The story of this bike project starts long before I ever thought of it. I know that sounds strange so let me explain. In late '97, after previous attempts had failed, I was finally able to buy my first Harley. It was an 883 Hugger and even though it was the smallest H-D, it was still the largest displacement bike I had ever owned. Think about it a second. There are a lot of "other" makes out there and many of them are smaller than 883.

I'm about 5 foot 8 inches with a 30 inseam. Money was a big deal (did I say was??), so it had to be a Sportster. With my short legs anything but the Hugger models just plain sucked.

At 500 miles I did what everyone does: swapped the mufflers and air cleaner for Screaming Eagle parts. That and rejetting the CV carb made my Hugger a whole new animal. I was in heaven again, for several more miles.

Lets face it. Anyone with a need for speed (ME! I dragged big block Mopars for fun), was not going to be happy with 45 ponies. As soon as possible I had the motor enlarged to 1200. Since I knew Dave and Fred Finnerty at San Diego Harley-Davidson, and they raced Buells, I was able to score hot parts for the build. Most people faced with this might buy the dished dome pistons, bore the jugs and maybe buy some 1200 heads if they have the cash. Me? I bought a set of Buell S1 heads, the pistons and bored the jugs. At the same time I added a set of Andrews N6 cams and a hot single fire ignition. I also replaced the exhaust a couple months later with the Vance & Hines ProShot. The bike looked and sounded great. I dyno'd the setup at 72HP and 66 peak ft/lbs of torque. It actually made 54ft/lbs at 1800RPM and still had 60 at 6000RPM. Basically if the motor was running you were on the torque curve. Wheelies were no problem in any gear up to 3rd. Of course you had to bang 3rd gear to get that.

Guess what? That wasn't enough for me. You see I knew with the right parts 100HP at the wheel wasn't that difficult. Problem, Sportster motor doesn't have the "right parts" to do it. The Buell motors however have lighter cranks and make a minimum of 92HP(crank HP). I also liked to ride hard and the poor Sporty just couldn't hang in the corners. I have a favorite corner in Dago where North 805 merges onto West 52. Going through that corner at 80MPH caused the frontend to wallow, which is not comforting.

The only solution was to trade the Sportster in and get a Buell. Maybe not the best thought out plan I ever made. I didn't like the look, the seating position or just about anything else about the Buell, except the power and handling. But there comes that time when you actually look at your bike. It had to look sharp. Hell, if you could just move constantly, even the seat height wouldn't be an issue. But you can't.

Enter the bike project:

My plan was to take the motor from the Buell and whatever else I deemed worthy, and build a new bike. So I researched frames that would fit a Sportster motor and came up with lots of options. Since I've always liked the look of a rigid, but still like the idea of walking and stuff, I decided that a Softail frame was the way to go. Seems H-D though of that too.

I looked at the frames from Atlas Precision and made up my mind to build the bike based on their frame offerings.

Since I'm not getting any richer I had to plan on reusing as many "useable" parts from the Buell as possible. Things like brakes and wheels were immediately obvious to me. So I settled on the Sportster Wide Drive frame. This frame will take up to a 180 rear tire.

I placed the order, being careful to tell Atlas exactly what I was up to so they could help me figure out the geometry. Using the stock Buell forks and wheels we figured that I could use a 32 degree neck angle and coincidentally, that is exactly what I always thought my Hugger would look nice with. Done deal. Atlas makes frames and several other parts that you'll need, plus they were able to build the frame the way I wanted it, not the cookie cutter way. See, my plans were to build something that brings the old Frisco chopper look to mind. I had them build mine for an Evo Sportster tank. I had one already.

Now the Buell was still my daily driver and I knew I wasn't going to be able to just buy everything. So I kept riding the Buell and accumulating parts. I kept the frame and parts I had in my room so I could admire them while I waited.

During the time I was purchasing parts another snag was dealt. The landlord of the house, I lived in for 6 years, decided he was moving back in. He gave me 30 days. If you've ever looked for a place to stay in Dago, with a garage, you're forced to take what you can get. I found an apartment with garages for $50 more a month and moved.

It wasn't until after I hauled all my shit into the garage, that I noticed there was no electricity.

Remember that, the next time you look around. I know I will. Matter of fact this place sucks for more reasons than that, so the project will most likely span three houses. Cool. I know the next one will have electricity.

I procrastinated as long as possible, but there came the day when the Buell transitioned into a parts source and stopped being a motorcycle.

I've got everything but the engine, forks, wheels and brakes. I figured, that with nothing to ride, I'd get things done faster. Seems to be working so far. Other than beer just about the only items I buy are project related.

Without being to repetitive money is a problem. So while I was planning/buying the parts, the design changed a bit here and there. I bought shit on E Bay, only when the parts arrived they didn't work. Just because a part has someone famous name on it, doesn't mean it's a quality part. I've still got to buy mirrors for the project, but if anyone needs some cheap piece of shit, famous name mirrors give me a yell. I've got three sets!

On to The Next Installment...