'04 Xtreme Cycle Design Special Construction - Hot Rod Panhead

Growing up in Orange County, Califonia, Steve Craig loved the look and sound of '60s choppers and hot rods. Like so many other chop riders, Steve rode an assortment of Harleys before he was able to pool his hard-earned money and knowledge to build the Panhead he'd envisioned for so many years.

Some of those resources came from his job as shop superintendent for Xtreme Cycle Design in Orange, California. Xtreme's owner is Travis Hill, Steve's friend and boss depending on the situation. Travis encourages his employees to build bikes using the frames they work together to produce, and he was especially excited to help Steve with his project Panhead. They built Steve a frame with 6 inches of stretch in the downtubes, 4 inches added to the backbone, and a neck raked to 48 degrees. He was also able to get a set of Landmark 80-spoke wheels, a 16x6-inch in the rear and a 21x2.15-inch in the front.

Steve wasn't going to settle for imitations of the parts he required to achieve the look for the bike he wanted; he was going to get the parts no matter what it took. He ended up having to import a Calle 21-inch-over front end with 4-degree raked trees from Sweden, which he wouldn't have been able to do without help from Junior, his friend over at LifeStyle Cycles. Once the Calle front end was secured to the Xtreme Cycle Design frame, he bolted on the wheels for a mean-looking roller.

The next items on the build sheet were the driveline components; it was time to get a motor, transmission, and primary. Instead of searching out an original pan, Steve decided to get an Accurate Engineering 93ci motor with S&S internals and STD heads. Baker's six-speed in a polished four-speed case was the natural choice to sit behind the polished motor. An open beltdrive from Billet-4-U would couple the motor to the trans nicely and complement the finish of both as well.

All the sheetmetal was handled by the staff at Xtreme, including the rear fender, oil bag, and flat-bottom gas tank. The frame, sheetmetal, and headlight were sent out for a thick coat of Candy Apple Red paint. Then the light, fender, gas tank, and oil bag were treated with traditional hot rod flames.

The end result was a huge chopper measuring over 10 feet in length that stops traffic and turns heads everywhere it goes. As far as we're concerned, Steve's mission was successfully accomplished.