Ari Levenbaum has been in this industry for over 20 years and he and the Law Tigers will continue to represent and provide legal assistance to injured motorcyclists for decades to come. Over the years he would see Paul Yaffe at events and of course in several TV shows. But twenty years ago Ari was not in a position to build the bike he always wanted and build it with the Law Tigers theme. Although many builders over the years asked him to build a motorcycle for Law Tigers, he knew that Paul Yaffe was the right builder for this project. Ari of course entertained the idea of buying one of Paul Yaffe’s custom motorcycles, but that was also out of his reach as a Law Tigers employee. His focus was on developing and expanding the Law Tigers brand. His dream of owning a Paul Yaffe bike remained.
Patience has its rewards. In 2018 Ari had the opportunity to interview Paul Yaffe and he was impressed with the KISS bike Paul built and the whole SRT program Paul had. He came away from the interview appreciating Paul’s creativity, ingenuity, and the quality of work Paul and Bagger Nation has been doing for 30 years. At this point Ari was sure that Paul was the right builder for the Law Tigers bike.
Not long after that interview, Ari became an owner at Law Tigers. Now he had the means for his dream bike and reached out to Paul. Paul was by now a veteran and an icon in the motorcycle world, without a doubt an innovator and one of the grandfathers of the bike builders. Some say that he picked up the mantle when the legendary Arlen Ness passed.
Paul is an innovator, a builder, a genius of kind, and having personally visited the Bagger Nation shop, I would agree with Ari that he is very unique as a designer. He thinks of motorcycle parts in his head, and then does what he does best to bring them to life. From visors to custom fenders, from chin spoilers to entire front ends, and from monkey bars to personalized gauges, Paul Yaffe delivers.
The Law Tigers bike build developed a friendship between Ari and Paul. The motorcycle, a 2020 Harley-Davidson Road Glide Special was purchased from one of their friends at the Northern California House of Thunder Harley-Davidson dealer. Ari’s vision was a sport touring bike and being a fan of Nick Trask that Paul collaborates with, Ari was certain that Paul was to build a one-of-a-kind bike never been done before.
Ari recalls that he did not have too much to do with the design of the bike with the exception of telling Paul that he wanted a Sport Touring Bagger with power and an “edgy” design.
The phone calls started between Ari and Paul, their ideas of the design and the parts to be used went back and forth in texts and emails. “Most of the time I would give Paul free reign” Ari recalls. “Having the Bagger Nation headquarters less than a mile from our Law Tigers office, allowed me to check out the building process at each stage.”
In the process Paul named the Law Tigers bike “TIGER GLIDE” and their friendship grew. Today, on weekends and during their days off their families spent time together going out to dinner and riding electric scooters. In Ari’s words, “not only did Paul build my bike but he has become a good friend.”
In the process of the build Paul helped with getting parts like the BST carbon fiber wheels, the custom Le Pera seat and the Italian ODC suspension which Paul exclusively distributes in North America and that the Tiger Glide is equipped with. Names like Le Pera, Clock Works, Trask Performance, Rolling Art Custom Paint, OTC Suspension, make the Tiger Glide not only a one of a kind motorcycle, but in Paul Yaffe‘s words, it is “THE ART OF PERFORMANCE”.
“I recalled how it was a very easy process and everything Paul came up with I really liked” Ari recalls. “Add to that the performance work that was done to the bike, and you have my dream Performance Bagger. With reducing the weight of the stock bike and adding the performance parts, it puts out about 120 HP. It is the most powerful and the best handling bike I have ever owned”.
The Tiger Glide was not only the beginning of a great friendship between two motorcycle enthusiasts and industry professionals, but also the catalyst to the 2021 Sturgis giveaway bike, valued at over $85,000. But it didn’t stop there. It seems that the Tiger Glide has been the beginning of something else. WOG recently learned that Paul Yaffe has built FXR style frames to house the Milwaukee 8 motor! WOG has also learned that some of the best bike builders have a Bike Build-Off of FXRs going on. With Paul Yaffe of Bagger Nation, Nick Trask of Trask Performance, Jason Mook of Deadwood Custom Cycles, Brian Klock of Klockwerks, Curtis Hoffman of Hoffman Designs and Jeff Zielinski of Namz Custom Cycle Products, we have no doubt these custom bikes will be magazine material! The custom bikes are planned to be revealed during 2022 Arizona Bike Week and there are plans for the bike builders to drag race them next year at Sturgis; how cool is that! For more information see #FXRFriendsThrowdown and the future editions of WOG magazine.
A big THANKS to Ari Levenbaum and the Law Tigers staff, Paul Yaffe and the Bagger Nation staff and Eddie Campos Photography for this opportunity. Mostly, we enjoyed riding the roads of Phoenix with two legends!