INTRUDER TRIKE –
CHUNKSTER BY NAME, CHUNKSTER BY NATURE
Head gas axeman Nick has a bit of a secret past. In Germany, back in the Eighties, he had a custom business buying up old British classics, getting them around the strict German TUV (Type Approval) regs, and then turning them into radical choppers once the paperwork was sorted. Then, in the ’90s, he moved back to the UK, and he established Rhino Trikes. Back then, there weren’t many trike builders –
Chris Ireland and Nutty Norman at Desperate Dan’s built radical trikes, and around the same time Haydn started The Trike Shop, both looking to the top end of the market with their offerings. He decided to aim for the more affordable end with his early Rhinos before discovering, and settling on, Suzuki’s Intruder models as an excellent all-rounder. Back in the late 2000s, he rode a bike with a wide front end with five-degree raked yokes, and it looked, and rode, so well he decided to offer that option to all his trikes, and the
Chunkster conversion was born. Then, in 2015, he decided to up the ante a bit with a trike featuring all the mods, and a sweet paint job to boot.
The plan, with the support of the guy who was buying this particular Chunkster, was to build a trike with the potential of winning ‘Best Trike’ at the late lamented BMAD Paignton Bike Fest – something that was going to be hard work as he’d be competing against, amongst others, trikes built by
The Trike Shop (who normally took home the trophy). He really pulled out all the stops (one-off back end, severely chopped-about tank, new seat, new ’pipes, back wheel in the front – the works), and gave it a deep and amazingly shiny holographic paint job that, with its 23 coats of lacquer, absolutely sparkles in the sun.
They also took along another trike too, a Ducati Monsterbased one to which he’d fitted car spoilers, micro-lights and a fairing, and rag-rolled it silver and candy red over pink (which he hadn’t tried doing since the ’80s) just for funwithno aspirations of it winning anything – all their money wasonthe Chunkster with its eye-catching holographic paint, and reckoned all they’d need was sunshine to make the prisms come alive, and they’d have it in the bag. Sadly, on the day, it rained, and was overcast, and the Chunkster just looked black, and bland. The competition was a stunning orange trike that really was good, and Nick felt all was lost.
Unbeknown to him though, the celebrity who was judging’d brought his wife with him, and she fell in love with the Ducati, named ‘Baby Duke’, and they awarded it ‘Best Trike’!
Since the building of this particular Chunkster, Rhino’ve moved away from Suzuki Intruders as bases, and now offer Chunksters based on Sportster 883 and 1200 models (although they’re still more than willing to convert customers’ own bikes), and’ll have the first Harley Chunkster version very shortly. We look forward to seeing it!