The Amazing Chieftain By Kiwi

My dream for quite some time has been to build modern Retro styled classic American motorcycles to complement our other Kiwi motorcycles. After making it known to S&S of my dream bike at Sturgis (early Aug 07), I got a surprise call Thurs Aug 16 from Brett Smith, President of S&S and Michael Scalleta saying I had been selected to be 1 of the 10. A short while later I received a follow up official letter written by Brett which stated, “Mike you wanted it, you got it.” Little does he know but that note meant a lot to me. My reply was thank you and I will not let you down.

S&S also announced they had five engine classes which would encompass a total of 50 builders with a grand prize of $50,000.00, however in my mind we were already a winner just to have selected to be one of the builders and the $50,000.00 did not mean a thing.

No words could explain how I felt at the time to have been recognized by such and Icon Company as it felt as though it was a whole new beginning for Kiwi Indian Motorcycle Co, and I appreciated being given the chance to participate. All too often I find this Harley aftermarket business very narrow minded and most in it cannot deviate from the usual style builds and builders, so being given an opportunity to inject something new, different and of past historical significance always excites me.

Needless to say the next day I already had a plan put together of the general layout and design of our motorcycle.S&S X-Wedge engine is a totally new platform engine and not related to anything existing on the market. I got word of the X-Wedge just before the Cincinnati V-Twin Expo (dealer trade show) in Feb '07 and my first thoughts were that it was just another ho hum (unexciting) Harley derivative engine. However upon following it up, I found out that it was far from that, a whole new fresh design, which I feel is what our industry so badly needs. I made it THE point to have at the top of my list of to do’s at Cincinnati and I attended every seminar put on about the X-Wedge, so I could fully understand the engine. In a nut shell it is a 56-1/4 degree air cooled V-Twin engine with an automotive style crank and rods utilizing plain bearings with a high performance Chevy 454 top end designed to meet future EPA emissions standards, absolutely marvelous. In all honesty S&S has taken the lead in the V-Twin engine design which in my mind now dates most of the Harley based V-Twin designs. When we look back in time some years down the road, this engine will be a defining engine in the world of American made V-Twins.

I also noticed an interesting phenomena taking place in the V-Twin market over many years which is Harley’s need quite a bit of money spent on them after they are bought from the dealer in order to get them to run half ways decent. We’re all told it's due to the new emissions standards, however I see it more as a cheap cop-out by the Motor Co. to avoid re-engineering their product better to make it better.

I understand tradition as that’s also where I come from, specializing in Indians most of my working life (30 years to this point) but one has to have an open mind to all motorcycles and ask why is it that you can buy a foreign made motorcycle, for example a “Star” (Yamaha Harley knock off) motorcycle and ride it without spending any extra dollars in performance up grades.

I believe many people will be asking the same questions as time goes on and Harley will see the results. On the other hand one would hope not too many look at other brands as Harley's antiquatedness fuels a big aftermarket industry which Harley despises. I feel a famous brand name, pushing American made and a trendy life style product can only work for so long and eventually the consumer gets to the point of being overdosed and checks out other manufactures and models of motorcycles which Harley needs to seriously keep in mind.

Kiwi Indian Motorcycle Company's mission is to make an American made, well engineered, reliable, easily serviceable, durable and classic retro styled motorcycles with true American tradition. This is now totally do-able with the S&S X-Wedge engine/Kiwi Indian m/c Co with S&S backing it, as this bike requires no aftermarket performance upgrades (and additional money). Kiwi is all about quality and durability while providing a uniquely different product. We aim to please and we don't come up short.

It was just a few years ago I was told that my motorcycles and products were not main stream by one of the top magazine editors in the US and that I would never be eligible for any industry recognition. That statement irked me so much, and even to this day I believe the reason many of us ride motorcycles (for me going back to my 1970s riding years) included not wanting to be mainstream. Now let's just take a short moment to look where all the mainstream chopper builders are, hmm, they're now chasing the trendy bagger market. Wow, original thinkers aren't they, building the SOS again. While there are some original thinkers in that market, most can't. Who gives a hoot about being mainstream. Someone in America must buck the bloody main stream trend. Main stream, FTH.

We received our mock up X-Wedge engine and one of the Kiwi Indian traits of our style is to have a compact power plant unit (engine, transmission, primary assembly). I have never cared for the Harley design with the transmission a ½ a mile behind the engine as my style is to keep the powerplant unit nice 'n' tight and compact in design. In one of the S&S sessions at Cincinnati I asked why they had not considered a combined unit (engine/tranny/primary in one case) like the Sportster, but the answer was that all the bike builders balked at it. To me most of the thinking here in America is keeping in the past and not pressing forwards and trying new things. I foresee great new designs if S&S would produce a unitized powerplant as it would allow a greater freedom for us designers.

One of the smartest engineers around is Alan Sputhe (Sputhe Engineering) and it didn’t take long for me to figure out that he was the man to have involved in our project. I visited Alan and we got along straight off the bat, and he took the time to show me some of his past designs and creations which assured me even further that he was a genius and a great guy to have involved. In my mind he's a man ahead of his time in many cases as some of the things that we see today in our market he did some 20 years ago. He's a man of not so many words but what he has designed and built within the V-Twin industry was truly amazing. He is one of the most overall smartest people within our industry that I have ever met.

