post Sturgis post

The Pro-Tour ‘S’ had a great showing in Sturgis! I ran out of my tri-fold brochures late Friday afternoon despite my efforts to hand them out only to people who genuinely seemed interested in this transformation. I want to thank everyone who came by to view and sit on the bike – in the short time I was there with it, from Wednesday afternoon until Friday evening, I counted at least 240 people that experienced the feel of being ‘in the pocket’ of the Pro-Tour ‘S’.

After catching their breath from the surprise of the light weight and low center-of-gravity the two main questions were How much for the kit? and How long will you have my bike? If you look at an earlier post, I’ve priced out the individual components and their associated labor costs. With every component you see on the first Pro-Tour ‘S’ included, the grand total in parts and labor comes out to just under $14,500.00. This does not include the cost of the donor bike or paint. What you’ll get back is a complete turn-key rideable bike with all components installed with a protective coat of black epoxy primer – ready to be sanded and painted. (I’ll be happy to paint your bike as well, but I don’t include the pricing for paint in the package because of the obvious variables). Some people may choose to omit the front fender and/or the fairing, depending on their taste and budget which would reduce the price – you’ll need to look at that pricing schedule to compute what your total cost would be. Regarding the second question – “How long will I have your bike?” – currently we are looking at a 12-14 week turn-around, but I am going into my busy season with winter paint jobs and other customizing projects so if you think you want to have this transformation done in time for Spring 2012 the window of opportunity is closing rapidly as I can only fit  a certain amount of work into my schedule and when its full – its full. I’m just beginning a Pro-Tour project on a non-XL chassis which will make its debut at the V-Twin Expo in Cincinnati in Feb. 2012 and only have room for a few more Pro-Tour ‘S’ conversions before I close the schedule book for winter 2011-2012. With the exposure the bike received in Sturgis I expect the winter schedule will be filled within the next few weeks. All it takes to get on my schedule for a Pro-Tour ‘S’ conversion is a phone call or email and a deposit of $500.00 – even if we can’t work out ALL the details of your project immediately (paint color-handlebar selection-footrest location-etc.) the 500 bucks locks in a spot on my schedule, and obviously goes toward the project when completed. So don’t procrastinate people!!!! Lets get you on the schedule soon or you’ll be waiting for it when everyone else is riding early next summer, and we all know how bad THAT sucks!!

The Pro-Tour ‘S’ is going to Sturgis

I’ve worked with Randy Winchel, owner of FrameLock, on a number of his bikes and I use and sell the FrameLock Motorcycle transporting device. As their advertising states, its “The safest way to transport your bike”. My belief level is so strong in this product that whenever I’m doing a frame-up build, or in the case of the Pro-Tour ‘S’ a complete transformation, I’ll automatically weld threaded bungs into the bottom frame rails for a clean attachment point for the pin bracket.

I’m excited to announce that the Pro-Tour ‘S’ will be on display in the FrameLock vendor location at 6th and Lazelle St. in Downtown Sturgis during the Blackhills Motor Classic. Randy will be set up on Friday the 5th and as much as I’d like to be there to work with him from start to finish, other commitments will keep me out of Sturgis until Wednesday the 10th. I’m leaving La Crosse early in the morning so I’ll be there by mid-afternoon on the 10th.

If you’re going to be in Sturgis be sure to stop by the FrameLock vendor location to see the Best and Only way to transport your valuable machinery, and if you want to see what it feels like to sit “in the pocket” of the Pro-Tour ‘S’ by all means SIT ON IT!!! Thats what it’ll be there for.
Hope to see many of you who’ve been following this transformation out there, and answer any questions you have!

Peace and RIDE SAFE!!

Wait, it weighs what?

Here’s your proof of weight my people. Our good friends at Alter Trading, just down the street from my shop here in the Industrial park, were kind enough to let me roll the Pro-Tour ‘S’ across their scale to see what this puppy weighs – full of gas and all lubricants – and it came in at a dead even 560 pounds. That is exactly 250 pounds less than a 2010 StreetGlide and 154 pounds less than a FatBoy. Zoom in on the image – the top left is a cropped image of the digital readout in the scalehouse window, and the top right is a printout from the scalehouse. How much MORE horsepower does a Big Twin need to make up for all that weight in order to keep pace with this bike?

