A Delco man built a Harley in his dad’s basement and could win $10,000 for it

Behold the bike: a custom Harley-Davidson Panhead chopper painted deep purple replete with classic stylings, an iconic Wassell Banana gas tank, and sharp-as-knives merlot-colored plexiglass fins that throw shark-fin shadows when the riding is smooth and the sun hits just right.

And designed and built by Jack Weidmayer in his dad’s small basement shop over the last three years.

The custom chopper has won Weidmayer, 27, of Newtown Square, a finalist spot in the Biltwell People’s Champ, an international motorcycle-building competition hosted by the Southern California motorcycle company on June 26. Designed to spot up-and-coming, grassroots chopper builders — Weidmayer, a Villanova communications grad who rode his first motorcycle in 2018 — the annual, crowd-voted competition features builders from all over, competing for a $10,000 prize and a coveted chance to display their homemade hogs at Harley-Davidson’s Born Free motorcycle show, also held this month in California.

“I was super surprised to even get in,” said Weidmayer, who works as a machinist at a West Chester tool company when he’s not building bikes.

The final round of the competition — which annually draws hundreds of thousands of votes — began in September when Biltwell scoured the amateur ranks for prospective builders. Starting on Monday, Weidmayer and five other finalists will compete in five days of online voting. On Friday, the finalists will ride their creations to the legendary California biker bar, Cook’s Corner, where final voting takes place — and a winner is declared.

“It’d be nicer if he was interested in something a little safer,” joked Weidmayer’s father, Mark, a former Harley-Davidson mechanic, who builds custom bikes and supervised his son. “I cherish the opportunity to be able to have a close relationship with my son — and for us to share the same interests and be extremely enthusiastic about bikes.”

The bike is a beaut, said the proud dad.

“It’s 100% his design,” said Mark Weidmayer.

Jack Weidmayer has been building choppers out of the small shared shop in his dad’s basement for about five years. Using scrap parts — picked up at local swap meets and shows — and mostly basic hand tools found in the average enthusiast’s garage, he’s built eight bikes, including a pinstripe S & S-powered Panhead featured in Choppers Magazine in 2024. In February, an initial round of online voting winnowed 16 contestants down to the finalists.

Weidmayer has worked on the current bike every day for nearly a year, he said.

“I can’t think of one thing that fit correctly or went according to plan,” he said. “This is probably my most modified bike to date.”

An aspiring journalist in college, Weidmayer said he discovered his love of building custom bikes during the pandemic, when he first asked his father to show him the ropes.

It’s the challenge of envisioning a design — and then making it ride from bare-bones parts that he loves most, he said, before loading his chopper on a trailer for the 2,700-mile trek to the competition.

“I know so many people who’ve done lots of cross-country trips, I’m scared to call myself a real-deal biker,” he said. “It’s more just having an idea and making it tangible that is the more appealing aspect for me.”

And he, too, cherishes the time with his dad, he said.

“He has been an invaluable resource in any build I have done, especially this one,” said Weidmayer. “I would not have finished this project on time or nearly as nice quality without his advice, and pro tips.”

In true Philly fashion, he considers himself an underdog in the People’s Champ, noting most of the other builders have bigger social media presences than his own — an unenviable lot in an online voting competition.

Regardless, he’s truly proud of the purple acrylic-glass fins, which he said give the bike a much more aggressive silhouette.

“I’ve had that idea in my head for three years now, and it is incredible to see it completed,” he said.