Aug 22 the mail arrived and S&S formal confirmation, and I could not sign on the dotted line fast enough, even before reading all of the paperwork it got signed and faxed back. We’re gonna do it come hell or high water so why sweet the details.

The builder list showed 50 builders building bikes from across all of S&S engine platforms (Panhead, Shovelhead, Evo, etc) and only 10 selected to build a bike using their new X-wedge engine. Wow, I thought, this makes it even more coveted. This is an opportunity of a lifetime to create a masterpiece and I had my list of design requirements ready which was as follows:

Plunger rear suspension (classic style), seat post (comfort), traditional solo seat (comfort),18″ wheels (handling), PM Marquee wheels (style), Avon tires (the best), dual 10″ discs up front with dual 4 piston calipers (stopping power), compact powerplant (freedom of design), belt rear drive (smoothness and low maintenance), classic fenders and tanks (tradition), oil tank in front right gas tank (clean design), retro instrumentation (style), Kiwi frame and Kiwi Girder forks made in house (quality control).

Sept 07. James Clark of James Gaskets passed away suddenly of a heart attack. James was one of my closest personal friends and was the nicest guy in the American motorcycle industry. He owned a very successful manufacturing business manufacturing the highest quality gaskets for American motorcycles namely Harleys. His gaskets carried several patents and are the best gaskets money can buy, period.

Over the years of working with James we have been able to develop advanced sealing solutions for vintage Indian Motorcycles and both he and I grew to be close personal friends. He encouraged me to excel and think outside the box and when I told him of my new bike design utilizing S&S new X-wedge he got extremely excited and encouraged me to move forward with my dream. I discussed my design with him however my dream of him seeing it was cut short when he suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack. This was quite an emotional set back for me as in my heart this bike had a lot of James in it. James was a class act, never took any lime light and was a visionary guy whom I could talk to about the industry and its inner workings. My back ground is vintage Indians and over the past 20 years I have designed and created around 2500 different part numbers for classic Indians so entering the modern American m/c industry posed some challenges; however most of the industry veterans already knew and respected me for what we did for Indian motorcycles. Our leaf spring forks were a major step for us in this market as they were instantly featured on all of the top builder’s bikes and new relationships were formed.

I believe in growing a company organically and for us that has been manufacturing all the individual parts to a motorcycle whether it be a brackets, speedometers, ignition switches, gauges, wheels, brakes, handlebar controls, tanks, fenders, engines, transmissions, forks, frames, etc, we’ve done it all organically one part at a time. I love the modern industry for its excitement and opportunities. RIP my good friend James Clark.

Nov 07. We finally got our mock up engine back from Alan Sputhe as he was grafting up his mock up compact tranny to it. This was step one which would now allow us to set it in our frame jig so we could start bending our straight tubing that has been hanging around for a while. We generally do everything ourselves, our own way and we don't mislead people in believing that we actually make stuff and actually build bikes from scratch. The thing that irks me the most in this industry is how people can lie about what they actually make.

Once the engine was set upon our frame table we noticed the X-Wedge front and rear engine mounts were at different heights and upon questioning the S&S folks we were unable to get the information that we needed. For some odd reason the difference was not a standard fractional size which concerned me more than anything; however we sat the engine mounts on machinist blocks and figured it out the old fashioned way. At least we knew we were right on and it was a starting point.

Dec 3, 2007 we shaped the front frame down tubes which were tack welded into place.

Dec 5, I had a change of gears as to the front end. Kiwi is known to be different and rather than build the usual front end (hydraulic or leaf spring), we wanted to go with something different and something with style that we could add to our product line of offerings. Mind you my good friend Brian Klock did have something to do with convincing me, so I had Christian Dotson draw up a quickie sketch of what our bike would look like with a Kiwi Girder on it.

Christian is an awesome designer and he whipped out a few drawings, one of which also had our Leaf Spring forks. It was so cool, too. There's a couple of cool dudes right there.

Early Dec I ran into a guy at the Long Beach Cycle show whom I have known of for years who is a master shock expert, Gil from Works Performance Shocks. I explained to him that I wanted to have a hydraulically dampened conventional plunger rear end, and he immediately got all pumped up and started drawing things out on a piece of scrap paper. Up to this point the frame was sort of bent up on our frame table but the tube ends at the rear plungers were open. Meeting up with Gil made me feel confident in that aspect of the project.

James Simonelli from S&S has always been a huge help with our projects, no matter what question I had. He either had the answer on hand or researched it for us in a very timely fashion even calling me back at 11pm his time with an answer. I can't speak highly enough about James as he is an awesome individual and a huge asset to S&S.

A while ago Chopper Dave built a bobber with an X-Wedge for S&S to introduce it to the Japanese market at the Mooneyes show in late Nov. I had a few questions and Dave went out of his way to assist going so far as saying that his bike will be back next week so come on down and do anything you want with it and take it for a ride. It was a very generous offer indeed and it's great to have great mates in low places.

