Ness-Stalgia
Ness-Stalgia
CALIFORNIA SPECIALS
Arlen Ness builds an all-American "body bike." Half '57 Chevy, half Harley-Davidson, all show-stopper.
IT'S ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT ON East Fourteenth Street in San Leandro during the mid-'60s. The hot-rodders are out practicing the art of one-upmanship, showing off their loud, slammed, chromed and ultimately hip wheeled wares. Taking it all in is a young man named Arlen Ness.
Ignoring a parental edict against all things two-wheeled, Ness went on to become this strip’s most famous son-in the 30 years since he came upon the Bay Area scene, Ness has set the trends that shape the world of Harley-Davidson customizing. From the business side of a desk piled with
papers, books and renderings of future projects, Ness, 54, says, "In the early days, there weren't a lot of people doing this stuff. I guess we've been the
trendsetters ’cuz we are always willing to try something different.”
Take note of the generous use of “we” whenever Ness discusses the bikes bearing his signature. “At first, I was alone with my imagination, a hammer and a can of Bondo,” he says. “I didn’t have the money to get good help.” Today, Ness is free to bring projects to fruition with the assistance of a dedicated cadre of artisans.
Memorable machines roll out of Ness’ shop with names like The Bat Bike, Flamin’ Ape, Mona Lisa, Two Bad, Nesstique, The Ferrari Bike and now Ness-Stalgia, the narrow, twowhecled ’57 Chevy seen here.
Chevrolet’s 1957 Bel Air epitomized an era of American excitement embodied in futuristic auto design. Taking cues from the aviation world, the Bel Air was penned by GM’s chief stylist, Flarley (no kidding!) Earl.
Like all Ness creations, Ness-Stalgia
is the product of many minds. The genesis of this radical venture came from artist Carl Brouchard. Ness said he liked the concept because it looked “pretty slick.”
After drawings were finalized by Brouchard, Ness had one of his firm’s Rubbermount Softail frames stretched a full 5 inches. Then, a reasonably modified 80-cubic-inch Evo motor was bolted between shiny Performance Machine wheels. All the appropriate peripheral bits of decorative aluminum were created or taken from the Ness Enterprises catalog (510/276-3395). Instead of using clay or computer modeling to come up with a final design, Ness uses the old-fashioned tissuepaper method. Ness and crew took a picture of the rolling chassis, enlarged it, then placed sheets of the translucent paper over the photo so the final shape of the body could be drawn out. Dimensions were then given to the next artisan. In the case of the ’57 Chevy bike, this was Ron Covell.
Covell painstakingly cut, welded and beat a pile of 7075 aluminum sheets into a distinctive homage to America’s vehicular past using only sandbags and ballpeen hammers.
Ness-Stalgia was unveiled at the 45th Annual Oakland Roadster Show in January. By that time, though, Ness was ready to move on to new things. As he says, “The true challenge is to see the project through. And, of course, it’s fun to take it some place and see people get excited over the new stuff-it makes ya feel kinda good.”
Despite creating bikes that have set the custom tone for three decades, gathered accolades around the world and even rolled into legitimate museums, Ness modestly discounts his stature as an artist. “I’m not an artist at
all,” he says. “Sure, I’ve done a lot of painting, but that’s just taping and spraying, spraying and taping....”
Where will the boy from Fourteenth Street take the custom crowd as we approach the 21st century? Says Ness, “Once I see my trends being copied, it makes me want to go on to something else. We started the bodywork thing years ago, now we’re moving on.”
-Eric Putter
