Doug Jahnke Custom

04/10/2026

While searching for the original video of me riding the Blower Bike my son Deven came across this short unused clip of me riding the black wide-tired Bad Boy.

03/27/2026

In 2918 I asked my son Deven to take all the photos of the Blower Bike’s construction, combine them with a video of me riding it and compose some music to accompany it reminiscent of Queensrÿche’s Empire. After only 4 hours this is what he came up with.
Search Deven Jahnke on YouTube. You can see his posts going back 13 years. 😎

03/20/2026

Once I had the fabrication and bodywork finished on the “Blower Bike” or “Gold Bike” I nicknamed it, and the frame, swingarm, and oil tank were painted House of Kolor Goldmine Pearl Shimrin basecoat with a tint coat of PPG DBC 500 clear slightly tinted with Metalflake brand Aztec Gold Candy Concentrate and cleared with 3 coats of Nason Select Clear.
I turned my focus on the pieces requiring artwork. I sprayed everything with grey Medallion 2K urethane primer, let it sit overnight, dry blocked it, and re-primed it with 2 coats.
The next step is to draw on the parts with an ordinary No.2 pencil what was to be masked off and painted Black basecoat. I took pictures and made templates using artist’s tracing paper with measurements for reference.
Once the Black basecoat designs were sprayed and Candy Tangerine shading added, I striped the edge of the Black with vermilion water-based Cel Vinyl followed by 5 coats of Nason Select Clear Urethane.
After letting it dry overnight, I wet sanded everything flat and re-cleared it with 2 more wet coats of the Nason clear to later be wet sanded with 1000 grit, 1200, 1500, finally 2000 before hand or machine buffing.
The Blue circle on the tank with the skeleton coming out of it is a combination of airbrushing and hand painting done with Cel Vinyl and Liquitex acrylic paints. 😎

03/13/2026

In the Spring of 2005 I started on my most ambitious bike project ever- Build a rideable High Horse-powered World Class Bike Show competitor where money was no object. The first thing I did was purchase a Softail style Chassis kit made by Canadian company Extreme Metal sold in the US by Mid-USA Cycles.
The kit came with a main frame with a 38 degree rake/5 inch stretch and curved down tubes. It has some unique machined sculpturing on some of the areas. The frame has a built-in inch and a half offset of the engine and transmission. It came with a wide swingarm with a hidden axle, oil tank, and fender rails- all bare steel. A pair of chrome Tricky Air Suspension shocks complete the chassis.
I took an aftermarket 11 inch wide Fat Boy style steel rear fender blank, welded the rails and a 3/8 inch plate to the front of it making it removable.
The front end is a duplicate set of ‘60s trees with mid ‘90s FLH legs fitted with Boyd’s Machine lowers and an authentic 1960 headlight nacelle welded together to make it one piece. I made a removable one piece cover that hid the chrome fork tubes out of a pair of automotive exhaust extensions that bolts to the lower tree.
The gas tank is a heavily modified 1992 Harley FLHS tank I added to the back of and made bolt to the top of the frame. The front fender is a 1990 Heritage Softail Springer fender with the springer mounts cut off and internal plates added to the strengthen sides.
The engine is 124 inch S&S Super Stock Mike Stocker had polished and he re-assembled. Mike also had the Magnacharger and 45mm Mikuni polished at the same time. The Baker 6-speed transmission came polished already.
One of the most obvious and expensive pieces on the bike is the Sputhe internal belt-drive polished primary. Cost- $5500. I mounted a ‘90s Indian side mount curved license frame directly to the outer cover. A set of cut off and re-chromed Porker Pipes get rid of the exhaust.
I cut 3 inches from the middle of a pair of Drag Specialties Beach Bars, welded them back together, then welded them to a plate that bolts directly to the top triple tree. I made a cover that hides that area. A screw-type internal throttle’s cable runs through the bars and down through the nacelle to the carburetor. A nylon hydraulic clutch line runs through the left side.
The wheels, calipers, rotors, pulley, hand controls, foot controls and pegs are all chrome Performance Machine. I molded a tombstone shaped taillight out of polyester fiberglass and molded it to the rear fender. A red plexiglas lens and LED panel keep it legal.
I did all the mock-up and final fitting in the paint booth of my shop while I was still in Brookville. I got all the bodywork, the frame molded, and everything painted House of Kolor Goldmine Shimrin base when I got the worst news possible-
I had 30 days to leave the building. The owner had sold the building I had rented for 16 years.
I did the final Urethane clearcoat on the frame, swingarm, oil tank and any other parts not needing artwork. The rest would have to wait until I was set up in another building- Wherever that might be. 😎

