2008 Exxxtreme Board Tracker

Throughout his 13 years in the motorcycle business, John Poppe of John' s Custom Cycles, has had a lot of customers. But when someone asked him what he would build himself, John decided it was time to become his own customer. John and his right hand man Tim Dietrich sat down and started thinking of ideas for John's bike. After spending a few days debating on whether they wanted a stock frame or to build a custom one, they ran across photos of a Board Tracker frame manufactured by US Choppers and John knew right then what he wanted to build: his idea of an Exxxtreme Board Tracker-when John builds a custom bike he builds them under the Exxxtreme Customs moniker.

John wanted to build a vintage style motorcycle, while giving it the smooth ride of a modern bike. The engine he decided to use is a 92ci Indian engine, manufactured by S&S. However, to make the build more personal, John ordered the engine unassembled and put it together himself and to give the bike a more vintage look John included Xzotic Knuckle rocker boxes. He also used a six-speed transmission with a rocker clutch and hand shifter from MC Advantages. Since this bike was following the board track style, the less is more approach was used. This meant very minimal sheetmetal, basically just a tire-hugging rear fender and the split US Chopper gas/oil tank.

Even though there wasn't a ton of crazy fabrication on this bike, there were still things that needed to be cut, welded and modified, like the battery box, top motor/shifter mount, handlebars, belt guard, and seat shock mount. And even though it was his bike, it still took John quite a while to get it built; building and servicing his customer's bikes always took priority. "During these tough economic times, performance and service work keep things going," John told us. "I used to have 10 to 12 custom bike orders at a time. Now I'm lucky to get 10 to 12 a year," John stated.

After two years of sneaking in a little time, here and there, to work on the bike, the Exxxtreme Board Tracker was finally finished. That's one of the hard parts of owning your own custom bike business; your projects are always on the back burner.

One of the first things people notice about the bike is the fact that something is missing. There are no mirrors on the bike. "Never look back," is what John says. "I never look back, so I don't need mirrors on my bike. When I decided to start building bikes I didn't look back, even though my wife thought I was crazy giving up my previous career in the insurance business. I try not to look back. I just look forward."