She’s been with her husband Jerry for over thirty years, and during that time she’s more than proved her enthusiasm for the sport by exercising her motorcycle license regularly and having a bike in the shop that she can ride on a whim. She’s so involved with the business that she couldn’t tear herself away from their booth at the Speedway in Daytona, Florida, during 2007’s Daytona Bike Week to be in the photo shoot. The guy riding the bike in these photos is Josh, who also works for the shop, but only started recently and couldn’t answer questions about the business like Kathleen can. She doesn’t mind riding on the back of her husband’s bike occasionally, but she likes to be in control too. Normally, Jerry readily accommodates her need for a two-wheeled tension release, but he and the guys at the shop hadn’t had the chance to replace her last bike. Kathleen has a keen sense of what is cool when designing a bike, with details that tend to be popular with their customers. As a result of her eye for trend setting-style, her personal bikes don’t stay in the shop for very long. “The last bike I had sold before I had a chance to really get to know it. A customer saw my bike in the service area in the back of the shop and decided he couldn’t live without it. So we sold it, and Jerry promised me another bike when he had the time to put one together,” Kathleen said. Jerry is a loving husband and understands his wife’s need for unlimited use of a bike and he readily obliges her, sometimes before he’ll build a bike for his own personal use.

“It had been a long while since I had a bike of my own,” Kathleen said of this build. “But things used to be different when we started building customs, Jerry used to build every other bike for me. I don’t blame him because it’s not entirely his fault. We’ve had a lot of work since we started building production bikes, and now we make parts, too. I’ve been very patient, but I had to speak up because I missed riding. I told Jerry, it’s my turn!”

In Jerry’s defense, he does have a great number of projects that he’s working on at any given time, and together they’ve developed extensive custom parts manufacturing and machining, six different production bike models (with a manufacturer’s license) assembled with rear tires ranging from 150 to 300mm, and they make their own frames. “Jerry gets crazy busy all the time, and he goes the extra mile for his customers,” she said. “He doesn’t usually build custom cars anymore (see builder sidebar), but he’s working on a ’69 GTX for a guy in Beverly Hills.”

Even though she doesn’t spin many wrenches, Kathleen has learned what parts work well together and look great when combined. Her years spent in hot rod and custom shops, plus her riding experience, contributed to her decision on the appearance and dimensions of this bike. She had a clear idea in her mind about what style of bike she wanted; after all, she did have months to think about it. Being hyper-aware of parts and styles of bikes, she said, “I’ve had and ridden just about every style of bike, from long choppers to customized Harleys. This time I wanted the guys to build me a smaller bike, a bobber-style with manageable rake that’s easy to handle at any speed.” They started with a Covington rigid frame with similar to stock dimensions in the backbone and downtubes and a neck raked to 34-degrees for quick handling at any speed. A lightweight, narrow-glide Harley front-end was modified and bolted to the frame with slim tires riding on Ride Wright spoked wheels in the front and rear of the chassis.

Sparing no expense on a bike for his wife, Jerry made sure the build wasn’t constructed from leftover parts. He ordered an 88” CCI Pandemonium motor and topped it off with their machined billet, Panhead-style rocker boxes and a machined Goodson air-cleaner. A Grandeur Auto-Clutch was installed inside a BDL 3” open primary with a custom Covington belt cover secured to a 5-speed Baker transmission. Dave Covington worked on the bike, and said, “I used a 5-speed trans because this bike isn’t designed for high speeds. It’s a rigid with an 88” Panhead-style motor, you wouldn’t want to go 150mph on this thing; it didn’t need a 6-speed. I worked on the bike a little, Armando did most of the assembly, and Brian spent many long hours machining parts.” Dave described how the bike performed once they were finished building it: “It’s a fun bike to ride, you can hop on it and ride anywhere and do anything. If I build a bobber anytime soon, I think it’ll be real close to this one. Kathleen had the right idea. The bike is small and light, with easy handling, you just want to go fast on it.”

When asked what her favorite custom rides have been over the years, Kathleen claims to be a fan of motorcycles in general and doesn’t have a distinct favorite, but she’s more than satisfied with her new bobber. “I’ve had this bike for almost a year now, that’s far longer than most of my bikes have lasted,” she said. “Customers have made outrageous offers for it, but I’m just not willing to give it up yet!” She must really like this bike, considering the fact that she could have any kind of bike she could possibly want.