Meet Mike and his incredible machine –

 El Diablo

On a trip to Strokers Dallas a while back this particular bike passed by us and it really caught our eye. For one thing, it appeared to be painted everywhere; that is, no metal was showing anywhere. Upon closer inspection, sure enough this bike had paint on every square inch of existence, and not just any paint, try a $10,000 paint job.

From Grand Prairie, Texas Mike Birkert tells us that this project started out to outdo his brother in Florida – who is also an avid biker. But one thing led to another and before you knew it, one year and seven months later and a total of $43,000 - you see the final majestic machine pictured here.

Mike has been riding all his life starting out with a 1973 Sportster, followed by a 1997 Softtail, and then an 2003 California Custom that he wrecked, along with a 2002 Heritage Softtail. When he paid off the Heritage he knew that he wanted to do something different. He didn't want another Harley so he bought the rolling chassis you see here from his brother in Florida and off he went. Mike did the metal work cutting out the fenders, all the molding, built an air dam for it, followed by five months in the paint shop. According to Mike, this process taught him a great deal of patience as everyday he would go to the paint shop and would ask “What can I get for an additional $1500?”. Hence, the total $10,000 total paint expense. The paint job covers the entire bike from top to bottom and it looks just as good on the bottom as it does on the top. It only took 450 hours of air brush time!

Asked how he came up with the paint scheme Mike answered “I wanted something to be outstanding, eye catching, flashy, and Johnny's niche from Psychotic Design, Euless, Texas was painting skulls. I kind of went in there and said I wanted this here that there I gave him 8 or 10 good vocal points. Once I came to the conclusion that the whole bike was going to be painted and knowing that as an artist you can't restrict them to their talents, and knowing how picky I am, either we are going to go with it or redo it. I was opposed to the pin stripes at first but Johnny went ahead and pinstriped the bike in orange. I wanted plain silver and he said let's go orange. I came back the next day and saw the orange and it made the whole bike stand out. I then let him roll with the paint and told him what I wanted on the tanks, on the fenders, the oil bags, and on the spoiler.” Mike continued with “I was driven to do it and spent many nights in the garage. I changed many things like the fenders, forward controls, the handle bars, and change the front end a couple times just to match the paint scheme. It was an obsession. My toys have to be right.”

Yep, “El Diablo” turns heads everywhere this fellow Texan goes as everything on the bike was done for a reason and it really looks that good. While Mike was “driven” to do this, when asked if he would do it again, Mike responded, “Everything has a price and I would build one more. I learned a great deal from this one.”

The seat was made by “Joe the seat man” in Arlington, Texas and again, the fenders are home made by Mike using 180 blanks. The frame is a G&G Dark Horse using a 250 rear tire, Accutronixs controls, Legend Air suspension, Martin Brothers pipes, has an 113 Ultima six-speed transmission, and a Velocity Ice Age front end. Damn good job Mike. Damn good job. TIMM

NOTE: Our apologies for the lack of pictures. The bike was photographed with the understanding that the photos would accompany this article, however, our photographer changed his mind. And even though the pictures were taken under the auspices of Texas Iron – we respect the photographer's wishes. Hopefully, we will have additional pictures taken and when we do – we'll upload them for all to see. TIMM