The first Harley-Davidson motorcycle Hani Ataya of Orange, CA, ever owned was a '96 Fat Boy. He purchased the bike at Westminster Harley-Davidson in Westminster, CA. Hani said he preferred Westminster H-D's old-fashioned atmosphere in comparison to the giant Harley boutiques that reminded him of Home Depot stores. It wasn't too long after Hani rode his Fat Boy off Westminster's showroom floor that he started the customizing process with chrome accessories and high-performance goodies for its 80-inch Evo motor.
For the next eight years Hani's '96 Fat Boy served him faithfully, never missing a beat. On the morning of April 13, 2004 (the day before Hani was to get married), he took that Friday off to ride north with some friends from Michigan who were out visiting the West Coast for his wedding. His friends rented three bikes from Orange County Harley-Davidson, and then the group rode toward Hani's fianc's Malibu home. Halfway there, the four decided to stop for a quick beer. When the foursome returned a half an hour later, there were only three bikes parked where they had left four-Hani's Fat Boy was history.
The next bike Hani bought from Westminster H-D was an '04 Road King. Although he was satisfied with the Road King, watching the biker buildoffs on TV was starting to give Hani-and his friend Mike Nadasky-the bike-building bug. In their search for a source to learn more about constructing a bike, the two discovered that the HOT BIKE West Coast Super Show was coming to town. Once at the show, all it took for them was a quick walk down vendor's row before they spotted a row of bikes sporting the profile they were after. The booth they were in front of was Xtreme Cycle Designs of Orange, CA. Looking closer at Xtreme's custom frames, Hani recognized one he'd spotted before on a bike that Matt Hotch had built. The fledgling bike builders discussed what they wanted in a bike with Xtreme's owner, Travis Hill, and before they knew it they both had rollers-well, at least everything they needed to build a roller, except for the wheels.
The two decided they would prefer to source their wheels from Performance Machine. The next step for them was to locate a place to build their bikes. Their friend "Cozmic" Joe Filardi offered to let them set up a workspace at his fabricating shop in Santa Ana, CA. Hani and Mike soon discovered that things don't go quite as easily as on the Discovery Channel, and the build was starting to drag on. Hani realized that a lot of the trick stuff he wanted to do on his bike would turn out better if he sent it to a professional shop. One of the things he wanted to do was incorporate his rear turn signals into his swingarm section. He found out that the shop responsible for the setup he liked was located in San Bernardino, CA, so he gave John Esposito at Intense Creations a call and headed out with his swingarm. When Hani arrived at John's shop and saw the quality of his work, he decided he didn't want to play bike-builder anymore. He loaded up all of the components he was collecting for his bike and hauled them out to Intense Creations.
When John first opened the doors of his shop, his specialty was providing custom paintwork for a lot of the shops in the Southern California area that built bikes. It wasn't too long, however, before John stopped taking in custom paintwork from the other shops and joined the list of builders in his area. John mocked up Hani's frame, then determined where he needed to hang all the brackets and mounts. With the mockup process out of the way, John metal-finished the Xtreme Cycle Design frame, tank, and fender for the next stages. Before shooting primer on the bare metal, it was ground on and then molded with polyester filler. John molded in the gas tank as a removable unit and frenched in the seat-pocket area to house a custom seat that Ron Mangus covered in leather, complete with a stingray insert.