To date (Dec 13) our finished motor had still not arrived. We found out that our special request of powder-coating the cylinders and parts of the heads black threw a spanner in the works at S&S, so James Simonelli took it upon himself to handle our special request. One of our aims with this engine was to simulate the vintage era like on our Kiwi flathead engines. From what I heard most of the other builders had their engine but we didn’t, which in all honesty was no big deal since we had a mock up to work with.

We drew sketches of how we wanted the cylinders and fins to look, and James carried out our wish. I can’t speak favorably enough about James.

Dec 18: The frame backbone was now fabricated and a 180 rear tire was our choice, up from a 150. Our rear fender had to be widened to accommodate our new tire. To me a 180 tire makes a bike have a little attitude but without sacrificing handling, since my aim was to balance looks and handling. I find so many bikes don't handle because builders and buyers just don’t know what a motorcycle or motorcycling is all about. I might be raving on, but the motorcycle industry is in a market correction and getting rid of the crap that has been built over the last few years which is a good thing and the cream is rising to the top.

Rule #1 for a motorcycle is it has to go around corners, so handling is important and I'd venture to say that was last on many of the custom bike builders lists. Never stray away from rule #1.

Mid Jan and our finished X-Wedge engine finally arrives. Fedex ground delivered it to our old shop address (12 miles away) which we had moved from five years ago and it took them five more working days to have it redirected just 12 miles away to our current address. It became a joke talking with Fedex each day so much so, that I jokingly asked how long does it take for a 215 lb package to get delivered 12 miles?

When the engine finally arrived it was outstanding to say the least. Our custom powder coated mat black cylinders/heads and polished combo made the engine classically outstanding. While it did take S&S/James quite a bit to get it the way we wanted it, it sure as hell was well worth the effort and wait.

I ordered up the blank rear fender pieces from a friend in the business that makes the fenders for the vintage bikes. The fender I ordered was much a blank stamping meaning the crown and skirts were straight out of the stamping dies with little trimming and the skirts were not welded to the crown nor was the chain guard cut out fabricated.

When the fender parts arrived we got the bill which was expected as we did not ask for anything free, however we were all stunned at the cost, 50 bucks less than a completely finished off one, that's a 15% discount, whippy bloody do, you just got to be kidding for just fender stampings!!!

He sells a completed rear fender meaning, stamped, trimmed, welded, drilled, chain guard cut out and mounting tabs fitted all finished and ready for final paint for $50.00 more. Upon discussing this on several occasions to give him every chance to rectify it, all I got was, “Well if I sell you an unfinished fender then I loose a sale on a completed one.” Give me a break and get real!!! I've helped this friend out many times over the years especially when he couldn’t find parts for his own personal bikes, so I’d loan him the parts out of my personal collection so he could keep on rolling with his projects. I also started his tank program using one of my venders, sacrificing my own tanks as guinea pigs and organizing the tooling to make it all happen along with countless hours on my part all to help a friend out. Since this is a pretty high profile and unique build, one would think it would be a perfect opportunity to have ones product featured on it but some people just can't see the forest because of the bushes, ah well, his loss.

I'm happy to have some other very cool companies involved in this project. I just like companies to work with us in a favorable way so that we can still remain friends and neither one gets hurt, it's that plain and simple. It needs to be Win-Win. Since this has been published the guy has taken offence to this however this is not intended to embarrass anyone, but is a chronicle of the build, its trials, tribulations and honest goings on.

It's no wonder I build more and more stuff myself, as I can do without the drama. I find life is all about relationships but some just don't get it. It's fun building them and if it had not been for building relationships over the years, our business or products would not have been as successful.

March 18, and we’re finished with a bike we built for David Letterman. The bike build was a major transformation of turning a 2002-2003 Gilroy era Indian Chief into looking like Steve McQueen's replica 1940 Indian Chief. It was a major undertaking as nobody had ever done it before, but it gave us a chance to transform a so-so Indian into something stunning.

To me the Gilroy era Indians had quite a few issues in design which gave me a good inside view of what not to build into our bike.

Late March we had hammered out the final design and dimensions for the Kiwi Girder front end. Tiny our master machinist must have been dreaming every night about how to machine up all the little bits and pieces that go into our front end, since once he got on the lathe and mill, he got cranking and out popped some beautiful pieces of art.

Late April: I’m still not out of hot water with the rear drive, as I was not used to working with a rubber band rear drive. I like chains and I just might end up using a chain for this masterpiece even though my goal was to run a belt. To me chains can be cut and made to any length right on the spot, but belts only come in certain lengths with limited variations at that (at least when it comes to narrow belts). Pulley sizes vary belt length and to me there just doesn’t seem to be much adjustability especially when I wanted to run a 20mm wide belt.

Ah well, we’ll just had to see how all of this works out. I have nothing against chain drive as they are reliable, offer good design flexibility and when good components are used, nice and smooth.

May, 08 the 20mm (3/4″) wide belt was dropped in favor of a 1-1/8 which was offered in many lengths and would still fit within our chain guard, well I guess it's officially called a belt guard now.

I wanted the tanks to have classic styling and Travis and Justin started beating on some sheet metal until the correct shape was created. Sheet metal working is a fine craft and we don’t get along, so I have no quibbles about leaving it to these 2 experts. Hell, even Tiny stepped up to the plate and helped in the sheet metal fabrication dept.

