During the 2022 Arizona Bike Week, the Ramjet Racing Performance Cycles shop in Phoenix revealed its latest creation made for the Combat Hero Bike Build organization to give to an American hero.
When Tony Mei, the boss at Ramjet, called last winter to ask me to come and look at its next custom bike project, I couldn’t imagine what I would discover. For the second year in a row, he and builder Ross Whitney had been commissioned by Combat Hero Bike Build, which sent them a blue 2005 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Ultra Classic to customize.
The lucky recipient of the build was Sergeant First Class Army veteran Justin Reuber, 32, who lost his left leg after being severely wounded in Sadr, Iraq, in 2006. But the biker never forgot the feel of the wind when riding a motorcycle. Unable to jump on a two-wheeler anymore, a trike was the only way to enjoy the incomparable feeling of riding with his prosthetic left leg.
Ramjet went to work, building an aggressive performance trike around a beautiful Frankenstein trike kit.
“We were free to develop our vision,” Mei explained.
The Ramjet team worked hard for two months to complete the project before Arizona Bike Week, held in Scottsdale. The giveaway ceremony was held April 2 at the Road House Saloon in Cave Creek. The crowd was unaware of what would be revealed from under the tarp, with only a picture of the original blue Electra Glide visible. When Tony Mei, Ross Whitney, and the organizers pulled off the tarp and Reuber turned back, you could immediately see the emotion and wonder in his eyes as the audience cheered around him.
Living near the Ramjet shop, I was constantly amazed by the energy the guys put into this build and their quest for perfection in the details. For instance, the parking brake was made to resemble an AR15 and was constructed almost entirely out of actual firearm components. It gives the trike a sick military style.
Once again, the Ramjet team and the Combat Hero Bike Build organization reached their goal and made a true American hero happy.
