The Bike In Black

THE BIKE IN BLACK

Two-wheel tribute to a stock-car legend

PAUL DEAN

HE WAS THE MAN IN BLACK. He was an icon in the high-powered world of automobile racing, a seven-time Winston Cup Champion considered the point man in NASCAR’s growth from a redneck wreckfest to a runaway sports-entertainment vehicle. He possessed the most fierce desire to win of anyone who ever strapped into a racecar, a drive that helped him become the most respected and admired, the most feared and hated competitor in his sport. He was Dale Earnhardt, a.k.a. “The Intimidator,” a nickname he came by the old-fashioned way: He earned it.

Although Earnhardt was sponsored by Goodwrench, he was NASCAR’s Bad Boy, never above “using the chrome horn” (car-racing jargon for punting a competitor out of the way with your front bumper) to further his relentless charges to the front of the field. But in February of 2001, Earnhardt’s reign as the living legend of NASCAR literally came crashing to an end when he died in a last-lap accident during the Daytona 500.

You’ve no doubt already guessed that the sleek, black custom Harley seen here pays some kind of homage to the late Earnhardt. It does-but it’s much, much more than that.

If you’re a male over the age of, oh, about 8 and know nothing about Earnhardt and his nationally televised demise, please report immediately to your physician; we’re going to need a sperm count. But even if you’re pretty savvy about four-wheel racing, you may not be aware of the enormous merchandising power of any and everything NASCAR. In Earnhardt’s case, that power was substantial before his death but grew almost exponentially after it.

All tolled, the sales of NASCARrelated merchandise-T-shirts, hats, jackets, model racecars, cups, posters, license-plate frames, decals and just about every other trinket and souvenir imaginable-amount to a billion dollars per year. Of that annual revenue, Earnhardt memorabilia alone accounts for 20 percent-$200 million! Geez, and we thought the market for HarleyDavidson merchandise was huge...

Well, it is, actually. Which brings us back to the black custom Harley. After Earnhardt’s death, General Motors announced an all-black, limited-production version of its Monte Carlo, called the “Dale Earnhardt Signature Edition,” honoring the man who drove that model of Chevrolet to many Winston Cup victories. Its special commemorative graphics package included Earnhardt’s distinctive signature and his car’s trademark block-letter No. 3. And, again playing on the ever-present “3” theme, only 3333 examples would be built.

And that got Fred Wagenhals thinking. Wagenhals owns Action Performance Company, the biggest player in the NASCAR merchandising field, which does some 60 percent of its business in die-cast collectible car and motorcycle models. When contemplating the almost unlimited sales potential for a scale-model of that special Monte Carlo, Wagenhals envisioned a Harley-Davidson commemorative model custom-built with a similar theme. All he need ed was a full-size custom that his company could use as a prototype for the scaled-down models.

Conveniently enough, Wagenhals’ company is based in Phoenix, Arizona, a few miles up the road from Paul Yaffe Originals, whose namesake is one of the world’s top H-D custom builders. Wagenhals took the idea to Yaffe, who immediately embraced it, and the project was soon underway. Just five weeks later, that Earnhardtthemed custom named, not surprisingly, “The Intimidator,” was complete and ready for the scrutiny of Action’s master model-makers.

In his own right, Yaffe is also quickly becoming a legend. He won the prestigious Oakland Roadster Show three years in a row, and his work has been on display several times in the pages of this magazine, most recently in a June, 2000, feature titled “Prodigies.” But while Yaffe has built some of the most elaborate H-D customs ever seen, The Intimidator is nothing of the sort. “I wanted something clean and simple” says Yaffe, “something that would make people immediately think of NASCAR and Earnhardt’s No. 3.”

He started with one of his own Paul Yaffe Originals chassis, a Softail-type design with a kicked-out, 37.5degree rake, cradling an H-D Twin Cam 88B motor. The gas tank, fenders, handlebar, grips and numerous other exterior items also are off-the-shelf PYO components. So are the necessary transmission and primary-drive pieces that offset the final-drive belt enough to allow clearance for the huge, 250-section Avon rear tire. Says Yaffe, “Gotta emulate those big, fat NASCAR meats.”

Yaffe claims 105 rear-wheel horsepower and 120 foot-pounds of torque from the 95-inch motor. It was modified with Screamin’ Eagle heads reworked by the PYO crew, along with Head Quarters cams, a 44mm Mikuni CV carb and a set of Crack Pipes-a stylish exhaust system created by Yaffe exclusively for SuperTrapp.

One of the more imaginative aspects of The Intimidator is the design of its CNC-machined wheels. Their three spokes are cut in the shape of pistons and connecting rods, with Earnhardt’s famous “3” machined out of each piston. The wheels are anodized black, with a red pinstripe around the outer edges, just like the wheels on Earnhardt’s NASCAR racecar.

Wagenhals unveiled the bike to the NASCAR crowd at this year’s Daytona 500 in February, and Yaffe will exhibit it there again in March during Bike Week. Work is well underway on Action’s models, which will be manufactured in quantities that boggle the mind. “We’ll build about 100,000 in a high-end, i/9-scale version that'll sell for several hundred dollars," says Wagenha1s~. and we 11 also do a 1/64-scale kids toy version that~wfl~ only cost a few bucks. We’ll make about a million of those.”

But that’s not all. Not to be outdone by General Motors, Wagcnhals wants Yaffe to build 333 full-size, fully functional copies of this custom, which will then be sold for somewhere in the $50,000 range.

Think that’s either too many replicas or too heavy a price tag? Wagenhals doesn’t. “Not when you’re talking about someone of Dale Earnhardt’s stature,”

he says. “When I told some of the NASCAR people I intend to have 333 full-size copies of this bike built, most of them said, ‘That’s allT And when I told them each one would sell for 50 grand, they said the same thing:‘That’s all?”

That’s enough. Especially considering all the scaled-down replicas that will be floating around. Because while it’s usually fair to say that most H-D customs are one in a million, The Intimidator is truly one of a million.