Electronic fuel injection is totally new for me but after seeing Bazza working with it on modern American bikes on his side of the business (modern Harley servicing), I am very comfortable with what it brings to the table in terms of being fully custom programmable and reliable. Designing a way to capture the fuel pump into the tank and making it easily removable for servicing made us all scratch our heads and after a few tries we hit on something that we felt would work. One of the things that needed to be addressed when welding sheet metal is warpage and welding some sort of a fuel pump base into the tank and having it seal up afterwards was a challenge, but we got the job accomplished and we can now offer builders a tidy unit for them to weld into their tanks.

Our oil tank was designed into the front right side of the right side tank. This has several advantages as it keeps the oil cool since air is moving over it and the gas in the back part of the tank transfers some of the oil heat. Design wise it frees up room from the rest of the bike and three caps on the tanks are just plain cool and traditional.

Fenders have been fitted to the bike but a few days ago we had the bike mocked up with the fenders just propped up sitting on blocks of wood. What a moment that was, as it actually took on character for the first time. We fitted the wheels to the bike and the PM Marquee wheels I envisioned set the bike off so well. I was envisioning the curvature of the wheel spokes matching the cut of the fender skirts, which they come so awfully close when viewing the bike from its side.

I opted for 10” discs since my design was to mimic a drum brake diameter. Ten-inch just looked cool and showed off more of the beautiful wheel artwork. Dual disc brakes up front was the only way to go right from the start since about 70% of stopping is with the front brakes. Dual 4-piston calipers coupled to the dual 10” rotors should do the trick I reckon. Rear brakes were also 10” dia and only one was necessary.

With our proportioned front and rear fender widths we were able to tuck the brake calipers up under the fenders out of sight with plenty of room to spare. Having brake calipers hidden I believe adds to the bike's simplicity and cleanliness.

May10, 08: We had experimented with a new front shock from Progressive Suspension. All of this week I left phone messages and e-mailed notes, and I finally got a call back four days later. These guys make it tough to do business with them when you are designing something and need a dimension so as to keep things moving along and burning up a week is not acceptable in my book.

Eventually I got the fully compressed and extended dimensions that I was after and I went ahead and ordered up the shock for our front end. After unpacking it I worked the shock in and out a few times to prime it however it seemed to feel a bit strange at the fully extended position. I measured the shock at its fully extended position which was 3/8 shorter than what Progressive’s specifications call out for. I’m currently back to leaving phone and e-mail messages of what’s up? That 3/8-inch for this design is quite a lot to lose. We were assured this was an oops shock, however after receiving the 2nd shock, it too came up 3/8″ short…

I was going to make up our own turn signal lights but I came across some cool red lens arrowhead ones that would work nicely with our bike. I figured red is cool for the rear but since it’s illegal facing forwards we'd run amber or clear ones. After contacting the manufacturer (3 emails, 3 phone calls over 4 days finally a call back) we were told that they do not make them in any other color other than red. I asked about them being illegal facing forwards, and he acknowledged that I had a good point. He suggested knocking out the red lens, which was actually easier said than done, as it's molded directly into the housing. Removing it would most likely damage the entire unit. Some of the things that bug me about the American custom bike parts scene is sometimes its lack of thought of the legality or proper designing of parts all the way through. Wouldn’t someone want a matching set of front and rear turn signals on their bike and be legal?

I ended up opting for some cool Kuryakyn retro styled lights which they were very kind and professional to work with. No drama, that's where it's at, just send me the cool lights that are legal. I believe we as motorcycle professionals, leaders, designers and manufacturers need to provide a motorcycle that is well engineered and designed with parts that meet legal requirements weather it be DOT or environmental. Whether we like it or not it those rules are upon us and we need to step up and be good citizens of our industry and we need some leadership. I feel like I have been preaching to the choir for over 10 years now but when the Feds step in, the stuff really hits the fan and everyone is gonna scramble and it is coming. Being proactive and being a bit of a visionary surely doesn’t hurt but that's generally two words that are out of place in our industry.

Some years ago I met Perry Sands (Performance Machine) as he had an Indian Chopper in his younger days and he was thinking about building another one. Perry took the time to show me his facility and I was impressed with his wheel and brake testing. He actually had a testing section that would punish the parts in an extremely harsh environment making them meet very strict European TUV requirements. That department within his company has never left my mind. I have yet to see any other company devote anything close to what Perry did. So when it came to the wheels and brakes, PM was my logical choice. Some time earlier I had worked on one of the bosses of MAG group (who owned PM) 1950 Indian Chief and it was a disaster bike that had been jacked up. I had to do a lot of work to the bike in order to straighten it out, and I felt the only way either of us could come out of it was to trade out when the time came. This was the time, and upon contacting Perry he was right there and came through, hence the quality PM components on this bike. Thank you so much Perry. I have to thank Rick also for walking me through the selection process and making sure all my wishes were mated up correctly with the appropriate mating parts.

May 24, '08, Saturday, Memorial weekend. During the week we had a nice surprise visit from Trevelen of Super Company who just happened to pop in. Trevelen is also building a bike for S&S 50th in the Panhead class and he was amazed at our build and how much work we had done to get it this far.

