OK – Now I want you to throw that all away. Open your eyes and see The Darkness Within Doug Keim’s mind.
From its initial concept, “The Darkness Within” was designed to be the Anti-bike. Its not a chopper, it doesn’t have extensive metal work, there is no theme, there is no fancy paint job. The beauty of this bike lies in its design, stance, and its incredible attention to detail.
Originally built for a show gone wrong, Doug knew that he had to do something different to make his bike stand out in a crowd. He started with his own Top Fuel softail frame, raked it out 47° with an 8” forward and 4” DOWN stretch. The DKCC by Mean Streets inverted front end is only 27” long and holds a 21” front wheel. The 18” rear wheel with a 280 tire makes this bike 109” long, while top of the handlebars are only 30” off the ground!
The bike is powered by a 121” full polish TP Engine super-sparked by Ford coils (a racing trick), Baker RSD transmission, and BDL primary drive. A Mikuni carb and Doug’s own L-Bow intake along with his super-loud LMF pipes provide outstanding performance and, well, noise.
The sheet metal, though very minimal, deserves a second look. The fuel tank is a hand made DKCC Alien, and the rear fender is a hand made, full floating unit. The fender is mounted to the swingarm with a link on the top to control its position. What this means is, no matter how much air you put in the Legend Air Suspension System, the gap between the tire and fender never changes!
The seat is another really neat component. I know it looks a little, lets say, strange, however it is actually a performance-enhanced design. The center cutout forces your bodyweight to be thrown on to your “pockets” instead of your tailbone. And let’s face it, the “pockets” are far better suited for that job.
For the finish, Doug’s vision was to create a “photographic negative.” To achieve this look, he had the frame and swingarm chromed and used lots of black accents on the components. The sheet metal required absolutely no molding and was taken to Bob Schroeter for a black chrome and silver tribal finish. The overall look is beautifully minimalistic and classy.
No matter what the dubious beginnings of the idea for “The Darkness Within” may be, one thing is for sure, the bike accomplishes exactly what it was originally designed to do. It gets attention everywhere it goes.
The Darkness Within is currently touring with Doug Keim and is for sale.
SPECIFICATIONS | |
---|---|
Owner: | Doug Keim Creative Cycles 732-751-1403, www.dougkeim.com |
Make/Model: | 2005 Creative Cycles Top Fuel Softail |
Fabrication: | Jeff Johnson / Doug Keim |
Assembly: | Doug Keim / Jeff Johnson |
Build Time: | 7 months |
Engine: | TP Engineering 121″ Evo, full polished |
Heads: | TP with DKCC (Doug Keim Creative Cycles) hidden head breathers |
Cam: | TP |
Carb: | Mikuni |
Ignition: | Dyna |
Pipes: | DKCC (Doug Keim Creative Cycles) LMF “Bad Ass†|
Transmission: | ’04 Baker RSD with hyd. end |
Primary Drive: | BDL TF-2000 |