Custom bike superstars to build bikes at Broken Spoke today

Tomorrow, patrons at the Broken Spoke Saloon will have the opportunity to witness a motorcycle build-off, at which two machines, unique even among the thousands of bikes in the city, will be put together and fired up in a matter of hours.

As special as the motorcycles on the stage will be, though, the people putting those bikes together are living legends among motorcycle builders.

While most build-offs are set as a competition, the one held on Saturday, starting around 2 p.m. is instead a non-competitive showcase of two machines, each created to serve a distinct purpose.

One of the bikes will be built by the father-and-daughter team of Dave and Jody Perewitz, of Perewitz Cycle Fabrication in Bridgewater, Mass. Dave has been making motorcycles for 40 years, "since before it was cool," he said. Since then, his name and his creations have been featured on numerous television shows, on the covers of many magazines such as Easyrider, American Rider and American Chopper, and in 2003 was inducted into the National Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame.

Jody, now 27, said she's been around motorcycle building her whole life. "I like the whole aspect of the industry," she said, and added that she enjoys the opportunity to show the men that women can build and ride jaw-dropping bikes, too.

"When I was a kid, it wasn't cool to be a biker as a girl," she said. "I like to break the mold."

The bike they'll be assembling was created to show how classic motorcycle design elements and contemporary cues can exist on the same bike. "It's kind of an in-between, shows how the styles have changed, a little of the old style and a lot of the new style," Dave said.

The bike has modern controls, the design of the exhaust system and front end is new and it has a perimeter front brake. Old elements of the design include a stretched gas tank and a long frame.

While the Perewitz bike is being constructed, also on stage will be Wink Eller, a man who holds 64 land speed records for motorcycles, the most recent of which he set last month.

Eller, whose custom cycle shop is located in Orange, Calif., hasn't been to Lacona's Motorcycle Week since 1978, when he rode from coast to coast. This time, he drove, because in the trailer he was pulling was a motorcycle unlike anything on Lakeside Avenue.

Eller's bike is a purpose-built salt-flat burner, a bike that's long and low and doesn't contain any elements that don't serve it's stated mission. He first built the bike in 2006 and when he took it to the Bonneville salt flats in Utah, with a turbocharged 120-cubic-inch engine, he posted a speed of 193 miles per hour.

The bike currently has a different motor in it, a 127 cubic-inch naturally-aspirited breather that is currently generating 168 horsepower and 174 pound-feet of torque when running on methanol. With this set-up, Eller's achieved 165 miles per hour. His plans for the bike is to convert it to all hand-controls and have a paraplegic war veteran ride it the next time it sets a record.

His fastest bike, one he built and rode, hit 218 miles per hour.

What's it like to carry that kind of speed on two wheels? Eller said it's surprisingly peaceful. The air moving around the vehicle creates a low-pressure pocket and everything goes silent. "When it gets quiet, that's when you know you're hauling ass," he said.

Speed bikes are a hobby for Eller, who uses a combination of computer-based design and old-fashioned hand fabrication techniques. Every body part of his bike was created by him. To pay the bills, he runs a high-performance and service shop, where he has rebuilt countless engines for both racing and civilian duty.

Assisting Eller in his rebuild will be Brigitte Bourget, of Bourget's Bike Works in Arizona, yet another powerhouse in the custom bike industry.