Building a custom bike

Finished—now on to the show circuit

Story by Bill Kresnak
Photos by Bill Andrews

Jim Davis (center) gets a hand from the Skunkworx team during the final assembly. There is a renewed vigor around the bike. The finish line is in sight and the activity is noticeably up.

After months of designing, fabricating, welding and painting, the Skunkworx Custom Cycle team is about to complete its Skunkworx/Jim Davis custom bike.

The Columbus, Ohio, shop just needs to install the engine, transmission and related parts, and bolt fenders and everything else together without scratching the show-quality paint.

Easier said than done.

Davis, a builder at the shop, gets some help, and muscles the heavy motor, and then the tranny, into the frame.

He steps back, and sees what he feared.

"We got two nicks in the frame from the engine," Davis says. "We can touch them up, but you always know they're there."

The engine, tranny and primary are installed. A tap set is brought in to clean out fastener holes. The wheels are bolted on. The bike is assembled. The work is complete.

"Does this thing look bad or what?" says Bruce Mullins, Skunkworx owner, painter and bike builder extraordinaire.

Total time to build: about four months, although Mullins says if the parts all came in at one time the bike could have been built in two months.

Total cost in parts and labor: about $45,000.

The bike now heads for the show circuit, and Daytona Bike Week.

*The final assembly*
	The massive 124-cubic-inch (2,032cc) engine is carefully placed in the frame, already preassembled including the carburetor. After making sure everything is where it should be, it is then torqued down.	Davis then brings the transmission over to be mounted. A coworker helps him place the tranny to avoid nicking the frame.
With the transmission in, Davis now places the final belt drive on the sprocket.	He then mounts the inner primary, which connects the engine to the transmission.	Using a liberal amount of a thread-locking compound, Davis installs the swingarm pivot.
He gets a hand from the team mounting the triple-trees and fork assembly.	With everything pre-assembled, the trees turn out to be a bit cumbersome, but the team eventually gets the job done.	Next comes the front wheel.
	Davis is trying to mount the single-sided swingarm but he's having a time of it. The keys that hold it in place are a machined-perfect fit. The paint and primer has made that fit too tight. He's forced to scrape away at the paint with a knife, and then a screwdriver, to make the keys fit again. Now, Davis thinks the bolts aren't quite right. In his frustration, he looks over at the bike next to his and says, "What about 'Chopper John's' bolts, it's the same thing."	The swingarm finally goes on, and Davis now mounts the rear pulley. But the borrowed bolts are too long, making the hub immobile. Davis realizes the unnecessary haste is just wasting time. He decides to calm down, and slow down.
With the swingarm problems behind them, they mount the rear wheel, making sure the sprocket cast spokes are lined up with the rim's spokes.	One of the team members installs the rear brake, forward control. The Arlen Ness system is designed to hide all the mounting hardware, but all that effort takes an hour to assemble.	Davis watches as Scott Popp mounts the exhaust system.
The rear exhaust pipe is installed.	Davis puts in the clutch plates, (above), and finally installs the primary belt drive (right). After installing the oil lines, and the electrical system, the bike is now complete and ready for the show circuit.