ou could build, I don't know, maybe a million bikes out of that catalog and no two would look alike." Tank Ewsichek at Tuff Cycles in Aurora, Ohio, should know. So far he's been commissioned to put his talents to no fewer than half-a-dozen Drag Specialties custom builds, and true to his word, no two have been even remotely alike. And they all came straight from the FatBook, just like his latest creation, a long, low machine with a look as new as tomorrow. It's based around a Drag Specialties sourced Independent Cycles "Lowlife" chassis kit, right out of the catalog.
     Now contrast that with the other bike right here, a lean, mean and almost not there blue and créme bobber. CouldnÕt be more different, yet Brian Klock and the crew at Klock Werks, in Mitchell, South Dakota, put that one together straight from the FatBook, too. In fact, it's sharing the 2006 FatBook cover with Tank's latest bike, and a more diverse pair of motorcycles would be hard to imagine. Where Tank Ewsichek worked with curves and swoops and flowing lines, Brian Klock's motorcycle, his first FatBook build, is all about angles and attitude. It even has a nostalgic Shovelhead at its heart, albeit a brand-new S&S rendition ordered right out of the  catalog.
     Both of these bikes, seen here for the first time, are on the 2006 FatBook cover. They'll be prominently featured on the inside pages, too, and for the very same reasons. The point being made here, and made with the first twin-bike cover in 10 years, is that the FatBook is a one-stop source for all builders, tastes and styles. Everything from the parts that make up these two wildly different wild customs to the simplest bolt-ons to personalize a stocker is in there with no limitations. Have a look...

Clockwise from top left: Thin as a rail with the handlebars reaching way up to the sky. Cool stuff! That's a Metzeler ME880 90/90H-21 front leading the way.
A bobber about as basic as it gets, and a basic parts-mix from the FatBook. That's a Rolling Thunder frame and oil-tank package, and check out those added fins.
A matching 180-18 is plenty of rubber out back. That's a cut-down Russ Wernimont fender with some Klock Werks supports covering it. Cycle Visions came in with the license mount, GMA with the Inside-Out Brake/Pulley Assembly.
Rinehart Racing's brand new Slip-Ons make a nice counterpoint to the wrapped head pipes, neatly mixing up the textures. Flanders high-bars set the Hot Rod tone.
The short and tidy Paughco Wide Tapered Leg Springer is a 27-inch version. The Drag/Ness headlight is low mounted, the bare hub and rim were powder coated.
Drag Specialties' own 3.5 gallon gas tanks and Cat Eye dash are both period perfect. Klock Werks custom fit a VDO 4-inch Vision Electronic Speedometer.

Clockwise from top left: Those new Rinehart's definitely look the part. Drag Specialties "Moon" Floorboards were coupled with Drag's own Forward Controls.
The S&S 93-inch Shovelhead is a standard-compression model. A BDL 3-inch Electric Start Belt Drive connects it with a polished Baker 4/6 transmission.
More proof that a Metzeler 180 is plenty of tire here. Build a bike this size and it doesn't take a mile-wide tire to get the tough look. A 180 handles great, too.
The open primary is pure business, the bullet taillight pure style. So is the stack of fins Klock Werks put on that oil tank; they set the tone.
The Rinehart By BUB Slip-Ons are brand new, seen here for the first time. They're available in lots of applications.
That Rolling Thunder twin-downtube bobber frame is clean all over. The master cylinder puts the squeeze to the bike's only brake, a GMA caliper out back.

imple is red hot. Look at the customs grabbing all the attention at local bike nights, at the big shows and in magazines everywhere. Stripped-down bikes are more popular than ever right now; less is definitely more. Now take a look at Brian Klock's interpretation of that look. They don't come much cleaner, simpler or more down to business.
     How's this for a demonstration of what's possible working with the FatBook? Brian and the guys at Klock Werks in Mitchell, South Dakota, started with a Rolling Thunder rigid frame and threw their hearts and souls into the build adding lots of special touches to go with the long list of catalog parts. Like that stack of hot-looking fins highlighting the oil tank. It's that kind of detail that transforms a standard part, lifting an okay bike to the next level. The matching air filter is actually an old hot rod part, a filter cover from a vintage three-carb set up. Mix-and-match, done correctly, is good. Brian chose a classic Paughco Springer fork set for his 'bobber, low-mounting a little Drag/Ness headlight where it looked best. Those wrapped header pipes leading into the brand-new and just released Rinehart slip-on mufflers are Klock Werks specials, but beyond those pipes pretty much everything else in and on this beautifully simple motorcycle is listed in the FatBook and on these pages, part numbers and all.
     Keeping with the nostalgia theme the powerplant is, what else, a Shovelhead. Brand-new, this one's an S&S 93-inch neo-retro version. Of course Drag Specialties carries it. It's an engine combining the timeless look of a bobber motor with lots of modern engineering and trouble free technology. And the list goes on. Tank, fender, wheels, everything. Run your eyes down the build-sheet here and you'll find every last nut, bolt and washer you'd need to put together a bike much like this one - exactly like this one if you want.
     "This build," Brian says, "turned out to be our most professional effort to date." Brian and the able Klock Werks Team, Dan Cheesman, Tim Wagner, Ken Chenoweth, Todd Snedeker, James Mayer and John Patton took those FatBook parts and crafted one nasty little hot rod. "And we'd never built a Shovelhead anything before," admits the builder. You'd never guess it. "It didn't take long to see that we were building a hot rod with attitude, either," Brian says. "That feel led us to kicking the Flanders handlebars forward for a jaunty look, and why, when you look at the bike from the side everything's lined up and looking good. We made the top of the headlight even with the gas tank, put the kickup at the rear of the seat in line with the curve of the fender. We're all pretty proud of how it all turned out."
     So is Drag Specialties. This is one of the 2006 FatBook Cover Bikes, no small honor for any builder. "And that's just huge for us," Klock says. "It's dream material." Kind of like this bike itself, only this one is no dream. It's just another great demonstration of what's possible with the FatBook and a telephone. And it's all available whenever you want it.

