Glamourtramp, a bike designed to be clean and sexy, but also mean and nasty. Aaron Glenn of Glenndyne Designs in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, wanted to build a different type of machine than we had seen before. "We wanted form as well as function, but we wanted it to look technologically advanced while still having a classic chopper feel. We also wanted it to look like you could jump the damn thing."
Aaron designed the bike with function as well as form, mainly because he is a rider. "What's the point of a bike having great looks if you can't pass someone?" Aaron's passion for the rideability of his customs become apparent when you study the bike closely, noticing all the touches Aaron incorporated to be sure this bike rides as well as she looks.
When looking at the custom springer frontend, you will notice a front shock that would look more at place on a Baja racer than a street bike. The shock is a pre-load adjustable Baja shock from Eibach, a designer of racing and custom shock technology with more than 55 years of experience in the business. The seat is equipped with mountain bike shocks from Fox. The seat shocks are also adjustable so you can not only set the pre-load, but also the rebound. Aaron promises to send pics of him doing an endo or a stoppie on the bike. For a bike to handle the stress associated with such high impact moves, it has to be equipped with some of the best brakes and calipers around.
In fact it's the brake setup that's most impressive on this bike. Glenndydne Design engineered, designed, and produced a very unique and trick internal brake setup that not only looks cool, but works. Without delving too far into the technical side of it, Aaron designed the wheels/brakes with the idea that they would work, but not be too far out that people would be distracted from the technological developments. The design cleans up the outside of the wheels by incorporating the rotors and calipers into the center of the wheels, while still providing safe braking abilities. Glenndydne Designs' shop motto is "A design should flow seamlessly across each detail, blending form, function, and genuine style until it meets a place where everything works perfectly." This five-year design has launched the beginning of Aaron's production wheels that are now available for stock bikes. He has even designed and developed an axle assembly that will retrofit a current Bagger or Softail to incorporate his internal brake design. The wheels are now available through his website, and he owns the U.S. patents to ensure he reaps the rewards of his hard work.
When I asked him about the ride, Aaron swears it rides, "like a dirtbike." While he hasn't broken any speed records with it, he has had the bike up to triple digit speeds and has experienced zero drawbacks from the wheels. He even claims, "she stops on a dime."
When I asked him how he dreamt up his wild concepts, he claimed he started years ago when he was just starting out. He started at 15 years old by sweeping the floors at a custom hot rod shop in New Mexico. Aaron gradually moved up from floor sweep, to the paint and assembly, and eventually all the way to design and fabrication. In 1999, he opened his own shop in Oklahoma and has grown into what is now known as Glenndyne Design. Aaron's shop is able to handle every aspect of custom builds and guarantees customer satisfaction!
This bike includes many of Glenndyne Designs custom parts such as the wheels and calipers, the headlight, oil bag, and even the exhaust. This bike shows that you can incorporate custom parts on a bike that you can ride as hard as you want without sacrificing comfort for style. While this bike looks like a WWII relic, it can hang with any custom V-twin on the road today. It's nice to see the new style the younger builders are designing and producing. These racers turned riders are designing a style of chopper that incorporates the adrenaline rush of speed racing with the classic eye-popping chopper style!
While we briefly scraped the surface of Aaron's new wheel/brake design don't fret, we are working on a follow up in-depth tech article detailing the setup and how Aaron has developed them for stock applications.