The next choice was an engine. I had picked a 107” Total Performance Engineering motor. I was going to order a black engine and transmission. The TP had great reviews, reliability and a superior oil pump, so it was a no-brainer. They also pre-run the engines, time and tune them. They re-torque the important bolts before shipping. The ignition system, as well as the carburetor and air filter are also included. What happened next took me by surprise. The shop I bought the majority of my parts from, heard about a deal on a polished 121” TP through Drag Specialties. There were only 6 available. I bought one along with a polished Baker Right Side Drive 5 speed, for about $500.00 more than I was expecting to buy the black 107” and transmission for.

Very cool.

Last, but not least, I can’t say enough about the help and quality parts I received from Todd at Billet4U. The Billet4U belt drive has been popping up all over the magazine pages and he even designed a motor/coil mount for me after we talked about it over the phone. He did some custom machine work to build a wheel spacer for my drive side brake system when PM declined to fix the half-inch misalignment they built into my rear wheel. He always had a kind word and good advice every time I talked to him.

After that, it tends to go downhill fast….. I spent $25,000.00 in one shop. I would expect, as I’m sure most people would, to get a bit of customer service after spending that much coin in a small town shop. At the very least, a couple of phone calls to let you know how the parts ordering/delivery process was going. In the 7 months I was dealing with this shop, I got one phone call and one page from the shop owner. The page was to inform me, that the Performance Machine wheels I ordered 3 weeks before weren’t available, because they didn’t make an 8-1/2” wheel for the wide tires. I “informed” the shop owner, he might try again, since they are one of the few that actually do make an 8-1/2” wheel. This was just the tip of the iceberg. It seems my $25,000.00 parts list wasn’t being delivered as fast as I had hoped. Repeated calls to find out where things were, got me nowhere. Parts trickled in here and there for months.

The most important thing missing were the wheels, because I couldn’t get the fenders fabricated and hung without wheels. It also was apparent that I had lost 3 weeks up front, because obviously they just never got ordered.

After finally ordering the wheels, the 6-week special order slowly turned into 8 weeks. The wheels, calipers, rotors, drive side brake system were finished and PM finally shipped the parts to the bike shop. The shop owner missed the C.O.D. delivery three separate times, on 3 consecutive days. The parts were shipped back to PM because of UPS policy. I came unglued. I confronted the shop owner, making sure he understood he was not financing this project, and there was absolutely no reason for him not to be around to pay for my parts, during normal business hours, with the money I had already given him. It took another 2 weeks to get PM and UPS to get the parts delivered back to his shop. When the parts arrived, it was obvious the front wheel had been dropped. Not during shipping, the box was fine. The wheel was dropped on the assembly line at PM. The rear wheel was assembled incorrectly. PM confirmed the work order had spec’d a 1” axel, but it was assembled for a 3/4” axel. This meant the rear wheel and drive side brake system had to be returned to PM. When we asked about the front wheel, and the damage we saw, the quote from PM was “Take it or leave it. It meets our run-out specs, otherwise we would not have shipped it.”

I just spent $5000.00 on a damaged wheel, incorrectly built parts and spent 11 weeks waiting to get it. The front wheel was accepted under duress, but the rear wheel and brake parts went back for exchange. Another 2 weeks passed, the brake parts came back, with a 1” axel set up. A call to PM was made to find out the status of the missing wheel. PM thought they needed to build a new wheel, and said we should have it in another 6-8 weeks. We slowly explained that only the bearings needed to be replaced. We received the wheel a week later.

Many people in the industry told me, this is pretty normal for a custom bike; especially PM. Parts can take forever. The other thing I found very frustrating about ordering parts was that when you got the part, it never came with the complimenting accessories. Example, when you order a set of headers for a car, you get the headers, the gaskets, the bolts, the collectors, the collector gaskets and bolts. When you order pipes for a bike, you get pipes, nothing else. When you order a headlight, you need the shell, the bulb, the lens, a mounting bracket, and a bolt for the mounting bracket. If the shop you order parts from isn’t very thorough, you are looking at multiple orders, and several weeks of waiting. I know this from experience now.

A bright spot to the parts ordering was Road Rider, in San Jose, CA. James and Mike took care of me when I needed the balance of the parts for the bike and I had given up all hope on the first shop I was using. James is an “old school” guy. He saw the newbie in me. James busted my hump every time I walked in, but I think he sees that I’m serious about this, so he’s coming around and cutting me a little slack. Mike always took the time to get me the special order stuff in a few days, not months like it had been taking before.

Things were starting to look up again, but that was going to change.

With the wheels, tires, forks and frame in hand, a call was made to Don at Fat Katz to schedule the fender fabrication and tank mounting. The tank was built and had been shipped to me in December. Since we had talked a few times before of, he knew I was almost ready to drop the bike off. This is when he tried letting me down, easy.

“I’m heading to Daytona for Bike Week. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks and we can schedule work on your bike then,” he told me.

Great, I’d just lost an additional 3 weeks because of the wheel debacle.

I’d placed my order for the frame, motor and transmission on 11/1/01 and it was now the end of February. The bike had been at a virtual stand still for most of the past 4 months due to problems caused by a shop owner and wheel manufacturer. Granted we mocked up the engine and tranny, bolted on the forks and forward controls, but we were stuck. So we waited patiently for Don to get back.

Don at Fat Katz knows his stuff. In 5 minutes after we arrived, he pointed out all the wrong choices I had made for my sheet metal and why. He got me going in the right direction and we left the bike in his capable hands for a couple of weeks. When his e-mail came the first week of April telling me it was done, I couldn’t have been happier.