Timebomb Kustoms: Honda CB750
Being involved in the custom bike scene for many years we have seen a lot of different painters and artists in the midwest and many of them of course ride, so its always neat to see what a custom painter or tank artist choses to ride themselves. We took a trip down to the small town of Bedford, Indiana where one such painter Jason Mattox of Timebomb Kustoms had just finished up his own CB750 custom chopper. Jason has always had an affinity for vintage Japanese bikes so we wanted to find out more about his latest project and his shop in general and see why he chose this last year single overhead cam 1978 k model CB750 for his daily rider.
So let's start by telling us a little about yourself your paint shop and why you chose a vintage CB750 for your main "go to" chopper right now?
Well my name is Jason Mattox, Timebomb Kustoms out of Bedford ,Indiana. I really started out mainly doing monster art and pin striping, then I started getting into painting bikes about 5 years ago. So that mainly became all that I do now, paint bikes and helmets. On the bike here man you know I really just wanted a Honda, I didn't want a sportster or a big twin. I just like looking through old chopper magazines and always finding these big in line four choppers, they just have always appealed to me. They sound mean as shit wide open too haha. This thing will give you a bad case of tinnitus in your ears if you aren't careful. Haha. It's a little cold natured sometimes and it is a kick only bike, man when it fires up its loud. I'm surprised I haven't had the cops called more times firing it up late at night.
Well have you ever thought about getting one of those tight little Amen style electrics panels to put right here under the carbs and wire up an electric start then?
You know I had one of those on the bike cuz it has an electric start in the bike originally because it was a 1978 K model with later carburetors on it and that Box just wanted to hit the carbs and the overflow tubes so I had Ethan from Porterbilt up in Indianapolis doing some work on it and he wired it, tuned it, finished up a few things and also did some fabrication work on it. We figured out that we really just didn't need it and I really wanted to mount the coils up front because I had this awesome jammer coil cover that goes between the exhaust that was original from the seventies. So, anyway I ended up putting a Rick's regulator rectifier combo on it and completely hid it under the bike it worked out great right underneath the battery which I put a good ole duracell battery in it with just enough to work the lights and keep the coils going and decided that was all I needed, just sort of keep it simple.
Well tell us a little bit about the front end? It looks to be an original from the 70s or 80s?
I got that front end about 5 years ago from a guy I met on Instagram, he said it was a 6 over but I actually believe it's a 4 over and he believed it was and "S & W" Springer which I had never heard of. I even reached out to the people at Paughco to see if they knew anything about it and they had actually never heard of that manufacture. It is stamped on the bottom of the triple trees " S & W manufacturing" though so there must be some company that was making springer's for a while back in the day. It's really a rad front end though, super skinny and it goes down the road nice and smooth.
Who did the hard tail framework and some of the other parts of the bike?
Rawhide cycles did the frame, throttle addiction made the tank and Fender and I got the gas cap from a place called "hand craft" in Germany. it's also got Mac exhaust on it and rawhide did the rear wheel as well.
So was this originally a full Rawhide cycles build or just the frame work?
Just the frame I ordered it from him and he also did the rear wheel for me.
Well it came out really good, the stance looks really well. They do some really great work. Well, what about the seat? That looks like a drag specialties but it also looks custom?
My friend Sean down in Texas he did the seat on my other bike the "gypsy witch" that I have over here, so I sent him the seat to do on this bike that was originally a drag specialties scorpion seat. Well he stripped and recovered everything and then made the upper backrest portion to match. He had to steam it and add a little more foam because of the original seat having all those buttons on it but it's great now.
So have you detached the pillion portion and packed a bunch of gear on it for a road trip yet? Any plans to stack some miles on it?
Well I've got this awesome sweat shop industries bag that I mocked up on the bike that looks great but I haven't had the bike finished long enough to get it out on a trip just yet.
Well being that you yourself are Timebomb Kustoms, a one man shop and your specialty is paint work, why don't you tell us a little more about the paintwork you chose to do on this bike and why you chose the specific designs or techniques that you used here.
Oh you know it's kind of weird because it wasn't supposed to be black at all, it was supposed to be baby blue it was supposed to have panels in there but it basically got what we call "the job" which is black, gold and tangerine, that's kinda what everybody wants. So anyway I had planned on doing baby blue with a bunch of separations and originally it was gonna be a show bike, that was all it was ever going to be, a show bike. Well I put about a 100 hours into the molding, the tank and fender work, the oil bag and every weld and seam on it ended up getting filled.
So the tank was actually welded on and molded directly into the frame?
It is, it is,.... it's actually welded on so if it ever gets a pinhole in it I'm severely fucked. Hahaa. Anyway it was supposed to be a show bike then once I got into the project all I wanted to do was ride it. So I didn't go get all the original stuff rechromed (Springer, sissy bar etc) and I just sorta left them as is with some character. I mean then also covid happened and all the bike shows got canceled, so it just kind of worked out better as a rider.
Well I certainly agree sometimes you start on a project wanting something to become the ultimate show bike but then realize it's just better suited for a daily rider after you get into it. I mean that's what these bikes were meant for so that's even better that you decided to let it be what it is, a rider. I mean it's also not so long and raked out that it wouldn't be suitable for even a daily commuter too especially with the stance and you gotta love the fact that the motor is just bulletproof, the seat also looks pretty comfortable too.
One thing I like about the seat is that it fits me right in the small of my back just perfectly so I can just lean back into it while I'm riding. The bike also doesn't really beat me up like other bikes have. The peg placement is kind of great because luckily I'm real short haha. I've had other people like Dan from up in Indy at Porterbilt try to ride it and his knees were up in his chest. This bike just kinda fits me perfectly the way it's set up.
So what are some of your favorite details of the bike or certain parts of the build?
Well I really like my naked lady on the tank I mean all of my bikes kinda have naked ladies on them so it just fits. Miss May of 1977 was the playboy centerfold so it also fits the era of the bike being that it's a '78 and also 1977 is actually my birth year so that works out too. I also really love the gas cap on that tank I was super stoked to get that guy in Germany to make that.
So is that gas cap design tied in with your paint theme with the playboy bunnies or was that just a coincidence?
I've got this weird obsession with playboy bunnies lately but yeah it was supposed to be all tied in together.
Does that maybe come from some of the transfers you do on many of your other projects?
Probably cause really almost every transfer I do is like from an old playboy or something. I dig sometimes for hours to find just the right one for each tank
Well in respect to playboy magazine having such a presence in the main stream culture in the 1970s and choppers basically being another subculture that was booming at the same time, they sort of came up together side by side and your kinda melting the 2 subcultures into one by using them in so much of your work
Well there is playboy and then there is Penthouse and playboy was always the more tasteful gentleman's magazine. Whereas Penthouse was just rowdy as hell, I mean I'm weird in the way that I like to use stuff sort of erotic stuff like that on my tanks but not so rowdy that it would easily offend someone,.... you've gotta keep it tasteful.
So I sort of have a controversial question to ask you in regards to transfers in the world of custom paint, which technically is your profession. How do you feel about the clash between artists who use transfers in their paintwork or artists who do mainly airbrush work or even artists who use solely "one shot" paints and things of that nature. Do you see that there's somewhat of a divide between the artists that do hand paint work and the artists who do transfers?
Well each of them have their place and somewhat equally I think. I know a good example definitely John Raleigh up in Wisconsin, he is just absolutely amazing at one shot art. Honestly in my opinion he is one of the best out there for one shot painting. He is definitely my favorite tank artists in the country right now, I mean the guy's just a master of his craft.
He has a fine arts degree and he is truly an artist. I mean we in the paint field are all artists in some respect but that dude could literally do anything. That being said not every project though has the budget for that type of work and honestly he charges a very fair price for the amount of work that's involved. Unfortunately not everyone has the money to go that route and that's OK if you can but it's also ok if you can't. I mean I like using this playboy tank as an example, I know airbrush artists (which is a whole other side to this) that could sit there and paint this exact portrait and it would look incredible but at the end of the day you may end up paying 2 grand for just the artwork itself and if you have the money to throw that into a project that's fantastic and that's perfectly OK. It's just all about what people want to try to accomplish within their budget sometimes.
I do have this weird rule though I should say, that I really try hard not to break but I really try not to do transfers that are already paintings themselves, and that's one of the main reasons why I do so many of the naked lady designs on tanks there is honestly a lot of people that just do the Frank Frazetta style transfers and that's their only thing but I just try to stray away from it and do the playboy stuff cause it's not already something that someone has painted if that makes sense.
At least with a transfer work that I do I've tried to get a little creative with it over the years like for instance I just did one for a guy that was on a Frisco sporty tank and I did it underneath the tank mirrored like as if you were looking through a keyhole just something different you know we ended up calling it the peepshow tank.
So on the transfer thing what you are basically trying to say is you respect all forms of tank art you just kind of fill that specific gap in the market then in regards to certain kinds of transfers?
Definitely, and it's like I can spray some mural stuff if it's like one of the space scenes that I have done or something like that on a tank or Van. I did sort of a forest/ space seen on a raffle tank and Adam Meltron ended up with it eventually after purchasing it from a guy who won it. That's kind of the extent though of some of my mural stuff.
Well that being said the stuff you do with candies and endless lines and even your acetylene jobs, those all are great techniques and you do really good work.
Thank you, well one thing I try and do on a paint job is I don't want just one thing to stand out on a bike like the transfers for instance you shouldn't walk up and the transfer is the 1st thing you see everything has to flow and work together around it and I think that that's where sometimes I'll see a really good tank that is really great work but it can be too cluttered sometimes. I mean on this bike in general that's a little ass tank so you don't really need to stuff 50 pounds of crap into a 2 pound bag I tried to keep it clean.
Easily one mistake that some 70 style glitter flake painters can make is trying to use every style in their book on one tank or Fender. I know I've seen that a few times and that can sometimes just be too distracting.
Definitely I mean I have a stack over their of I think every easy rider issue from one all the way up until the late nineties and when you see all of the seventies stuff it usually has a side panel and a top panel and something within those that works together or maybe even flames just whatever it is but a lot of those bikes it usually clicks pretty well. I mean it's almost kind of like traditional tattooing simplicity holds up and holds its own place you know I guess it's kind of like the old moto, keep it simple stupid. haha.
Well in closing what are your plans for the bike now?
Ride it! haha. I got it into fuel Cleveland this year and it unfortunately didn't happen due to covid so it will be in the show next year as they had said that everyone invited to the show this year would be in the next year. So I'm basically just gonna roll in there and probably not even wipe it down but I'm definitely in a continue to ride it.
Well I think there's definitely an appreciation for motorcycles that get ridden and I think especially the fuel Cleveland show is one of those places where people appreciate bikes like that. Well, we thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us and we look forward to seeing this with all the other bikes have Fuel in 2021!
Photos and words by Mike Vandegriff
So let's start by telling us a little about yourself your paint shop and why you chose a vintage CB750 for your main "go to" chopper right now?
Well my name is Jason Mattox, Timebomb Kustoms out of Bedford ,Indiana. I really started out mainly doing monster art and pin striping, then I started getting into painting bikes about 5 years ago. So that mainly became all that I do now, paint bikes and helmets. On the bike here man you know I really just wanted a Honda, I didn't want a sportster or a big twin. I just like looking through old chopper magazines and always finding these big in line four choppers, they just have always appealed to me. They sound mean as shit wide open too haha. This thing will give you a bad case of tinnitus in your ears if you aren't careful. Haha. It's a little cold natured sometimes and it is a kick only bike, man when it fires up its loud. I'm surprised I haven't had the cops called more times firing it up late at night.
Well have you ever thought about getting one of those tight little Amen style electrics panels to put right here under the carbs and wire up an electric start then?
You know I had one of those on the bike cuz it has an electric start in the bike originally because it was a 1978 K model with later carburetors on it and that Box just wanted to hit the carbs and the overflow tubes so I had Ethan from Porterbilt up in Indianapolis doing some work on it and he wired it, tuned it, finished up a few things and also did some fabrication work on it. We figured out that we really just didn't need it and I really wanted to mount the coils up front because I had this awesome jammer coil cover that goes between the exhaust that was original from the seventies. So, anyway I ended up putting a Rick's regulator rectifier combo on it and completely hid it under the bike it worked out great right underneath the battery which I put a good ole duracell battery in it with just enough to work the lights and keep the coils going and decided that was all I needed, just sort of keep it simple.
Well tell us a little bit about the front end? It looks to be an original from the 70s or 80s?
