hile it was Frank's connections that got all the parts donated, it was Chuck and his wife Linda of Gotcha Customs who volunteered their time to ensure that the pile of parts turned into a hot little custom rigid. Starting with a Kraft Tech rigid frame (donated by Kustomwerks) with a 38-degree neck and 2 inches of stretch in the downtubes, Chuck added a Paughco Springer frontend from Big Dog of Greensboro. To get the bike mobile, a pair of Maltese Cross wheels and rotors from Carolina Customs was added, along with a front Hawg Halter caliper from Tequilas and a matching rear from Eagle V-Twins. The wheels were wrapped in Avon tires from Big Boyz Toyz. To give the bare frame some shape, a Kustomwerks peanut-style gas tank, winged oil tank, front fender and 9-inch rear fender were bolted in place. Harley-Davidson of Greensboro was kind enough to donate an 80ci Evo motor and five-speed trans, and Britt Custom Metrix offered up a 3-inch BDL open belt drive. To give the 80-incher a little more oomph, T-man Performance gave the mill a little tweaking, adding new flywheels, cam, heads, and valves, while Metal Rebel Customs donated an S&S carb/intake/air-cleaner setup, and Grumpy's Customs threw in a set of its Twisted Sisters pipes.
With a roller established, Saunders Graphics and Illustrations volunteered its painting skills to cover the frame and sheetmetal in a smoke-gray base highlighted by candy-blue flames. When the paint was dry, final assembly consisted of the addition of more donated parts such as a starter, ignition, and coil from Kendall Johnson Customs; wiring harness from Plum Crazy; and mirrors and headlight from Climax Custom Controls. NC Full Throttle magazine provided the handlebars, grips, and levers; Barry's Walnut Island kicked in the Dakota Digital speedo; Thunderbolt South offered up the forward controls; Eagle V-Twins tossed in the license mount; and, last of all, a seat pan from Bar Enterprises was wrapped in leather by High Rollers.
With such a huge list (we couldn't fit them all into this article) of people who contributed their time, parts, money, and energy to this project, you would think the end result might be a mish-mash of goodwill. But we were very impressed with how well the bike turned out. Everything looks as if it were originally designed to fit together to build a clean, retro-looking rigid. We can see why Kyle fell in love with the bike and had to have it for himself, offering up 30 grand at the start of the auction. It just goes to show that when you put your heart in the right place, good things will happen.