it seems as if there is simply no time to spare? The day the phone rang for Aaron Greene, the owner of Paramount Custom Cycles (PCC) in Reno, NV, he was neck-deep in work, pushing bikes out the door, shipping parts, parting out a roller, and placing an order. When he was handed the phone, he was told, "It's Carrie Repp from the Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse Tour." Having been around to see just how well the last Hard Rock Tour did, Aaron immediately knew this was not a phone call to ignore. Only four builders a year are picked to be a part of the Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse Tour, and this time he turned out to be one of them.
By the time the conversation was over, Aaron knew he was going to build a bike for the tour regardless of any obstacles. It was too good an opportunity for the shop to pass up, but the build deadline was going to be a tight one. The shop was still on a full schedule between the Cincinnati industry show and Daytona, leaving Aaron about 14 days to complete the build-along with keeping his commitments to all his other customers. Aaron felt that it would be worth killing himself over in the end. After all, it was his time to shine. Aaron had been around all the builders for events such as Billy Lane's Blood, Sweat, and Gears tour and the Discovery Channel's Biker Build-Offs, so he knew what it was going to take to build an impressive machine. Only this time around, he wasn't going to be just observing or helping out-this time it would be all about what he could bring to the tour as a builder on his own. Aaron felt he was definitely ready to take on the challenge.
He already had some prototype stuff lying around just in case something like this came up. He'd been talking to the guys at Weld Wheels about a set of tall wheels, something along the lines of 20 inches tall for the rear and-get this-even bigger for the front. From the first time he saw tall wheels, Aaron planned to build a bike with a rigid chassis with a single-sided rear.
With the due date for the bike delivery approaching quickly, Aaron called up Rich at Weld Wheels. The two of them planned on the 20-incher for the rear of Aaron's bike so that he could still go wide with the tire, but they decided on something a little more trick for the front. They planned a never-before-seen 26-inch wheel for the front. This meant that not only did custom wheels and tires have to be fabricated in an extremely short period of time, but so did a custom frame.