  red Fox is Chairman of the Board of Lemans Corp., parent company of Drag Specialties but if you got to know him you’d realize he’s just a rider like the rest of us. For an everyday ride Fred has a ‘91 FXLR that he’s kept forever, setting it up with some pipes, saddlebags and a few other bolt-ons from the FatBook. Nothing fancy but he loves that bike and rides the wheels off it.That trusty ‘91 aside, Fred’s always teasing the guys in the shop about the FatBook bikes they put together. He says every time they build one he likes, something he’d actually like to own, lickity split it disappears out on the show circuit and he never gets to ride it, much less keep it. Well, one of those show bikes, an FXR put together by Kendall Johnson, really caught Fred’s eye. He fell in love with that bike, the look of it and its line. That one he really made a fuss over. With most of the others he’d say, “Yeah, it’ll look great in the ads and it really showcases the parts,” but that FXR was different. This one he wanted. And of course just like all those others it was loaded on the Event Truck and disappeared into the show circuit. Just as well, probably, because as good-looking as that bike was, and still is, Kendall, the performance junkie that he is, built a drag racer for the street there. And looks or no looks that’s hardly the everyday motorcycle Fred could use to replace his ‘91. So the guys at Drag Specialties did something about that. They took it upon themselves to put together another bike in the style of that FXR, this time making it real-world, something Fred could actually ride. And they’d keep the whole thing a secret until it was done. When it comes to building a bike like that, one you can hop on and ride anywhere, you can do a whole lot worse than to go to Don Hotop. Don knows how to make a bike look good, and he knows how to match those looks with something that can actually be used day-in and day-out. “I knew that Fred just likes to low-key cruise,” Don says. “For that an FXR is definitely the way to go. They’ve always been popular, they’re smooth and they handle great.” That’s what he built, starting with a Chopper Guys frame. “I put it together the way I’d like one myself,” he goes on. “I tried to keep it clean, not decorating it up like Christmas tree. That’s not my style and it isn’t Fred’s, either.” Starting with that Chopper Guys frame Don added an S&S 96-inch engine and to keep things simple and trouble free he left it alone. For a transmission he picked a Baker 6-speed in the FLH style, the one with an integral oil sump. “That way I wouldn’t have to clutter up the middle of the bike with an oil tank,” he explains. The front end is simplicity itself, and classic Hotop. It’s a 49mm ‘06 Harley-Davidson DynaGlide with Accutronix trees. At the rear there’s a set of Progressive’s new shocks and springs and the fairing is from Arlen Ness. That gas tank, which fits the bike perfectly, is about the only part–along with those fork legs–that didn’t come out of the FatBook. It’s an old FXR piece Don had in the shop. He stretched it with some Drag Specialties extensions. The fenders are Russ Wernimont’s (Hotop modified) and like everything else–from the wheels and tires right through to the oil poured into that transmission’s sump they came straight from the FatBook. “I didn’t want to copy Kendall’s bike exactly,” says Don. “But since I knew Fred really liked those lines and that look I made sure to have a little bit of similarity going on, even to the real-fire paint job. I don’t like to step on other builder’s toes and copy what they do. That’s just not my style. I wouldn’t to do that to anyone.” This time, though, he had to. At least a little. He had to build in just enough resemblance to make the new owner happy. And it was just enough. The bike was presented to Fred last August at the dealer’s Meet-and-Greet at the Drag Specialties warehouse. Fred Fox had no idea what was coming, and when he was handed the keys his jaw dropped and he was speechless, finally declaring, “I hope you guys know that this one is staying with me. It’s not going anywhere near that Event Truck!” And it hasn’t. This one is Fred’s new keeper, “just a little old beater bike” as Don Hotop calls it. Some beater… 
“Firestarter” Parts List -Avon tires
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