That week we had an Aussie show up to work for us. Shaun comes highly recommended by the Aussie Heavy Duty magazine guys so as soon as he and his wife got off the ship in Long Beach they headed to Riverside and he got stuck right in and went to work on the bike. Mader was supposed to work today but had girlfriend problems. Travis and Shaun picked up the pace and opted to work Sunday so at least items were still rolling forwards. All I can see is the finish line and we’ve got a long way to go yet and not much time.

The finished transmission and hydraulic clutch had still not arrived yet from Sputhe. All of this was a major set back as it should have been finished months ago. Trying to keep people to a timeline with a target date (which I initially moved up for safety sake) should have given us a margin, but here we were in limbo. This was the deal, S&S asked me to be in this build and I gave Brett Smith my promise, “That I will not let him down,” and being a Kiwi, I will not let him down no matter what.

If a man can’t stand by his word then he stands for nothing. By hook or by crook we would come thru but the tranny delay was just plain frustrating and holding up other fabrication around it. Our chain guard was a related fit up item so until the hydraulic clutch is fitted, the guard cannot be set in place as its fit is directly related to the rear fender. Even though at this point it was set in place, the hydraulic slave system had the final say in the guards final resting place. We’re using a Sputhe 5-speed tranny that has been rotated onto its side for compactness and the shifter comes out the bottom which is near the belt.

I could see we were going to face some fancy work. Without the tranny we’re unable to fit the gear shifter mechanism and pedal, foot boards, rear brake control and exhaust system, why because we don’t even have our retro classic styled inner primary cover to give us the spacing. We did receive our outer cover in the meantime and it just approximated the fit and it looks so swell, actually bitchin' cool as Alan did an awesome job on it.

I called our painter Josh to keep him abreast of our progress or more like the lack of it. The final bit of tank fabrication would be complete tomorrow (Sunday) so we can at least have it and the front fender in his hands. We needed the tanks done pronto as they had to go to Monte Moore (Maverick Custom Paint) in Colorado for him to do the custom Chieftain logo graphics which Ronnie Martinez designed up for us. Monte is a good friend and he does all of Lucas Films Star Wars promo stuff, so if you see any cool Star Wars posters, it’ll be one of his. Both guys rock in my book.

The tranny delay was frustrating as it just left so many things hanging that we needed to finish now. It was the one section of the bike that we were not in control of, which for us was odd. We’re used to building everything, engine, tranny, pri, clutch, forks, frames, wheels, handlebar controls, speedo, well, everything ourselves, and not having the finished tranny in our hands was a problem. Something told me that I'll be paying some hefty overnight UPS charges to get it here in time.

At least the tank was done. Paddy from P&A Lyons CNC'ed our fancy fuel injection pump plate for the bottom of the tank. Paddy is a Pommy guy (Englishman) and is funny as hell. He's short and just sort of shuffles his feet along the ground and he is an awesome machinist when it comes to busting out stuff quickly on a CNC, he's our man. Most parts that we made for this bike we have made ourselves on our own manually operated mill and lathes, but there is a time and place for CNC and Paddy is the go-to guy for us. The thing that frustrates me about some outside machinists is the drama involved with making some things we design. I'm very familiar with what CNC equipment is capable of; but some machinists are drama queens when it comes to thinking outside the box. I've designed and re-engineered over 2500 different part numbers for Indian motorcycles over the past 20 years, and I have had to understand the engineering and manufacturing process on every single part no matter what it is on a motorcycle. Having done this repeatedly has given me a great insight into understanding how the old time engineers, back at the Indian factory did it some 60 plus years ago. My favorite line is when someone tells me it can't be done is, “Now let's see, they did this back in 1935 and you're telling me that we can't do it today.” Or “Let's see, we put a man on the moon in the '60s but we can't do this today.” It renders them speechless and makes them think in reality terms.

For me I'm up to a challenge and I like results, “Give me results, not excuses.” For that reason I like short little Pommy Paddy. All he does is look out the corner of his eye and say,”bloody Kiwi's.”

Thank you, I'll take that as a compliment mate. The fuel injection plate which the pump must sit on is designed to be an independent removable platform that will allow the pump to be easily removed should it ever need servicing yet be properly sealed until such time. It was quite a challenge, since the outer portion that the panel recesses into the tank has to be made rigid when it is welded in place. There could be no distortion and the removable panel will seal without any problems. Between the welded in plate and the panel we designed in a groove for an O-ring to sit into it to handle sealing. The O-ring is made from Viton and is impervious to most chemicals including all the different formulations of gas across the country. Viton is expensive but the cheaper neoprene will come up short and we're after reliability and durability.

After everything was welded into place, the tank was pressure tested and another job was done and put to bed.We had a design change to the engine oiling side. I like hard copper lines about 3/8-inch diameter as they relate to my traditional classic era of building motorcycles, however with such a tall engine and a clean build, the oil lines were going to look long and out of place.

