By Andreas Korner
Browsing the local Phoenix, AZ Craigslist for Harley parts and projects, I came across a very low mileage but salvaged 2011 FLHX. The pictures showed damage all over but the asking price was low enough. So, I went and picked it up. I put the bike on a lift and started taking parts off.
Unfortunately, the damage wasn’t mostly cosmetic, but the frame was bent and beyond repair. That left me with 2 choices – either dismantle and sell the good parts or buy a good frame and rebuild from scratch.
We decided to resurrect the bike to see where we could take it and how much it would cost to do it. Yes, it will always be a bike with a ‘rebuilt’ history and not have a high resale value – but does that matter while riding and enjoying it for many years to come?
Not looking too bad but… A good used frame, ready to go
My business partner Denis needed to put a bagger in that empty space in his garage. He wanted a red bike, so we picked candy apple red.
Going back together
We had a set of Geezer Glide wheels custom anodized in red to match the paint:
THE TEXT BELOW GOES ON THE TOP OF PAGE 2
It is very rewarding to me when a motorcycle is coming together! It is nice to go to a dealership and buy a new bike but not everyone can or even wants to do that. Those of us who like to wrench enjoy the process of building or customizing a Harley and the finished bike is already the way we want it. We spent a total of around $14,000 on this project (using MSRP on our own parts), not counting the hours spend on it. Here’s the result:
THE TEXT BELOW GOES ON THE TOP OF PAGE 3
The bike has been set up with all our performance parts. It handles like a dream and is great fun to ride. It was great fun to build, and the cost was comparably low. Would we get our investment back if we sold the bike? Maybe, maybe not but we didn’t build it for resale. Instead, we will enjoy riding it for many years – it is like new now, precisely the way we wanted it to be and the word ‘REBUILT’ has no impact on ride quality as far as we can tell…..
Please find details about GeezerEngineering products used on this project at:
