ArtBiker World Blog

Les Brown is my kind of guy… I dropped him a note to tell him I was interested in one of his “pig stickers” for my ’49 Panhead.  Not only did he offer his advice on which of his products he would recommend, but he went ahead and sent me a pic of his sweet little ’47 Knuck. 

But good taste in bikes aside… Les has owned and operated MetalArts for 24 years. Originally a bronze fine arts foundry, they have cast major pieces for people all over the world and says he has done “more table top bronze pieces than I care to think about.”  As you may have guessed by his bike, he is a rider, always has been.  Over the years Les began to design and make pieces for his bikes.  And you know what happens when you do that, soon you have all your friends and everyone from the local icehouse wanting you to make something for them too.  As the story goes, a few years ago, after the kids got out of the nest, he shifted gears to mostly bike parts and the rest is history in the making.

The products available through the MetalArts website are all of a very high quality.  Check it out for yourself at www.metalartsinc.com.  You will find that they are very well known for having some of the best air horns out there.  In fact, their home page touts that their loud horns are the alternative to loud pipes!  And with all the posts I have had to do recently about noise ordinances tightening and tickets flowing more freely, some of us may really want to consider some “get the hell out of my way” accessories.  Besides air horns, MetalArts offers a nice selection of air cleaner covers, shift linkages, and, the item I was most interested in, oil tank dip stick knives.

The oil bag blades come with a show quality chrome handle and steel blade.  The plug is billet T-6 polished aluminum and the 420 stainless blade is custom ground with a partial serrated edge.  The blade measures 3 ¼ inches and the overall length is 6 inches. I was very tempted to get the skull handle as, like many of you out there, I have a little thing for skulls.  However, the seat on my rigid is about an eighth of an inch thick and anything but a low profile dipstick would dig into my leg.  So, I went ahead and ordered up the knife with the iron cross handle.  It is low profile, has a smooth top in case my leg rests upon it, and the iron cross is appropriate for the bike I am going to put this on.

As you might be able to tell from the photos, the fit and finish is beautiful.  The blade has a nice edge to it, but I will be taking it in to get sharpened up a bit… but I do that with every blade so don’t make a value judgment here.  After ordering, Les had the part shipped to me very, very quickly.  It arrived in a nice package with a protective covering over the blade so as not to draw blood from the postman.  Nice touch Les.

If you decide you want to order one of these little numbers up for yourself, keep in mind that you will want to measure the opening of your oil bag.  The plug comes in two sizes, 1 3/8 in and 1 ¼ inch.  If chrome is not your thing, you might want to consider ordering a part in Bronze.  The folks at MetalArts offer that as an option to you. 

The rebuild of my Panhead is coming to a close and I will be putting this baby on as soon as everything is put back together.  I will post pics when that happens.

Love, Respect, and Ride Safe,

ArtBiker

here is a pic of my pan… before the tear down…  you can see why I wouldn’t want a sharp handle on the plug.