Gunblast

GUNBLAST

American FLYERS

Heavy-metal Beezer

LOVE CAN DO STRANGE things to a man. Make him hold on to an old, oily, unreliable motorcycle, for instance. But even amore has it limits, and when Tony Payan’s mildly customized 1961 BSA Super Rocket lost its electrons one time too many, something had to be done. Selling the bike, though, was not an option.

“I gave up on the execution,” says the 32-year-old Cuban émigré, “but not the design. I loved that bike-at that point I’d owned it for 12 years.”

Out came the uncooperative engine and balky gearbox, boxed up and airshipped to SRM Engineering in England, acknowledged experts in the ways of the 650cc vertical-Twin BSA. Four months and several painfully large checks later,

Payan got back a rompin’ 794cc stroker good for about 60 blip. Fires right up, too, thanks to fat sparks from an electronic ignition.

A self-described “starving artist,” Payan didn’t have much moola left for the rest of the bike, so he had to get creative. The frame and final assembly were farmed out to “Fat Bob,” a Harley mechanic with a home workshop and, apparently, no last name. Payan’s instructions were simple: “Stretch it, rake it, put a fat tire out back.”

Southern California’s car culture contributed the finishing touches. Bonneville guy Dennis Webb handpounded the torpedo-shaped aluminum fuel tank over a wooden buck, charging about a quarter what bike fabricators had quoted. Scott’s Performance took on

the complicated over-andunder exhaust, a four-week exercise squeezed between work on hot-rodded Japanese imports. NASCAR Garage, a Santa Ana shop, rewired the bike, the capper being a modern high-intensity discharge headlight.

“It’s so nice to have real electrics on an old BSA,” says a relieved Payan.

More money was saved by not fitting a front brake, an old-school chopper throwback. Besides, says Payan, the single Pag Bros, sprocket-disc and PM rear caliper work twice as well as the stock drums ever did. And, yes, the real sprocket is on the other side-hey, when you’re building a bike you get to make the aesthetic calls...

No second-guessing the paint, though. There is none. The frame was sanded to

bare metal then powdercoated clear, as were the alloy tank and body panels, though these made three trips to the anodizer’s before acquiring the correct matching shade of gunmetal gray.

Speaking of guns, Payan paid homage to BSA’s early history (Birmingham Small Arms, remember?) by embroidering the leather seat with the company’s famous “piled arms” logo and by convincing the California DMV that his “GUNBLST” vanity plate was not gang-related.

Of the finished product, Payan says, “We sort of made it up as we went, but it fits me like a tailored suit. Everybody has a custom Harley, but who has a custom BSA? It’s a great feeling.”

See? Love is lovelier the second time around.

-David Edwards