Paulie designed the webbing on the tank to be removable so it could be chromed. The addition of paint behind the webbing helps the chrome pop.
Paulie designed the webbing on the tank to be removable so it could be chromed. The additi
What's in a name? Well if you can't read between the lines, Anti-Venom, we suggest you back away from the TV for a while. While a black widow may be poisonous and do serious damage if it attacks you, a dose of anti-venom can get you back in the game of life. "Just the word anti-venom has a deeper meaning. I named it that because it's kind of the answer to the problem, in much the same way as if you had a problem and you needed anti-venom that would help you. The problem here is that all the bikes sit on the showroom floor over at OCC," Paulie said.
With a small crew of friends and members of the original show now working for Paulie at PJD, (once again, you can probably read between the lines on that one) it was bike-building and show-business as usual with cameras rolling as the crew made a mad rush to get the bike done and on the truck to be debuted in Sturgis. "The build went excellent but it was very labor-intensive. The gas tank may look simple but we probably have a couple hundred hours just in the tank along with the fenders and exhaust. But we have a great team of people like Vinnie, Odie, Nub, and the rest of the guys who were all an integral part of making it all happen in the time frame it did."
With an emphasis on building strong and healthy relationships with others in the industry, Paulie turned to Renegade Wheels to help him get the wheels done on time.
With an emphasis on building strong and healthy relationships with others in the industry,
Working with an off-the-shelf tank, Paulie wanted to improve upon what was accomplished with the Black Widow bike and rather than just wrapping the tank in chrome webbing, the Anti-Venom tank was heavily modified so that the webbing was a more intricate part of the tank. "We took a tank and sliced it at an angle on each side and took that part of the tank away. We put a laser on it and had it set up in a vise that you would normally use on a CNC machine and we just got it. If we would have been off a half a degree out of pitch and askew, each side would've been 100 percent different, but we got it first shot," Paulie remarked. "We used a water-jet to make our first plate template and then we took 1 inch out of the sides along the length almost like a cross, and then I shrunk it down, tacked it together, and set it back inside this almost gaskety looking perimeter plate. Once I had that shape, we bent two pieces to be our horizontal bars and then we used that as a background to build all the webbing off of and keep that perfect shape of the gas tank. Essentially the web makes up the negative space we cut off and puts the shape back into the gas tank. It was so time consuming, it's unbelievable. I'm getting tired thinking about it."
The wheels were another aspect in which Paulie wanted to better the Black Widow bike. Instead of cutting out a flat web pattern and calling it a day, the webbing actually has some volume and dimension to it for that 3-D effect (it's all the rage these days). "We did all the webbing in-house and Chuck over at Renegade cut the wheels. I only have one CNC machine and it would have taken so long to do the wheels. I mean, it took three weeks running the machine around the clock to cut the web inserts, it was crazy. So I had no machine to cut the wheels, so that's where Renegade came in. It really worked out well," Paulie commented.
Now out on his own, relaxed and refreshed, Paulie has had time to reflect and look beyond the confines of a workshop and think about what's important to him. Working with, and establishing good relationships with others in the industry is one of Paulie's main goals. "One of the things I hope that comes out of this is I really want to help the motorcycle industry," said Paulie. "It's been a really tough couple of years for the industry, but I think the industry is right on the pivotal point of coming back. And I don't see any reason to be greedy about it. I want to spread the wealth and motivate people to go and buy motorcycles and parts, and be involved in every aspect. It's something that's important to me. I want to see this industry get back to where it was."