Heavy Duty – July-August 2019

ARLEN NESS

And then there are his bikes. More than 50 customs

in his museum at the shop in Dublin, California

and many more that appeared in maga-

zines and books over his long career.

Each bike tells a story and with

this new bike, the last he would

put his name on, there is an

even bigger story as it goes

back so far.

Amazingly, Red

Magnum existed as a

“roller” in the late ’80s.

It wasn’t uncommon

for him to have several

projects going at one

time and to shelve

projects and come

back to them later.

Arlen was a collec-

tor of “stuff ”. I

wouldn’t say he was

a hoarder but if my

wife ever saw his storage

units she may have some-

thing else to say! There

were “take-offs” – unused

Wherever you

look Red Magnum

has plenty of moxy.

You could call it

‘Cool Ness’.