Looking for a way to commemorate the men and machines
that spawned the sport of motorcycling, Mike James of Santa Cruz Harley-Davidson,
and Bruce Canepa of Canepa Designs teamed up to design a limited series
of bikes that would capture the essence of days gone by. The result
was the “Bomber Bike”.
This particular example is the show bike and
no.1 in a series of 10 built.
In addition to going on the show tour, this was the bike featured
in all the advertising and articles about the Bomber bike program.
It was sold to a friend of Bruce Canepa and has remained in his collection
to this day. The bike has only been ridden 1372 miles and is in
New “Show” condition. This was the only bike
in the series that was built to this high of a level of detail and
finish.
Chassis
Starting with a 1999 Fat Boy soft tail, the chassis was cleaned up
by removing all extraneous tabs and brackets, metal finished and painted
in Warlord Silver which is the base color for the entire bike. The
chassis has been lowered over stock. Many components of the bike have
been shot with a black powdercoat or gloss black finish to accent
the cast aluminum powdercoat seen throughout the bike. The crowning
touch is the unique tank design reminiscent of WWII bomber nose art
created by artist Dawne Holmes.
The bike features custom chrome plated controls, custom
rearview mirrors, Harley nostalgia brake pedal and air cleaner. The
turn signals have been relocated and a custom one off taillight with
integrated rear turn signals has been designed just for this bike.
The seat and dash are covered with “distressed Bomber Jacket”
leather that matches the jacket that comes with the bike.
Engine
The engine was upgraded using Harley’s line of Screamin’
Eagle accessories including pistons, heads, cam, lifters, pushrods
and a set of roller rockers. A Mikuni 42mm feeds the engine and heat-wrapped
Paughco exhaust extracts the gases. The engine bottom end and transmission
have been powdercoated.
Misc.
This bike was featured in many magazines including “Cycle World”,
“Hot Bike”, “Perfect 10, and “Thunder Press”,
and comes complete with the factory owners manual (still shrink wrapped),
removable passenger seat, and a unique goat-skin “bomber”
jacket that is custom tailored and has a matching hand-painted version
of the tank art on the back
