Written by Andrew Jones
I have long thought that the original Mad Max is the best bike movie ever made. If you’ve never seen it, then do so immediately. And if you don’t agree with me, then clearly you are wrong. It’s pretty much perfect. Improving on it would be harder than climbing Everest in roller skates. But there is one thing I think just might up the ante on the original, and that’s setting it in a post-apocalyptic California in the late ?50s. And if you did, then Boston?s Madhouse Motors have just built the new movie?s star bike – their wild ?Devil?s Advocate? 1957 Indian bobber.

Speaking to us from the bitter cold of a hard Massachusetts winter, Madhouse?s main brain, J. Shia, talked us through all their latest news. ?The shop is still chugging along and growing. We are going on our third year in our new building in Boston. We are kept busy with antique restorations this year, which I love having around the shop. Personally, I?ve been lucky enough to get a lot of weekends off to spend time in the woods with my son which really helps balance out the life in the shop.?
We asked J what on earth made her create a bike like this. ?That?s pretty hard to answer. I was inspired by the pre and post WWII machines, English bobbers and old steam trains.? You had us a WWII, J. The donor bike was a ?Royal Enfield Indian? from 1957. At the time, Indian sold two 700cc models with Royal Enfield DNA: the ?Trailblazer? and the ?Apache?. After the Ind...