If you're a true motorsports enthusiast then you tend to take in all the minor details on any vehicle, no matter if it has two wheels or four wheels. And when it comes to four-wheeled vehicles you may notice that many of the top manufacturers use the same braking components from one company, Brembo. Brembo braking components can be found on high-end cars like Ferraris, Porches, Alfa Romeos, Aston Martins, Land Rovers, and Corvettes, just to name a few. While Brembo is known for its performance brake systems, the company didn't do any chrome parts or parts that fit onto traditional heavyweight cruiser motorcycles. Therefore a former Brembo employee and an engineer, Tara and Kevin Para, decided to start up QTM, to make the brackets and disc centers necessary to fit Brembo brakes onto cruiser motorcycles, as well as add the finish many motorcycle owners desire most, shiny chrome.
As the exclusive supplier of Brembo brakes for cruiser type motorcycles, over the years QTM has continued to evolve adding Marchesini SuperMoto wheels to its distribution line, and has stayed abreast of both the custom and OEM markets to outfit bikes with high-quality brakes. To showcase products at the trade shows and events they attended, co-founders Tara and Kevin had the idea to build the company project bike you see here.
"As a brake component supplier to West Coast Choppers, an obvious starting point was to go with the new WCC CFL-II frame for the cradle," said QTM Engineer Eric Budinko. "From there we contacted S&S Cycle and Baker Drivetrain to work out the other major components. With the 2009 V-Twin Expo as the target debut, serious effort finally started in September." That is when QTM's in-house engineering department, Eric and Kevin, realized they knew a lot about race cars (Kevin) and sportbikes and dirtbikes (Eric) and braking systems, but not a whole lot about what goes into building an American V-twin chopper from a bare frame.
Luckily, longtime customer and friend of the shop, Jim Overman, who has overseen a few bike builds answered the call to help out. Rusty and Rod from Illusion Cycles came out to visit and somehow buying them lunch turned into a custom gas tank to match the CFL-II's sweet lines and hug right over the top of the CARB legal 100ci S&S engine. From that point on the direction was to make a DOT and California legal custom motorcycle that could actually be ridden.
The hot rod look of the bike was based around the Marchesini forged aluminum wheels and the Brembo brakes. Ohlins forks completed the sportbike frontend, and one-off custom triple clamps were CAD modeled and CNC machined by QTM (an additional WCC billet oil bag was incorporated as the headlight bucket). In addition, the mid-controls (with Talon motocross footpegs), caliper brackets, rotor carriers, and handlebars were all custom designed in-house for this project. Troy Lee Designs was given a blank slate for the paint and graphics, and did an amazing job with the company logo and colors.
With the V-Twin Expo date looming, January was crunch time, with parts still out getting painted and anodized the week before the Cinci show. The QTM van was set to leave Monday morning for the drive to Ohio, so Super Bowl weekend consisted of 16-hour days at the shop finishing the company's first project bike. "As we were loading the bike into the van, I asked Kevin when we were going into production on these bikes...'Never.' was the fastest response I have ever received from him," Eric said. "Special thanks to our project partners West Coast Choppers, S&S, Baker, Ohlins, Illusion Cycles, Troy Lee Designs, Corbin, RK/Excel, Talon, Dunlop, Goodridge, Joker Machine, Bassani, and Wiring by Pops."
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“The hot rod look of
the bike was based around the Marchesini forged aluminum
wheels and
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These Marchesini wheels are all about performance; they are made by a tri-axial forging pr