My name is Eric Simonson, and this is my bike for the 2026 Biltwell Peoples Champ.
It’s a 1962 Panhead running Bonneville Special cases, mismatched heads, and custom rocker boxes. The frame is a one-off single down-tube design that mixes BSA and Harley components, and the girder front end was entirely handmade by me on manual machines. Tanks, fender, bars, taillight — nearly every visible part has been built by hand, often more than once. Some pieces I’ve fabricated three different times just to get them right.
I’ve been a fabricator and metalworker my whole life, working almost exclusively on old American cars and bikes. My shop, Esoteric Speed & Design in Southern California, lives by the motto “built not bought.” On this build I’ve taken that philosophy to the extreme — no bolt-on parts, no easy outs. It’s been a brutal process at times, but this is my forever bike.
The project has history. My father and I traded a handgun and a TIG welder for the engine back in 2007. We built the first frame in 2011, roughly stock dimensions, and the bike got passed back and forth between us over the years. We mocked up tanks, seats, pipes — but never finished it. In 2019 I bought him out, and the bike sat in my fiancée’s tattoo studio until about a year and a half ago, when I committed to finishing it for good. Since then I’ve rebuilt the frame’s front section, hand-fabricated the fork, built multiple fenders, controls, bars, tanks, and laced up different wheelsets. The list is long.
With the 2026 deadline here, my plan is to metal-finish the frame, fork, and bars before sending them to chrome. Every piece of stainless and aluminum will get polished by me. I’ll handle the paint as well (I keep bouncing between dark brown and red), and then I’ll put real miles on it. This bike isn’t for sale, and it never will be — I’ll die with it.
Been messing around with the bird deflector. I tried a couple different filter elements, but this thing just wants more air. The problem is it actually gets too much air at high speed because the scoop is effectively ramming air straight down the throat.
The “bird deflector” is actually an air conditioning intake scoop off a mid-’50s Cadillac. These were mounted in the rear quarters and designed to force air into a trunk-mounted A/C system. Turns out the scoop design worked a little too well for an antique carburetor, so I decided to flip it around.
The only holdup was the throttle return spring bracket living on the adapter plate I previously machined from a solid chunk of 5/8” aluminum. Simple enough fix, just drill and tap a few extra holes.
The carb seems much happier now, with noticeably less fuel demand at speed.
The last 20% is 80% of the build. While that certainly wasn’t the case with this bike, it’s still been an uphill battle getting it to completion. Small and large issues plagued this engine, requiring it to be removed for a second time.
I’ll be honest — the paint is chipped, the chrome is scratched, and the engine is oily, but this is a chopper. The inevitable has occurred, and I’m happy to have smashed the proverbial champagne bottle across this vessel, leaving battle scars and christening it for miles of use and abuse.
See y’all at Cook’s Corner and on the grass.
New front axle and hardware. This front hub is a BSA A10 converted to SAE sealed roller bearings, and the girder front end and axle plates are modeled off a BSA M20, which originally used an open axle plate design—similar to most bicycles.
The axle uses a double-nut setup with right-hand threads on both sides. If you’ve ever tried to loosen one, you know the headache. To fix that, I machined a lobe into the axle that keys into the axle plate eye, eliminating any chance of rotation.
From there, I refined the dimensions from the mockup axle to make sure everything spins freely and the brake engages properly. The axle I made previously was re-machined to accept a 1” six-point socket, just like the rear.
Finished it off with a full “nut and bolt” on the front wheel and brake assembly, so it’s ready to ride. With a few final adjustments, the wheel spins incredibly smooth and the brake works effortlessly.
I have a tendency to record and describe what I’m doing or working on and they usually get posted to my stories late night. This is that same caffeinated, ranting format that either gets people intrigued or makes them sick of hearing caveman jargon. If it is of interest, there’s plenty more of it on my daily stories.
Manually machined 17-4 stainless steel axle adjusters. Too many steps to show in a post, you’ll need to check out my bad story posting habit for the details. These are BSA axle plates and I wanted to use the orig al axle adjuster location but only had room for a 5/16 bolt. This side got a 5/16-24 adjuster and the B side got more of a standard 3/8-24. Couldn’t just run a bolt. Oh and credit must be given to @slow.moto and @panheaderic for their inspiration. I’m just copy and pasting these parts.
