Jordan Suzuki Race Mechanic To Be Featured In “Biker Build-off” On TLC

Feb 09, 2007, ©Copyright 2007, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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Compton Custom Designs' James Compton stands behind his creation, "Crusher."

Photo by David Swarts

James Compton, a former professional racer and current Crew Chief for Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki’s Jake Holden, will be one of the featured builders in an episode of “Biker Build-off” on The Learning Channel (TLC) in March.

“You have to build a bike from scratch in 10 days,” Compton, owner of Compton custom Designs, told Roadracingworld.com during a recent AMA team test at California Speedway. “I was gonna build something new, but they insisted I build something similar to what I already had.”

The bike Compton had already built was a custom, steel-tube-frame Pro Street drag bike fitted with customized inverted forks, a custom counter-shaft extension to get around the 300/35-size rear tire and a “mild” Suzuki GSX-R1000 race engine. Compton’s team nicknamed the 31.5-inch-tall, 320-pound beast as “Crusher.”

Originally, Compton said, he was slated to go up against another former road-racer-turned-bike-builder, Roland Sands, but Sands had to back out at the last minute. Instead, Compton faced off against Departure Bike Works, of Richmond, Virginia, which built a 103 cubic-inch Harley-Davidson powered bike named “The Virginian.”

“The best part about it was,” said Compton, “they usually ride the bikes to a bike show and let the fans vote on them, right? Well, this one we did best two out of three passes down the quarter-mile.”

Roadracingworld.com asked, but Compton smiled and said he was contractually bound to not disclose who won the shootout.