This is not your ordinary "build a pretty cool bike for no reason" story. This is a tale of a man who was trying to support a family of six as a trucker and made a bad career choice. That error in judgment cost him five years in the cross bar hotel. While in the big house, his family

did the best they could to make ends meet and provide for each other; one of Santos "Pops" sons became a truck driver, his daughters worked around town and Johnny opened a custom bike shop.

Pops has been riding Harleys since the '60's and got Johnny into bikes. Besides being a truck driver, Pops is an expert welder and taught Johnny everything he knows about welding. Johnny also learned to paint starting with low rider cars and eventually taught himself to be a machinist. Pops' love for H-D's naturally rubbed off onto Johnny.

Providing for his family during the lean years of the late '80's and early '90's forced Pops to go without a bike. When he went to jail, Johnny decided he wanted to show his love and respect for his dad and build him a bike he would be proud of. Johnny planned to surprise him with it when he got out.

Johnny traded a rebuilt shovel motor he had just finished for a I960 Panhead motor that needed to be rebuilt, lie then sold a swing arm frame and used the money to buy an old Jammer rigid frame. Johnny molded internal fork stops and rear scratch plates on the frame and began the project.

Because Pops' knees were pretty bad, Johnny decided this bike needed to have an electric start besides the kicker. Because the left-hand engine case on a I960 Pan motor has a lip that butts up against the inner pri­mary, he milled the inner primary to fit the case and used a 1981 transmission with a 1965 mainshaft (which is longer). He installed a primo belt system with a primo pro clutch and was able to put a Chrome Specialties solenoid and starter on the bike.

Johnny then stroked the motor to 84 cubic inches and put stainless steel valves and bronze guides in. An S&S E carb, Sifton cam and Jims push rods with hydraulic lifters make the perfect package on this old Pan.

Johnny also decided he wanted the rear wheel to look clean. He decided to put the disk brake on the chain side and have the right side open. He did not want to use the traditional Sprotor set-up because it was expensive and he worried about the lube from the chain greasing up the brake pads. Johnny took an extra sprocket and cut the teeth off of it and machined a bevel or groove on it. By stepping the side down, he was able to mount a rotor he made out of stainless steel to the old sprocket. Johnny milled holes in the rotor to make it lighter. He then made a hanger for the caliper that rides between the chain.

Johnny lowered the rear fender and welded struts on the inside to give it a clean sleek look. He then frenched the license plate/taillight mount into the fender. Fifty-five LED lights let the people behind Pops know he is stopping.

On the front wheel Johnny had to cut the caliper mount and machine it to fit. On the right side, he made a hub cover. PM Brakes, con­trols, master cylinder and clutch grace the drag bars. Joker Machine clamps hold the brake line to the frame, and eliminate the cheesy look of zip-ties.

Johnny laid down some DuPont sapphire paint with gloss black frames on the sheet metal.

Each of the fat bob tanks halves bear a howling wolf ghost painted to the front of the tank and can only be seen with a flash­light or in the bright sun. This was a subtle tribute to his dad because he has always liked wolves.

When Johnny presented his dad with the new bike as a coming home present his dad was ecstatic. It made those five years of confinement feel like a debt paid and made his newly acquired freedom that much sweeter.