March Bike Of The Month
This month's feature is on a fantastic build by Scott Fitzgerald. Once again, a wonderful customer of Bitchin Seats. Below is a complete break down of what he did to his bike showing his true talents of piecing this beauty of a bike to create what you see below. Congrats Scott, she turned out amazing. The pictures say it all so stop reading and check out this build!
From Scott Fitzgerald (owner and creator of 'Big Red')
Her name says it all!
My vision was to build what I think a special edition VRod should look like from the factory. Low, sleek, tidy, and FAST. All of our builds contain the same thing complete one off big bore builds. We believe the heart of the bike is the motor and along with the sleek look it should fit the part.
In helping us achieve the look was a Bitchin Seat provided by Rich and is impeccable customer service. The seat was the final touch that was needed to continue the lines of the bike.
More about 'Big Red'....
Her life started off as a silver framed rolling chassis drag bike with yellow Buell XB wheels and a heavily used Destroyer pipe, no motor, no tins, just a blank canvas to start from. So with a blank canvas Scott Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Motorsports decided to create his latest masterpiece and called her “BIG Red”! The inspiration mainly came from the special one off tins that he acquired from eBay via a HD dealership in Wisconsin. The tins are called Fusion Grind and are numbered 91/150, they came out of HDs very own custom paint shop. Once they were acquired and in the shop the hunt was on to match the tins with a custom powder coat that had as much ‘pop’ as the tins did. After 20 some color combinations from the coater we found a perfect match using a platinum base with candy red powder. All other parts for the bike were sent off to have them coated in flat black powder. The wheels are two a stage powder called Black Chrome. The motor was completely stripped down and also powder coated in high temp wrinkle black, then we sent the heads off to Diamond Heads in Las Vegas for their show cut service.
Once all the pieces of the puzzle were back in our hands at the shop it was time to build the extremely potent 1350cc fire breathing big bore motor. First thing we bored the cases to 4.134 diameter for 1250cc sleeves. The heads received a special one off port/ polish job with 2mm overstock size valves and a complete Destroyer valve train. We also bored out the throttle body and stacks to 58mm diameter to be able to keep up the larger heads and a different fuel regulator and injectors were installed to handle the additional fuel needs. Inside that case are CP Pistons pushing 12.1 compression and coated by Swan composites. The crank is a ¼” over stock welded and precision ground by Falicon and holding it all together is a set of Dyer rods. The transmission was sent off to our friends in Florida and a complete street/strip service was completed and we installed our 2nd gear straight cut set as well. We pinned the main bearings and clearance the lower case half for the extra stroke. We installed our Engine Brace kit and a billet aluminum oil pan as well for added strength and support. Tuning all the changes was a new ECM system from Daytona Twin Tec called the VRFID Gen 3.
Now that the motor was complete assembled and ready for the newly coated frame it was time to bring it together with the rest of the pieces of the bike. The bars from Rizoma were given a Fitzgerald Motorsport touch by welding the bars completely together and machining access holes so the bars could be internally wired and hidden. On the bars were a killer set of HHI’s hand controls, micro button w/ housings, and grips. On the end we installed a set of Joker bar end mirrors. The forks tubes done in black, which was another first for the VRod Industry were sent off to have a special coating applied that is used in the industrial tooling and medical field. On the ass end was a custom license plate holder made in house and the rear pulley was designed and machined to match the Buell rear wheel. A set of Arnott air suspension helps us achieve the down low look.
As the bike came together we started to realize we were missing something important something that would complete the low down sleek look we were aiming for and that was a proper seat. Our friends at Bitchin Seat hooked us up with one of their legendary one off custom built seats called the “Low Profile Wifebeater”. The fit and finish of their seats is second to know and as the saying goes “you pay for what you get” and this seat is by far the nicest in the VRod industry.
Keep your eyes out for this to be featured in VTwin magazine very soon.
Photos taken in New York by Dino Petrocelli
Photos taken in New York by Dino Petrocelli