By this time Jake had been accepted as part of the Led Sled crew and was getting the usual ribbing anyone who hangs out at a motorcycle shop gets after a while. He was trying to decide on paint, and Led Sled crew members had already used the colors he was into on their respective bikes. Pat found an 883R tank at a swapmeet and had a revelation: Wouldn't it be cool to use that same retro-color styling on a chopper? Pat called Jake with the news, but Jake wasn't too enthusiastic; orange wasn't his favorite color, but he figured if Pat thought it would look cool, then it probably would.
The paint was finished and the bike took shape with the usual Led Sled Customs treatment: LSC trucker girl grips and foot controls, LSC seat pan, tunneled and chopped 883 gas tank, and custom hand shift setup. The bike already had the 883R treatment with a blacked-out drivetrain, blacked-out wheels, and minimalist chrome; everything was either blacked-out or brushed, if possible.
Nothing can leave the LSC shop without a name, something to give the bike its own personality. Although they could have used "Jake's Bike" when it was all put together, "Qualifier" just seemed to fit.
The Sportster chopper has come full circle and is back on the scene in full force, not because they are less expensive, but because they are just plain cool. The reason this bike is called the Qualifier goes beyond the paint; when you strip everything off a Sporty and hop up the motor to a 1200 with performance parts, you get a bike that will get up and move. Although Jake gets comments about how good his bike looks, he thinks of it as a plain-Jane chopper, with nothing extra that doesn't make it stop or go. He rides it every chance he gets because it was built to be ridden. We think this daily rider chopper goes far beyond plain-Jane and is a good example of what can be done when you think outside the norm.