{"id":1551,"date":"2012-07-11T14:19:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T14:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotbike.local\/basic_content\/sun-dialed-2010-special-construction\/"},"modified":"2022-01-02T18:09:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T18:09:03","slug":"sun-dialed-2010-special-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/sun-dialed-2010-special-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun Dialed | 2010 Special Construction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Any ancient culture worthy of its relics had a little sun worshiping going on. The Greek sun god Apollo towed it across the sky every day with his chariot, the Aztec sun god Tonatiuh demanded human sacrifice, and in Ancient Egypt, well, the sun god Ra had a falcon head. I guess someone back then said so, and it just stuck.<\/p>\n

People still worship the sun today, just not as an angry god looking to eat everyone or a guy hot rodding across the heavens. Modern sun followers pay their respects through things like tanning and surfing. ACME Choppers chose to do so with this custom golden Panhead.<\/p>\n

At least, that\u2019s how it sounded when I tracked down ACME co-owner Jason Ahlquist to talk about it. The first thing that hits you is the way the sun hits the bike. He loves the way its big metalflake comes alive in the sun. Between the yellow flake job and all the copper accents, you can see why this chopper shines on a bright day\u2019s ride. When ACME first painted it, in fact, it shone too much. See, the frame and forks were originally zapped with yellow metalflake too. That was too much of a good thing, though, so both the bones and the forks got the black powdercoat treatment to balance it all out. It\u2019s a pitfall that sometimes happens during a build. \u201cYou get so far in, thinking it\u2019s coming out the way you want it, then you find out you want to change something to make the bike better,\u201d says Jason.<\/p>\n

When you create on instinct, changes like that just come with the territory. Jason and his brother, Wayne, built this chop in just that fashion. Think of it as the chopper equivalent to Iron Chef\u2014you start off with a few parts and not much of an advance plan, then run with your gut. Doing that doesn\u2019t give you the same carefully orchestrated look that a step-by-step agenda does, but at the same time, locking yourself into a concrete plan can make for a bike that\u2019s an ice queen\u2014beautiful as hell but no heart. Besides, once you start putting the basics together, the rest of the bike almost builds itself. Almost no one builds a bagger around a rigid frame or a chopper with hard bags and a fairing. I mean, it happens, sure, but not real often. Elvis liked peanut butter and banana sandwiches, but I don\u2019t see Bobby Flay writing a recipe book on them.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s really gummy; almost like rubber. Melting and drilling copper sucks. It\u2019s sticky, nasty shit. Terrible.<\/p>\n