American Idle: December 2009

20. Nov, 2009 0 Comments

The IronWorks Readers’ Rides section is now called “American Idle” and along with showing four different readers’ bikes in each issue, we’re giving additional information and photos about them here. This is also the place where you can cast your vote for your favorite.

Vote for your favorite American Idle below!

Jimmy Crescenzi
South Plainfield, New Jersey
2006 Sportster XL883R

“I was always into bikes but times were tough back in the day and I couldn’t afford a bike,” said Jimmy Crescenzi, owner of this customized Sportster. So to feed the bike jones he hung around bike and car people, went to charity events and helped his father and some friends wrench on their bikes. Once he got his own bike he simply couldn’t leave it stock (see before picture). And though he would have preferred to give it the old school bobber treatment, time and money dictated a quicker route. “If I could have I would have built the bike up from old junk yard parts,” he said.

Instead, here’s a glance at Jimmy’s parts list: Licks 9” Z bars, Frisco 2” tank lift, Biltwell struts, solo seat from Justified Defiance, H-D forward controls, Pipedreamz Wet Dreamz exhaust, red powdercoated rims from J&P Cycle, red jellies grips, red footpegs, Forcewinder carb. He got rid of the rear brake light, smoothed out the rear fender, and added a side mounted plate, shock booties, and a custom choke knob.

The best part is this: now that Jimmy has a cool ride, he’s working on a ‘76 Ironhead. “I found out that building something from the bottom to the top is pretty damn sweet, he said.

Pat Wheeler
Chiang Rai, Thailand
1999 Custom Fat Boy

When Pat Wheeler took possession of this bike it was an almost stock Fat Boy with Vance & Hines pipes, an S&S breather and OCC brakes—plus plenty of rust and wear from being abandoned by a previous owner. “I test-drove it anyway and thought, ‘this thing runs really good,’” he said. “Then I checked the mileage—well kilos over here—and it had equal to about 6,000 miles on it. So I made the deal, loaded it up in the truck and drove home.”

Harley mechanics aren’t thick on the ground where Pat lives, so he did most everything himself. This included replacing or adding mirrors, grips, oil pressure gauge, foot guard, FL nacelle, FL front fender (“of some sort I found here”), Thunderstar front mag, stainless steel muffler (“but not really muffled”), tombstone taillight, directionals, fender tips, axle covers, swing arm covers, removable back seat and back rest, removable sissy bar, windshield, new tires, etc. The handmade bars are about the only thing he didn’t tackle on his own. About the paint job, “Actually this is the third time I painted it. The first time was some blue flames, second time white ones.” It appears Pat finally got what he liked.

So what’s he doing in Thailand? “My wife, kids and I moved here back in 1996 and started a children’s home.” It looks like rescuing and aiding the forgotten is a lifelong undertaking for Pat. In this case he was able to save one more Fat Boy.

David Fetterley
Muskegon, Michigan
1989 883XL

David’s story starts here:

“I rode my first Harley in April of 2008. In September of the same year I purchased my own, after many, many miles on my mother’s 2005 Super Glide Custom. I bought a 1989 883XL very late in the riding season—had to replace the whole charging system, including the clutch basket—and still managed to put 1200 miles on in the month of October.

“I spent the winter with everything off of the bike except the wheels, frame and drivetrain. I repainted it, put on a lot of goodies and it is what you see now.”

When we contacted David to get the inside track on exactly what goodies his XL was treated to, he sent this impressive list:

Sporty Fatbob tank
Thunderheader exhaust (2 1/4 straight pipes are shown in the pic from Ultima)
10 1/2 Progressive Suspension
Wideglide 41mm front end with Wideglide front fender
Performance Machine 4 piston front caliper with 11 1/2 floating rotor
Ultima wheels
Billet headlight
Milwaukee Twins 1 1/2 fat t-bars internally wired
1200 motor kit with Wiseco pistons and Andrews cams
Billet shock-mounted vertical license plate frame with taillight
Bobbed rear fender with cutout under the seat to achieve lower riding height
Custom Ultima seat shaved down and re-upholstered

Added David: “I wish I had taken some more pics, especially with the new Thunderheader 2-into-1exhaust, before the crash, but unfortunately I didn’t!”

Crash, you say? What crash? Yep, mere weeks before this issue closed David and the XL took a tumble but not to worry, he’s fine and there’s plenty of enthusiasm left.

“I have decided to rebuild my Sportster this winter and I’m going to be doing some major changes. I have decided to go with a bobber look. i.e. 12″ apes, king peanut tank, etc. The whole thing will be taken apart back down to the frame, all aluminum powdercoated black, paint will either stay black or a dark grey (haven’t decided yet). Chrome will be the only accents left!”

You didn’t think one bike accident and another major rebuild would keep David down, did you?

Keith Kennedy
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
1998 Custom Fatboy

Keith Kennedy is plenty enthusiastic about his customized Fat Boy. Nicknamed “Skully,” he also calls the bike, “my baby” and will gladly chronicle the bike’s many attributes. Here’s a start, in Keith’s words:

“Highlights” include:

Oversized 6-gallon tank bought from American Classic Cycles and expertly painted by David Jones of Laurel, MS.
16″ 1-1/4″ Buffalo Bars with custom controls and Kuryakyn grips and skull mirrors that are guaranteed to always draw a crowd.
Kuryakyn footboards and EZ shifter and brakes to accommodate my size 14 boots. And the Kuryakyn zombie shifter linkage just because it’s so cool.
Bodacious pipes by Vance & Hines – pipes that are truly the Thunder of the Gods (apologies to Led Zeppelin)
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful American Wire Wheel Fat Spoke 40′s in whore red with gangster whitewalls by Dunlop.
Corbin seat to park my ass on.
Kuryakyn Hypercharger to help the old Evo breathe better.
Howards Hog Horn and Kuryakyn Panacea integrated taillights to make the coming and goings more memorable. Many other bobbles that didn’t make the list but help make the bike a joy to display and ride.“

Oh, and Keith adds one more bit of useful input he’s learned from Skully: “Benefits of a cool bike: Chicks dig it and I have rolled through three road blocks without incident simply because cops dig cool bikes too!”

The winner will be seen again in The Works section of a future issue, receive a pair of riding glasses compliments of EyeRide Motorwear, and a set of Fix My Hog DVDs. To get your bike in the running, e-mail 5 high-resolution digital photos plus as much information on the details of your bike to: mstemp@ironworksmag.com