Rise Of The Street Fighters

The Best of Show prize winner at the 2008 6th Annual Sturgis Metzeler Custom Bike Contest was Todd Silicato of Todd's Cycle located in Huntington Beach, California. The Street Fighter influence was no doubt influenced by Todd's years of experience as a race engine builder and chief mechanic for Performance Machine's GP race team as well as head of PM's R&D before opening his own shop. He's built several SF type customs including his 120ci Sportster powered "Pickpocket" bike (HOT BIKE Vol.40 No.1) and then took it a quantum step further with his "Bull" bike (as in no bull#*$&!). It covers all the Street Fighter bases. As Todd said, "It's raw, bare bones; a bike that handles." Power is provided by a 1200cc Buell engine stuffed with hi-comp J&E pistons and a hot cam. The powertrain is integrated into a custom suspended-design swingarm frame featuring a maze of hi-tech linkage, and then mated to a Suzuki GSXR inverted frontend. A pair of Metzelers including a rear 280 roll around 18-inch PM wheels anchored up front by a PM radial disc, and an Exile sprotor on the rear. A non-paint approach adds to the minimalist all thrills, no frills persona, with the sheetmetal anodized. For more information, contact Todd's Cycle at (714)-901-4516 or visit,http://www.toddscycle.com

In homage to the original U.S. states, the Paterson, New Jersey based company, Delaware American Motorcycles, aka DAM, is producing an initial production run of 13 of their hi-tech Twins, the handmade machines featuring their APEX chassis fitted with a 127 ci inch displacement R&R 2 cam billet engine pumping out 140hp. Advanced suspension and braking match the Street Fighter bar they've raised. Other components include a handmade NASCAR inspired exhaust and a modernized Girder frontend utilizing a shock developed by Penske Racing. It so happens that company honcho, Mark Klein, was the original guy to develop the first branded Ducati store as well as the distributor for racing parts by Yoshimura, thus the blending of European exoticness/handling to Harley muscle.

Commenting on Street Fighters, Mark said, "Back in the day the UK guys would take their crashed bike, leave the bodies off and strap on some lights and blinkers, a beer can exhaust, some lower bars and call themselves Street Fighters. Later we saw the new Triumph Triple echoing that concept. Now we've taken our experience to the chassis geometry with a single-sided swingarm and carbon fiber wheels, leading edge suspension and brakes, and the strength of a refined, aggressively designed American torquey muscle motor, plus we've added ergonomics that make the bike a pleasure to ride." For more information contact Delaware American Motorcycle at (973)-279-3261, or visit www.dammotorcycles.com.