03/06/2026

03/06/2026

In 2012 Tom Schultz hired me to build a Softail for his wife Nikki using the 80 inch EVO from his 1995 Bad Boy that was replaced by a 113 inch S&S Super Stock engine.
The was supposed to be a street rideable custom rather than a Bike Show contender. With that in mind I’d keep the cost down on the components used. Why spend $1700 on P.M. foot controls when BDLs would work at half the price and still look good.
Starting with the frame. It’s a 1988 factory Softail given to me by F&S’ Gary Stolzenburg with the steering head cut off (When a dealer does a frame replacement, all the factory requires as proof is sending back just the steering head/serial number section). I built a new section with more rake and stretch from just beyond the front motor mount to the top of the seat post.
Since I was running a 250mm Avon tire I’d have to widen the swingarm. I cut apart a Paughco aftermarket version and welded it back together with an inch and a half added to the left side. I also used chrome Progressive Suspension shocks.
I used a Softail center fill oil tank, chrome rear fender rails, and an eleven inch steel fender blank from Midwest Cycle. Up front I used polished Boyd’s Machine mid-glide trees that took 39mm FXR legs with chrome 2 inch under stock tubes with shorter springs and a 1 inch spacer.
I built the handlebars from scratch with a Dakota Digital speedometer in the center. Dakota sells a machined raw steel piece for that very purpose. Handlebar controls were from BDL as well. Grips were grooved billet Arlen Ness I machined smooth and had chromed.
The gas tank is an aluminum Arlen Ness single tank with a five inch stretch I cosmetically further added to the rear to hide the mount and close in the front.
The wheels are DNA chrome rim/polished stainless 60 spoke models 18x8.5 in the rear 19x4.00 in the front. Braking is provided by RevTech chrome calipers I acquired during my Easyriders days, polished stainless steel rotors and Drag Specialties fittings and red Nylon brake lines.
Power to the rear wheel is transferred through BDL enclosed belt drive primary and final drive pulley. Engine performance is upgraded by a Dyna dual fire ignition and coil and a polished S&S Super E carburetor running either a shortened painted velocity stack or painted Arlen Ness ABS covered S&S air cleaner.
Engine exhaust is expelled through Ness/Cycle Shack Siamese drag pipes. Arlen Ness Chrome tapper blocks add some bling to the GM Sparkle Silver wheel color painted engine and transmission.
I shaped two different style front fenders from steel blanks- one full length, the other a racier shorter version. I painted the majority of the bike Mazda Passion Red basecoat/clearcoat.
Before I did the final clear I wasn’t happy with the artwork I did modeled after an Affliction T-shirt. I sanded the tank back down to the red base, sprayed a fresh coat of red and added my own version of a skeletal snake with more of a dragon style head. Before I turned it over to Tom, I decided the tank had too much red. I made a thin steel strip I painted black held in place with contact cement.
I laid up a form fitting polyester fiberglass seat pan Rick Futrell at Keowee Seat Cover upholstered for me.
I changed the bike over to a NOCO lithium battery and replaced a leaky engine sprocket seal two years ago.
This remains the smoothest riding, best handling, easiest starting bike I’ve ever built. 😎

02/27/2026

I concluded last Friday’s post on Tom Schultz’s Black Bike saying I put a Wide Tire/Swingarm kit on it in 2005. Photos in my library reveal it was actually 2007 after I’d made my shop move from Brookville to Beavercreek.
I was already in the process of assembling Tom’s Goldmine colored, Magnachargered Pro Street in my new shop’s showroom. Extensive changes to the bike included; replacing the Arlen Ness hand and foot controls, calipers, rotors, pulley, grips and pegs with better quality Performance Machine counterparts.
The P.M. Wide Tire/Swingarm kit called “Phatail” came complete with everything needed for the conversion. I ordered the kit without the license plate in the rear fender and used everything except the fender rails and belt guard.
The conversion required me to remove the transmission and replace the Mainshaft and final drive gear. I cut about a third of the steel fender off and welded it to a plate making it removable just like I had done originally.
The thing one I hated was having to make a longer(and uglier) seat pan because the new swingarm moved the fender back a couple of inches. I also traded out the Ness/Akront spoke wheels for a set of DNA 60 spoke versions with a 8-1/2 inch rear.
I scrapped the Arlen Ness ABS plastic dash, made a steel one, and installed a blue Dakota Digital speedometer. I upgraded the nitrous to a slightly larger single bottle mounted on the primary side front down tube of the frame.
I thought this would be a good time take the tanks off, repair any rock chips, blend in some fresh Black basecoat, and re-clear them. The cost for all the parts used for this conversion was in the neighborhood of $11,000.
I am currently restoring Tom’s “Gold Bike” to its former glory including replacing the leaky Tricky Air shocks and compressor with Platinum Air Suspension ones, and trading the Lead/Acid Braille battery with a NOCO lithium battery that weighs less than 4 pounds. I hope to have it completed by mid-summer. 😎

