Introduction I grew up in a area of Milwaukee where motorcycles could be found in every other garage. They were in my blood from the beginning and I knew it wouldn't be long before I had one of my own. By age 15, I owned a single two stroke, and by 20a straight four and have since added over 90k miles. Now that the bike was 28 and I'm 40+, I figured it was time for new ride. Having since moved to California, it didn't take long before my nose was buried in a Rolling Thunder magazine. I tirelessly researched my options until it occurred to me that with my engineering background and hands on experience, I could take on the challenge of building my own bike. I quickly decided what I wanted - a V-Twin with a bit of power and a phat rear end to make use of the power. Decisions So in hindsight the decision to build a bike was the only easy one. As everyone knows, a decision like this is just the beginning of what seems like endless options; ground up, standard or metric, how much wrenching and decision control did I want or need. For me, a kit bike made perfect sense. I liked that the engine and tranny were covered by a better warranty than most production bikes so I settled on a pre-ran, pre-tested, polished power plant. Although I live in California and the kit model I settled on is manufactured by a Californian company, I ended up buying the kit out-of-state. Eric at Jim's Cycle in Texas was extremely helpful and I felt more comfortable talking to him than any of the local companies. These guys offered the kit with a better than list pricing and a fair bit of part swapping at a great price. Also, since they build a lot of these kits I got the feeling I would be talking to them again. After some homework including a credit check and a talk with their big vendors I found that Jim's Cycle would be a very reliable partner. So, now that my mind was made up on kit and vendor, all that was left was the certified letter and a (gulp!) down payment. Preparation and education I had a run on a local painter and powder coater, but beyond that I wasn't sure where to begin once the kit arrived. Before it did I hit the internet for ideas and ran across a set of videos that proved a godsend. I watched the videos once through to get an understanding and then again, one at a time to re-watch while I was building. The videos were not specific to the kit so I found additional information in a couple books. The prep time was the best investment during the entire build. Also, to make the most of any frustrations, I'd take bike parts over to the painter to work out the powder coat and paint designs.

Wow there is a lot of stuff to unpack. Author cleaning up welds before powder coat. Sheet metal mock up.

Spaghetti Nightmare. Paint before skulls and blue candy. After upgrade on intake.