Trevor Lahey owns Rock Hard Customs (RHC) in Jacksonville, Illinois, and he's built a lot of bikes for other folks over the years. In fact, business has kept him quite occupied, so when he saw the light at the end of the tunnel that was the '05 riding season, he pounced on the chance to build a bike for himself. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who saw an opportunity-but more on that later.
As fall gave way to winter, business dropped off as it usually does for bike shops in the cold parts of the country. Trevor wanted to use that downtime to build his personal bike: a long chopper with good handling characteristics and a lightweight, powerful motor.
He started off with an '02 Buell X-1 Lightning motor he bought on Ebay. For the most part he kept it stock (but he did shave the cam-chest cover and fabricate a matching chain-guard cover). The X-1 motor was not only cheaper than a lot of other motors, but Trevor also saved on the driveline, since the trans and primary are integrated with the motor.
After the motor arrived, Rock Hard Customs started bending a frame to fit it. Tubes of 4130 chrome-moly metal were shaped into a rigid chopper chassis with 38 degrees of rake and 4 inches of upward stretch-not too radical, but plenty good for setting up a high, long chopper profile. Once the frame was done, a hydraulic-glide frontend stretched 4 inches over was mated to the chassis to set the bike to the length Trevor wanted.