What Kustom Inc. has accomplished here is quite a testament to Gary and Julie, but also to a few other players like the always lovable Ron Finch, Chop Docs Choppers, and a few other side players. It takes a village (I think someone already said something like that, sorry) to build a very, very special one-off in a short period of time. They’re all part of the Michigan Mafia of builders who seem to stick together like whatever really sticks together and are all proud of their mid-western roots.

The whole idea came from a tin sign of an Indian motorcycle of all things that was a gift to Julie to make her downtime after a run-in with a deer a little more palatable. Somehow the electrons started racing through Gary’s gray matter and he got the basic idea to build something that was something like a ‘30s Indian, but was not something that someone had already built. I don’t know if the dual ownership of Kustoms Inc. or even Gary’s dual ownership of Evil Engineering (famous for their super-cool looking and super-tough herringbone belt drives) was any influence, but there’s a lot of “times two” things on this bike.

Gary’s in-house dual backbone frame featuring split tanks (with really, really neat filler tubes) sets the stage for lots of little dual references. Chief among them is the use of the Crazy Horse 100” V-Plus V-twin engine which not only is a brand new, undated and re-engineered version of the engine that powered the last Indian revival, but is more than twice as nice in every way as the original Power Plus engine. Dual header-wrapped exhausts push my cheap theory to the limits.

Apparently Julie’s hospital stay was brief and successful as she gets the credit for work on the fuel tank, seat, fender and mods to the ’37 Chevy headlight. Checking out the work so far, you may have also noticed there’s an obvious “hole” thing going on with holes in the fuel and oil tanks, the Gary designed-and-made leaf spring forks, and a few others strewn throughout the bike. Nothing “themey” or cheap, just a nice showcase of Kustoms Incs.’ skills.

A piece that really caught my attention is the lovely belt guard on the Evil Engineering open belt primary. Obviously Gary wasn’t going to use someone else’s, but with the help of Ron Finch, he took it to another level of different. Yeah, it’s open, but it’s probably close to impossible to get a cuff caught. And it just looks so intricate and whimsically-cool while it’s doing it.

Chop Docs Choppers laid down the blue base coat without Gary having the slightest idea what was up before they turned it over to Mr. Finch for one of his “Welcome to my world” paintjobs. It seems you either love or just don’t get Ron’s work and I’m in the “I love Ron’s work” category. Asymmetrical stuff is always hard for a lot of people to get, but to me it just makes it all the more interesting. The more you walk around Gary’s bike, the more you see whether it’s paint or parts. There’s just a hell of a lot going on and yet it’s a subtle style with an undisturbed flow to it. It just doesn’t get much better than that for an eight-week custom build.