A stock 1992 Sportster (which this chassis is) weighed 498 pounds, so with the changes made to transform this we picked up about 62 pounds. A little more than I expected, but certainly leaving the description “Lightweight” intact. You should expect to add that same 60 sum pounds to whatever the baseline weight is for the model/year XL we start with. One other item – I filled the bike with gas today, it wasn’t on reserve yet so I’m guessing it had about a half gallon in it, and I added 4.47 gallons to fill it ‘not quite’ to the top. So the fuel capacity of this tank is right at about 5 gallons, which is about right for gas stops on the long rides.

The Pro-Tour ‘S’ has gone viral

I’ve finally gotten to the point where I want to start showing video clips about the Pro-Tour ‘S’ and have loaded a couple on YouTube. Here’s a link to the second one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXIBPi2gf9Q

Please be patient with me on this because I’m a COMPLETE rookie at YouTube and the stuff I put up to begin with will undoubtedly be pretty amateur quality. I AM open to any and all suggestions to give everyone a better quality video, so fire suggestions at me and, if I can figure out what you’re telling me, I’ll implement it in future videos. Tell me what items/features on the Pro-Tour ‘S’ interest you and I’ll answer them in video format.

Now for a progress report on the bike itself: It LIVES!!! I did the initial warm-up cycles on the engine a couple of weeks ago, rolled it off the table and immediately realized the rear tire was very low on air. As some of you may have noticed, this bike has a two piece spun aluminum wheel out back and sometime between the mock up and painting the wheel, the silicone that served as a seal between the halves must have been disturbed and it had failed. I aired the tire up, took the bike for a short ride down the block and it felt like the bike had something holding it back – like one of the brakes was hanging up – after rolling back in the shop parking lot I shut it down and pushed it into the shop, with a whole lot of resistance! The tire was down to 5 pounds air pressure, in less than 5 minutes!

The following morning I rolled the bike back up on the table, and put a lift under it to elevate the rear tire. I then found that even with the tire elevated the rear wheel still had a TON of rolling resistance. To make an already long story short, I diagnosed what was making the rear caliper hang up, repaired that, and proceeded to dismount the rear wheel and tore it COMPLETELY apart so I could thoroughly clean and re-silicone the halves together.

Got it all put back together, and have now got about 5 miles on the bike as I took a badly needed vacation with my bride, my daughter and her boyfriend last week. I’m hoping to take it to bike night (at Rudy’s Drive-In) later this week if I get a chance to swing over to the DMV to get the registration crapola taken care of. Right now the engine feels exceptionally strong, but the lifters aren’t pumping up completely (a common issue as I understand it) so mechanically its rather noisy. I’m hoping they pump up soon because all that racket bugs the shit outta me! I’m told it can sometimes take as many as 50 miles before they start pumping up to where they’re supposed to be.

With this being a 100 inch S&S engine rigidly mounted in the 2003-earlier style chassis I’m definitely recognizing the fact that this won’t be the best platform if a client is planning on serious touring, and I expected that from the start. The 2004 and later rubbermount XL’s will be a much better platform for maximum comfort on long hauls - however this one will be absolutely KICK ASS in the performance area! You can really feel this engine and I’m looking forward to seeing how well this hotrod performs at the drag strip. It should really rip through the quarter mile with 115 rear wheel horsepower and (I’m guessing) just under 600 pounds. I’ll try to get the bike over a scale within the next couple of weeks to let everyone know what the final weight is. The other upside to having this first Pro-Tour ‘S’ built on the rigid mounted engine platform is it’ll make for a good test of the fiberglass components I’ve created here. If they hold up well on THIS bike there should NEVER be any problems with the fiberglass components on the 2004 and later rubbermount XL platform.

The Pro-Tour ‘S’ is FINALLY coming to life!

