Armed with a giant piece of cardboard, Greg drew a full-size rendition of the bike he had in mind. “We’ve got the CAD/CAM [computer software for 3-D designing] but it’s actually faster to visualize it full-scale,” he said. Comfort was important in this build, so Greg lengthened the stock aluminum swingarm by two inches to give himself the wriggle room for mounting a single shock in the rear. This move not only gave his vertebrae a break, it proved to fire the imagination of several Buell owners who liked what they saw when he brought the Red Buell to Sturgis. “They thought that was pretty cool for a drag racing setup, that the geometry would be good for launching the bike off the line,” he said. The rear shock actually came off a street hot rod, and the coil-over adjustable setup made it easy to vary the spring rate and adjust the pre-load for ride and handling. A rake of only 27-degrees keeps it a quick turner.

In keeping with his motocross background, Greg replaced the stock handlebars with Renthal MX bars. He kept the cost down by keeping the Buell’s inverted forks and excellent brakes along with the stock wheels, but installed Metzeler Sportec’s with a reasonable 200mm in back for sportbike-like road grip.

Since the massive, Sportster-based engine in the Lightning comes with plenty of stomp, it was definitely a keeper. To the stock pipes he added a turn down tip and header wrap. He swapped out the stock carb for an S&S Super E and topped it with a velocity stack. To make sure he could just press Play, Greg installed a Crane HI-4 ignition to unleash this monster on the villagers, or the open road as the case may be.

Next was the minimalist bodywork that entails stretching a Sportster tank and perching it atop the frame. A lone GS rear fender and the side-mount oil tank completed the sheetmetal. Mike Helt of Signs & More in Schoolcraft, Michigan, powdercoated the frame gloss-black and layed that eye-catching red onto the bodywork in record time.

Greg chose to rid the bike of its original itty-bitty seat and called on Paul “Paco” Regan to create the aluminum tractor seat you see here. Greg likes it, though it looks pretty lethal to me. I would be terrified of jumping onto this Ginsu knife of a seat and slicing through my Julie Newmar Catwoman-suit, but that’s just me.

Greg and business partner, Ryan Disterheft, completed the build in thirty days. “I bought the bike on July 5, and we got it done in time to go to Sturgis,” Greg said. “We build our own chassis, but to design a whole new one and build it in that time frame — I was pretty happy with the way it came out. Normally when you do something for the first time, you get down to the final assembly and there’s like, stuff that doesn’t fit,” he said, laughing. “And really just by luck, this bike went together really good.”

The Red Buell kit sells for $4,500, which is the frame and sheet metal; the gas tank, the fender, and the cool vertical oil tank. “It’s pretty much all the pieces you need, except for the Buell,” Greg said. “So for a cost of about $7,000 to $10,000, a guy can build what I think is a pretty cool-looking bike. I think that’s the whole reason people are gravitating toward Sportsters anyway, if they want to build kind of a cool low-end bike and they don’t care if it’s a big twin.”

Greg hasn’t had a lot of time to ride the bike, yet. When we spoke in October, a snow storm had just hit Galesburg and the town was dealing with four inches of snow. “We hardly ever have this in October,” he said. “We’re done riding for awhile.”

Builder: Greg, Socha GS Motor Company

Greg Socha doesn’t have any tattoos, and he and his wife didn’t include the word Harley anywhere in the kids’ names. He says he considers himself “less biker, more “gearhead.” And although he says, “You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a new chopper shop,” he’s happy to count his GS Motor Company in Galesburg, Michigan, among them.  After years of watching from the sidelines, the former motocross racer was inspired by all of the custom bike shows he saw on the Discovery Channel. He’d owned CNC Lathe Work since 1993, and started itching for his own bike shop. In 2005 Greg finally threw his hat into the customs ring with a partner, Ryan Disterheft. The two were spurred on by the stir the Red Buell caused at Biketoberfest in Daytona Beach. GSMC specializes in high performance customs built with a retro-style. They also offer a rigid frame rolling chassis kit starting at a reasonable price of $2,495. With the goal of keeping prices down, the guys do their own CNC machining in-house. For more info on the kit, or to check out the GSMC gallery of cool bikes, visit www.gsmotorco.com or give Greg a call at 269-344-3953.