Glam Slam

Located on Wilkinson Boulevard on the west side of Charlotte, North Carolina, Two Wheel Customs (TWC) is a low-key place--the heavy bars across the windows are more indicative of a low-rent pawn shop than the nicely outfitted studio that turns out the two-wheeled works of art seen here. Lorded over by 29-year-old John Dantzler, ably assisted by his store manager "Tab" and a handful of other techs and fabricators, the unassuming TWC shop is quickly building a reputation as ground zero for the tightest sportbikes on the East Coast--and beyond.

Dantzler opened up TWC in January 1999, focusing his efforts on the emergent Pro Street sportbike trend. Serious motor work on TWC's bikes is farmed out to local pro tuners (namely Coby Adams or Lee Shierts), but everything else is done in-house, including basic engine tuning, custom fabrication, bodywork and signature eye-popping paint. In just four years since opening the doors, Dantzler and crew have developed some serious skills, as evidenced by the collection of bikes gathered for our cameras.

All five bikes (including Dantzler's personal ride, the yellow '92 GSX-R1100) represent Showtime Racing, a Charlotte-area bike club and race team. Showtime is a tight group that lives and breathes high-performance motorcycles, and the club's only entrance requirement is ownership of a high-horsepower, show-quality bike. Not coincidentally, Dantzler and the boys at TWC built the majority of the Showtime Racing bikes.

With only a day to photograph all the bikes, Dantzler had four of the five machines already loaded in the Showtime Racing trailer when we arrived at the shop. In addition to his own GSX-R, the trailer also held Cedric Anthony's immaculate red-and-silver Hayabusa, Burt Jones's wild GSX-R750 and Meyon Hart's tight CBR900RR. We poked our heads in the trailer and shot the breeze while waiting for the fifth bike, a chrome Hayabusa belonging to John Cousar, to arrive.

Cousar pulled in at last and it was time to roll. Dantzler led the convoy to the Carolinas Aviation Museum, our first location of the day. He couldn't have picked a better spot--the bikes slotted right in among the old airplanes, and the sound of modern jets taking off from the nearby Charlotte/Douglas International Airport only improved the atmosphere.

After a few hours at the Aviation Museum, we loaded the bikes back up and headed off in search of another location, eventually ending up in a deserted industrial park where Dantzler suggested we pull the bikes out for some serious burnouts and high-speed passes before the sun sunk completely behind the Carolina summer haze. Long, low and ready to go, the sight and sound of these bikes in action was an all-out assault on the senses. No trailer queens here; TWC's creations are brutally fast, visually stunning and tricked out to the max.

See all five of their fabulous bikes in the custom bikes section of this web site.