We were in contact with S&S over flow rates and oil capacities as they have stringent requirements to ensure we used the correct size oil lines. Once again it was important to consult with them. Generally a lot of new stuff uses 1/2″ diameter lines but 1/2″ copper lines and fittings are hideously large and ugly especially coming down from the front right side gas tank. What I like about the boys at S&S is that they are true professionals, know their stuff and deal with facts. With our brainstorming sessions they were able to give me some testing scenarios that they had experienced, and a green light was given, which I could rest assured that I had complete confidence in. I like to deal with facts and go straight to the source. so as I can have complete confidence in the answer. Gotta hand it to S&S and I really appreciate the time each engineer has taken with us over each technical aspect.

With these facts now in hand we decided to use the right frame rail as the feed transfer tube and the left frame rail for the return. How this works is the feed line comes out the bottom of the right side tank and connects to the nipple welded into the frame near the neck. The point the feed line exits the frame is under the transmission near the inlet for the engine. Not only will this be a clean set-up but it will also allow for added oil volume which is what S&S kept preaching to me, plus it will allow for added cooling even though our right side gas tank will control the bulk of it. The left frame rail oil inlet is near the outlet point of the engine and its exit point is just under the frame neck with a short tube taking it back to the tank.

The tank and engine breathing uses the frame back bone to do the transferring which avoids external tubes or hoses. A drain plug was installed at the lowest point of the back bone near the seat post should any oil accumulate and need draining.

Our frame was a tad over engineered but I like it to be structurally sound since it is the main platform everything is built off. The tubing we opted for was DOM with a 1-1/4 OD and a heavy wall thickness since this would not only be structurally sound but also soak up engine vibration even though we have been told by S&S that this is a very smooth engine. I'm also figuring in that the oil running through the frame will also act as a vibration dampener. At 74 pounds, it's not that bad at all. I remember picking up one of the newly manufactured Indian frames that came out of the Gilroy era of Indian and it darn near gave me a hernia, and that was without the swing arm attached, so all in all I was happy at 74 lbs.

Fortunately we covered what I felt was one of the most important parts which was the heart of this project, the transmission.

Saturday, May30, '08 and we were behind. We had a meeting Friday to discuss the weekends plans and everybody was on board. It was taking quite a bit to figure out the rear brake foot control since there are a lot of things in this area that have to be taken into account, plus different designs in master cylinders for proper placement. The footboards on this bike pivot so if the bike were leaned over into a corner too far they will pivot upwards which requires the brake pedal to be in such a position so when this should happen the footboards will not interfere with the brake operation. These are the things that have to be taken into consideration for safe operation.

Finally Saturday at midnight a rear brake control was finally mocked up. The trick will be on Sunday to see if the engine can be removed from the motorcycle with all the brackets on the bike, hopefully with help. Travis came in on Sunday which was a big help and he took my mock up, right side brake, master cylinder unit mock up assembly and footboard assembly and made it permanent. With the inner and outer primary covers now here and bolted on we can sort out the foot shifter assembly.

Monday, June 2, and we're working late which will be all of this week. Around 8:00 p.m. I get a call from my roadie girlfriend Marilyn Stemp. Marilyn was at Drag Specialties dealer showcase in MO having a Jeiger Meister with my good friend Brian Klock. They had time to chit chat while Mader and I were knee deep in sorting out some engineering challenges or more like fighting them. If that ain't enough, Bert Baker and Tom Motsko had to get on the line to chat too. Thanks guys, must be nice to kick back and rub some salt into our wounds.

Brian sent me a cool text message today of Bert's Bike, Bert Baker for president, Fab Kevin for VP, pretty cool indeed. Aussie Shaun turned up at around 3:00 pm which was a welcome sight. We originally made our handlebars from 1-inch OD tubing, however they looked a little small in relation to the rest of the front end. We bent up another set out of 1-1/8 which suited the bike fine, even though this is an odd size for motorcycles as everyone opts for 1-1/4 which I'm not a fan of. The controls we were using are very high end and come with all the wiring, switches assembled. They are not genuine Harley or typical aftermarket controls. While pricey, they were extremely high quality with switches and master cylinders that actually work straight out of the box, no farting around like some of the aftermarket crap. Cheap ass import crap usually infuriates me even though the majority seem to opt to use it. If a job is worth doing, then just do it once by doing the job properly the first timeby using good quality stuff. End of story.

I have to make special mention of my wife Carolyn and Son Ross. They realized the time gobbled into this bike and everyday Carolyn dropped off dinner for me. I ended up ordering fast food delivered for the guys, as they're into that stuff, but it sure is nice to have a regular meal every night. Carolyn and Ross have seen me burn the midnight oil before on a few occasions but the last time we burned this much was when we developed the World's first replica Indian m/c back in 2003.

June 5, '08. Everything was out for powder coat and chrome plating and will be done tomorrow at noon time. Ah, I love good professional suppliers that step right up. We all knocked off work at 5:00 which felt odd. I even had dinner at home with my family.

June 6, '08: Picked up the tanks from paint to ship off overnight to Monte. The frame and parts were done at the powder coater at noon and likewise with the chrome. I dropped one lot of chrome off Wed which was going to be done today (Fri) and another larger lot off Thursday figuring that would be done Mon or Tue. When I arrived, on the counter sat ALL of my parts, all done. WOW, this was a big deal and would help us out so much. I guess we had our weekend cut out for us.

