Diggin’ It | 2010 Cory Ness Digger

No, no. I did, in fact, say “rear wheel.” Both of the digger’s Ness rims measure a tall 23 inches. Their spindly look is a great match to the chassis upon which this beautiful bike is based. Its backbone is stretched 5 inches out to a neck that’s raked 40 degrees. Measurements such as these are a great recipe for elongation. Cory didn’t go to extreme lengths, though. The fork set is 4 inches under stock length, giving the bike an almost snub-nosed profile. Two synchronous curves really bring the frontend’s look together, too—the top triple tree and the fork brace. Cory and Jim custom-made both of them just for this bike. They also integrated curved bars directly into the top tree instead of using risers or some other middleman to join them. The result is a type of uncluttered appearance that’s rare even for a full-on custom motorcycle.

Realizing creative touches like the bars and trees on this bike may seem like they’d offer the biggest challenges, but there’s one irresistible force that outranks them—time. The most challenging part for Team Ness was to get the bike finished in time for the 71st annual Sturgis Rally while juggling day-to-day work. The other edge of the temporal sword is the kick in the ass it gives you to make things happen. “Deadlines are great,” Cory says. “They’re the only way to get things done.”

Cory had his digger ready to ride come the Sturgis Rally, though. He still has the digger and shows it off at different events, like Daytona Bike Week. It’s gotten plenty of good feedback from the public, too. As for the digger frame’s future, I asked him if there may be a Sportster version available at some point. “We can do that whenever we want, but yes, we’d like to,” Cory answered. “We’re not going to do anything like that immediately because we have other cool stuff going on.” HB