Now, it was my turn to really go to work. I assembled the rolling chassis and then took digital pictures of the roller. With the photos in hand I could do over-lay tracings of fender and tank designs. After about two weeks of sleepless nights I finally decided on the final design and e-mailed Ken the sketches. With his approval of my drawings, I enlisted Andy Palmer of Exotic Toys in Garden Grove California to bring my Gas tank design to life in sheet metal. Andy and I go way back. He created the body for my Cobra inspired custom Steed in 1995. This time I drew from some of the design cues of the Cobra bike to make an integral fuel-cell and seat platform with some compound curves that only a master metal-smith could fabricate. Andy performed his Aluminum magic while I fabricated the Steel rear fender at my shop in Arizona.

When bodywork came to life, I knew that we had a winner. It was stunning in its raw unpainted form. Ken wanted a pearl or metallic orange. I worked with the Lenny at Scottsdale Paint supply. We formulated about 6 different samples of "Cammy Orange" and shipped them off to New York where the Rangers were playing that week and awaited his choice of a custom blended hue.

In the mean time, we tore the bike back to the basic elements to put the final finish on everything. All the chrome was shipped out to Royal Plating in Tucson, where J.R. handles all the shiny stuff for us. We handled the application of the PPG urethane Paint in house, at Steeds. I was working on some graphic designs to accent the paint, and once the color was applied to the bodywork and chassis, I decided that this machine didn't need anything to distract from the clean flowing lines. This bike was just going to be pure "Cammy Orange" and that's all.

I wired the entire bike with a wiring harness supplied by Rick and Marlin at Wire Plus. I ran all the wires internally through the frame to hide all of the juice for the trick electronics. The indicator lights are LEDs were built flush into the fuel tank, and buried under the clear-coat. The Dakota Digital Tach and Speedo were frenched flush into the tank, even the front self-canceling turn signals are LEDs hidden in the front foot-pegs. The rear directional LED lights are also built recessed into the paint on the trailing edge of the rear fender. The LED tag holder and taillight is a Steed proprietary component that's a trademark on many of our bikes.

Ken's bike not only has all these cool design and performance features, but is also has a Steed Pedigree. His bike, like all of our machines, is listed in the Kelly Blue Book since Surgical-Steeds is a Federally licensed manufacturer of motorcycles. Every motorcycle that comes out of our facility has U.S. Federal VIN numbers, DOT and EPA approvals to protect the consumer, so it is easy to purchase full coverage insurance. Plus our bikes can exported to anywhere in the World.

After the season was over Ken picked up his Dream Machine and rode it to the NHRA Winter Nationals in Chandler, Arizona. I rode with him. It was such a great feeling to be able to design and deliver a machine of this caliber. Ken looks incredible riding it, and right now he is somewhere in Texas enjoying his retirement from the big leagues so he has more time to ride his new Steed Quarterhorse SE.

You can take an interactive ride on a Steed at our website www.surgicalsteeds.com since we're here everyday bringing dreams to reality. Please e-me at sales@surgicalsteeds.com if you would like us to start building a Steed just for you.

John Covington,
Surgical-Steeds Classic American Motorcycles, Inc.
9550 North 90th Street
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
480 661-1990

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