June 7,'08 Sat: Since late Fri we have been stewing over the finish of the front fork assembly. Traditional it was going to be black on everything up front and now that everything was powder coated, I was picturing it in my mind and I've got some reservations about it and it would now seem to look better in chrome.

Just by chance late Sat afternoon my good mate and designer extraordinaire Brian Klock calls to see what's up. Good timing there mate, here's my dilemma which he replies, bling it out, chrome it. Brian in my book is one of the best custom bike builders in the industry who can apply himself to anything and make it kick ass, plus he is no doubt the nicest and most humble guy around. I would be on the chromer's door step first thing Monday begging for a quick turn around. I really like chromers Pacific Polishing as they get the job done without any drama and above all perfect the first time.

June10, '08 Tue: I set a goal and discussed with the guys that by Wed 18th the bike would be riding up and down the road. Probably quite ambitious since it's only 7 days away but everything is pretty much ready to rock and roll other than a few pieces at chrome and our darn transmission, primary and clutch. The drive train was supposed to be on UPS and we've agreed to meet our driver Martin anywhere first thing in the morning in order to get it sooner. We're chomping at the bit since everything starts with the engine and the tranny. We've had a few parts going to our chrome platter Pacific Polishing on a daily basis which I've been running the parts back and forth on my 1953 Chief including the forks strapped across the rear luggage rack and the other parts in the saddlebags.

Pacific Polishing is a 50-mile round trip and with gas at almost 4.50/gal for regular I run my bike as much as possible as it gets between 35-40 mpg. Usually I run parts around in my 1950 Chief sidecar rig which is real handy as I can throw a ton of stuff in it and I never have to worry about things having to be strapped on properly. Even it gets around 35 mpg. I really like the guys at Pacific Polishing and the father and son owners Jose and Joe are two of the nicest guys I have ever done business with. I was in a pickle tonight as I forgot to give them a critical part for the forks and I couldn't get it to them until tomorrow afternoon, so Joe offered to drive out and pick it up at 7:00 pm. That was an extremely cool offer.

June 11, '08, Wed. Carolyn met our UPS driver Marteen at one of his first stops of the day (again) to get a jump start on the build. The engine and tranny fit like a glove. but we encountered a clearance problem between the engine pulley and cover. The pulley ran into the primary cover by 1/16-inch so we needed to mill it out in order to get the desired clearance.

The convenient thing about having all the right machinery at our place is that we can do anything at any given time with no drama or downtime. We didn't burn a late night this evening, however tomorrow night will be long as our last lot of chrome and forks are due in. I think today was the first day my '53 Chief didn't make a trip to the chromer. I did a mile per gal check on the old girl with 1/2 around town riding and the other 1/2 freeway and it pulled in 40 mpg, not bad for an old bike with primitive carburetion.

June 12, '08, Thursday: If I don't write the day next to the dates progression begins to blur. We picked up our final load of chrome for the bike and some main pieces enabled us to put the front end together. All of the parts turned out fantastic especially the fork legs. When everybody saw the fork legs all they could say was, “WOW.” These turned out super sweet and considering we made them from scratch ourselves I think everyone could really appreciate them all the more. Changing from power coat to chrome was a great move as it has highlighted our forks but above all it will look that much better against the peril cream and metallic maroon. It really is going to make the bike pop now.

Carolyn brought us a super dinner, roast pork with mashed potato and green beans.

I wanted to test the compatibility of the clutch slave cylinder to the master cylinder that we have as it has been bugging me from day-one as our master cylinder is different than what everybody else uses. Shaun hooked it up and my worst fears came true as it did not move the slave cylinder enough to fully release the clutch plates. We were out of our league here. There is a bore/stroke relationship in order for everything to work right and feel right too (light clutch pull). I'm now expected to figure out hydraulic stuff, like volume/bore/stroke stuff so here we go. After some figuring we spun up a sleeve on the lathe that had a smaller bore plus made a smaller piston to match. We pressed the sleeve into the existing slave cylinder in order to reclaim it.

This was all new territory for us but the little I know about this stuff is that the finish on the bore is very important otherwise fluid will leak by the seals. We finish sized the bore on our Sunnen honing machine and to get the super fine finish I wrapped some 1500 grit wet and dry sandpaper over the arbor to get a super fine almost burnished finish which is within .0001 of an inch (1/10 thousands of an inch). Last night Mader, Travis and Shaun put in a late one on the bike and to make matters a bit challenging, our usual business has to keep on rolling along as well, so our regular customers bikes need to be worked on. We had one nice lady Grace's 1947 Chief which she is due to leave for a trip back east which also includes S&S 50th. Her bike had to be going in order for her to pick it up Fridau (tomorrow). This meant working on these bikes as well as the X-wedge but the guys have a pretty good handle on the X-wedge at this stage. I found myself working on Grace's 47 Chief till 11pm. It's one of those bikes that has had quite a few different hands in it over the years which most people have meant well but just didn't really know much about things. It posed quite a challenge and burnt up so much time during the past week. I was determined to get it running right and finished tonight. It was a mess and the carburetor, intake manifold, oil pump, distributor and wiring had to be completely overhauled.

