Life and Times of a ’65, ’76 ’99, ’11 ’25 Jammer Rigid Shovelhead, a Journey

 

Prelude

The nice thing about being a member of the Comstock Chapter AMCA is that all those swell guys and gals have a totally eclectic approach to the vintage motorcycle affliction.

 

We have your Brit bike contingent, the V Twin followers, the leather-belt drive set, the Bling Bros, the Desmodromic Valve Actuators and more… Each following is populated by the faithful who have done their deep silo studies to develop the tenants of their belief systems. Each and every one of them secure in the knowledge that they are on the right team.

 

Then, we have the footloose drifters who suffer from F.O.M.O. FOMO is untreatable. The Fear of Missing Out is the strong propellant for the eclectic collection bug. Mini bikes? “That looks interesting.”. Parallel twins? “Sure, let’s have a look.”. Horizontal twins? “Yup!”. 100 pound, 350 pounds, 600+ pounds? “Can there be that much of a difference? Dunno? Let’s find out.”. British, American, German, Indian, Italian? “Gotta be a manual somewhere we can translate, amirite?” And so it goes on, and on, and on…

 

The Story

Life of this tale begins with Frank Kaisler, publications founder, Easyriders and Hot Rod Bikes editor, prolific bike builder and Shovelhead luminary. Oh, and from the age of 13, a lifelong V Twin chopper fanboy. If you have ever seen Easyriders or Hot Rod Bikes, you know his work. If you have watched the Lowbrow Customs technical YouTubes™ on the Iron Sporty or maintenance of your Shovelhead, you have met Frank.

 

Best I can tell, this month’s bike might go back to around 1965 as a used Panhead. About 1976ish, the aftermarket frame, a Jammer rigid, +3” up at the head, became the rolling bones. Then in 1999 it became a mule for a multi-year remake with more parts swaps than any Kardashian plastic surgery log book. What was left became the Hot Rod Bikes “Project Shovel 2000”. A chopper for the new millennium. For about 18 months there were monthly technical feature articles on how to correctly build, with average skills and tools, a hard riding, reliable scooter you could be proud of being seen on at your work, school, or pool hall. Your EDR - Every Day Ride. 

 

At Hot Rod Bikes, there were plenty of surplus take-off parts from the countless parts swapping articles that preceded Shovel 2000. At this point, the bike was what I would call a Tool Bike. A new front end assembly arrives, put it on for an article, how to build a fresh Shovelhead from several boxes of parts shipped from S&S, natch. There was never a time when you heard, “now that we are done with Project Shovel 2000…”.

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After the rapid fire swaps of fresh tin, gearboxes, brakes, wheels, electrical bits, etc. Shovel 2K went on to endure countless tech article dyno pulls at Bartel’s Harley Davidson in Marina Del Rey, SoCal. Horsepower and torque curves for a six carb comparo, a dozen headpipe and muffler swap outs, month after month.

 

And then, how about duty as the Magazine’s shop bike for Todd to ride? Shovel 2K became a seasoned commute bike lane splitting on the SoCal 405 and 710. The build style continued to morph in time with an indestructible PM rear wheel, disc brakes, all season rubber and other elements based on performance and reliability. 

 

At any one time, there were enough non-conforming bits in residence on Shovel 2000 that traffic stops became a tedious tech session for the boys in blue. Even the original Panhead motor was in a Born Free build. The pop-rivet blue tag of Cali pride was attached to the frame. Shovel 2000 would just be known as “RECON”.