Bass Kustom Brings Racer Style To A CFL Frame
When Bass Kustom got this West Coast Choppers CFL rigid-frame project, the shop turned it into a killer rigid-framed custom with café racer genetics. Powered by an S&S Cycle Shovelhead, the V-twin is a sweet blend of classic style, brass motorcycle parts, and hard work.
Lately, Bass Kustom has been busier than my uncle’s belt at Golden Corral. Owner/builder Brian Bass does a lot of hot-rod and car stuff now, but he still loves the motorcycle projects from time to time. This one came to him in 2012 from Chris Andrews out of Fort Worth, Texas, who contacted Brian about a project he’d already started, based on a West Coast Choppers CFL (Choppers for Life) frame. It was basically a roller, and Chris wanted someone to finish it up because he was at a point where he was just too busy to devote the time needed for completion.
Brian told us, “He already had some great parts, and asked me to use as much of those as possible to get the look he wanted… which I felt was sort of a racy/café style, but with a rigid frame.” In the end Brian essentially used the frame, fork, engine, trans, fuel tank, and seat pan from the existing project, and changed just about everything else: “I like the fact that Chris let me go nuts fabricating parts on this bike.”
Brian made the mid-controls, modified the frame, shaped the rear seat pod, reworked the seat pan and the sprung seat mount structure, built a really cool upper motor mount, built the asymmetrical oil tank, fabbed the stainless exhaust, reshaped some of the tank, and designed tank emblems with the flying A logo, to name a few major details. “The hardest part,” he continued, “was getting that racy café look with the rigid frame. That and getting the bike built fast enough because I run a one-man shop.”
Brian Bass gives big thanks to Chris Andrews for the opportunity to build this really bitchin’ bike.