Since the Donnie Smith show at the end of March, the Pro-Tour ‘S’ has been patiently waiting in the showroom  for wiring to bring it to life. The entire month before the ‘Donnie’ was focused on the Pro-Tour ‘S’ and following the show I found myself  WAY behind schedule on projects for clients – its taken me this long to dig myself out of that backlog. Instead of using a stock Harley wiring harness on this one, I decided to scratch-wire it, and I’m a little over half way done with it. I’ll post images of the wiring under the seat area when its completed. My goal is to have it done by early this coming week as Steve Berner – Editor of IronWorks Magazine is passing through La Crosse toward the end of the week and I’m hoping to give him the chance to pilot this machine. Also, next weekend is the annual J&P Cycle Open House in Anamosa, Iowa. If all goes according to plan, I may have the Pro-Tour ‘S’ on display at the Legends Air Suspension vendor location, so be sure to stop in and saddle-up on this bike – thats right – I INVITE people to sit on it!  

Paul Holdworth – the ‘Meddling Editor’ of IronWorks - first viewed the Pro-Tour ‘S’ in its early stages a couple of years ago and immediately asked for exclusivity, so in a few months a full feature of the bike should be on the newstands. I’ll keep everyone watching this blog posted on what’s going on with the magazine feature. Meanwhile, be sure to let everyone you know that may be interested in this kind of transformation for their XL to check this blog out.

component pricing

I’ve compiled a list of the major components in the complete Pro-Tour ‘S’ kit and have included the price for those components as well as labor to install them into a donor chassis. I expect the next one I do will be a rubbermount style chassis which will require a small amount of tweaking in how I mount the oil tank. I’m sure I’ll run into a few other small snags along the way, but this pricing should give a good idea of what it would cost to duplicate what I’ve done on the first Pro-Tour ‘S’.

I expect this pricing will change somewhat after I’ve done a few of these kits. After knocking a few out I may find it is taking more time than I anticipated so I’ll need to adjust the labor price accordingly, and to be honest I usually find myself being optimistic about labor times so there’s a good chance the first few clients I do these for are going to get a better deal than subsequent clients. That being said, I wouldn’t expect the total price of parts and labor to rise any more than an additional $1500.00.

I’m not showing the cost of painting all of the sheetmetal and fiberglass components because that price can be all over the board depending on who ends up painting the bike, how wild or subtle the graphics will be etc. When a client receives an unpainted bike it will be turn-key with the Pro-Tour ‘S’ chassis  components painted gloss black to match the factory chassis, and all of the sheetmetal and fiberglass components will be sealed in black epoxy primer – ready to be painted the color (and graphics) of their choice by the painter of their choice. I obviously have the capability to paint these, but my feelings won’t be hurt when someone tells me they have their own painter in mind. I’m totally cool with that!

Other than the paint the only additional cost not shown here will be the cost of the donor bike and I want to mention the warranty here, as I’ve learned a few things over the last couple of weeks after discussing this kit with some H-D dealers.

As I understand it, the Motor Company is not very tolerant about warrantying  bikes that have had engine or chassis modifications. This includes Big Twins as well as XL models. Only a handful of modifications are acceptable by the Motor Company without risk of voiding the warranty, and from the engine upgrades I’ve seen many people having done on their bikes I’d guess most are outside of the acceptable range of modifications. In the Motor Company’s defense, I don’t blame them for taking this position. If I painted a bike for a client then they had another shop install apehangers on it, and in the process that shop scratched up the paint on the tank, does it become my fault because I’m the one that painted it? I don’t think so…

What this means in my view is it comes down to your relationship with your dealer/service facility and how abusive you are to your machine. Don’t kid yourself – if you’re constantly beating the shit out of your bike its going to show, and anyone who works on these machines every day will clearly be able to see how well you treat it. If you ride it normally I know I and most dealers will work with you to resolve any issues you may be having, but if you’re constantly hammering on it, it’ll be obvious and you’re probably going to have a hard time convincing anyone to warranty busted parts.