An Accel Electronic Distributor fires the beast, Exhaust Heat Wrap Tape is new to the FatBook. It's 2-inches wide and comes in a nice long roll. A tiny 5 3/4-inch Drag/Ness headlight is all it takes. Klock Werks special-mounted it way down low Òkeeping things in line and looking clean.Ó

(Left) From those brand-new Torque Wheels from Performance Machine to the Pro One/Russ Wernimont fork assembly to the short-and-sassy Pimp Slap pipes by Matt Hotch to, well, to just about everything else used here the Lowlife is pure custom and straight from the FatBook.

(Top right) Independent Cycle's chassis kit is extra-long and extra-low. It comes with all the big parts to get the look, even an extended primary  - pulleys, belt and clutch. Your choice of mid- or forward controls.

(Bottom right) Independent's "Slither" gas tank looks made for the bike, and was. Tank Ewsichek matched it to the frame tubes. He cleaned up and molded in the neck area, too, and that's Tank's paint and graphics work.

oesn't look much like anything you'd expect to come out of a catalog, does it? If you agree with that assessment, that this second 2006 FatBook Cover Bike comes off more like a ground up/one-off custom build, you're not alone. Tank Ewsichek, working on a short 5-week time schedule, definitely worked some magic this time. That abbreviated time frame even included Tank's finishing the bike in its House Of Kolor Hot Pink and Platinum Pearl paint and putting on the graphics. Tank did it all on this one.
     "I just worked with what they gave me," he says, deadpanning any due praise for a job more than well done. He started with a stretched-wheelbase/drop-seat Independent Cycle "Lowlife" chassis kit, another standard FatBook offering that includes that frame, the swingarm, mid-controls, an extended primary and a Legend Air suspension. "I just made the rest of it work with all that," Tank says. Indeed.
     Now, we won't kid you. In that short 5-week build-time Tank Ewsichek spent plenty of late hours in the shop neatly massaging a few of the catalog parts he started with. There's some pretty extensive fab-work around the back of the bike, for instance, that area where the Russ Wernimont rear fender joins that Independent frame. Tank made all of that from scratch, fabricating the seat pan, as well. To get that rear fender sitting as nicely as it does Tank split the piece in half, made it strutless, and, using leftover sections from a couple of spare front fenders and some extra sheet metal laying around the shop he molded everything together into a pair of continuous side panels running down to and past the pivot-point of the swingarm. All that extra sheet metal made a nice place to hide the battery and most of the bike's electrics, too, including all the plugs and connectors for this machine's latest-edition S&S engine and its IST ignition system. Not leaving things at that Tank put a special touch to the rear of the Independent fuel tank to form a better flow into the seat, and if we want to really get down to it he boxed-in and cleaned up the neck area of the frame and custom-frenched the taillight. Whew.
     "But other than that," Tank tells us, "most everything else here is straight out of the book." He's not kidding. Run your eyes down the build-sheet for this one, too. You'll see it's all there. There are the new Performance Machine Torque wheels, there's an Accutronix/Wernimont/Pro One front end assembly, there's that aforementioned S&S 124 and its polished Baker 6-speed, the Arlen Ness headlight, mirrors and controls, the Drag Specialties LED taillight along with Matt Hotch's weld-in fuel filler, kickstand and those short and nasty "Pimp Slap" exhausts. It's all straight from the FatBook with every last bit of it available to you, me and anyone else savvy enough to pick it out. Just like Tank Ewsichek did here.
     And that, of course, is the object lesson. There are all sorts of great parts in that Drag Specialties FatBook, the kind of quality, name-brand parts to build a custom bike to just about any theme, style or configuration. All it takes is imagination - and a call to your Drag Specialties rep...

A. An Arlen Ness "Scoop"mirror and left-side Fake Throttle Housing lend a high-tech vibe. Once more, Tank found it all at Drag Specialties. One-stop shopping. B. Thats a Magnum Shielding Chromite 2 clutch cable, matched with a Magnum Shielding Chromite 2 throttle cable over on the other side. C. The big, swept-back beach bars are from Independent Cycle, a perfect match to the Lowlife. Tank stayed with an overall theme on this one and it paid off. D. Those are Arlen Ness Radius 2 handlebar controls with a pair of Pro One Contour ball-milled grips. The switching and wiring is the Drag Specialties brand.