With so many hands being at it over many years I found it best to go back to square one pull the carby apart so that I knew for sure that it was rebuilt correctly. It had a multitude of problems and it's just a matter of finding and eliminating them one at a time. She fired up at 11:00pm and it purred like a kitten, about darn time too. Off to home and to bed for another long day tomorrow.

I found myself wide awake until about 3:00am. One can of Mountain Dew in the afternoon and I'm wired till the wee hours of the morning, bloody hell, I needed the sleep. Gotta be up at sparrows fart (real early) as usual in the morning. Everyone was happy with the progress yesterday, just gotta get the clutch slave cylinder figured out to be fully comfortable with where we're at. Dinner was Carolyn's left over cooked dinner which always tastes good.

June13, '08, Fri: Clutch slave cylinder is now complete and upon testing, the reduced bore diameter gave us the stroke we needed spot on. What I like about creating, engineering and building motorcycles is learning about new things. I'm not so much into battling stuff and figuring it out at the 11th hour. but this was a cool project to learn about that I can then apply it to future build projects.

General assembly took place and rolling right along. All I see at the handlebars is a whole bunch of wires hanging out and Shaun knee deep in it. I'm just glad it's his thing.

Forks are on as well as the rear wheel and belt drive. Paddy dropped off the engraved primary cover with our Kiwi logo now in it along with our Chieftain logo footboards, dang are they so sweat, Vidal picks up the foot boards and primary cover for polishing. We're looking good.

June14, '08, Sat: Picked up the sheetmetal from Josh at Nostalgia. Restyling and the colors look absolutely stunning together. The Kiwi metallic maroon looks so deep and luxurious combined with the Kiwi cream pearl. They just look so rich together. The tanks came in Saturday delivery from Monte, in Colorado and his graphics really compliment our bike. The modified clutch slave cylinder now gives us the required travel for the clutch to operate properly yet not be so heavy.

The rear fender has been fitted along with the belt guard and while the tanks have not had their final clear coatings applied, the motorcycle just looks so clean and elegant. It's taking shape in its final form and looking sooo friggen sweet, life is good.

Vidal turns up with the primary cover and footboards all polished up and they look magnificent. Vidal is a quiet guy and man can he polish, his work speaks for itself. When he delivers it there is no clean up required, no rouge, no crude, just clean as can be, now that's a man proud of his work.Sunday is Fathers Day and the guys opted to kick back and enjoy the day with their families. We're all happy and comfortable with where we're at. Tanks are dropped off to Josh for the final procedures.

June18, '08, Thurs: There has been a significant amount of process and we're almost ready to fire the bike up, but it's all the small details that take the majority of time. Aussie Shaun has been on the wiring for 3 full-long days and a lot of that is due to us using non traditional handlebar controls/switches. While it would have been a lot easier to use traditional controls, this bike is high end all the way and Shaun's perseverance is key.

Shaun, Travis and Mader have stuck to it late at night committed to produce the most kick ass retro American motorcycle that has ever been created. Shirley from Bad Ass Seats made our cool saddlebag that houses our battery and electrical parts/circuit breakers. Most recognize it as just being a saddlebag however it is far more than that plus it looks so cool. We supplied Shirley with a metal box that we fabricated and she applied her wonderful talents to create this masterpiece which is nothing short of outstanding. It is so gorgeous and she busted her butt once again on one of our projects.

We made some changes in the paint work that Josh worked so hard to do. I had mentioned to put a gold strip on the tank which is traditional however the gold was totally out of place so we needed to change it to silver with a black stripe next to it so as to break the transition up. Josh put in another two long days into the tank plus he did the final clear coat and polish and the tanks turned out nothing less than stunning.

We made a few running changed on some small parts that needed to be chrome plated and Pacific Polishing turned them around in 24 hours (once again). The seat we have is what we call our long distance “Comfort Ride” seat which I don't think needs any explaining.

This was the same seat I used on my vintage builds and long distance rider bikes and you will never ever get a sore butt no matter how many hours you put in the saddle. The seat post operates so smoothly that it provides that high-end luxurious smooth ride even over the roughest of roads. The exhaust system took quite a bit of creativity to look right and once chromed and fitted to the bike it was nothing less than stunning and its lines look so darn nice complimenting the rest of the bike.

Ronnie designed a new speedo face to reflect our Chieftain feel of the bike. I like to include these little details in a bike build as it reflects our attention to even the smallest of details and it's something the customer can appreciate.

June19, Thursday: Everyone was chipping away at the final loose bits and pieces that had to be done before we fire it up. We did fire it up, but it would only run for about 20 seconds or so and quit. Fortunately for computers we were able to figure out it was auto shutting off due to it not having a bank angle sensor fitted. We thought we had done the right thing by calling S&S, in which we were told that it was not needed. Another phone conversation, and we advised that it must be fitted. No biggie but it would have been nice to have known this a week ago rather than at the last minute. The bank angle sensor is a genuine OEM Harley dealership item and I was surprised that the dealer actually had it in stock. We then learned that it required a special plug which they did not have. A quick trip to the local electronics store and a bag full of parts might allow us to fabricate something up which we were able to do so. We weren't going to let a silly little electrical connection hold us back now. If we can build this whole motorcycle and come this far then we sure as hell can make one stupid plug connection which we did.