[1] When we arrived, Anthony had already prepped the frame for its reincarnation and had it sitting in one of his frame jigs. Basically the frame was cut at the backbone (just in front of the seat area) and down at the bottom of the downtubes. As you can see, the remaining portion of the backbone was sanded and prepped for the addition of a new backbone.
[2] Down below, the area where the bottom of the downtubes used to reside was prepped to a
As you’ve thumbed through this magazine over the past couple years you may have seen several feature bikes outfitted with 23-, 26-, and even 30-inch wheels. Where the pro-street trend of yesteryear was stuffing a bulldozer barrel between your swingarm, in the bagger world it’s all about the height of the front wheel more than width of the rear wheel. There are several companies on the market that offer kits for big-wheel applications. Some of those kits are just a matter of adding raked triple trees while others offer a frame/neck rake kit along with new triple trees to get the bike to sit and ride right. You could get away with bolting on a set of raked trees for a 23-inch front wheel, but when you get into the 26- and 30-inch wheels, the frame/neck kit which involves cutting and re-raking the neck and then re-welding everything back together to get a good stance and proper rake and trail for high/low speed handling is a must.
Well if you’re going to make the leap to running something a big as a 23, 26, or 30, then you’re probably one who really likes to stand out amongst the rest. So we say if you’re going to take things that far, then you might as well go the full monty add some additional style and even more customization to your bike. If this sounds appealing to you then you’ll definitely want to check out the offerings and possibilities from Anthony Keeling and his company, Chassis Design.
[3] Anthony’s helper, Mike Daugherty, TIG-welded the steel slugs to the downtube locations
The name pretty much says it all. From choppers, bobbers, and pro-street frames, to diggers and board trackers, Chassis Design has been building frames for everyone from top name builders to the average garage wrench. As of late, Chassis Design has been messing around with bagger frames. With his background, experience, and shop full of materials and machinery, Anthony could easily build a ground-up bagger frame to whatever design and dimensions your little bagger heart desires. But Anthony knows times are tight and money isn’t as easy to burn as it used to be, so he’s been chopping up stock Harley touring frames and re-working them for big-wheels with creative touches like stretched backbones, radiused downtubes, single downtubes, or just about anything a customer could dream up. Best of all, Anthony offers these customized frames for a reasonable price (often the same as or cheaper than the raked triple trees or triple trees/ neck rake kits that are on the market), and you don’t have to do any of the chopping/welding. You can either tear your bike down and send Anthony your stock frame, or Anthony can procure a stock frame for you. It’s then just a matter of a phone call or sending along a drawing of what you want. If you send in your own frame the price will range between $600-800 depending on what you want done and you will keep the stock VIN on the frame. If you have Anthony get a frame for you the price will run about $1,500 depending on how much work you want done to the frame, and since the frames Anthony gets come with the neck cut off, he will issue the frame a Chassis Design VIN number and you will receive an MSO with the frame.
We recently caught up with Anthony just as he was about to reconstruct a 2012 Road Glide frame for a customer. This specific frame was going to be for a 26-inch wheel and the customer requested a pair of dual radiused downtubes as opposed to the standard straight legs the frame came with. Follow along as we show you how Anthony met his customer’s desires. B
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[4] Here is one of the slugs after it’s been welded in place.
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[5] While Mike was welding, Anthony was marking the new neck tube for the placement of the
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[6] When Anthony measured the length for the downtubes, he measured above the line he mark
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[7] After he had his measurements, Anthony cut two pieces of 0.156-wall DOM tubing to leng
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[8] The tubing was then run through the CNC ring roller.
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[9] After checking and running through the ring roller a couple times, Anthony came up wit
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[10] While Anthony was working on the downtubes, Mike was setting up the new backbone. The
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[11] The top of the downtube will be coped so it fits in flush against the neck. Anthony u
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[12] The excess was then cut off with a band saw.
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[13] A 1 3/4-inch hole saw was then used to cope the end of the tube.
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[14] Both tubes were cut and coped and then mocked up against the neck.
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[15] Here we see Anthony and Mike discussing the new backbone. Notice how the sleeve will
[16] While Mike continued working on the backbone, Anthony began tacking the downtubes in place.