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I live in a fairly arid part of Colorado, we don’t get a ton of rain…except this year. It's the first day this month that is hasn’t showered like a Filipino monsoon, and I received a greasy e- mail from Bandit that read something like…

"Got that SPS bike feature done? The eye in the sky says you put your boat in the lake and you're relaxing on open water. Shit, we got work to do, no time for lolly-gaggin'. You can relax when your dead.”

So, I’m sitting inside on the first clear day in almost 20 gloom-filled sun rises, because I know what happens to people who find their sorry names etched into Bandit’s shit list…take Michael Jackson for example. No sudden cardiac arrest for me, I’m gonna take my lumps and die of a vitamin D deficiency instead.

There really isn’t anyone else who could tell this bike saga, because I was involved from beginning. It started with the guys at Maverick Publishing, specifically Larson who suggested we team up with him and build a sweepstakes bike to be given away at the Buffalo Chip during the 2009 Sturgis Rally.

All the concerned parties agreed that it would be a terrific promotion for everyone and ordered me to make it happen. Sucker Punch was up for donating all their proprietary parts to build a custom version of their production Slim bike, Bandit's favorite in the Sucker Punch line-up.

Christian's SPS donation included the frame, sheetmetal, h-bomb oil bag, Bloke wheels (billet spoke wheel they developed) wiring harness and a few other odds and ends. We had a 115 RevTech motor coming to us courtesy of Custom Chrome so we knew it was going to be screamer. We opted for a 39mm narrow glide front-end to fit the stance of the bike with custom HHI billet triple trees. HHI also donate the hand controls. BDL donated the narrow belt drive and K&G Cycles came through in a pinch and sent SPS, in Phoenix, a 6-speed RevTech transmission.

Lyndall Racing brakes stepped up and offered some of their killer rotors. The major components were taken care of but the details are what matters. Lock Baker of Eastern Fabrication was asked to hand fabricate a leather tooled seat and he did a killer job, with a very western theme that compliments the bikes racy style.

We needed something to set the gas tank off a bit more so a call to Greg Westbury at Westbury Hotrods scored us a Big Baller gas cap. As the promotion picked up steam when Progressive jumped on board with a 6- month insurance policy for the winner, and Biltwell donated one of their retro helmets, with a paint job to match the bike by Steel Visions. Speaking of paint I was thinking something subdued, but the boss at SPS had other ideas.

"You'll think it's an Easter egg," Christian Clayton said.

I was wrong, Steel Vision did a killer job with tons of flake and a very retro patriotic paint job.

Building a bike for a huge promotion would seem a breeze. Hell, it's going to run in American Cycle, and it's being promoted on Bikernet. Plus, it will be handed over to an American Cycle reader at the largest rally in the US where they throw the biggest party. Not so Kimosabe, tracking down parts, making sure the SPS crew knows exactly what needs to be done, and when can be complicated.

The guys at SPS met the challenge in time for Rod Woodruff, owner of the Buffalo Chip to take it for a test ride through the acrid heat of AZ, while being shot by American Cycle’s crack photographer Buck Lovell. The bike ran great, the pictures turned out terrific and Rod smiled from ear to ear. Another daunting accomplishment competed and time to move on to the next project right?

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