If you owned one of the most successful frame manufacturing companies in the country, what would your bike be? Well, for Phil Day, owner of Daytec, it took about one second to decide on which of his frames his personal bike would be built: a Skulker rubber mount. Why? Well, Phil's idea of a short ride usually turns 200-plus miles on his odometer, and his week-long rides will click much more than 3,000 miles. Yes, you could say that Phil likes to ride.
With his personal ride in mind, Phil walked back into the manufacturing department and wrote up a build sheet. The rubber mount would wear 34 degrees of rake in the neck, but no stretch. Phil had a plan to build something a little different than a low-slung cruiser; he was going to build a bagger. As soon as the welds were finished, a bright yellow powdercoat was applied to the frame and swingarm.
Up front, a set of Custom Cycle Engineering narrow-glide trees were fit with 39mm Dyna forks to carry the 19-inch RevTech wheel and Avon Venom tire. Out back, a pair of Progressive Suspension shocks support the swingarm, carrying a 16x4 RevTech wheel and 160 Avon. Stopping power comes from three Screamin' Eagle floating rotors and the four-piston GMA calipers that squeeze them.
In conjunction with his riding style, Phil sourced out a motor that would be big enough for fun, but still offer turnkey reliability. He went to TP Engineering for one of its 100-cubic-inchers. The cases, flywheels, rods, pistons, cylinders, and heads are all straight out of the TP facility. The motor uses a 42mm Mikuni, a Rivera air cleaner, a Crane ignition, and a Vance and Hines 2-into-1 pipe to get all of its potential realized. Giving Phil plenty of gearing on the highways, a RevTech six-speed rides behind the motor (90 mph is 3,200 rpm in Sixth), connecting the two is a Harley chain and Rivera Pro Clutch.
With the roller up and ready, it was time to dress it up a bit. The first project was a front fender with styling that made sense on a bagger, so a low-to-the-tire, long-skirted piece was fabricated. Just above the fender is Daytec's incredibly cool fairing. Behind it, you find a one-piece Daytec gas tank stretched just enough to add some style to the top lines of the bike. Out back, Phil and crew went crazy and built the rear fender and saddlebags to be a one-piece unit. Finally, a small front spoiler was built to round out the bodywork, so the in-house paint team could take over matching the yellow powdercoat of the frame.
The bike went together without a hitch. Autometer gauges were mounted to Cycle Smith bars with Harley hand controls. Performance Machine forward controls were installed, along with a modified H-D headlamp and a Paul Yaffe taillight. A set of Lazer Star turn signals all around made the install list as well as a Daytec-built seat.
Still, while the bike went together without a hitch, it didn't mean things stayed that way. Shortly after getting on the road, Phil and wife Karen were out for a ride. On this ride, Karen was rear-ended by a car and pushed into Phil's bike. Fortunately, Karen wasn't hurt too badly and recovered fairly quick. The bikes would take a lot more work.
In redoing his bike, Phil decided that more light would be better than less, so he added an additional set of turn signals up front and four more taillights out back. It was hard to miss his yellow creation before -- but now it's virtually impossible!