Instead of beating around the bush, we might as well get the story right from the horse’s (in this case Brian’s) mouth.  “I owned this 1978 Super Glide 24 years ago. I painted it and changed it around a few times then I sold it to buy a Panhead,” said Brian. “This was the very first Harley I owned when I was 18-years old and for years I tried to find it so I could buy it back. I never had any luck. I thought it probably got sold out of state and that’s why I couldn’t find it. So 20-plus years went by and I really just gave up on it and kind of forgot about it.” Needless to say, the story doesn’t stop there or we wouldn’t have a story of finding lost love as Brain continued, “One day a great friend of mine, Charlie “Brown” Barding, who owns Tattoo U in Decatur, Illinois, called me up and says, ‘Hey I just bought this old Shovelhead and it’s got one of those SU carbs on it you always run and would it be possible to store it in your shop? If I can, I’ll give you the carburetor off of the bike for storing it for me.’ I said, ‘No problem, bring it down.’ “

 

 Brain kept spinning his tale and said, “Charlie had purchased this bike like eight months earlier and never went and got it. He finally picked it up and when he pulled into my driveway with it, I about fell over. My first Harley was pulling back into my drive way after all of these years. It had never been repainted. It was the same as the day I sold it. It had been put in the back of a guy’s garage and forgot about. I told Charlie, ‘You’ve got to sell it back to me. This is my first bike.’ It took a week or so but I finally bought it back. The reason the bike is named Wenona is because in Sioux Indian, Wenona means first child and since this was my first bike I thought the name was fitting.”
 
  Sounds good then, boy falls in love with bike, sells bike, regrets it but can’t find it, and then out of nowhere, gets it back. Story over. Normally that might be the case, but not this time as Brian explains Chapter Two of this saga, “Then a month goes by and Edge from The Horse Smoke Out calls and asks if I would like to be in the Pro Chop Off this year for Smoke Out 13. I, of course, said yes and thought this ‘78 would be a great bike to build. I would now have the chance to build my first Harley the way I would have liked to 24 years ago. Back then I was 18 and didn’t have any money. Today I still don’t have any money, but I have a lot more skills.”  
 

  This is the part where the love story gets a little tricky. It seems that even though this was Brian’s first true love and all, he did have some ideas on how he thought his first love could be improved and immediately got to it. “I tore the bike apart and put the stock swingarm frame on my frame jig. I hardtailed it using Knucklehead/Panhead axle plates to give it an old stock look. Now that the frame was done I could start mocking up everything else. I build springers and have used them on every build for the last ten years so I decided to run a hydro front end [a telescoping fork to the rest of us, but in actuality he is correct] to change it up a bit. But I didn’t want it to be a plain front end. I bought a set of trees from Warren Heir Jr. at JR. Cycles and then I smoothed the legs and cut some grooves in them. I call Buchanan and ordered some stainless spokes. I laced up a JR. Cycle spool and a stock Shovelhead hub onto an aluminum 18” Sporty rear rim. Now I had a roller.”

  A frame, fork and wheels were only the beginning as Brain continued with his first-love story,  “With this being my first Harley, I wanted to have some of my friend in the industry put their parts on it and that’s why I already mentioned Warren Heir Jr. with his parts, but there were a lot more friends who contributed too. Like, Jeremy AKA Needles who hand blew the glass shift knob while Lock Baker from Eastern Fabrications cast the brass kicker pedal for me. Kevin “Teach” Baas from Baas Metal Works did the seat pan out of stainless and made the battery box. Little Frank did the carving of the leather for the seat. Eric Allard from FNA Custom Cycles did the rear fender. Rod Davis from Stripped Down Cycles did the rebuilding of the lower end on the engine. I got one of the first sets of rocker boxes from my good friend Josh at Throwback MC Parts. They are finned for a nostalgic look and one of my favorite pieces on the engine. Bill Schalk Sr. from Moto Rod Design made the gas cap for me. Unfortunately he passed away a few months after making the gas cap. I am truly glad I got to know this man. He was a great person and had a wealth of knowledge. He will be missed. His son, Bill Jr., made the air cleaner and carries on what he learned from his dad.”
 
The rest of the parts and fabrication were done in-house. “Jason Britz does all of our CNC machine work for us and does a great job,” said Brian. “Once it was completed, the tins and frame went down to my great friend Darren Williams of Liquid Illusions. He is one of the best painters in the industry. I am a painter too, but like I said, I wanted all my friends to be involved on this build. I gave him full reign on the paint job. I didn’t even tell him what color. I just said the name of the bike and told him to surprise me. Well he did and it’s one of the nicest paint jobs I’ve ever seen.”

  It’s not just about the looks, though, as Brian said, “Now since this bike was for the Chop Off, we had to ride them like 250 miles to the Smoke Out. I couldn’t go really crazy on the fab because it wasn’t just a show bike and  I wanted to ride this bike for many years to come. The engine is just a stock 74 and I’m still banging gears with the stock four-speed, but it’s everything I ever wanted. I ended up winning Chop Off 13 with this bike. Since then, I broke down and put one of my springer front ends on it. I love the way they look and the way they ride. I also changed up the primary back to a belt drive. No reason, just prefer a belt. I found a Drag Bike-brand cam cover and magneto so I switched that over too. I have tried to find rare Shovelhead parts and that is one of them.”

Needless to say, Wenona’s a keeper and it only goes to prove that a first love is something really special and Brain agrees adding, “I think my favorite aspect of this bike is it’s the first Harley I ever owned and I’d never ever sell it again. I would love to give it to my daughter, Myia Elliott, one day. She is 14 now and rides a Harley SX 250. She can kick start Wenona so I guess one day I’ll teach her how to foot-clutch and jockey-shift and she can have it.” The only moral here might be for Brain or Myia Elliot to safely put that little SX 250 away somewhere so history won’t have to take such a big chance trying to repeat itself in case Myia starts jonesing for her first Harley 24-years from now.

 

 For more info on Black Sunshine Customs and to check out all of Brian’s work, please visit http://blacksunshinecustoms.yolasite.com/