I got that front end about 5 years ago from a guy I met on Instagram, he said it was a 6 over but I actually believe it's a 4 over and he believed it was and "S & W" Springer which I had never heard of. I even reached out to the people at Paughco to see if they knew anything about it and they had actually never heard of that manufacture. It is stamped on the bottom of the triple trees " S & W manufacturing" though so there must be some company that was making springer's for a while back in the day. It's really a rad front end though, super skinny and it goes down the road nice and smooth.
Who did the hard tail framework and some of the other parts of the bike?
Rawhide cycles did the frame, throttle addiction made the tank and Fender and I got the gas cap from a place called "hand craft" in Germany. it's also got Mac exhaust on it and rawhide did the rear wheel as well.
So was this originally a full Rawhide cycles build or just the frame work?
Just the frame I ordered it from him and he also did the rear wheel for me.
Well it came out really good, the stance looks really well. They do some really great work. Well, what about the seat? That looks like a drag specialties but it also looks custom?
My friend Sean down in Texas he did the seat on my other bike the "gypsy witch" that I have over here, so I sent him the seat to do on this bike that was originally a drag specialties scorpion seat. Well he stripped and recovered everything and then made the upper backrest portion to match. He had to steam it and add a little more foam because of the original seat having all those buttons on it but it's great now.
So have you detached the pillion portion and packed a bunch of gear on it for a road trip yet? Any plans to stack some miles on it?
Well I've got this awesome sweat shop industries bag that I mocked up on the bike that looks great but I haven't had the bike finished long enough to get it out on a trip just yet.
Well being that you yourself are Timebomb Kustoms, a one man shop and your specialty is paint work, why don't you tell us a little more about the paintwork you chose to do on this bike and why you chose the specific designs or techniques that you used here.
Oh you know it's kind of weird because it wasn't supposed to be black at all, it was supposed to be baby blue it was supposed to have panels in there but it basically got what we call "the job" which is black, gold and tangerine, that's kinda what everybody wants. So anyway I had planned on doing baby blue with a bunch of separations and originally it was gonna be a show bike, that was all it was ever going to be, a show bike. Well I put about a 100 hours into the molding, the tank and fender work, the oil bag and every weld and seam on it ended up getting filled.
So the tank was actually welded on and molded directly into the frame?
It is, it is,.... it's actually welded on so if it ever gets a pinhole in it I'm severely fucked. Hahaa. Anyway it was supposed to be a show bike then once I got into the project all I wanted to do was ride it. So I didn't go get all the original stuff rechromed (Springer, sissy bar etc) and I just sorta left them as is with some character. I mean then also covid happened and all the bike shows got canceled, so it just kind of worked out better as a rider.
Well I certainly agree sometimes you start on a project wanting something to become the ultimate show bike but then realize it's just better suited for a daily rider after you get into it. I mean that's what these bikes were meant for so that's even better that you decided to let it be what it is, a rider. I mean it's also not so long and raked out that it wouldn't be suitable for even a daily commuter too especially with the stance and you gotta love the fact that the motor is just bulletproof, the seat also looks pretty comfortable too.
One thing I like about the seat is that it fits me right in the small of my back just perfectly so I can just lean back into it while I'm riding. The bike also doesn't really beat me up like other bikes have. The peg placement is kind of great because luckily I'm real short haha. I've had other people like Dan from up in Indy at Porterbilt try to ride it and his knees were up in his chest. This bike just kinda fits me perfectly the way it's set up.
So what are some of your favorite details of the bike or certain parts of the build?
Well I really like my naked lady on the tank I mean all of my bikes kinda have naked ladies on them so it just fits. Miss May of 1977 was the playboy centerfold so it also fits the era of the bike being that it's a '78 and also 1977 is actually my birth year so that works out too. I also really love the gas cap on that tank I was super stoked to get that guy in Germany to make that.
So is that gas cap design tied in with your paint theme with the playboy bunnies or was that just a coincidence?
I've got this weird obsession with playboy bunnies lately but yeah it was supposed to be all tied in together.
Does that maybe come from some of the transfers you do on many of your other projects?
Probably cause really almost every transfer I do is like from an old playboy or something. I dig sometimes for hours to find just the right one for each tank
Well in respect to playboy magazine having such a presence in the main stream culture in the 1970s and choppers basically being another subculture that was booming at the same time, they sort of came up together side by side and your kinda melting the 2 subcultures into one by using them in so much of your work
Well there is playboy and then there is Penthouse and playboy was always the more tasteful gentleman's magazine. Whereas Penthouse was just rowdy as hell, I mean I'm weird in the way that I like to use stuff sort of erotic stuff like that on my tanks but not so rowdy that it would easily offend someone,.... you've gotta keep it tasteful.
