Lendell “Kebo” Keeble had never ridden a bike with bags or a fairing although he had been riding for years. In 2003 Kebo’s nephew let him borrow an Ultra Glide for a lengthy ride. Kebo liked riding the bike so much he decided that a bagger would be his next bike. A month or so later, Kebo purchased a 2003 FLHT Electra Glide Standard Anniversary model. “After I had taken my first ride on that bagger, I realized it was the perfect bike for me. The fairings and bags make the bike more comfortable and provide more surface area to slap on more paint than a bike without them. Plus they’ve got plenty of room for a sound system inside the bags,” he said.

As an avid customizer of cars and lowriders, Kebo is familiar with modifying vehicles —his new bike wouldn’t be standard for long. He’s the co-owner of CV Custom Auto and Hydraulics in Lynwood, California, with experience in the business that taught him to do research before leaving his bike with an unfamiliar shop. He checked out a few local builders, but wasn’t satisfied. Disheartened at first, Kebo was on his way home from work and noticed a guy on a cool dresser. He mashed the accelerator pedal and caught up to him at a stoplight. With the light about to change green, Kebo quickly asked where he had the bike modified. Happy to oblige, the owner of the bike told him about KW Motors in Carson City, Nevada. He cruised to the shop the next day, hoping they were capable of seriously upgrading his too-standard Electra Glide.

Strolling around their shop he saw some completed bikes and realized that they had all the abilities necessary to wrench on his bike. He started talking with the shop’s general manager, a guy nicknamed Uncle Bill. “It seems like everyone has an uncle named Bill. I’m older than the younger guys that are in here all the time and I’m like a father figure at the shop. A bunch of our customers started calling me Uncle Bill and it stuck,” Uncle Bill said. After talking with him, Kebo tried to schedule the work on his bike, but KW was fairly busy already. They had a few bikes ahead of Kebo’s, but the guys at the shop took a liking to him and his good-natured attitude. It also didn’t hurt that Kebo wrote a check on the spot for 80-percent of estimated final cost. As soon as the workload lightened up they squeezed his bike into the line-up.

They planed to start working on the bike in August of that same year. “Keebo was like a kid in a candy store when he first came in the shop. He wanted absolutely everything on the bike that wasn’t going to be painted either chromed or polished,” Uncle Bill said. Just a glance at the streamlined appearance of the machine leads to the ball-milled billet and chromed theme covering many of the accessories like the matching floorboards and passenger floorboards, saddlebag hasps, air-cleaner cover, nose cone, trans trap door, primary inspection cover, and primary derby cover. Then the bike was painted tangerine candy metalflake by G’s Custom Auto with graphics added by Kelly and Son. The visual upgrades changed the appearance of the bike, but didn’t offer Kebo any added performance.

Nowhere near as simple as the bolt-on chrome, he had KW Motors modify the Twin Cam motor, too. Known for their engine expertise, they pulled the motor from the frame and disassembled it in preparation for polishing. They were able to squeeze a Screamin’ Eagle stroker flywheel assembly into the stock cases and attached it to a pair of J&E slugs reciprocating in polished H-D jugs. A pair of polished Branch heads was bolted to the cylinders with valve timing set by a pair of Branch camshafts. A Screamin’ Eagle ignition was employed to precisely fire the spark plugs while a Mikuni carburetor and air cleaner assembly flow the right amount of combustibles into the cylinders. A Thunderheader two-into-one exhaust pipe expels the spent gases (the left side pipe is only there to aesthetically balance the bike). KW ‘s motor work turned the natural cast finish of the stock 88” into a beautifully polished, big bore 103” tire shredder.

Kebo was happy with the motor’s ample power and the mirror finish of the chromed and polished parts, but there was still one major component missing: tunes. Street Life Motorcycle Sounds installed a total of 10 Alpine speakers throughout the bike including two 6×9-inchers in each saddlebag. The amps and head unit produce 600 watts that Kebo claims is the loudest and clearest system he’s ever heard from a motorcycle.

After modifying the paint, motor, accessories, and sound system, Kebo was more than ready to put some miles on the bike. A week after the final chrome bolt was tightened, he rode to Laughlin for the 2004 River Run. The bike ran great and got him to the river in style, picking up compliments the whole way there. The day after arriving, he entered the bike in a show with a bagger category and he rode away with the first place trophy in his class. Not a bad weekend for a bike’s first ride.