"It's like with every piece Reece fabricated-he didn't just make it so it would work, he made it so it would look cool and still be functionable," Dave told us. "The front fender features the mounts welded and molded to the sides to give it a 3D effect. He fabricated the rear fender to be sleek and sturdy, then cut in the recessed seat pocket and mounted it so it hugged the RC Components wheel and Avon 250 tire as close as possible. The stretched gas tank was made to accentuate the elongated backbone and dropped seat area, then Reece mounted it with recessed mounts and fabricated a cover to hide all the hardware."
Dave continued, "At the rear of the bike, Reece made some 3D axle covers to match the front fender mounts, then reversed the license-plate mounting bracket so that the plate would reside inside the wheel. A top motor mount with internal plug wires was fabricated to help hold the 124ci TP Engineering motor in place. Reece made the handlebars, and we used Custom Cycle Controls (CCC) hand controls to hide all the switch lines and cables. Twisting the left grip turns on the ignition; the up/down for the air ride is on the left as well. On the right side is the high/low beam, garage-door opener, and start button. For the foot controls we used Arlen Ness forward controls, and then we machined the inside of the right-side control to house a micro switch to activate the brake light. One of my favorite components Reece made is the exhaust. It looks cool and sounds badass!
"When I finally got my hands on the bike to do my part, Reece had done such a good job on the fabrication and welding that when it came time to prep for paint I didn't need to do much bodywork," Dave said. "The frame and sheetmetal were sent to Scott Thomas of Custom Innovations, where he sprayed a custom light blue that gradates to a darker blue. Scott also highlighted the sheetmetal work by laying down some yellow and orange tribal-style graphics.
"When the bike came back from paint, I jumped onto the final assembly. Reece came over a couple of times and gave me a hand with the wiring and running the lines. Trying to hide or run everything internally is really tough, but Reece had a couple of tricks to make things disappear, like running all the wires and cables through the handlebars and then fabricating a cover that mounts to the bottom of the top triple-tree and turns with the handlebars to help conceal everything. One of the last things that was made for this bike was a fiberglass seat pan that was covered with gray leather by R&R Upholstery.
"It took almost a year from start to finish to get this bike on the road, but I'll tell you what, it was definitely worth the wait. There are a lot of people I have to thank who helped with this project, including my friends, Ultra Craft Customs, and the guys over at KC Creations for supplying us with some of the hard-to-find parts."
By the time Dave finished telling us about his bike, we had arrived at the photo shoot location, and it was time to work. As you can see, the bike photographed beautifully, and the South Dakota countryside was the perfect background for such a pristine machine.
As a side note to all of this-if the handlebars look slightly familiar, it's probably because the guys over at CCC saw Reece's handlebars and asked him to fabricate a similar line of bars for them. If you'd like to pick up a set for your bike or next project, check out CCC's website at www.customcyclecontrols.com