Kim Boyle Takes It To The Sporty Crowd
Article By: Otto Von Blotto
Photos By: Lisa Ballard
Everyone knows Sportsters are hot right now, some might say they’ve always been hot. Certain bike clubs used ‘em for years
as their preferred mode of transportation because they were light, tough and most importantly, cheap! Kim Boyle had similar feelings about the entry level HD. After being hounded for sometime by the Sportster crowd to turn out some Sporty parts under his Bench * Mark line, he decided to build a bike to help showcase
those parts. That’s how this sexy, slinky scoot came to be.
Bench*Mark consists of
Kim Boyle and Pat McCormack.
Pat handles all of the machine
work and Kim controls all of the
rest.
Procured from a local contractor hit hard by California’s economic
depression for a song, Kim and
crew quickly got to work doing
what they do. Seeing as how
a couple of friends of his were
building Sportsters at the same
time as he was, this helped to
keep Kim focused on setting his
bike apart from the crowd. And
by the looks of this ‘sickle, it’s safe say to say he’s done just
that. Slim is what Kim envisioned his finished product to be. In
order to accomplish that, he called on Slim’s Fabrication to
narrow up the sexy Sporty tank while Kim himself took care of
placing the mounts. In keeping with the sleek motif, Kim went
to another Southern California friend at Front Street Cycle
for a set of narrow stainless tracker bars and a tasteful rear
fender. 
Kim has the ability to lean on some pretty heavy local
talent for things not usually done in-house. So, he went
ahead and had Sonny Boy lay down some crisp black paint
with just the right amount of pinstriping to highlight the
subtle details this bike is chock full of. A bike of this caliber
wouldn’t be acceptable with just any old seat placed on it, so the hard workin’ Duane Ballard was enlisted to stitch up the
cowhide for this scoot. Man, did he nail it! This pad is all class
but it doesn’t draw the eye away from any of the other work and effort put into this machine. 
So what parts didn’t he
outsource, you might be asking
yourself?! Well for one thing,
the one-off custom taillight
came from Kim. A sexy jewel
to say the least! Kim also had
his way with the stock mids
till they flowed like nothing
the Factory ever sent anyone
home with. And you see that
nonchalant air cleaner that
keeps this bike breathing
real healthy? That’s a B e n c h * M a r k product.
What goes in must come out so ol’ Kim got busy with the
TIG and made the sensual two-into-one pipe ya see here 
today, too. There’s a few more parts massaged by the man
like the brake calipers and lower legs. At first glance they
may appear stock but upon closer inspection, one quickly realizes HD just don’t roll ‘em out the door this sano, man.
Just as Kim carefully placed thought-out aftermarket parts
on the bike, like the Aris re-pop headlight, he also put a lot of
thought into what he took off the bike. Parts like the speedo
and other tidbits that tend to detract from the clean lines a 
Sportster has, but are usually too cluttered up by chromeplated plastic for the masses to enjoy were removed.
Lots of love was put into this easily dismissed lower rung model of a bike that’s now gained a cultlike following for its reliability and affordability as well. But Kim and Bench*Mark have
helped the Sportster get some attention in the parking lot as
well by beautifying a bike that isn’t particularly known for its
sexiness. And that my friend is the Bench*Mark of a true ruler.
Cycle Re-sources:
Kim Boyle
http://boylecomm.blogspot.com
h t t p : / / b n c h m a r k . b l o g s p o t . c o m
