Speaking of, where exactly do you find a chopper frame that can accommodate the extra-wide Hayabusa inline-four? You can't, so Sapp and Clark built their own frame from one-inch chromoly tubing, painstakingly cut, bent and welded to fit. Same with the bodywork-how fun it was to eavesdrop at the Rat's Hole as know-it-all onlookers speculated about the origins of the gas tank and how the headlight had to be a modified this-or-that. Like so much else on this bike, all the bodywork is handmade by C&S. The fuel tank is hand-formed from sheet stock, as is the seat pan/tailsection. The fenders are aftermarket blanks cut to match the tribal lines of the other pieces, and the remaining body bits-fender mounts, air dam, radiator shrouds, engine case guards-are likewise hand-cut and hand-formed. Heck, even the seat cover was stitched in-house. Everything on the bike looks gorgeous and absolutely integrated.
As for that headlight, yep, you guessed it, hand-formed too. The skeleton hand support is fabricated from aluminum tube stock welded and ground to fit-no bondo anywhere. The handlebars are also home-jobs, and all the cables are internally routed. But the pice de rsistance and the one mod that marks this bike as a true chopper, even more than the radically raked-out front end, has got to be the jockey-shift conversion. Believe it or not, this 'Busa's clutch is now foot-operated, and the bike is shifted by hand via a custom vertical shift rod topped with a skull knob that has been meticulously hand-carved to pick up the paint job's flame theme. The skull theme is also echoed in the paint, featuring mile-deep skeleton graphics by Randy Leonard at Quarter Mile Graphics, also located in Mocksville.
Of course, there are a few standard parts on this bike. The forks, for example, are aftermarket 10-inch-over legs, and the wheels are production pieces from RC Components in the Stingray pattern. The rear swingarm is a standard off-the-shelf C&S Customs Hayabusa arm, if you can call an 8-inch-over swingarm that accommodates a 300-series tire a standard part. In an extra bit of trickness, the rear brake disc has been relocated from the rear wheel to the jackshaft mounted at the center of the swingarm in order to clear the extra-wide rear tire.
Roll this all up and the result is a handbuilt custom that blows everyone-chopper guys and sportbike guys alike-away. Even at the infamous Hess gas station on International Speedway Boulevard (unofficially sportbike central during Bike Week), this chopped 'Busa stopped the place dead-especially when it rolled in after dark with its green LED underlighting. Instantly a crowd 30 deep gathered just to catch a glimpse of it, so it seems safe to say "our" people approve of Sapp's efforts.
But the Hess Station is one thing-what about all those chopperheads on Saturday morning down at the Rat's Hole? Despite the big talk from the crowd, Sapp's bike earned him a big, fat nothing in judged competition. But that's always the story with gate-crashing, isn't it? It's great fun in the moment, but when all is said and done you're still not welcome at the party. And to that Jason Sapp can only say, "F*ck 'em," just before he blasts off in a 180-hp cloud of tire smoke.