"Basically the mockup was complete, and we were ready for paint. Then Wayne asked me to come over to the shop to discuss something important. I drove over to the shop, and Wayne dropped the bomb on me. He said he was unhappy with the shop that had brought him out here, and he was going to go back to his shop, Biker's Edge, in Kansas. I wasn't getting a very good vibe from the guys at the shop, either, so I could understand his decision. I picked up all my parts and took them back to my garage. So now I was stuck with a half-built bike and had no one to help guide me to the finish.
"I spent the next several weeks scouring all the local shops, asking if they would help me finish the build, and kept getting turned down. Nobody was interested in taking on a half-finished project. I called Wayne and told him of my dilemma. Being a man of his word, Wayne said he was going to finish this project. He suggested I get the bike painted while he figured out how he was going to make his way back to Orange County. I hauled the bike over to Rock & Roll Custom Paintworks and met with Randy Morton, the owner. As we discussed a candy-green over mini-flake with ghosted demons paint scheme, I told Randy about my situation, and he said they'd be more than happy to help me finish the build.
"However, I quickly learned that from the time he came on board, Wayne had engineered the entire build in his head, which included hiding everything that could be hidden. And anyone other than Wayne would have a hell of a time trying to figure out how this thing would go together, especially when it came to running all the wires and cables. So after Rock & Roll finished the paint, I called Wayne and told him he was my only way to finish this. Two weeks later, Wayne and his wife Jen arrived at my house. We set up a lift in my garage and began the starter, and the bike roared to life. With a huge grin on my face, I turned to Wayne, shook his hand, and thanked him for all his help. Then we immediately began to piss off the neighbors as we all took turns ripping around my neighborhood. Sounds like a happy ending to a roller-coaster of a bike build, right? Well, it doesn't end there.
"After several months of trying to line up a photo shoot with HOT BIKE, we finally set a date for the Friday before the 2005 Fourth of July weekend. It also happened that on the following Tuesday a guy was flying out from the East Coast to buy my bike (I guess I'm a glutton for punishment-I was ready to build another one). To see my bike being shot for my favorite magazine was like a dream come true. But what happened halfway through the shoot was definitely a nightworking around the clock.