02/20/2026

In the fall of 1997 after I had sold the Iguana Bike to Terry Tobey, Tom Schultz of Columbus brought me his 1995 Bad Boy springer for what started out as a simple paint job. I had done fabrication and painted his brother Richard’s Aerocharged FXR T.R. Had built in his garage on the side while working at Easyriders of Columbus.
Schultz’s Bad Boy was practically stock when he brought it to me other than T.R.’s Crane cam, Dyna Jet carb kit, and exhaust performance upgrades. Little did I know a simple paint job would be the beginning of 30 years of work that included building 6 bikes, painting 10 including his Honda Gold Wing, a 45 foot boat, and a 6 passenger air plane.
After a week, Tom called and asked what it would take to mold and paint the frame, then paint the engine and transmission, next extend the tanks, then a bigger rear tire. It went on and on until I had either modified or replaced everything on the bike.
At the time I had hired Kenny Carpenter who I knew from my days of doing graphics at C&W Body Shop in Brookville. Carpenter had helped me rough in the tank and fenders on Brent Mayfield’s Vincent Black Shadow restoration a month before. Carp’s only contribution to the “Black Bike” was roughing-in the tank extensions. He had the annoying habit of never finishing anything he started, and disappearing just when you needed him.
Once I got started on Tom’s Bad Boy the list of changes grew to include Legend’s air shocks, Arlen Ness Akront aluminum rims Ness had plated for me fitted with polished radius cut spokes and hubs. The 4.25 inch rear with a 150mm tire required a wider rear fender. I made two different bolt-on fenders.
I made fiberglass seat pans for both, one with a separate removable passenger pad that when upholstered by Rick Futrell looked like it was part of it with some extra deep stitching. I still have the shorter of the fenders and the seats.
I ended up using so many Arlen Ness parts on it, it looked like a rolling Arlen Ness advertisement; the wheels, calipers, rotors, pulley, hand and foot controls, grips, pegs, and kick stand were all Ness, all the way to the Ness/Cycle Shack Siamese drag pipes.
I put a springer lowering kit on it with shorter springs and reconfigured rockers. I used a springer headlight lowering kit for the Headwinds headlight I painted black. (I forgot to use anti-seize on the treads and gouged it up so badly later when I replaced the bulb I had to Bondo and paint it until I could replace it).
I put a Edelbrock nitrous kit I modified to house all the the components under one cover. I mounted the two bottles on the swing arm not realizing they needed to be mounted in a way that allowed the nitrous to leave in a liquid state.
I came up with the Flying Reptile/Dinosaur skeleton on the tanks and matching air cleaner while looking through books on Dinosaurs and skeletons. Everything is nearly all brush painted and took nearly 30 hours.
I had a self-imposed deadline for completion of the bike- The birth of my son Deven in September of 1998. Tom rode the s**t out of the bike taking it to Daytona and Sturgis twice.
In 2005, he had me put a Performance Machine Wide 240mm tire and swingarm kit on it that required me to make a new fender and seat. 😎

