Brian's Evil Sporty

I met Brian in 1987, whilst working part time in a Houston head shop. He was a punk, I was a rocker... We had one thing in common, which obviously wasn't music - but going to the local 24-hour shit restaurant to fuck with the strippers who were just getting off work at three in the morning... Our friendship didn't truly start until reconnecting in a Los Angeles bar about 4-years later... We became room mates & very close friends...

Brian now lives in Austin and recently decided he needed to have me involved in helping him to convert his girly "niiiiiiiightsterrrrrr" into something a little more acceptable...


a before shot of the 07 "nightster" after Brian made some mods back home in Austin... I'm not much of a Sporty guy, but apparently Brian likes em... so...


Rear section from Kansas Customs... oil bag from Chassis Design...


The bike stripped, rear section welded in, the old wheels up there just to get a vibe... bunch of extra shit ground of frame that we don't need... tank stripped and split to pinch...

Things moved quick with Brian helping...


bead rolled the tank...


serious progress at this point. pipes, fender, seat, air ride, oil bag, bars kinda, struts on the way...


the list...


The tank turned out great. We were both happy...


I've never been much of a sporty guy but that thing looks kinda cool...



Most people pull the fuel injection off. i decided to figure it out & had to fab a fitting to accept the AN line so i could get the fuel in there...



Okay so, this bike might seem simple - but it wasn't... I about had a fucking melt down trying to figure out what to do with all this crap! ECM, power commanders, compressor for seat, bank angle sensor (WTF?) - not to mention the battery. I'm used to carburetors and kick-starts... but this thing is coming together nicely....


the wiring! probably lost about 2-pounds of shit we didn't need starting with turn signals, alarm, sensors, hazards (again... WTF?)


key switch air ride control...



It was all pretty exciting! I took the pump out of the tank, so i could make the tank smaller... bought a car fuel pump and this fuel pressure regulator.. plus the an lines to get the stuff around with one back to the tank as a relief for too much pressure... I love this shit... it looks menacing...


Mr. Rich! (aka the performance king)


and so, it runs... Here we are taking it to my buddy's shop for use of his DYNO to run it in and tune it...



Okay, here's the deal.... this bike has a fucking computer and is fuel injected.. you can map it... which means you tune it for all different loads at the real wheel and rpms on the motor. it was quick and easy for Rick from RNEAL RACING to tune & we picked up 10 to 12 horse power with the pipe mod and the power-comander. He pushed the sporty to 140 mph and it was still strong... We also picked up a few RPM in each gear which means power... at 6200 we still had a little room to go... After that kind of test and with that kind of manpower on that kind of machine... we took it outside and ran the fuck out of it down the street... running it up to 6200 confidently... I'm coming around to starting to get the sporty bug now...


Brian back in Austin with his bros on a run. nice patch...


Brian was amazing in researching to help figure out the identity for his bike... He not only came with his own taste but with examples, pictures, stories and research to help achieve something he could really be proud of...

All in all - one of my closest friends bought his first Harley and called me up and said hey man, I wanna modify this thing... He'd obviously already started and not done too bad a job... He really had no idea what he was getting into by calling me... We took two weeks and tore the shit out of it together... He helped immensly... grinding, stripping, shining, coffee runs... maning up and not being afraid...

I pushed to make it a full-blown custom... budget was tight...

Look, the bottom line is that we worked from 5am-10pm every day for 2-weeks to get this thing together...

By the end - he got a lot more than he thought he would ever get out of it... so did i - by having to suss through the fuel injection, wiring...

We also - fought, cried, i threw him out of the shop... then told him to come back cause i knew he had no where to sleep... we got closer than ever through this bike and it was an honor to fucking build something for him that I know he is riding with his bro's in Austin...