After seeing the photos of his work done over a period of five months with the “help from a couple of good friends,” it sure looks like he totally accomplished what he set out to do. Every aspect of the stock FLHRI has been tweaked from frame to drivetrain to tinwork and then some. The original 88” Twin Cam just didn’t have it in the lungs department for Terry and was reworked by Steve and Karen Creech at K&S Machine (conveniently located in Barnwell) to 96” with flowed heads, revised injection, S&S dual-core air cleaners, a bazooka-style exhaust, and re-geared 5-speed tranny. Terry must have been a Star Trek fan as he can engage his own version of V-twin Warp Drive with the twin NOS setup mounted on the downtubes when he’s just feeling a bit randy. Gotta be a big problem keeping that top hat on when he decides it’s time for Warp Factor One.
All that engine work was a piece of cake when you compare it to his frame and front end mods, though. Terry’s garage must be decently equipped as he raked and stretched the frame to accommodate a towering 26” five-spoke front wheel. Leaving no doubt that this bike now has a wheel ten-inches-larger in diameter, a single Hawg Halter’s six-piston caliper and rotor replaces the stock four-pot dualies and almost gets lost in the scope of the front wheel’s chrome acreage. All this radical work might not be appreciated on a twisty mountain road, but according to Terry, it does have its benefits, “It actually rides better than it did originally. It seems too just cruise along and doesn’t hit the bumps near as hard since it’s 12-inches-longer than it was.” Some of that bump-reducing credit has to go to the Legends Air Suspension Terry installed out back.
Bodywork and controls were next on the list with a lot of time and thought placed on each to keep the bike clean and mean and ready to be seen. Terry’s version of a tail-dragging front fender nicely keeps the stocker’s silhouette while shrouding the Ferris wheel front hoop. Although on first glance you might think the gas tank is just a stocker with a flush-mount cap, you’d be dead wrong. He put a lot of time in cleaning it up while maintaining its profile. “If there was one particular area that gave me a problem, it was converting and moving all the electronics from the tank top to behind the horn cover,” said Terry. “But, it wasn’t that bad, just a lot of think time before cutting and splicing. I just took my time and thought out every move.” You might have noticed those are some mighty big bags out back, wide and stretched with a gap-filling fender that almost touches Mother Erath when parked. New frame covers reach out and fill in the dead space in front of the bags tying it all together. But the piece de resistance of all Terry’s bodywork changes in my opinion is the flowing headlight nacelle and speedo covers. Now that’s a neat take on both. Keeping it all so pretty and sano is Terry’s chunky fabricated apes with all internal controls and nary a wire or cable in sight.
Just like any bike, stock or custom, it all comes down to the paint for a first impression and Terry had nothing to say but good about the “killer paint and added accents done by Richard Wright’s Chop Shop” (www.richardwrightschopshop.com) in nearby Lexington, South Carolina. Tasteful and complimentary are the first things that come to mind when you gaze over the deep and luscious red finish.
So were all of Terry’s initial goals met? According to him they were with an added benefit of the positive reactions from onlookers as he said, “There’s the pride of knowing I did it my way and it turned out better than I expected. It’s one of a kind.” Positive reaction and personal satisfaction just add a layer of icing to a garage build anyone would be proud of. Nice job Terry, but then I didn’t have to tell you that. Like they say in my native state of Massachusetts to describe how Terry feels about the time and effort and money he’s put into this Top Hat Tourer, he’s “happy as a clam.”