Hardtail Custom Tetris
Playing “parts pile Tetris” yields some terrific custom motorcycles. Nathan Ekstrom and Jayne Krabbenhoft own this 2010 Harley-Davidson-powered custom hardtail, which was the child of their ingenuity, skill, and the parts they had lying around. It’s almost like Chopped for fabricators instead of chefs. “We needed to do something with all the parts laying around, and around here, the winters are long so it was something to do,” Nathan said. “I built the bike during one winter and left it raw. I wanted to ride it one season without dressing it up with paint or chrome to get all the bugs out of it.” The following summer he put about 5K miles on it, riding to Red Lodge, Montana, Sturgis, South Dakota, and about every weekend to the local lake country. It rode and ran really well throughout the summer with minimal problems, proving itself a reliable road runner. It was not, however, a finished motorcycle. That came next winter when Nathan tore it down, tweaked it, and sent it off for paint and chrome. “A lot of people tried talking me out of painting it but I had my ‘rough bike’ already,” he told us. “This being the first one I built from the ground up, I had a certain way I wanted it to look, and I’m glad I went through with the finish work.”