I warranty all of my work for 1 year as do most component manufacturers. The people I use to do engine mods on my bikes have a proven track record, and have shown me integrity in their work standards and business ethics.

The following price list will give you an idea of what will be invested in your Pro-Tour ‘S’ transformation. If you have any suggestions to provide more clarity please let me know – I’m always open to ideas!

Individual Components Pricing
Item		Component price		Install Labor	Paint component
Swingarm Stretch		$475.00		N/C	$175
Drop-seat frame section		$775.00		$600.00	$425
Oil tank		$780.00		$100.00	$125
Gas tank		$1050.00		$175.00
left clamshell girder		$75.00		$60.00	$60
right clamshell girder		$75.00		$60.00	$60
left clamshell attachment plate		$185.00		N/C
right clamshell attachment plate		$185.00		N/C
Complete clamshell minus light		$2,450.00		$1,350.00
center (warrior) taillight w/mount		$395.00		$100.00
Complete left mid-frame cover		$680.00		$110.00
Complete right mid-frame cover		$680.00		$110.00
inner fender		$250.00		$85.00	$100
complete latching mechanism		$340.00		N/C
seat pan		$375.00		$100.00
Upholstery (subcontract – average)		$350.00		N/A
front fender		$395.00		$25.00
Complete fairing w/windshield		$1,600.00		N/C
V-Rod drive belt		$200.00		N/C
StreetGlide air shocks		$280.00		N/C
Line total		$11,595.00		$2,875.00	$945

a few points of interest

Two shots of the almost done bike

Here are a couple of images of the bike now that its back home at the shop. I need to wire it and button up a few small items and it’ll be ready to fire up and begin breaking in the 100 inch mill. To see a few more angles go to this link http://www.dougz.com/custom_bikes.php?sgid=153

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll begin posting images of different parts of this transformation and the logic behind the design of those components.

a naked roller view

I’ve had a couple of people inquire as to whether I’d sell just the frame modification. I’m guessing they like the idea of a drop seat with the six inch swingarm extension, and honestly I think this would look pretty slick that way as well. When I get caught up with work in the shop in a couple of weeks I’ll pull an image of the naked roller (like the one you see here) into my art program and will work up a couple of ‘sketches’ to show this transformation in a completely different style.

The Pro-Tour ‘S’ was VERY well received at the Donnie Smith show this past weekend, with 99% positive comments and the other 1% were comments about what people would do differently – which I don’t consider negative at all – I’ve already considered a few of those remarks and you may see a Pro-Tour ‘S’2 stemming from those. It’ll be a while before I can attack that, but I think some of the purists will really like what I’ve got in mind!

When I get the bike unloaded later today I’ll shoot some images and get ‘em posted for all to see.

For everyone that I met this weekend at the Donnie, and viewing this site for the first time – THANK YOU SO MUCH for stopping by to see and sit on the bike! I really enjoyed the weekend and meeting you all and look forward to working with many of you in the future!

Paint and reassembly continues

I decided to toss in this image of the bike in the blog this morning because by this afternoon its going to look a whole lot more like a finished bike. The handlebars are being wired while the majority of the bodywork/sheetmetal is baking after finishing clear yesterday. The swingarm goes in next, followed by the oil tank, then the rear wheel to turn it into a rolling chassis. Not much time to talk about what I’ve been doing for the last week, but if I added a post every day it would’ve been pretty boring for the last few days because all I would’ve been saying is “I prepped this or that for paint, then painted it”. It would’ve been like a broken record. I have to say, it is amazing how much time it takes to do a bike this style – when there won’t be a single piece of chrome on the entire thing when its done – it takes an unbelievable amount of time to prep and shoot components the color of the bike. There are so many pieces that you can’t do them all at the same time because there simply isn’t enough room in the paint booth to put all the parts and be able to move around in there to shoot ‘em and not accidentally knock something over. So its gotta be done in stages, shooting the parts as you’ll need them to keep reassembly going while paint is curing. Its a bunch of work for a one man operation.