After seeing the bike, we had to ask him, "What were you thinking when you designed this bike, and where in the world did you start?" Looking at the bike from any angle inspires awe because of the design, concept, and style of something so radical. To most of us, it looks extraordinary, but for Christian, it was a matter of starting with a base and design and building from there. He started out with a sketch on a napkin. Let me tell you, I've written plenty of stuff on napkins, yet nothing has garnered national acclaim for me...well, nothing legal. After transferring the conceptual sketch from a napkin to drafting paper, Christian started making the frame jig. Thanks to his experience as a former concept designer with General Motors, Christian understands what is necessary to take a project from the conceptual to actual. Once he decided on the forkless design, he began engineering the suspension and locating the components he wanted to use. During the design process, he decided on a vintage theme and chose to use only vintage technology throughout the bike. That is why he chose to use the quarter-elliptic leaf spring, friction shock, and early Ford steering. The steering spindle is cleverly located inside the H-D Sportster drum brake hub, with the wheel bearings offset into the aluminum bullet on the side of the hub. One of the main features of this suspension design is that it has a 30-degree rake, which is much more nimble and responsive than a bike of this length would normally have. At least, that's the way Christian describes it.
The frame was built with the idea of incorporating the engine oil and electrical wiring within the frame. Because of the complexity of the idea, all of this had to be planned out before any fabrication began. To look at the overall length, one would assume it has the steering of a boat. Contrary to appearance, the bike actually tracks exceptionally well in the corners. Never to be confused with a knee-grinding sport bike, Christian swears the bike takes to the curves better than the long-forked chopper it obscurely resembles when sitting in front of a funhouse mirror.
This bike obviously isn't some catalog-supplied credit card build. Almost all of the components were hand-fabricated by Christian himself. The handlebars, foot controls, fuel tanks, seat, shifter, linkages, exhaust, etc, were all carefully planned and fabricated. The entire bike was plumbed with stainless steel hard lines. The fender began as a stamped blank, and was split and reshaped, to match the fuel tanks. The fender also incorporates a custom taillight with hidden wiring.
The seat's suspension is a custom steel pan on a cantilevered suspension system utilizing dual Chevy valve springs. The seat springs aren't the only item borrowed from Chevy engineering. A spring-loaded Chevy belt tensioner was modified and used as the final chain drive tensioner and a BDL 2 primary was incorporated, with a custom CNC-machined clutch cover.
As for the brakes, well, that's simple, because there's only one. The rear brake is a stock reproduction with custom front and rear CNC covers. While the brake situation may not make the bike the best decision for beginners, it makes the frontend especially clean and clutter-free.
Christian thought the bike's name, Swingshot, made sense because the bike looks like a slingshot with a swingarm up front. While he knew the bike would turn some heads, Christian never dreamed it would be such a success at the shows. After we spoke about Swingshot, Christian told us to keep a lookout for his next build. He plans on building a bike similar to this except this time he will use all the tools and technology available today. The bikes will be similar, but they will display the differences 60 years of technology can make. We don't know about you, but we can hardly wait!