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This reptile runs on regular

HT photo by BOB EAST III

Custom leather designer Benny Ohrman displays the alligator-covered custom built motorcycle Wednesday at his shop, Suncoast Leather. Ohrman said it took more than a year to complete the job of covering the motorcycle with the hide of the 10-foot long alligator.

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By TIMOTHY P. HOWSARE

Hernando Today

Published: December 26, 2009

Updated: 12/26/2009 05:08 pm

With 120 horsepower — as much as a small car — this particular alligator could be the most powerful cold-blooded critter in the world.

It's also got menacing, glow-in-the-dark green eyes, stout front legs that wrap around a chopper-style front fork, a scaly gas tank for a torso and red tail lights embedded in its rear paws.

Slow-poke drivers or pedestrians in your way? Don't bother honking the horn. Just rev the engine and holler that your 'gator's got one mean appetite, and he might have them for lunch if they don't get out of the way.

Bewildered?

That's how most onlookers react when they see Jim Jablon or his friend and business partner Benny Ohrman cruising around on a motorcycle covered from front to back — or should we say head to tail — with a real alligator hide.

Jablon said they once spent three hours at a gas station explaining to passersby what the heck they were looking at. And critics agree that the bike is quite a spectacle: The chopper has already won two trophies at custom bike shows.

The custom-built chopper was the brainchild of Jablon, president of Wildlife Rehabilitation Inc. in Spring Hill.

Jablon said he was looking for a unique way to raise money for the nonprofit organization, which rescues everything from orphaned raccoons to big cats and primates. With about $70,000 into the machine, Jablon said they hope to raise $100,000 by selling raffle tickets at bike shows for $100 a pop.

And who better to do this one-of-a-kind job than the 59-year-old Ohrman, who can claim to be the only custom leather designer in the world to have wrapped the exterior of automobile — a 1960 Renault CV4 — entirely with leather.

Ohrman said the Renault is on display at a museum in Dusseldorf, Germany, which is not that far from his homeland of Sweden.

The car took about 2,000 hours, Ohrman said, and the motorcycle was a year-long project.

The 10-foot long hide was purchased from a man in Fort Lauderdale licensed to hunt alligators. Ohrman said he soaked it in his swimming pool for three weeks to soften it.

"It really surprised my gardener the first time he saw it," he said.

Even after a long soaking, the hide was still so stiff he had to use an electric drill instead of a leather punch to make holes in it for stitching.

"It's so tough I think bullets would bounce off of it," quipped Ohrman, who had never before worked with an alligator hide.

Ohrman was born in Askersund, a small city southwest of Stockholm.

He got his start working with leather in the early 1970s hand sewing leather sheaths that covered oil lines on aircraft for the Swedish air force. The sheaths helped protect the lines from the elements, he said. He also stuffed parachutes for the pilots.

He eventually got bored with the air force job and started his own business.

His first big project was upholstering a large arm chair, called a Chesterfield, for the king of Sweden.

So how does the average Swedish citizen get a gig with the king?

"The king had a villa in a small village called Karlsborg, which was where the air force was stationed," he said. "The king was involved with the air force and had heard about my work."

From there, Ohrman went on to hand sew the custom leather interior of a Porsche 911 for Swedish Olympic skier Gunde Svan.

His custom motorcycle designs have been featured in several Swedish biker magazines. More recently in America, a custom design he did for a Brooksville resident was featured in the October 2008 issue of V-Twin magazine.

Ohrman and Jablon opened a store together about a month ago at 1400 Kass Circle.

Ohrman sells his custom leather work, while Jablon said he will sell motorcycle parts and gear. The men plan to have a grand opening for their two businesses, Suncoast Leather and New Generation Motorcycles, after the first of the year.

Ohrman said he will design and create everything from a belt or wallet to a $50,000 chopper.

"I will do whatever people ask me to do," said Ohrman.

The wiry, 110-pound Swede said he has never turned down a challenge.

"I'm self-taught. This is how I learn," he said.

For more information about Suncoast Leather, visit www.suncoastleather.com.

Community news editor Timothy P. Howsare can be reached at 352-544-5284 or thowsare@hernandotoday.com.

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