So I sort of have a controversial question to ask you in regards to transfers in the world of custom paint, which technically is your profession. How do you feel about the clash between artists who use transfers in their paintwork or artists who do mainly airbrush work or even artists who use solely "one shot" paints and things of that nature. Do you see that there's somewhat of a divide between the artists that do hand paint work and the artists who do transfers?
Well each of them have their place and somewhat equally I think. I know a good example definitely John Raleigh up in Wisconsin, he is just absolutely amazing at one shot art. Honestly in my opinion he is one of the best out there for one shot painting. He is definitely my favorite tank artists in the country right now, I mean the guy's just a master of his craft.
He has a fine arts degree and he is truly an artist. I mean we in the paint field are all artists in some respect but that dude could literally do anything. That being said not every project though has the budget for that type of work and honestly he charges a very fair price for the amount of work that's involved. Unfortunately not everyone has the money to go that route and that's OK if you can but it's also ok if you can't. I mean I like using this playboy tank as an example, I know airbrush artists (which is a whole other side to this) that could sit there and paint this exact portrait and it would look incredible but at the end of the day you may end up paying 2 grand for just the artwork itself and if you have the money to throw that into a project that's fantastic and that's perfectly OK. It's just all about what people want to try to accomplish within their budget sometimes.
I do have this weird rule though I should say, that I really try hard not to break but I really try not to do transfers that are already paintings themselves, and that's one of the main reasons why I do so many of the naked lady designs on tanks there is honestly a lot of people that just do the Frank Frazetta style transfers and that's their only thing but I just try to stray away from it and do the playboy stuff cause it's not already something that someone has painted if that makes sense.
At least with a transfer work that I do I've tried to get a little creative with it over the years like for instance I just did one for a guy that was on a Frisco sporty tank and I did it underneath the tank mirrored like as if you were looking through a keyhole just something different you know we ended up calling it the peepshow tank.
So on the transfer thing what you are basically trying to say is you respect all forms of tank art you just kind of fill that specific gap in the market then in regards to certain kinds of transfers?
Definitely, and it's like I can spray some mural stuff if it's like one of the space scenes that I have done or something like that on a tank or Van. I did sort of a forest/ space seen on a raffle tank and Adam Meltron ended up with it eventually after purchasing it from a guy who won it. That's kind of the extent though of some of my mural stuff.
Well that being said the stuff you do with candies and endless lines and even your acetylene jobs, those all are great techniques and you do really good work.
Thank you, well one thing I try and do on a paint job is I don't want just one thing to stand out on a bike like the transfers for instance you shouldn't walk up and the transfer is the 1st thing you see everything has to flow and work together around it and I think that that's where sometimes I'll see a really good tank that is really great work but it can be too cluttered sometimes. I mean on this bike in general that's a little ass tank so you don't really need to stuff 50 pounds of crap into a 2 pound bag I tried to keep it clean.
Easily one mistake that some 70 style glitter flake painters can make is trying to use every style in their book on one tank or Fender. I know I've seen that a few times and that can sometimes just be too distracting.
Definitely I mean I have a stack over their of I think every easy rider issue from one all the way up until the late nineties and when you see all of the seventies stuff it usually has a side panel and a top panel and something within those that works together or maybe even flames just whatever it is but a lot of those bikes it usually clicks pretty well. I mean it's almost kind of like traditional tattooing simplicity holds up and holds its own place you know I guess it's kind of like the old moto, keep it simple stupid. haha.
Well in closing what are your plans for the bike now?
Ride it! haha. I got it into fuel Cleveland this year and it unfortunately didn't happen due to covid so it will be in the show next year as they had said that everyone invited to the show this year would be in the next year. So I'm basically just gonna roll in there and probably not even wipe it down but I'm definitely in a continue to ride it.
Well I think there's definitely an appreciation for motorcycles that get ridden and I think especially the fuel Cleveland show is one of those places where people appreciate bikes like that. Well, we thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us and we look forward to seeing this with all the other bikes have Fuel in 2021!
Photos and words by Mike Vandegriff