"We want one like Kim has. Kim's definitely got the best one we know of, and we wouldn't mind having one like that ourselves. Ours is OK, but we'd trade 'em in a minute to have one like Kim Berndtsson's."
What does Kim have that's so great? A dad who gets it, and we mean really gets it-he gets it so much that he gave Kim a surprise birthday present: a makeover for his well-worn and -loved '94 Softail. How cool is that?
The story is about as convoluted as it can be, and parts of it are, dare we say, top secret. But suffice it to say that the Berndtsson family hails from Australia and, due to one reason or another, relocated to California. In the process of moving all their valuable stuff, they also moved their bikes; you see, the Berndtssons are a bike-riding family, and of course they brought their trusty steeds with them, because, dear friends, you don't leave your bikes behind, right?
All things looked good for some two-wheel adventures for the newly arrived Berndtsson clan-up until the point where they ran headlong into the DMV in their quest to register their bikes in California. Through this most tortuous ordeal, they came to find Junior at Lifestyle Cycles, who got them all sorted out, inspected, registered, certified, and legal. In the process of getting the family's stockers back on the road, Kim's dad spent some time shopping the bike-laden floor at Lifestyle and got himself an American IronHorse Texas Chopper straight from the showroom. Welcome to America, Mr. Berndtsson.
So Mr. Berndtsson came home with a fresh new bike for himself and proceeded to park it next to Kim's tired, ratty-looking trans-oceanic Softail that was once upon a time the bike you see here. In the garage that night, though, beauty was definitely parked next to the beast.
With its faded green paint job; tired, clappy motor; and a bunch of bad-quality, mismatched early-'90s bolt-on accessories attached to its nether regions, Kim's Softail looked like a middle-aged trailer-park queen going through a hormonally induced identity crisis. What to do: dump and run and start fresh with a new bike, or work with what they had?
The Berndtsson's philosophy was, after some consideration, clear and right in line with our own thoughts: Why lay out the cash for a new H-D, only to spend a small fortune on top of that to get it right? On the other hand, why buy an aftermarket bike, only to create something based on the very platform they already owned-a Softail? They had a good starting point, and Kim loved his bike even with its dowdy clothes on.