Kenny Red happened to be riding his Road King down the same street as El’s shop and was in the market for a competent mechanic who could add some cool to his bike. He had some extra time to kill and the shop appeared interesting, so he pulled in to check it out. Kenny liked what he saw at the shop and decided he’d bring the bike back in for a simple handlebar swap and new seat. El upgraded the old stock bars to a pair of his 187 tall-bars that put the controls 16” above the risers. Since they had to be taken off the bike anyway, Kenny had El chrome the controls, change the grips to Harley’s diamond-plate grips, and replace the stock cables and brake lines with stainless-steel braided versions. Then El had a Luxury Upholstery make him a custom seat fabricated from an exotic assortment of skins including leather, ostrich, and alligator dyed black with red piping. When he was finished with the short list of improvements, he called Kenny to come pick up the bike.
Kenny returned to the shop and was satisfied with the upgrades El made to his bike so he decided to schedule more modifications. This time Kenny wanted more of his ‘King’s looks changed and had El swap the original sheet metal for a set of Harley’s bolt-on production-custom paint schemes he special ordered through one of the local Vegas H-D dealers. Kenny went with a two-tone red and black set of tins that matched the black frame and the red piping of his seat. He liked the direction El was leaning to with the bike and had him do more work for him, this time in the form of the bike’s rolling stock. El bolted on a set of Arlen Ness wheels, but not in the same dimensions as the originals, a 21-incher was bolted to the front end and an 18 was secured to the swing arm with Metzeler tires surrounding each. Matching rotors and pulley accompanied the wheels and the rotors are compressed by chromed H-D calipers. “Kenny wanted me to change out the stock-looking front fender for a chopped piece, but I had to talk him out of it. It wouldn’t have gone with the rest of the bike, and I didn’t want to spend a bunch of time or Kenny’s money when I knew he wouldn’t be happy with the results,” El said. It’s hard to imagine what the bike would have looked like had El not had the good judgment to step in and help guide Kenny, but then that’s probably one of the reasons Kenny had El build his bike for him in the first place.
With the new sheet metal, paint, and bars, Kenny thought the bike needed its stance changed and turned again to EL to modify its height. El installed Legend Air Suspensions shocks in the rear and lowered the front end an inch. When El finished the suspension mods, he still wasn’t pleased with the look. He solved the problem by removing the saddlebags for a bit of cosmetic surgery. El added about 3” to the bottom of each bag and had them repainted to match the rest of the bike. He didn’t change the bag’s mounting points and the change made the bike appear to be closer to the ground than it really is.
Now that the bike had some bark, Kenny felt it needed some bite to back up its good looks. He had El upgrade the stock TC 88 with a Screamin’ Eagle 95” top-end kit that included new pistons, cylinders, heads, cams, and ignition. A dual Thunderheader exhaust system, carburetor tuning, and a K&N air filter soon followed to help the motor’s larger displacement move air in and out of the motor more efficiently, thereby further improving its performance.
“I like the way the bike turned out because every time a person looks at it, they have a hard time figuring out if it’s the latest H-D or if it’s modified. It’s got a clean look that doesn’t seem to age,” El said. To many, timelessness is the true sign of a great design. Luckily Kenny had the good fortune of spotting El’s shop when he did and the intuition to trust El to work on his bike. But I can’t give Kenny too much credit; anyone who’s seen any of El’s customs would agree that he’s a master of his craft.
Up Close: Legend Air Suspension Shocks
It can be hard to justify an engine enhancement that yields five additional horsepower or less because it’s not an improvement that can be easily noticed. Five horsepower will not turn a stock Softail into a 10-second bike, but changing out the rear suspension to Legend Air Suspensions is like moving up from a Chevy Malibu to a Cadillac with hydraulics. I say hydraulics because like the lowriding staple, Legend Air Suspensions systems are adjustable (when compressed the shocks measure 9.75” and fully extended they’re 13” tall). They won’t bounce your bike up and down, but you can change the ride height of the bike over 3”— even while riding. There’s no risk of bottoming out the shocks when at the shortest shock length and the dampening characteristics won’t fade under any riding conditions. All that is possible because of the exclusive Gates Rubber Company, patented Kevlar/rubber air-bag technology working in conjunction with deflective-disc dampening to provide unbelievable riding comfort and suspension control.
Independent Cycle’s Legend Air L1/D1/V1 Suspension Systems are designed for FL, Dyna, and V-Rod applications. Each kit can be ordered in either black or chromed finishes and includes an air compressor, solenoid, and hardware with an easy to install and operate, on-the-go black handlebar-mounted switch. These aren’t just pretty parts either, they’re completely hidden on most FL apps, but rest assured about their performance and quality as Independent is very serious about the system’s extensive testing. And, they’re made in the USA and come with a one-year warranty. Independent Cycle offers a number of different Legend Air Suspensions Systems and accessories — see all of them at www.independentcycleinc.com or call 605-737-4200 for more information.
Builder: El Pitts, El Pitts Fab Shop
Located in Nevada, near the Las Vegas strip, El Pitts’ new shop is only a few minutes away from his old shop, Vegas City Choppers. He had to leave the shop to open up his creative horizons and allow him extra room to branch out as a custom builder. It’s too bad the shop closed, as it was his first shop that he opened on his own only a few years ago in 2003, not long after he had completed his first full custom build.
El’s always had a love for bikes, but he really got into the scene because of his younger brother. “When my brother was about 20 years old, he bought a chopper. I was surprised because we were really into lowriders at the time, but I liked it and got one myself,” El said. It’s safe to say that El didn’t need much encouragement to become the owner of a chop — he got his about a month later. He learned about working on bikes the hard way, fixing what broke on his own bike and learning how to modify it as he saw fit. El quickly realized that he wanted to do more to the bike than he felt comfortable doing at the time. He decided if he was serious about working on the bike himself, he’d have to learn a few things from shops he could trust. “Barry at West Side Choppers and Mondo at Denver’s Choppers would let my brother and me hang out at their shops while they worked. Those guys always had time to talk with us and those two places are where I really learned about the ins and outs of running a shop and picked up good advice about building customs,” El said.
Look for El Pitts at upcoming West Coast Shows, and check out more of his upcoming customs in the pages of this mag.
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