Behind the Handlebars Guest Host Gina Woods of Open Road Radio interviews Tim Dixon about his custom built chopper motorcycle at the 2019 Chicago International Motorcycle Show J&P Custom Builder Bike Championship.

Gina Woods: Hey, this is Gina Woods with Open Road Radio. I’m here with Tim. That’s what they say in Tennessee, it’s two syllables. So tell us a little about the bike, tell us where you’re from.

Tim Dixon: A little town called Ten Mile, Tennessee. We’re right in the center of Knoxville and Chattanooga. This bike was kind of inspired by my love for old choppers. It’s a, I don’t want to say copy, but I played off a wishbone frame design, came up with my own design. We manufactured, designed and made the frame, wheels, all the pieces I could possibly make on the bike. It my was first shot at a springer front end. I’ve never done a springer front end and wanted to try that and I think what we came up with is pretty sweet.

Gina Woods: We had a great chance to talk yesterday and there is so much machining on all these parts and so many intricate details in this bike. 

Tim Dixon: We’ve got about 768 hours I think in this bike. That’s not counting the uh-oh’s and redo’s that all of us have. If somebody tells you I don’t throw stuff in the scrap they’re lying to you because plenty of stuff gets scrapped, believe you me. I like to make use out of things, like for example, my taillight, My 50th birthday present was a 61 Corvette. Redoing the Corvette, I had an extra parking light left over and I thought you know I’m going to keep that in the family. So my brake light is actually a piece off of a Corvette. 

Gina Woods: I love that. 

Tim Dixon: A lot of my builds are very inspired by car things. I love cars. I do more cars than I do bikes but I have a deep love for motorcycles.

Gina Woods: That is awesome and I understand that this has been handmade as well by your wife. 

Tim Dixon: Yeah. To kind of play hand-in-hand, my wife has always sewn her whole life and the first bike I did after her and I got together, I said why don’t you try and do a seat for me? She took right to it. We’re actually set up here in a booth at the show, her first time ever. She’s already had an inquiry about setting up at the Myrtle Beach show to sew on site, so we’re really fired up about that.

Gina Woods: Congratulations and good luck today.

Tim Dixon: Alright, thank you so much.