American Dream

March 13, 2019

To Read The Full Article, Go To www.cyclesource.com

Article By: GTP

Photos By: Melissa Shoemaker

Originally Published In The October 2018 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

We all want everything. A great bike, a nice house, a comfortable life with a family and offspring if you are so inclined. Realistically however you can’t do everything you want just because you think it’s time. Some things, like striving for that American dream, blot out any progress that will be made on your extra projects that keep you from being an active member of the human race while building your own nuclear family. After attending the Big Mountain Run, Kyle McCarthy decided he wanted to build a bike for the Sportster Challenge. With this in mind, he picked up a stock 2001 Sporty and gutted it. Little did he know that life was about to take him on the ‘scenic route’ to the completion of his Sportster project. Bike projects never really go as planned, especially when life gets involved. Usually, as in most marriages, kids will eventually pop their expensive little heads up, and suddenly your life spins into chaos while your focus is in being a father which slows EVERYTHING else down including your bid for Sportster glory. Although far from a hardship, bringing up three boys is a fulltime job and can leave you without even a penny to go towards any project prior to conception. Life goes on hold when being a Dad takes precedence.

With life’s new arrivals you need to refocus on the other things that make up the rest of your life sans motorcycle projects. Now is the time to raise the money and spend the time, so your sons don’t end up being psychopaths for lack of a father fi gure who is tending to projects in the garage. When the kids fi nally stop screamin’, and you’re getting’ a full night’s sleep (more or less) you can refocus on the project at hand and get as much done as you can with the few hours a week that are available while you take care or your genealogy. Life waits for no man, but bike projects might. After cutting up the stock frame down to a neck and an engine cradle, a 47 Industries hardtail was installed. The rest of the frame was assembled to accept a W&W plus 2” springer front end. A H-D hoop was used up front with Buchanan spokes tying it to a spool hub. Out back a Harley hoop and hub were used and were also tied together with Buchanan spokes. An Avon Speedmaster was used up front with an Avon Mark II bringin’ up the rear. Braking is provided by a single disc brake located in the rear and brakeless up front. ‘Wang” fabricated riserless variety of handlebars as well as the headlight mount. A Lowbrow Customs Sportster tank was mounted high on the back bone, and a Led Sled oil tank holds the slick stuff.

The motor, built by Mark McClain, features go fast goodies added to the already fantastic Sportster mill. 10.5-1 Wiseco pistons were mated to the cylinders, and the heads were treated to S&S parts and a good porting and polishing. Speaking of polishing, when the motor was blown apart everything that is visible was polished or chromed for that show fi nish. A set of Andrews N6 cams keep the valves happy, and a Daytona Twin-Tech single fi re ignition was used to create the spark to the compressed fuel. A modifi ed CV carb with a Joker Machine air cleaner keep the bugs out. A Hammer Performance cam cover rounds it all out. To fi nish up the sheet metal a Cooper Smith Co. rear fender was massaged in. The seat pan, also made by “Wang” was upholstered beautifully in leather by Counter Balance Cycles. The bare sheet metal was then sent to Lucky Strike Designs for its black paint with textured gold leaf. A green candy paint help achieve that ‘winning’ look.

Kyle fi nished the project, but he fi nished it a lot slower than he had anticipated. By the time the last quart of oil was fed into the oil bag, and the last bolt was tightened, the Sportster Challenge had gone the way of the Dodo. The project had been completed for Kyle himself even though the original reason he built it had disappeared. The Sportster Challenge might be history, but Kyle brought home fi rst place in the BMR bike show, and that was just the cherry on top of this killer Sportster sundae. To justify this project to his ever so patient wife, Kyle decided that he would give the bike to his son Vincenzo. He thought this would justify its existence and appease his signifi cant other. Planning ahead, however, Rocco and Carmelo will still need bikes, so with an offi cial challenge or not, it looks like two more bikes are on deck including a Shovel project that is on the lift as this is being written. If this build is any indication of what is to come we look forward to his next project. As always, ride ‘em don’t hide ‘em…”GTP”