The Custom Is Done!!!!!

That's right the day has finally come. Friday the 16th I showed up to work and found the last piece to my puzzle sitting on my lift. My exhaust pipes that I had been waiting for had finally arrived. I opened the box feeling like it was Christmas morning examining each piece and admiring the handy work that had been done only to realize that I was missing a piece. I've waited two weeks for these pipes and they forgot to send one back. Of course my mood had totally changed. An hour had past before I had found out that the guys in the shop decided to have some fun with me. They thought it would be funny to hide a piece of my exhaust from me. What a great group of guys I work with! I was just happy to have my exhaust there all in one piece. So with great care I assembled the final pieces and man does the bike look good. I think it exceeded everyone's expectations, even my own.

Not done yet. I still had to break the motor in and take it for a test ride. Once I was done with the bike in the Dyno room it was time to take it out on the road. I couldn't wait to get it outside. I was not disappointed. The bike ran extremely well. It was very responsive and you could feel the torque come on quickly. That big twenty one inch tire up front handled very well. The other great thing about the bike is that it was turning some heads. I got a lot of looks. One guy almost rear ended the person in front of him while starring at the bike. I knew then that I had accomplished my goal.

Now it is time to share this creation that I pictured in my head 6 weeks ago. This Friday the 23rd of Nov. Adventure will be unveiling the motorcycle at noon. I am excited to see the response it will receive and hope to see a lot of people there. I would like to thank Mike Davis, and Jeff McInturff for giving me the freedom and budget to do this project. Also Monte for handling all the parts ordering, and Glenn for getting the exhaust in two days which was going to take three weeks. John Erwin for the super cool paint job. Thanks to all the other techs in the service dept. for their ideas and for hiding my exhaust! I haven't forgotten.

This winter the service department has been given the opportunity to do three custom motorcycles for the sales department to sell. Last year we built one custom Street glide. Now these are not one off OCC bikes built from the ground up but they are not your run of the mill Harleys that you see everyday either.The first bike we are building is an 2008 Street glide. I like the street glides because they are sportier than an Ultra but still give you saddle bags for storage with option for a detachable tour pak. This years bike will have a real race inspired feel. Think of the Night Rod Special and you will have an idea of what I am talking about. This bike will have a real hot rod feel to it. If you like black then this bike will not disappoint. This build started the first week of October. Once the bike was in I couldn't wait to start tearing it apart. I know, why tear a perfectly good brand new 08 bike apart? Because we can! Anyway, in a matter of a few days the bike was in many pieces to say the least. All the painted parts were sent out to be repainted, engine covers were sent out to be powder coated, and parts and accessories were ordered for the bike. Now it is a waiting game. Good thing I am not impatient!!!So, here it is the last week of October and the bike doesn't look much different than it did three weeks ago. I've learned some lessons during this built. When someone tells you'll have something in a week, you better figure two to three weeks. So those of you who are thinking of tackling a project like this don't be in a hurry. The good news is that my parts I sent out for powder coating will be here tomorrow. The rims and front end will be in at the end of this week. Painted pieces will be here in about another week. So it will probably be back together middle of November. Which still puts us about two weeks ahead of schedule. My personal goal was to have the bike done by Nov. 1st, but that is not realistic at this point.So stay tuned........