XAVW Von Dutch, Ed Roth & Randy Smith

Most of you have probably heard of Von Dutch's XAVW (the VW powered motorcycle once featured on American Pickers), but may not know this part of it's history. It seems that Von Dutch might have been disappointed with the results, so took it apart and sold or traded it to Ed Roth. Randy Smith, an admirer of Von Dutch, bought it as a basket case from Roth and put it back together. 

Volksworks.com said Randy moved to Tennessee taking the XAVW with him where it sat in a barn for 30 or so years. Thanks to MC art reader (Doc), he says it was actually Tom Burke who took it to Tennesse.

Many people credit Mike Wolf for saving this incredible piece of Von Dutch's work, but if it wasn't for Randy Smith, it might have never been saved in the first place.

The article below from Custom Chopper magazine dated May '71 does not mention Roth, but several sources state that his name is still on the registration/title.

The California Charger

In the early seventies the chopper craze was changing rapidly with many builders and suppliers heading into the high performance mode. Ground up customs utilizing only the Harley drive train were being built more and more and were featuring exotic goodies such as aluminum oil tanks, mag wheels, centerline type disc wheels, two into one collector exhausts, disc brakes, aircraft style braided oil/fuel lines, SU carbs, open primaries, belt drives, not to mention complete custom forks and frames.

Bob Hall on the exotic California Charger. The unique triple gas tanks sort of creates an optical illusion. The center tank held gas and also oil to lube the supercharger under the seat.

One such builder was Bob Hall who was once a partner owner of US Motorcycles on Atlantic Blvd. in Lynwood, CA. During that time Bob built the California Flash. A very custom pear white rigid fork Panhead featuring an American 12 spoke up front and a auxiliary fuel tank built into the sissy bar. I'll post it sometime.

Later on Bob opened his own shop in Lawndale CA (which may classify him a South Bay builder), and followed up with the California Charger as seen below. It was called the charger since it had a super charger under the seat that could be disconnected for street use, hence the winged oil tank out front. It had a very cool frame of his own design with a slight dropped seat area which to this day is one of the only aftermarket frames I like. As a matter of fact, when I was young I built a 1/8 scale replica frame out of brass for a Revell Harley model that I still have.

The CA Charger was featured in Custom Chopper magazine and one day I'll post pictures from that feature too.

This photo is from the Kid Deuce collection. The supercharger has been removed and it appears to have been repainted. It's hard to tell but the front mag may have been changed too. Why it's displayed by Alphabet's Custom West is a mystery but it is featuring one of their collector exhaust.

When it comes to choppers my overall favorites tends to fall back to the classic bikes of the early sixties but the South Bay Style and some of the high performance influenced choppers of the early seventies keep pushing their way up. 

Click the Bob Hall label below to see another bike he built.

Puzzle Solved

This ad always puzzled me. I remember seeing it and wondering, could this possibly be White Bear repainted with some minor cosmetic changes or just a very similar machine? It seemed too soon to be the same bike but, at the same time, too similar.

Full page ad from the back cover of the Nov. '73 Custom Chopper. White Bear was in the Aug. '73 Street Chopper, not much time had passed between seeing both bikes published.

Same stance, mags, forks, bars, magneto, and tank with indents. Some other things while similar, are a bit it off? Sportster headlight wasn't chrome, exhaust are slightly different, the engine was not bead blasted but polished in places and sporting a SU carb. But, there was a small nagging similarity. It had exactly the same Harley-Davidson decal on the top edge of the oil tank.

37 years later, puzzle solved. I showed Joe the ad and finally got the answer. He sold white Bear for $1800 as a rolling chassis to Bob Olsen, owner of E.M.E so he could buy a Porsche 911. Pretty decent money for a roller back then.

Final Notes: Joe did later run a SU on White Bear. He knew and still knows the girl (Cindy). in the ad. He never saw the photo of her that they mention in the ad. The wheels advertised (U.S. Mag Corp.), aren't the same as the ones on the bike. They are the original American Racing Wheels.

More Fresno's Finest '73

Most have shied away from extreme forks but you got to admit, this thing is cool. The article states that this type of bike was already becoming a minority in Fresno as the trend was moving towards tight bikes. For the record, '37 Indian forks 28" over.


The trend may have been moving towards tight but they featured several long bikes. This one has an elegance to it.


It's the '70s so it's a Tank Top, not Wife Beater.

The Early 70's...

Rocked!
Sometimes I forget how cool it was.

Custom Chopper was probably my favorite magazine at that time.


I usually don't dig chops with stretched frames and long narrowed wide glides as much as I do on this ride. This bike is just about perfect. It was somewhat rare to run a rear 18" at that time.


Fashion was still influenced by the 60's. It was cool that they just used the guy's girl friends for models instead of the (strippers), poser models of today.



Peace signs and...


... bell bottoms.

Hopefully this post will keep M.D. from getting the blues again.