The Fluke 88V Keeps Finch Customs Purring As They Travel Their Own Road Application Note

The Fluke 88V keeps Finch Customs purring as they travel their own road Application Note

Ron Finch and Steve Dulex on the road. Steve rides “The Webb” and Ron rides the “Double Cross.” A leather-clad biker fires up his chopper, kicks the bike into gear and with open pipes barking, blasts off toward the horizon. It’s an all-American image as vivid as that of the mountain man or the cowboy. A picture of independence: a rebel who follows his own road.

If that iconic loner checks his 1960s as an expression of per- There’s one key exception. mirror today, he’ll see thousands sonal taste and creativity. Today When it comes to troubleshooting of new generation biker you can buy one from a catalog. the unique electrical systems on wannabes hot on his trail. But don’t look in a catalog to one-of-a-kind Finch Customs, They’re forking out Mercedes- find a Ron Finch bike. As he has Ron and electrical specialist class money to have one of a since 1965, Ron builds his cus- Stewart Felix, known around the handful of elite metal smiths tom bikes one at a time at his shop as Screwy, go strictly main build the bike of their dreams. shop in Pontiac, Mich. Like few stream. They use the Fluke 88V Others are buying factory made others, he sets his own standards automotive digital multimeter. choppers. Choppers began in the for quality and creativity. He blazes his own trail.

From the Fluke Digital Library @ www.fluke.com/library

Proper tool, proper job At the front, a pair of tiny PIAA “Most people just go out and 1152 fog lights serves as head- buy a frame,” says Finch. “I “We like to choose the proper lights. They project from couldn’t lower myself to that tool, for a proper job,” says extended frame tubes like the standard, because that’s just not Screwy. Ten years as a rock show eyes on a praying mantis. A cus- me.” When it comes to building a lighting technician for Vari-lite, tom fork, with special wide triple reliable electrical system, how- a major show lighting manu- trees built to clear the frame, ever, creativity can pose facturer, gave him plenty of connects an 80-spoke rim to challenges. For instance, there’s experience with Fluke instru- Finch-built handlebars. Above no standard wiring design for a ments like the Fluke 77 DMM he the 114 cubic inch S&S V-twin Finch bike. used on the road. motor rise twin dual-throat Working with such artists as Weber carbs. The frame tubes One of a kind Vince Gill, Mariah Carey, George twist back and forth over the “Most of Ron’s bikes are one of a Thorogood and the Destroyers, engine and the exhaust pipes Def Leppard and the Grateful kind,” says Screwy. “So we don’t cross too-thus the name Double use a pre-manufactured wiring Dead gave Screwy deep insight Cross-but there’s no gas tank to into the importance of delivering harness. We build our own, and be seen. That’s hidden in the we pull our own wires. On the flawless performance when the rear fender, a trademark Finch curtain goes up. Double Cross bike we drilled approach. holes in the front of the frame, Today he’s back home in “I’ve always liked power and Pontiac, helping his old friend and the frame crossed over. We speed,” Finch says. “I like to had to make sure the wire that Ron make sure lights are lighted show the engine. Without the and engines thundering when went in on the left came out on motor, it’s not a motorcycle.” the left.” the curtain goes up on Finch The front fender is a filigree of customs like Double Cross, Multiple types of lights on the steel rod-Finch’s fancy rod work bikes—incandescent lamps and Ron’s one-of-a-kind entry in the decorates every section of the 2004-2005 Discovery Channel light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, for frame. And the whole bike has instance—require differing levels Biker Build-Off. received the artist’s finishing The bike is not ‘old school’ or of current and resistance. So it’s touch: a custom Ron Finch paint critical that the each wire termi- ‘stretched,’ not a ‘bobber’ or ‘hot job. It’s the culmination of 40 rod.’ As the Discovery Channel nates at the right place. And years devoted to uncompromising since Finch tries to hide all the describes it, the style is “uniquely artistic expression, using two Finch.” Built within the show’s wiring inside the frame tubes or wheels and a motor as a canvas. behind other parts, it’s almost tough 14-day limit, the bike epit- Though many Biker Build-Off omizes Finch’s independent impossible for Screwy to trace entrants were willing to assem- circuits without testing with the approach as both biker and artist. ble parts from a catalog, Finch There’s nothing else like it. Fluke 88V, which features a insisted on building the frame for beeper to signal continuity. Double Cross from the ground up.