02/06/2026

Another early Paint Job of mine on a bike featured in Easyriders was Mary Ward’s Panster. Mary was the owner of Casey’s Customs in Clay City Kentucky and wife of Bobby Ward who owned last Friday’s post, Cross Breed.
While Bob Spitzer and I were searching through his complete collection of Easyriders, 1985-90 specifically, we were looking for two bikes I had painted that had been featured- Bobby Ward’s Cross Breed and Mary’s Panster, A 1957 Sportster with Panhead cylinders and heads.
We found it had been featured in the August 1987 issue. Rather than scan Bob’s copy, I bought my own off EBay for $10 and scanned it.
Mary Ward gave me 3 specifics concerning the paint; An overall Feminine Color, Some Gold Leaf, and Artwork in some of her favorite flowers, Orchids.
I chose Metalflake’s new Candy color Cherry over a Silver base for the overall color, and Red Variegated Leaf over Gold Leaf as I find it more interesting. A trip to the public library yielded various photos of Orchids.
I painted this in my Grandmother’s tiny garage. I sprayed the Candy Cherry in late summer 1985. It is all Acrylic Lacquer. I put off doing the artwork for 5 months. When I finally got back to it, it was January and all I had was a little torpedo heater for heat.
Acrylic Laquer has one inherent, possibly disastrous property- If you let it sit for several months or paint it when it’s cold, it will do what we painter’s call “Checking”. Small cracks that form on all or some of the surface that resemble Check Marks if you apply the new Laquer too wet or too heavy.
When the clear on the tank started checking, I panicked and stopped as they were just in the 5 month old clear coat on the tank where I had got it too Wet.
I let it sit for a week before trying to sand out the checks the best I could and tried to hide them with some creative masking and Black shadowing. That explains the darkness around the artwork. I had to Baby Spray all the remaining coats of clear.
Note: The owner of the motorcycle in a feature is responsible for submitting a list of its specifications. Mary listed the color as Wineberry over Silver when it is actually Candy Cherry. I don’t know who is responsible for misspelling my name!
One more thing I remember about this job. It’s the one that taught me to NEVER give a customer their parts back before they pay for them even, if they’re friends.
I had to chase Bobby and his wife for over 2 years to get my money. It wasn’t easy, Clay City Kentucky IS 170 miles from Dayton! 😎

01/30/2026

Before I started building custom motorcycles. The first paint job I ever did that was featured in any magazine was this Shovel/Panhead I painted for Bobby Ward of Casey’s Customs in Clay City Kentucky, 170 miles from Dayton.
Bobby brought me a pair of ‘82 five gallon Wide Glide tanks to replace the smaller 3-1/2 gallon tanks that came on his 1983 SuperGlide.
I bought those original tanks from him for $100. They were Indigo Blue with screw-in caps (The second year for them). They came with the original caps and fuel petcock in nearly perfect paint. I know this because I still have them hanging on one of the walls in the back of my shop.
The specifications list the Color as Orange. It’s actually Candy Orange. About 1985 Metalflake released a third series of Candy colors. There were 6 new ones. This Orange was one of them. Deep Blue, Cherry, Vermillion, Scarlet, and Hunter Green were the other 5. I sprayed in over a very flaky Silver Base.
Metalflake brand Candy Orange had a much Browner appearance than their Candy Tangerine, similar to the Tangerine sold by House of Kolor.
The lettering and H-D Bar and Shieldon the rear fender were done in Red Variegated leaf. All the paint was done in Acrylic Laquer. 1985-86 was about the time Base Coat/Urethane Clear Coat systems became the automotive standard. I was still painting in Laquer because it was cheaper, dried to the touch within minutes and Candy wasn’t available in it yet.
I have Bob Spitzer to thank for helping me locate which issue of Easyriders this bike was featured in. Bob had every issue of Easyriders Magazine ever published. All in official binders in the correct order by year.
Bob and I spent an afternoon looking through the magazines. I knew I had painted it in 1985, so we started with 1985. We found it was featured in the August 1986 issue. I found this one on EBay In perfect condition and bought it for $10 plus $2.00 shipping. 😎

01/23/2026

In the Spring of 2003 when my shop was in Brookville Ohio, and I was between building something for myself, Don Yale of Kettering brought me a Pro Street project he’d been working on for nearly two and a half years.
The Harley Softail configured bike was done in the style of Phoenix Arizona Custom Bike builder Paul Yeffe. Don brought me all the parts and photos of the bike before he had disassembled it.
Don had a definite idea of how he wanted it painted, and had several photos he had downloaded and printed off of the internet. All the bikes had the same basic theme- A Tan, Taupe, or Sand-like colored base with designs in various shades of Browns.
That was the basic model I had to work with. He also asked me to give it a “Little something” to liven it up a bit. During the two weeks it took me to mold the frame, do all the body work, and get the base color sprayed on everything, I subconsciously had the “Little something” on my mind.
Pulling out a drawer of an office desk I rarely get into, I spied a little box of stones I’d bought at the Souvenir store at the Grand Canyon National Park in 1992. There it was. A polished oval shaped piece of Turquoise. Perfect! I’ll combine it next to some Candy Purple to compliment the effect.
Well, not quite. What if I paint the oval shape and still imitate the Turquoise’s look, but change it to Lime Green. Knowing that would be going out on a limb, I did it.
When Don came to pick up the parts, I was gritting my teeth hard as he walked in. To my relief, He Loved It! In a case like this, there are always those few moments of Self Doubt.
Don liked the design so much, he had Rick Futrell incorporate it into seat when he covered it. 😎