Jason "Ridelord" Magnasun's "Twisted Midnite"

Jason put this bike together in raw form and rode it for a year or so before tearing it down for final finish. Jason, along with his friend Sean Parrish were laying ground work for the possibility of opening a custom bike shop and Twisted was going to showcase that endeavor. Not only a number of shakedown runs, but he actually rode it to Sturgis that way with his Dad, Dean. In the summer of 2008, Jason decided it was time to tear it down and detail it. Jason didn't have a chance to finish his chopper and Dean ended up with the project in boxes being shipped to him from Oklahoma after it went through a few hands down there. Dean contacted me in April of 2009 about finishing the bike as a rolling memorial to Jason and we struck a deal. June 1st of 2009, Dean and his wife Carolyn brought the boxes of Twisteds parts that he ended up with to me in Minneapolis I was excited to take this project on for Dean and had thought I could finish it up to have it at Jasons memorial service, being held in Denver, Colorado in September of 2009. Once I got well into the project.. I soon realized that that was not a possibility. I did get it to the paint stage and started the assembly, but found that I had to address a few more issues I hadn't considered.

To begin this project, I took the frame to my friend Ross Noard, a local fabricator, to clean up the neck area a bit, trying to still keep the same look that Jason was after. That large frame gusset was sort of a signature of the bikes that Jason built and Dean wanted it to stay. However, we wanted to keep that look without using heavy the 1/4" plate that Jason had used, Ross used two pieces of 20 gauge tin with a curved piece of tube separating them causing a nice radiused edge for a more eye pleasing effect, also a bunch lighter in weight. I envisioned the tank sitting much lower, dropped over the back bone. We had planned to put a new dropped tunnel under the tank, but Dean insisted it sit just the way Jason had mounted it originally. He was adamant about keeping the original profile of the bike. At the same time, I had Ross recondition a bunch of old holes and a few cracks in the springer and sent all 28 pieces off to be replated. Dean had wanted to put a larger rear tire and rim on the bike, so I sent an 18x3.5 rear rim and the front 21 min drum along with two sets of Buchanans spokes to Baz from here at HC.com to recondition them.. I had sent the rear hub and cush drive out to be polished before I gave them to Baz. While Baz was doing the wheels he detailed some dings in the front brake hub to a flawless finish. These wheels really came out nicely detailed in the end. I mounted new 130/90x18 Bridgestone rubber on the rear and a 80/90x21 on the front. Before assembly, I drilled and painted the rear brake rotor to match the bike.

Throughout the build I ran into a bunch of hurdles, missing parts and some non usable parts I had to track down. That, along with some health issues of my own, made Deans project a very slow process to get finished. But with Deans patience and some perseverance on my part, I was riding the bike by June 1st of 2012. I still had a couple issues with the bike I didn't like and had to deal with them. This was a very special project to me and I wanted it to be ..... "the way I wanted it to be.,."

Dean didn't care for the jockey shift setup and I went through 3 sets of forwards, before I decided to just have Ross start from scratch with a one off set. The shifter that Jason originally used was a sword that had been passed down to him by his grandfather, so it was a must to have it included in this build. I thought it looked best mounted between the rails of the sissy bar and then had it chromed before assembly. Dean had a couple of symbols he wanted added to the finish of the bike that were near and dear to Jason. But, I really didn't want them just stuck someplace on the paint. I wanted them to look as though they were planned to fit someplace. We hadn't thought about doing anything to the seat and p-pad, as they were in decent shape, but I saw these as a great place to put a couple of these symbols. The GOTF on the seat, obviously, tells us that Jason was a member in good standing of the governing board here at HC.com and, of course, Jason is still respected as a member today. The CFE on the p-pad was a symbol that Jason had come up with using the spade design and the acronym CFE (Choppers Forever). He planned on using the spade as a logo for his and Seans shop. I had HC.com member Damien duplicate these designs in CAD for me and then had Matt Solmonson, a local upholsterer, embroider them in soft drum dyed leather, then recover the seat and p-pad. They both did a perfect job and both seats look right at home on Twisted.

I completely molded the frame, then cleaned up the welds and detailed the surface of the tank. I painted everything House of Kolor Kandy Cobalt blue over a black pearl base. On the sides of the tank I laid out sets of flames in Chameleon Pearl. The picture shows how they change colors as you look at different angles I had my friend, local pin striper and artist Dave Eckel do the artwork on the top of the tank using variegated gold leaf. I buried the artwork in clear, then cut and buffed the tank level, so neither Daves or my artwork can be detected to the touch.

The Santee oil tank originally had the bulky tubes and fittings that fit the stock lines. We cut those off and added flush fittings that would accept AN6 braided oil lines. This really helped to clean up the area under the oil tank. I put the coils in a stainless steel box mounted to the back side of the motor, running the plug wires along the frame rails and up the front down tubes to keep them out of sight. The rest of the electrics are in a stainless box under the oil tank. I did this to try my best to keep the wiring out of sight as much as possible for a clean unobstructed look. The pipes are MAC drags that Jason had cut and rewelded the rear bracket to move #2 and #3 pipes up, trying to get a little more ground clearance. The frame is a hard tailed and modified 76 Super Sport as are the motor, carbs and rear hub. Jason had done the hard tail, but with the bigger wheel and tire and some other changes, I had Ross change it dramatically to make things fit properly. The front section was done by Ross as well as the tank mounts and fork stops. The center section of the frame at the oil tank was totally redone because I wanted it to be neat and tidy as you could see it easily under the sprung seat. Lots of little details like the finned front axle spacers and the finned master cylinder that blend in with the other finned parts add to the subtle details of this build. The fork is a vintage 15" over Randy Enterprises springer from the 70s that I had completely rechromed. Check out the unique rockers that Randys used on their springers. They look pretty kool bobbing as they move with the fork .

You can see detailed pics of these changes as they were done on the projects page of my website.

R.I.P. Brother Jason, you should be proud of what you've done with this 750.

Lowridertommy
.