Blings/S&S custom bikes

One of my favorite motorcycle photographers is Cicero deGuzman Jr of the oddly-named Godspeed 45/06—a quarterly collection of photographs documenting bike builders, their work, and their workspaces. While browsing through the images on the Godspeed website, I stumbled across this beauty.

The bike is owned by Pat McGowan of Northern N.J. “I was going to try and build a bike myself,” he says. “I started getting parts together and went to Bill Dodge of Bling’s Cycles to order a frame and other stuff of his I liked. But after talking with him, I decided I would be better off letting him build it.” While Pat scraped money together, he and Bill got to know each other. “It turned out that Bill was trying to renovate his house himself,” says Pat. “We then decided that a trade would work for both of us. So we did just that: I finished his house, and he built my bike.” In the end, Bill used only the motor that Pat supplied, a 97″ S&S. The transmission is a Baker PowerBox and the rear wheel is a Marchesini upgraded by Bill from a cheap billet import. According to Pat, “The rest is either from Bill’s parts line or things he had stashed away.” Check out more of Bill Dodge’s bikes here—and more lovely photography from Cicero deGuzman Jr here.