Stewart Felix, a.k.a. “Screwy” uses the 88V DMM for electrical and lighting tests on custom built Finch choppers.

2 Fluke Corporation The Fluke 88V keeps Finch Customs purring as they travel their own road In addition to creating art on Fluke. two wheels, Finch and Screwy Ron Finch got his two-wheel handle the more mundane tasks start riding Whizzer mopeds and of troubleshooting and repairing Cushman scooters as a kid. By customer bikes. The Fluke 88V the 1960s, before many of helps there too. Screwy recalls a today’s chopper artists were even recent repair on a Harley that just born, he was customizing the wasn’t running right. BSAs and Triumphs that battled “The guy thought he had a Harley Davidson for street domi- dead battery,” he says, “so he nation. During the custom bike bought a new battery . . . and it boom of the 1970s, his choppers wasn’t that. I’m a pathfinder,” he decorated the front pages of such says. “I start where the input magazines as Motorcycle World comes, and I check all the points and Custom Chopper. But neither all the way through to find out Finch nor many others would who’s trying to stop me from get- have predicted the resurgence of ting from the input to the final chopper fever fueled by Biker destination.” Build-off, American Chopper and Using the 88V to run voltage other TV biker shows. drop tests along the charging cir- “It is amazing,” says Finch. “If cuit of the disabled Harley, you had asked me ten years ago Screwy found no problems until if I thought I was going to be on he reached the wires attached to TV and all this, I’d say you’re the alternator stator. crazy. At one time if you rode a bike, you were thought to be an You do what you outlaw, a dope smoking, thieving have to do gypsy or whatever. That’s totally changed, due to the TV cover- In one instance, a rider had age.” started removing light bars from Today, in addition to building his highly-decorated Harley bikes, Finch creates sculptures dresser—and started burning up from found metal in a venture he voltage regulators. Screwy used calls ‘METAlife.’ His creations, the 88V to check the current such as ‘Neon Turtle’ and ‘The draw and quickly realized that Fish Who Ate Harley Davidson the electrical system would have Parts,’ feature the same bright to be re-engineered to compen- paint jobs, rococo metalwork and sate for the load that had been From left to right: Marten Stumph, mechanic and road agent; individual artistic vision you can removed. Installing a couple of Screwy, right hand man, metal fab and paint prep; Mike Cavneor, see in his two wheelers. machinst; Mark Hatfield, welder; Ruth Finch, wife, #1 fan, book- resistors in the circuit put things As they must have said when keeper and treasurer; Ron Finch, the big cheese. In the background back in balance. are examples of Finch’s METAlife creations. Ron rolled his first bike into the Screwy’s also planning to dou- Michigan sunlight: ble-check tachometer accuracy using the 88V’s ability to meas- “Man, that is wild.” ure engine RPMs. “You have two looks at the same situation,” he says, “and if your tach is saying Fluke. Keeping your world one thing and the meter is saying up and running. something else, I would believe the meter before I would believe the tachometer.” If a tach dis- Fluke Corporation agrees with the 88V, Screwy will PO Box 9090, Everett, WA USA 98206 adjust voltage to the tach until it Fluke Europe B.V. matches the reading on the PO Box 1186, 5602 BD Eindhoven, The Netherlands For more information call: In the U.S.A. (800) 443-5853 or Fax (425) 446-5116 In Europe/M-East/Africa (31 40) 2 675 200 or Fax (31 40) 2 675 222 In Canada (800) 36-FLUKE or Fax (905) 890-6866 From other countries +1 (425) 446-5500 or Fax +1 (425) 446-5116 Web access: http://www.fluke.com