Mike still had some time to kill while waiting on some parts to come back, so he utilized it by hand-polishing any of the visible stock hardware, the rear pulley, and anything else he could find. The horn was relocated behind the side cover so the powdercoating and diamond cutting would be unobstructed. Mike dismantled all of the Harley gauges and soldered in new Super Shite LED lights for the numbers and Super Blue for the needles that give the dash an unbelievable custom look at night without spending major coin for new gauges. He then upgraded the stock stereo by hiding an ARC Audio 125x2 mini amp inside the front fairing that pumps power to some extremely capable Focal speakers (look closely and you can see that the gauges have been rearranged and the air temp and batt voltage gauges were replaced with tweeters). Still maximizing this downtime, Mike replaced the stock handlebars with a set of 10-inch Paul Yaffe Monkey Bars.
When Mike’s motor parts came back from Hillside, he began rebuilding it solely by paying very close attention to the service manual and utilizing help from various internet forums. Pretty impressive considering this was Mike’s first time being inside of a motor. Once back together and without any problems he mated it to a custom-length D&D Fat Cat 2-into-1 exhaust that D&D fabricated just for Mike.
After Mike had everything back together and looking good, he took the bike to see Dave at JD’s Cycle Works in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for dyno tuning. After Dave did what he does best, the worked 107-incher pumped out an impressive 119 hp along with an arm stretching 116 lb-ft of torque. Now that’s what we like to see, more than 1 hp per cubic inch.
Mike is extremely happy with the outcome of the bike, but as many of the stories within these pages and garages across America go, no bike is truly ever finished. Mike already has plans to tear it all down again and color-match the frame and a few other secrets. It’s awesome to see the confidence that a man can get when he focuses on a goal and uses available resources to make it happen. B