Speaking of tradition, Led Sled’s company mantra “heat it – tack it – weld it – smack it” says it all in as traditional way as possible, although by the polished, but not overdone looks of our feature bike they entered in the Ultimate Builders Bike Show, they’ve got an extremely gentle touch. In so many ways this bike looks like it might have been time-traveled directly from the ‘70s and freshly refurbished using all the modern paint and finish techniques that nobody in the ‘70s was aware of, able to do, or just couldn’t afford back then. The paintjob is not only interesting, but not overpowering and the Led Sled tank graphics look completely natural, yet contemporary. This is a nice piece of branding at its best.

The chrome springer is not glitzy in any way and any other finish really wouldn’t look right. The skinny spool front wheel with a blackwall ribbed tire contrasts nicely with the traditional tread, slighty-yellowed (patina?) whitewall rear tire that makes a total break from tradition with a disc setup back there that doesn’t bother me a bit. Hey, somebody’s been riding this bike if you look at the bluing on the headers and that’s only a plus to me. Having at least one decent brake is better than having just a period- correct mechanical drum that would scare the bejeezuz out of me in modern traffic. Yeah, I’d be okay with a matching setup up front, but this is a show bike so liberties are taken. Actually, I doubt Pat even cares what I’m talking about and would just consider me a traditional pussy.

I do like Pat’s cool shifter setup and his use of Led Sled’s floorboards not only makes sense with a foot clutch to me, but really is a handsome touch. Another thoughtful piece is the hand shifter that’s as conveniently close to the left handgrips as you can get. Hand shifting becomes a smooth, quick move and there’s not a damn thing wrong with that. The 1200 Evo engine’s gotta push this fairly light bike And the decent-sized white with silver pleating and piping sprung saddle actually looks padded and passable enough for what riding this bike is intended for.