Radial Hell Chopper by Jesse James

True confessions time: I like Jesse James. Yeah, I know, just like all the other chopper clowns, he’s way too overexposed, with way too many product-endorsement deals, making way too much money. Truth is, these guys aren’t in the bike-building business anymore; they make their cabbage hawking T-shirts and beer and auto parts and Slurpees.

James is, of course, a multimillionaire, happily wedded to a big Hollywood star. His bikes sell for six figures. He’s had a hit TV series. The world is his proverbial oyster. Here’s the thing, though. If it were all taken away tomorrow, if he was down to a clapped-out Panhead rigid and a box of rusty old handtools, Jesse James would be just as happy. He’s a lucky dog and he knows it, and hasn’t forgotten how to have fun despite his fame and fortune.

Walking around the man’s Long Beach complex, a renovated building across the street from his West Coast Choppers shop, it’s clear that James is much more than a Jesse One Note. In one corner, there’s a group of early VW Beetles, all stock, including one of the first built in occupied Germany just after the war. Also under the roof are muscle cars, sports cars and winged dirt racers. Over there is a Toyota Baja pre-runner, a four-place pickup with skyscraper suspension. And there’s “Gold Digger,” the old-school chopper James built as part of his excellent “History of Choppers” TV documentary, the first effort from his new production company, formed after he unchained himself from the weekly grind of the “Monster Garage” series.

In a shop off to the side is the tube-frame skeleton of an old land-speed car that James is reconfiguring to go after an alternate-fuel world speed record. There’s a Harley Twin Cam motor in a very sporty-looking alloy frame. He’s also become a mini-conglomerate, taking over the greasy hamburger joint next door, renovating and renaming it Cisco’s, after his favorite pitbull. He’s sponsored NHRA Top Fuel dragsters and the Metal Mulisha freestyle MX squad. He’s now into publishing, too, recently purchasing Garage magazine, a hot-rod lifestyle quarterly. In a nearby warehouse, he’s installed a photo cove easily four times bigger than Cycle World’s.

It’s in James’ personal shop/office, though, that we ran across his latest and most outrageous motorcycle, a whack-job chariot powered by an Australian-built seven-cylinder Rotec 2800 radial aircraft engine, basically a scaled-down 172-cubic-inch (2800cc) version of a WWII Wright Cyclone producing a claimed 110 hp. Gone is the prop, and power makes its way from the crank to a 90-degree take-off that drives a belt pulley attached to the clutch/transmission. Final drive is by chain on the right side. Torque reaction should be, shall we say, interesting…

In bare-metal mockup form when we saw it, the bike will be painted and plated soon, ready for its shake-down runs. Jesse will be the test pilot, of course, goggles—and big smile—firmly in place.

On “Monster Garage” Jesse built a car that flies; now he’s got an airplane engine that rides a few inches off the ground.
Abbreviated fuel tank makes room for top cylinder. Bottom jugs in danger from overachiever speed bumps?
Each cylinder displaces 400cc, runs two valves. Engine width is 32 inches, weight about 220 pounds.[via CycleWorld]

Cycle World