This article was originally published in the April-May 1997 issue of Cycle World’s Big Twin magazine.

“A ’48 Panhead is what a motorcycle should look like,” says Craig Eisenberg of Phoenix, Arizona. “I don’t care for the sleek new stuff at all.” No surprise, then, that his spectacular custom, which he calls the Eisenberg Deluxe, does its best to emulate a Harley of that era.

When Eisenberg decided to customize his ’96 Softail Springer, he turned to Paul Yaffe of American Legend Motorcycle Company, also in Phoenix, and asked him to build a bike that would embody the timelessness of his favorite period in history. That collaboration turned out to be a marriage made in heaven—or in the late 1940s, at least. Both men strongly admire the art-deco styling of that era, and Yaffe also has a fascination for the work of Preston Tucker, the enigmatic automaker whose brilliantly designed but ill-fated car made a big splash in the late 1940s. In fact, the working name for Eisenberg’s custom during its construction was the Tucker Bike.

Once the desired look was decided, Yaffe went to work turning Eisenberg’s dream into something more tangible. He’s particularly proud of the front fender, a singular work of art that uses special hidden mounts to appear as though it’s floating on the front end. “We started with a flat piece of metal,” says Yaffe, “and we worked it with a small English wheel and a beating machine we have here. Because of the unique way the fender is mounted, it has a whole cage mold­ed into the inside to keep it stiff so it won’t flex or vibrate.”

Other one-off pieces created by Jaffe are the art-deco choke knob and exhaust caps, along with the seat, the rear fender and the LED taillight that is cleverly hidden inside it. “We kept the Springer fork stock,” says Jaffe, “but we cut it and widened it to give it a more nostalgic look.”