You can have function without fashion, but you cannot have fashion without function." Ethics instilled in Noel "Noelski" Kalinosky, by Dr. Cecil Behringer, his mentor and bicycle racing coach. Noel started with super-motobikes and eventually worked his way to his true love, V-twin customs. Building and riding bikes for over half his life, Noel has the same idea we see across the country when we talk to true bikers. According to Noel, a motorcycle is a machine that's supposed to eat up the road with vengeance while still being able to handle and stop on demand. If your bike doesn't do that, who really cares how it looks? With that in mind, he built Seville, a beautiful Shovelhead-based custom with a Salvador Dali twist.
This bike started out as a $4,500 1965 FL that sat in a friend of a friend's garage for several years. When Noel started, things were so jammed up he decided it would be best to save what he could before discarding the rest. First of all, it wouldn't start because the valves were too tight. After tearing it down, he ported the heads, freshened up the valves, and honed and re-ringed the cylinders. He finished it up by polishing the rocker covers and touched it up with a little primer black paint on the cylinders. After pulling the tranny apart and replacing a few gears, shafts, and some bushings; he polished the cases and re-assembled the drivetrain. He knew he had a reliable heart for the beast; next he concentrated on the frame and chassis.
Sometimes the best solution is to start from scratch. Noel ended up saving the tanks, badges, dashboard, motor, and tranny. "I started building the frame and I used 1 inch .125 wall seamless 1018 tubing with a 1 1/2-inch backbone and a 1 1/4-inch neck brace," Noel said. "I built the frame, assembled a rolling chassis, then made the front and rear fender, tank, seat pan, oil tank, exhaust, license plate, taillight bracket, foot controls, and the handlebars. Most of the work was sweated out with a ball-peen hammer and an anvil. This was the first time I've let myself just handmake rod iron and leave it raw with the welds showing. The oil tank has over 3,000 hammer pounds per side to get that patina pounded look where the rawer the better. For years I was all about the finest billet store-bought parts, where it had to be the best, shiniest machined part. This bike is the first bike that I truly feel is art that I've built. The entire bike had no concept, every part that was made had to fit and work and then have some kind of style. Along the way the whole bike evolved itself. It's the first time I've ever done a project and literally had no preconceived or forethought or vision of an end result. I love this bike, she's such a tractor. This old girl is my daily rider and she doesn't leak," Noel proudly claimed.