Arlen Ness

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Arlen Ness is a pioneer in the custom motorcycle / chopper industry. His first customs were made in the garage of his home in San Leandro, CA but by the early 1970's, he had moved to a storefront on East 14th Street. Arlen was immediately recognized for his paint and a developing line of custom parts for motorcycles. His popularity grew as he built new custom bikes, displayed them on the bike show circuit, and then had the bikes featured in motorcycle magazines.

1 Chopper Success
2 Patents
3 Media
4 References
5 See also
6 External Links

[edit] Chopper Success

After more than three decades of custom bike building and developing his business to the point that it supports a several hundred page parts catalogue, Arlen Ness, Inc. moved to a 60,000 square foot world headquarters in Dublin, California complete with a museum with more than 40 of his custom bikes on display. Some of the bikes in the museum include his most famous like Untouchable, the twin motor Two Bad, the antique inspired Ness-Tique, Blower Bike, the Italian sports car inspired Ferrari Bike, the '57 Chevy sports car inspired Ness-Stalgia, the Bugatti-like Smooth-Ness, the Discovery Channel's Biker Build-Off bike Top Banana, and his jet powered Mach Ness.

The Mach Ness is a motorcycle built by Arlen Ness in 2005. The design, concept, paint, and graphics were created by Carl Brouhard. The body is all aluminum and the body work, done by hand, was by Bob Monroe. Arlen was inspired when he saw Jay Leno’s turbin powered bike and decided to make his own. This bike doesn’t have the normal V-twin motor; instead Arlen incorporates a jet powered helicopter motor. This bike appeared at the 2005 V-twin Expo.

Arlen has received recognition and awards including Builder of the Year, induction into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement Awards. His son, Cory Ness, has worked with Arlen for more than 30 years, and now runs the day to day business operations at Arlen Ness, Inc. Cory has himself been recognized as a top custom bike builder and even defeated his father in a 2004 episode of The Great Biker Build-Off. Carrying on the family tradition to a third generation, Cory's son, Zach, built several beautiful high end customs before finishing high school in 2006.

[edit] Patents

The Big Shot is used to personalize a motorcycles performance. The tuner works by altering the motorcycles fuel injection system. By altering the injection system the motorcycle may be tuned to a specific comfort for the rider. This tuner is different from throttle position module in that it adapts to load based at any RPM and speed.

[edit] Media

A book on Arlen Ness' life story was published in 2005. It is titled Arlen Ness; the King of Choppers by Michael Lichter and Arlen Ness, with photography by Michael Lichter.
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