Phase one is together and on the road, which is a minor miracle considering the near-flood conditions that have been plaguing us lately. You know, when I started this project, the premise was that we wanted to do a build-up that attempted to duplicate the plight of our brothers and sisters that didn’t live in the custom bike mecca of Southern California, and were forced, either by geography or weather, to do all their work in their garages. Little did I know, when I started, that the weather gods would provide SoCal with a first hand glimpse of what it was like to live in a less hospitable climate, and make my theoretical project into a real life experience. Yesterday was our first day of sunshine in a month, and, as soon as I saw it, I shoved the Softail out of the garage and hit the road for the shakedown run. It ran like a charm, then back to the garage for a few minor adjustments, and down the highway we went. I gotta tell you, I’ve got a new appreciation for you folks that live in rain and snow country, but now let’s get to the build-up.

With this first phase we’ve concentrated on basic performance and appearance. We’ve all heard the old saw about “chrome won’t get you home,” but if you’re building a custom it’s hard to get around the fact that shiny stuff makes things look better.

We replaced the inner and outer primaries, rocker boxes and cam cover and trans top and side covers. As you can see the quality is perfect, and, being from the Motor Company, the fit was exact.

As far as our initial performance work, we chose the 1450 Stage 1 kit. The kit includes the Screaming Eagle Holley Performance Induction kit, the SE 6200 RPM Ignition, and the SE-II Mufflers. We’re still waiting for the mufflers to arrive, but they’re due in the next few days. We’re planning on doing a more aggressive performance package in the future, so we chose to also install a Screaming Eagle clutch kit at this time.