High Roller

HIGH ROLLER

Further evolution of the Japanese custom

IT WON'T BE LONG BEFORE the Lawn Bowling Channel has a show on custom Harleys. Yep, cable TV is rife with half-brainers chopping and cutting Milwaukee Iron into all kinds of crazy concoctions, usually on a ridiculous time schedule and with major personality conflicts. Or maybe we're the half-brainers for not thinking of the idea and cashing in as so many have done. But one thing you don't see on TV are people working on Japanese cruisers. Surely there is enough aftermarket support and building talent out there by now?

A look at the latest work of perennial Yamaha customizer Jeff Palhegyi suggests there is plenty of skill in the metric market. The San Diego-based builder’s work has graced these pages many times for the simple reason that what he turns out are some of the finest, most finished customs on the road, metric or otherwise.

“If Daytona this year was any evidence, the Japanese custom-bike thing is getting bigger,” says Palhegyi. “In fact, it surprises me that it hasn’t broken onto the Discovery Channel yet. There are three or four bigtime shops now putting a lot of effort and money into high-line Japanese customs.”

For Palhegyi’s part, it won’t be him on TV, simply because he’s got no image to sell, no products to hawk. His work is typically for Yamaha Motor Corp. as sort of its custom skunkworks, or in the case of this latest product, an elite clientele with specific wants and plenty of budget.

So it makes sense that this bike’s name, High Roller, was actually taken from the man who commissioned it. It’s his nickname!

So trusting was he of Palhegyi that Mr. Roller’s only direction was “Make a bike that fits my personality,” and he never saw his bike until it was finished. In fact, he even had his only request-to paint the bike black-partly denied!

“I don’t like black bikes,” declares Palhegyi. “They don’t photograph well, they don’t emphasize the shapes and they don’t give off that high-end look.”

To satisfy the owner’s desire, though, all the bodywork was painted black down the center so that when he sits on the bike, it looks how he wanted, while on the sides was laid a sweet candy red.

American FLYERS

Under that immaculate paint is the typical Palhegyi craftsmanship. The smoothest of stretches was laid upon the stock tank, while fenders flow nicely and much closer to the ground than stock Road Star pieces, with a perfectly flush taillight the finishing touch. Serious work went into cleaning up, stretching

and lowering the Yamaha frame. Suspension is also slammed, though there is travel left-the owner rides the Roller every weekend.

All that work couldn’t have been cheap...

“The owner is a really wealthy guy and doesn’t care what he spends on his bikes,” says Palhegyi. “He just said, ‘Hang the cost, make it cool.’”

Next up is a Road Starbased chopper. Anyone up for doing a TV show on the build? It might just be time for “Metric Mania.”

Mark Hoyer