Choppers
Normally, Doug personally picks the frame he’s going to use when creating a custom. In the case of Agnes, he acquired a damaged rigid frame from a friend who didn’t know what to do with it. It was severely bent, but he put it on a fixture to straighten it, replaced a few tubes, and because it was going to have to be replaced anyway, he turned the left lower frame rail into a fuel line. “At first glance the only thing that looks custom is the front end. It’s the lure that draws in onlookers to the rest of the bike’s crazy features,” Doug said. The chassis was completed with the addition of RMD Billet’s Super Girder front end. “The concept of the bike was to create a familiar look and feel,” Doug said. He didn’t want the motor to be the focal point of the bike but he wanted it to have plenty of useable power. Doug bolted a blacked-out 96” S&S motor to the DKCC-modified frame. From the frame rail, fuel runs through the primary backing plate and into the PSI Big Air carburetor that mixes fuel and air with the help of a DKCC handcrafted hot rod air cleaner. He mounted Nology ignition coils to the raised transmission plate. A DKCC two-into-one stainless steel exhaust pipe, made from a few custom bent tubes and a Burns stainless collector, helps remove spent fuel from the combustion chamber. Customized to DKCC specifications, RMD built them an open double-belt primary with two, one and three quarter-inch belts. Then, a Bandit/DKCC clutch was connected to a Baker Torque Box transmission with custom anodized finishes and mounted on the raised tranny saddle.
Rolling stock for the bike includes RMD Billet custom machined three-piece, swooping three-spoke wheels. The custom wheels measure 21×3.5” in the front and 18×10.5” in the rear (they are now in production) with a 120mm wide front and 280mm wide rear Metzeler tires. “I was in the shower when I suddenly had this great idea for RMD. Most of their wheels have bolts along the perimeter of the rim; it would be easy to adapt the wheel to a perimeter-braking surface. I called RMD as soon as I was out of the shower,” Doug said. It took about ten months of research and development to make the brake happen, but they were able to fabricate one for both the front and the rear wheel. Instead of using stamped stainless steel, they further advanced the capability of the brake by making the rotor out of aluminum and bonding the braking surface with ceramic. Ceramic does not expand or contract like most metals, plus the larger surface area of the perimeter rotor can handle harder braking for longer periods of time than conventional 11.5-inch rotors. Because this was the first set of RMD’s perimeter wheels, Doug spent countless hours making shims for the rotor standoffs reducing its run out to .0002 of an inch. Four-piston RMD calipers were attached to both wheels with DKCC handmade brackets.
Simple in appearance, the bike’s essential sheet metal was no afterthought. The 3.2-quart oil tank and the battery box are stashed under the raised transmission plate. With the help of a guy named John Little, the gas tank was fabricated by DKCC, without any preformed sheet metal. The rear fender is also 100-percent custom, and it’s attached to the frame with adjustable Heim joints. “When I was making the rear fender the guys at the shop didn’t think it would look right because of all the extra brackets. After I put it on the bike they saw how the fender adjusts according to the amount of chain adjustment,” Doug said. The seat started out as a custom seat pan, suspended by a set of Harley valve springs and covered in black sharkskin. Finishing the bike only took a couple cans of hot rod red candy paint, detailed with ghosted DKCC logos inconspicuously placed throughout the basecoat.
As a completed machine with many prototype parts, Agnes performed without a flaw. Much of the research and hundreds of hours of metal work and machining were spent making sure the bike would be safe to ride. “The first time I had the bike on the road I was grinning ear to ear, even though it’s a rigid, the bike handles like a dream and the brakes work great,” Doug said. There may be parts on the bike that dominates its appearance, but the entire build was planned from the moment he received the frame. “No matter what you bolt to a bike, don’t let it overshadow the rest of its parts. This bike’s parts are harmonic as a whole. The front end is the most obvious part to most people, but when you look at the entire bike there is a ton of technology to match it that I’ve never seen on another American V-twin.” Doug said.
Sadly, Doug’s mom passed away about a week prior to the time of this feature. “She had Alzheimer’s, and towards the end she couldn’t remember a whole lot. When I would visit my parents, she thought I was a stranger, but she’d always ask me, ‘Do you know my son Doug? He’s a bike builder you know.’ She was so proud of that fact,” Doug said. “She was Irish and Norwegian and feisty, yet friends with everyone. I’ll always remember her as a strong, friendly, and classy person.”
Up Close: RMD Billet’s Super Girder 2800 Front-End
Regardless of the fact that there were only four of these front ends in existence at the time that DKCC bolted it to Agnes, its unique design is hard to hide. RMD didn’t build it for its looks alone, it was built to be the best handling girder ever made. According to Doug Keim, they achieved their goal. “The legs are made from aerodynamically shaped chromoly elliptical tubing with a .049” wall, that’s just a little thicker than paper, but the shape lends extra strength. “The tubing is like the wing struts on the back of Top Fuel cars,” Doug said. “It’s so light that you can pick up the entire assembly with one hand. Try doing that with an extended springer.”
RMD teamed up with Leo DiOrio to design the girder specifically for Penske’s shock. The adjustment capabilities are endless; the shock’s rebound damping, compression rate, and ride height can all be fine tuned, while the spring can be swapped out with about 100 different units of varying strengths. When riding a bike with this front end the trail doesn’t change during braking. Like the control arms on a car, the length of the upper arms are somewhat parallel to the lower arms, with a specific length built for each particular chassis, so none of the geometry changes as the shock is compressed lending greater control during deceleration.
The Super Girder is constructed in leg lengths from 24-32” with 0-5-degrees of rake in the triple trees. RMD offers single and dual-rotor disc lower-leg options, plus a number of finishes, but they do not offer stock or chopper frame applications at this time. Contact RMD Billet at 507-348-8877 or visit their website at www.rmdbillet.com.
Builder: Doug Keim, Custom Cycle Creation
During a time when many custom motorcycle shops are struggling, Doug Keim’s shop, Creative Cycles, seems to be doing well. But don’t think for a second that it’s because of some stroke of luck. Doug has been in the industry for 30-plus years and humbly attributes his success to hard work and driven perfectionism. “Thankfully, I and the shop have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by people who understand and appreciate the craftsmanship that’s kept me in business all these years. We’re currently in the process of exploring ideas for a larger facility so DKCC can expand,” Doug said. Diversification begets longevity and Doug clearly knows it — right now he has approximately 80 different DKCC parts (with more to come), a healthy service business, and he works closely with an H-D dealer in the area. Colonial Harley-Davidson/Buell in Prince George, Virginia, provides him with brand new ‘08s that DKCC completely modifies, excluding only the electronic fuel injection. Colonial H-D sells the new DKCC-modified bikes at their dealership.
Doug only builds a few full customs a year because he gets so involved with each build. He treat his custom bike builds almost as if they were children, he’s happy to let them go as long as they go to good homes with people who appreciate them. It may be painful for him to let go of his creations, but he feels his most important offspring is Creative Cycles. He understands that he’s got to let his children out into the world to keep Creative Cycles going, but don’t expect him to part with the bike named Agnes anytime soon. Speaking of children, the DKCC shop crew is like a family. He’s close with everyone at the shop and his dad stops by frequently to help out whenever he can. Contact Doug at Creative Cycles website, www.creativecycles.com, or call the shop at 732-751-1403.
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