J63 SCHWANTZ

Austin’s Revival Cycles is an industry in itself, and a mainstay of the Alt.Custom scene worldwide. Their Texas-sized team in Austin hosts the Handbuilt Show and the Twistoff drag races, and pops up at events around the world bringing beautiful, fun machines that work as brilliantly as they look. Revival founders Alan Stulberg and Stefan Hertel are the geek squad of the custom scene, reveling in their love of technical details and sharing their enthusiasm about design, fabrication, and technology via their popular social media outlets. Best of all, their motorcycles cut the mustard, and are always stunningly fabricated, and bristling with great ideas.

The ‘J63 Schwantz’ started life as a dog-shredded Ducati 900ss SP, an aged design with modest performance and plastic-bike looks. Pushing their skill set, the Revival team designed their first custom frame for this project, which Stulberg sketched on a napkin, and Hertel translated into metal. “A scratch-built frame gave us complete control of the chassis geometry and suspension. The 18” wheels are an aesthetic choice, but a compromise in performance; we used a 21-degree steering head angle for smaller trail, and quicker steering, which also brings the gyroscopic precession axis closer to the rear contact patch.” To cure the fork flex endemic in a steep head angle, Hertel designed triple clamps without pinch bolts; “We hold the fork tubes with a tapered collet that applies a consistent radial clamp force.” 

The J63 Schwantz has been featured on CycleWorld, Jay Leno’s Garage, and Petrolicious.

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