'It's really a Fredericton bike'
Published Saturday May 9th, 2009
Legend | 1975 Harley transformed into an award-winning bike
When Rod Johnsen was growing up in Nackawic, Johnny Dyer's bike was the stuff of local legend.
And if Dyer was alive today, he'd be tickled to see his bike - albeit redesigned - on the cover of Canada's Motorcycle Mojo magazine and the centrefold of its March/April edition.
Dyer, who lived in Millville and worked at the Nackawic pulp and paper mill, sunk a lot of money in bringing his 1975 XL hardtail Harley-Davidson to area streets, Johnsen said.
At a time when there were only a handful of Harleys in the province, Dyer's bike was the first stroker in the area - a crankshaft design that moves the pin location on the outside of the flywheel to lengthen the stroke on the engine rods as they move. The longer stroke adds cubic centimetres and more power. The bike's engine came from Quebec and was customized to 1166 cc.
Johnsen said Dyer wasn't adverse to letting his bike's presence be known on local streets.
"It's probably not a good thing to say now, but Johnny Dyer was a wild man when he was alive, a pure wild man. When you're a young fellow, you kind of always see those guys and it made an impression on me," Johnsen said. "Even back then, there was a lot of local hype about it."
Fast-forward to 2009, and Johnsen hasn't gotten over his fascination with Harley-Davidsons. His northside business, Chopper Rods Inc., can pretty much do anything anyone wants done with their hog.
Johnsen even got to know Dyer and his family from the time Johnsen spent working at the mill before he opened his own business seven years ago.
"When he passed away, the bike sat in an old, damp garage for a few years. And I was always a little bit interested in it," he said.
"Then one Saturday night, I got the call to go and get her and the price was right. So we got the bike and brought it back here and we stripped everything out of it and I kept the motor," Johnsen said.
That was four years ago, and as money and time allowed, Johnsen and his crew at the shop - Rod (Skeeter) Longaphie, Martin Speer and Mike Beattie - lovingly rebuilt the bike from rubber to handlebars.
"The first year I got the bike here, we stripped it down. I kind of knew what we were going to do. I kept the motor, and the first year I just rebuilt the bottom end of the motor, the crankshaft," Johnsen said.
The next year, they sent the pistons down to New York and had them modified to be fitted back into the cylinders, and the third year, parts were assembled into what is now known as The Millville Stroker.
"I think one of the biggest things that we're proud about with that bike is that nothing happened on that bike that didn't happen within 10 miles of this shop, so it's really a Fredericton bike. It's all done right here," Johnsen said.
The bike is an amazing collection of recycled bits and pieces.
A modified Paughco frame is the bike's chassis. Longaphie scrounged an old brass marine driveshaft from Best Metals and machined all the brasswork, Johnsen said.
A master cylinder came off a friend's wrecked bike. The shock and the seat came off a BMX bike and the oil tank is salvaged aluminum machined by Longaphie.
"It's a bunch of parts we've had ... We didn't really have a bunch of money to invest in it. A really cool thing about this bike is that it has a belt-drive on it, which is more of a modern thing. These particular bikes never had a belt-drive on it," Johnsen said.
"The back wheel is off another bike. It's actually a Harley Deuce wheel. We painted it black and Skeeter put it in the mill at the rotary table and drilled 90 holes in it on each side."
The bike has 30 coats of a colour called pagan gold and it's got one-eighth metal flake underneath the layers of colours. Green, gold and black are swirled to resemble marble in the job finished off by local painter Bruce Carr.
A small Canadian maple leaf winks up from the rear wheel fender.
Virtually every part of the antique bike has been crafted with care and an eye for perfection.
As a show bike, the motorcycle is still powered by Dyer's 1975 motor, so it's a small, fairly fast bike that's Chopper Rods' pride and joy.
Even the hand-carved seat, with The Millville Stroker embedded in the black leather, is Johnsen's first effort since he used to emboss leather working with his grandfather.
At the 2008 Dutch Mason Blues Festival and Motorcycle Lifestyle Show in Truro, N.S., last summer, The Millville Stroker was voted the best in Atlantic Canada in the pro builder class.
The motorcycle's accolade and cover story were saved for this spring, when it was featured again in the Atlantic Motorcyle Show in Moncton in April.
Johnsen has the cover story framed and hanging in his Clements Drive shop for all the world to see, and he's happy to see a bit of local history enshrined in Canadian bike lore.
"You get an idea and you go with it. It just seems to work out for us. It's a big team effort. Skeeter plays a very large part, but we all bounce ideas off each other," Johnsen said.
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