Back in 1996, Alphonse Capone of Capone Cycles came up with the idea of building a bike with a sawblade theme. He wasn't sure what, exactly, he wanted to do with it, only that it needed to involve sawblades. Months passed, and he slowly put it together in his head, eventually incorporating themes from the Billy-Bob Thorton movie Sling Blade, but as peoples' eyes are often bigger than their stomachs, Alphonse's ideas were somewhat more expensive than his available capital.
Still, the bike remained at large in the back of his head. He toyed with the idea until he spent some time talking to one of his customers, Terry, who happened to own a couple of sawmills. Terry wanted a custom that was completely ridable, and Alphonse pitched the Sling Blade bike to him. Terry was sold on the idea, so Alphonse started making phone calls.
A Viking frame from Motorcycle Works would provide an aggressive stance for this particular scoot. A set of wheels from Extreme Machine came with the name Sling Blade-fate, or just a similar taste in movies?
A lot of fabrication was needed for this particular build. "I TIG and MIG--weld well enough, but the precision welds were given over to 4130 Speedshop in Chillicothe, Ohio," where further work was done. His desire to create a badass machine that could nonetheless be used as a daily rider led him to select a Zippers 131 Magnum to use for an engine, pairing it with a Baker six-speed RSD transmission.
The paint was covered by Mike Cole, world-class artist and partner at Capone Cycles. "I told him the color I wanted and within a couple of hours he nailed the exact shade of red I was looking for," Alphonse marveled. Once the sheetmetal was covered, a phone call was put out to Mike Learn of Mike Learn Designs in Arizona for the graphics. "We sent him some photos of different pieces and gave him the general theme of the project," Alphonse said. "The graphics are my idea as to what tortures Karl in the Thorton movie." Mike Learn said OK, and the bike headed West while the parts that required plating were sent to Tennessee to receive treatment from S&H Plating.
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