Looking back through the pages of Hot Bike from just a few years ago, it seems like it was obsessed with being fat (much like the rest of America). Fat tires, with fat fenders and fat tanks created some rather bulbous machines that were almost as wide as they were long. After a trend becomes the norm, typically anti-trends rise from the shadows. The return to the purity of choppers has recently been gaining steam. more and more bikes are trying harder and harder to become smaller and smaller. Thin is definitely back in.

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Noise cycles is the one-man shop of a truly talented builder named Scott “T-bone” Jones

Noise Cycles is the one-man shop of a truly talented builder named Scott “T-bone” Jones. The bikes that come out of the small Orange County shop tend to reflect T-Bone’s quirky personality. Noise Cycles loves to build bikes that tend to be slightly off the build charts and in the “why would you do that?” end of the richter scale. For this bike, Noise Cycles was tasked with taking a modern day Forty-eight Sportster and giving it the old-school look. “A customer brought an ’11 Sportster to the shop and asked for a better looking bike using only the motor and rear wheel from the existing bike. The owner is 6-foot-2 tall and wanted the bike to fit his size better and go as skinny as possible,” explained T-bone.

Sounds easy right? After all, making choppers means taking parts off, not making things fit. In this case, it wasn’t nearly that easy. “I started with frame dimensions close to an early big-twin frame with a 2-inch up stretch. I then had to add a smaller tank to fit the super-skinny front end. Next, I handmade the oil tank to fit around the motor and frame section. Narrow bars help to keep swollen knuckles to a minimum. I kept the fuel injection that turned out to be a nightmare, and made a seat to tuck the body into the bike. An internal throttle helped to keep the bars clean. I adapted the stock forward controls by moving them back somewhere between forwards and mids and split the difference. Finally, I flat black powdercoated the frame and added a silver flake under gloss black for the tins.”

After all the reconstructive surgery was complete, it would take a keen eye to realize this bike started as an ’11. With the modern reliability of modern powerplant, mixed with the style and charm of a bike from days gone by, T-Bone has managed to create what could possibly be a new genre of motorcycles, but as he humbly explains, he couldn’t have done it without a lot of help from a lot of friends. “If it weren’t for these guys, there would be no bike; my wife and kids, Steven Ray, Mullins Chain Drive, Lowbrow Customs, Chassis Design, Wheel Works, Hot Bike Magazine, Speed Merchant, Matt Ross Paint, Eli’s Polishing And Plating, Jeff Holt, John Z., Xstevenx, Jordan, Bennett’s Performance, Mach 1, Db2 and Vicks Upholstery.”