Dickson Tufar is a handsome gentleman from New England who plies his leather-craft tomfoolery under the "Trucakalope" moniker. In addition to building seats like the ones that grace his personal steed, Dickson has constructed cat-o-nine-tails for pro doms, guitar straps for Roy Clark and a flute holster for Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull.

In 1981, Dickson ran away from his New England home to Southern California, where he took up residence with a homeless harmonica player and a post-op transexual named Eva Destruction. To make rent, young Tufar helped outlaw bikers in the Hollywood Hills grind serial numbers off stolen Harleys, then fenced the hot bikes to heroin-addicted lead singers in starving glamrock bands. One customer who saw the doodling in Dickson's sketchbook asked the young musician and freelance artist to draw a picture of union boss Jimmy Hoffa and Monkees drummer Mickey Dolenz wrestling naked in a prison cell with bars made of licorice Red Vines. Dickson turned that drawing into a tooled leather headband for Axl Rose, and a career was born. That strap now hangs next to Patsy Cline's IUD at the Hard Rock Casino in Branson, Missouri.

In 2008 Dickson asked his friends at Acme Choppers to help him build a custom motorcycle. His bike is named after the German death metal band Dickson toured with in '94, the same year his girlfriend at the time gave birth to his first child, a hydrocephalic hermaphrodite with a vestigial tail. At the dawn of the twenty-first century pressure from the millennial virus was too much for Dickson to bear, and he went into hiding until the summer of 2003 "Just to be sure."   

Today Dickson plays mountain metal with the band Scissorfight that was originally founded in 1893, the same year wild boar were introduced into New Hampshire's ecosystem and Pabst Blue Ribbon won the title "America's Best Beer."

Bike: Scorpionica

Year, make model of motor, plus engine mods: 1997 Harley 80" Evo; ported and polished; new cam, lifters, S&S carb and other junk to make it burn more gas

Year, make, model of frame, plus mods, if any: The original frame was a '97 Softail BadBoy, completely rebuilt and made rigid by Acme Choppers. Only the original seatpost remains

Fork spec: Harley springer, chopped 4"

People who helped with the build: Wayne and Jason Ahlquist; various Roman towel boys at Acme Choppers, and of course the nice folks at the bank

Front and rear wheel rim, tire and hub specs: 16" rims, Avon MKII tires, regular old Harley hubs

Interesting back story: I was traveling down a road towards a stop sign, slowing down, got a friend on a bike to the left of me and one to the right. I see a big dirt hole in the street and I thought "No problem—I'm going pretty slow," so I enter the hole and come out the other side. I may have gotten a little air, but nothing big. Everything felt real smooth. When we reach the stop sign my buds are screaming, "Holy fuck!" Apparently, my rear wheel came out of that hole about four feet off the ground. My ass was off the seat and the seat was flipped up, my feet were off the pegs but my hands were still on the grips. Somehow, everything came down perfectly, and the bike showed NO issues. Sweet.

Thanks: Wayne, Jay and everyone else at Acme Choppers; Steve Wilson, Dennis Buck, Mike Fallon and Owl