A Heartland rear fender/fender strut and taillight license-plate mount make the back of the bike look a bit tougher, cleaner, and tighter and work great as an integrated package. The Lifestyle crew had to massage the parts a wee bit to get the ultra-clean, integrated look you see here. A Ness cam cover was selected and looks great with the Roadmax transmission end cover. The Martin Bros. exhaust allows you to really appreciate how open and clean the front cradle of the frame is around the area of the forward controls. A pallet must have been delivered from Performance Machine for this bike: brakes, wheels, and rotors all sweeten the makeover and work perfectly as a package, and Accutronix forward controls match up with these units real well. Getting all these parts and manufacturers to play nice together is not for the faint of heart.
A bunch of work was done in-house to the stock H-D frame: The neck section was raked a bit, then strengthened and boxed. Gratuitous mounts and tabs were removed and the area prepped. The frame was then ready for the Santee swingarm, which was designed to accommodate a modest but still meaty Avon 200-series tire.
The CCI fuel tank was modified a bit, and a Matt Hotch original pop-up gas cap was installed to ensure trouble-free operation. Yes, folks, sometimes it's worth going to the best. In the gas cap's case, it's well-known that the cheapies can stick, bind, and cause all manner of embarrassment at the pump.
The carcass was now ready for paint, so it was shipped off to Buck Wild Designs to get a dose of the magic that he does. Using a Candy Blue as a backdrop, Mr. Wild proceeded to lay on some sweet silver leaf-not an everyday touch, as gold is more common. It was getting exciting at the shop, because how many bikes from this era have a chance to rise like a phoenix from the ashes? Not many, and the crew at Lifestyle was getting jazzed about how the bike was shaping up
As it turns out, the cat had to be let out of the bag before Kim's birthday. It was pretty important that the graphics and color matched up with what Kim wanted, so the bike was revealed. Kim loved the bike exactly as it was planned. Final assembly allowed the details such as wiring to be attended to, and all the parts were given a once-over before final fitment.
It has been some time since the build was completed, and the crew at Lifestyle Cycles can only imagine that Kim is riding all over, wearing out those 200-series tires. You see, they haven't heard from Kim or his father since the bike was rolled out of the shop and the pair rode off together on their new sleds.
Looking back on the job, Junior opines that "it was a lot more work to bring this bike to where it is today than it would have been to build a bike from scratch, but in the end, it is still a H-D, which is cool, and it is still the owner's original bike, which is also cool."
Junior, we couldn't agree with you more. Now, if anyone has a line on a rich guy wanting to play sugar daddy to a couple of well-deserving bike riders, send him over.