As we stood there talking we asked Darin about some of the things Colton had told us about the build, and asked for more of the background of how the bike came to be. He said he had always wanted a Harley and finally decided to buy one in April of 1999 (the month before he was to marry Aimee) before it would be a "joint decision." He rode the bike pretty much bone stock until 2004, when he made a little comment about wanting a fat tire for his bike. That Christmas Aimee had a surprise for him in the shape of a 240mm Metzeler tire, and Darin's response was, "Baby, you don't even know what can of worms you just opened up." The next morning Darin got out of bed and told Aimee he was going to start tearing his bike down and she replied, "What do you mean, tear down?" With a sly grin on his face, Darin said, "Honey, you can't just put a 240 on the back of a stock bike!"
And out the door he went.
In a matter of hours, Darin had the bike torn down to the frame and carried it into the house, where he was promptly met by Aimee standing in the living room. Confused and concerned for her husband's mental health, Aimee quizzed him about his actions, to which Darin replied, "This is my bike, and it has to start at this stage if it is to be done right." All Aimee could stammer out was, "Do you know what you're doing?"
Darin just shrugged and said, "Have you ever heard of beginner's luck?"
"I knew when I tore my bike down I would have to do more than bolt-ons to transform what was already a beautiful bike into a bike that still said Harley-Davidson but had a more graceful flow to it. It is a Fat Boy, so I figured it needed to be fat, not obese, just fat and happy," Darin said.
Being a fan of Jim Nasi's work, Darin picked up a JNC swingarm, and front and rear fenders. But the bike still wasn't "fat" enough and didn't have the look he wanted, so that's when he contacted Colton. "I wanted a big, flowing tank to set the look for this Fat Boy, and after seeing Colton's work at a show I knew he was capable of doing it. I wanted the tank to sit low on the backbone so that when you looked from the side at the top of the motor you wouldn't be able to see through to the other side. After shaping some foam I looked at it and it wasn't quite there, it was too bubbly, so I asked him to flatten the top and then bring the sides in so that they would taper into the seat perfectly. I wanted to keep the frame as stock as possible; the only modifications I made were cutting the fender horns for the fat tire, notching under the seating area for the new oil filler cap, and welding on some new tank mounts. I also tried to keep it as clean as possible, you'll notice there's no exposed bolts for the rear fender, side panels, or air cleaner cover," Darin said.
Once the tank was set, the next task was making the oil tank disappear so the bike would flow from front to back. The oil tank filler neck was cut off and relocated to the center of the tank, then Colton worked his sheetmetal magic, blending the center of the bike into the rear fender. Speaking of the rear fender, although it's tough to see in some of the photos, Darin utilized two shops near his house-one with a water-jet machine, the other shop with a sign maker-to make some flame LEDs out of lexan that would be molded into the bottom of the fender.