There's no scientific formula as to how we choose a bike. Our staff has different tastes-some guys like choppers, and some like anything with 300-plus-sized rear tires, while others can't stand anything bigger than a 200 out back. However, there's one thing we can agree on. When we come across a Harley-Davidson that's been done right: clean lines, detailed custom work, and components that complement the overall look of the bike, it has to get in the mag ASAP. Tobin Jansenberger's '00 Road King Classic is the one of the finest examples we've come across in a long time.
Now, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Tobin Jansenberger-why have I never heard that name before?" That's because Tobin doesn't have a custom bike show on TV, and he doesn't have a booth at all the major rallies; nor does he have some 10,000-square-foot shop filled with T-shirts and coffee mugs. Hell, he'd never even owned a Harley before he bought his Road King. Tobin was just a guy who wanted a good-looking and reliable custom that he and his wife could cruise the country on. The only problem was he didn't have the cash to have one professionally built. So he decided to try and build one himself.
"New to the whole bike scene, I quickly became impressed with the trademark look of builders such as Jim Nasi and Ron Simms. I knew the low, fat look was what I wanted, but I didn't have the dough for a one-off bike from scratch," said Tobin. "I stared at my RK classic and thought, 'It's a retro bike, so I'm going to hot-rod it, much like today where classic cars are given a sleeker, more modernized look.' I decided to do the same thing, classic to hot rod, but with a factory-built Harley."
After doing some research, Tobin quickly found there weren't any production parts available to achieve the look he was after, so he figured he was going to have to modify or fabricate most of the parts himself. The only problem was that he didn't have any welding or fabricating experience. "Considering all of the fabrication on this project, I had to learn a lot about metalwork, welding, machining, electrical, and V-Twins in general," said Tobin. "There was a lot of trial and error. I either bought and modified or fabricated from scratch many versions of parts, trying to get it just right. But if the part didn't work into the overall theme, then it went on Ebay. Simple as that."
As even the most experienced bike builders will tell you, very rarely will a part fit exactly like it's supposed to. This was a lesson Tobin learned very early on. "The hardest part about this project was getting all of the parts to fit together. Many of them were made for bikes other than a Road King, and they had to be modified to work together," says Tobin. "For example, the frontend has a custom-machined hub, custom bearings, spacer, and so on. Many of the manufacturers I tried didn't have these parts available at the time for a 21-inch wheel to fit a Road King, so I had to learn how everything worked first, then figure out how to modify it so it was better than what came from the factory."