Next came the dilemma about what to do with the license mount. I said "Let's hide it," so Bill and I came up with an electric actuator to slide the tag up under the rear fender when the bike is off, and slide it down when the bike is running. It worked so well that I decided to shave the saddlebag latches and install actuators to open and close the lids by remote.
Even though the bike had a good stance, it didn't sit low enough, so I contacted Paul from Native Custom Baggers and ordered a Platinum Air Ride kit to drop the bike down. Everything was coming together pretty well, but time was running out and Bike Week was coming up quickly. I knew we would be doing a lot of riding, so I sent my Corbin solo seat to my friend Ted at Gibbs Trim Shop to put in gel pads and sew it up with some black ostrich leather (man, what a difference it made).
Once we had the bike together I told Bill the handlebars sucked-they just weren't cool. So my friend made a new set of bars, then it was back to the chrome shop. I didn't put any mirrors, gauges, etc. on the bike-that crap is for old farts on Harleys. When everything was finally done we went to crank the bike and the headlight blew, so it was replaced with a 10k HID light.
When we arrived in Daytona for Bike Week, no one had seen the bike yet, so we went over to a friend's house to show it off. When my friends came outside they just stood there looking at the bike. For about 10 minutes no one said a word. Then I reached under the tank where we hid all the buttons for the air ride, hit the switch, and the the bike dropped 10 inches-needless to say, they all went nuts. They said, "That shit is cool," and I thought, dammit, they like it. I couldn't have that, so I got on the bike, hit the front brake line lock button we installed (like they have on drag bikes to lock the front wheels for burnouts), and did one helluva burnout. I think they liked that even more!
I want to say without the help of my buddy Bill, this bike would have never been finished. He worked his ass off every night and weekends to help me get it ready for Daytona. I know he neglected everything else to make sure it was done, and my way of saying thanks was to let him ride it during the photoshoot and do a smoky-ass burnout for the camera. He loved it. I also want to say thanks to Bill's wife for being so understanding. I want to say thank you to my new girlfriend (the hot Russian) for supporting me. Big thanks to Jeff Embrey for the paint job and all the work he did. Thanks goes out to Tal Gardner for staying late and getting all the chrome work done, and Ted Wiggins for the kickass seat work. A big thanks goes out to two of the nicest people in the industry, Derk Hinsley and Gary Chipp. These are first-class guys who will bend over backwards to help out. Thanks to Taryn and Ernie for shooting the bike; I didn't expect that,I just wanted to go and piss off some people with it.
Oh, yeah, and about the personalized license plate: I had a set of chrome nuts hanging off the back that swung side to side, but the bike sits so low my balls were dragging on the ground, so I took them off. Since the shoot I've been working on my new bagger, trying to get it ready for Biketoberfest this year. It's going to be one sick puppy, with a bright-ass yellow paint job. Hell yeah, I'm ready to piss some people off.