Bob Faucher works as a mechanic, not a technician, at an independent Daytona Beach motorcycle shop called Custom Works. He has more than one ride, so we asked him to let us shoot the most interesting. Giving him that choice, he showed up with this 1975 Ironhead Sportster.

So how does one approach a trike with more horsepower than a car should have? Very carefully, but with a bit of swagger to cover up the electrical storm of neurons firing off in your cranium that tells you to back away and run like hell. The Homer Simpson voice I often hear in my head says, “Run! Pump those crazy legs!” But, they’re having enough trouble just holding me up in place to run so I go with it and help David Ward unload his 875hp V8 Choppers’ trike instead. Now I should make things clear right up front that I didn’t dip into the full 875hp which requires the NOS bottle to be turned on, but it does still make a heady 600 horses off the bottle so this is no learner’s trike. So, 600hp it is and that still is a smite intimidating believe it or not.

There are very few motorcycles I don’t like; it would probably take me a while to even think of them, as riding motorized two-wheelers is still ridiculous fun to me. Sure, some are easier, or faster, or more comfortable, or cooler to ride, but plunking my butt on a motorcycle and twisting the throttle still gives me juvenile goose bumps. Bill Baumgardner of Renton, Washington, the owner of our cover bike Jack Ass, seems to have the same affliction. Bill seemingly owns at least one of every type of motorcycle and loves them all. When it comes to Harley-Davidsons though, Bill gets downright serious, “A Harley is not a status symbol to me, you know, it’s something that’s America, something of value. The best part of riding a Harley is pulling up to a stop light and looking over at the guy in the mini-van with the wife and screaming kids and he’s like, ‘Take me with you!’ Nope, can’t go.”

David Ward is one of the nicest and most unassuming guys you could ever meet. He looks totally normal, is extremely polite, articulate, and intelligent and he runs a successful business, Advanced Lubrication Inc., back in Kankakee, Illinois. But there’s a bad boy lurking within who does a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde transformation at the flip of a switch. In this case, that would be the starter switch on his beyond outrageous 875hp V8 Choppers’ trike. Yes, you read that right, 875 insane horsepower. Or what would be the equivalent combined horsepower of 13 of Harley’s 103”-engined trikes if you could somehow combine 13 103” engines in one trike.

Whenever I see an extremely radical bike incorporating myriad design solutions that would make a NASA engineer proud and then find out it’s the builder’s first ground-up project, I gotta wonder, what was he thinking? Finishing any ground-up is certainly an accomplishment, but for someone to plan and execute a super-duper complicated build is beyond my understanding. David Micklevitz of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is one of those overachievers and his EDGE tank-less custom is proof of that. No, it’s not his first time ever working on customs, but there’s quite a difference between modifying a bike (which he’s done often at his shop, Leading Edge Customs) and starting with a clean sheet of paper and ambitiously having at it. And no, it’s not the first time it’s been done, but his version is his own, not a copy of one of the few that exist. You gotta give him credit, but I had to wonder if he’s just really talented or extremely naïve. After speaking with him about this bike, it was nice to see he fit the former category.