American Iron Magazine - June 2003

"Two-Wheel Mistress - Jim's custom Pro-Street"

Lady Luck must have known that Jim Wiggins wanted it bad. Real bad. So one day, when he least expected it, she smiled benevolently and satisfied his craving. He's never been the same since. The It he needed is a 2002 custom FXR that his buddy, Roy Chamberlin, had been lovingly handcrafting from scratch. just a few blocks from the Amoca station in Bowie, Maryland, that Jim runs.

I watched it being built step by step," the 58-year-old says with the enthusiasm of a kid in a candy store. Jim had hung around Roy's shop, picking up pointers, with idea of building his own bike. But the more he watched and learned, the more he decided he just didn't have the time and money to build exactly what he wanted.

Meanwhile, he'd fallen hard for the sleek Pro-Street that Roy ahd been carefully building for five months. "He let me test ride it, too, and that was a mistake!" When the day finally came, the customer Roy had agreed to sell it to couldn't pony up the necessary cash. That's when Jim made his move on the FXR. "I had no idea I was going to buy it until the other deal fell through, and then I jumped right on it!" he says with a hint of surprise at how strong his attraction had become. "I'd sleep with it, if I could get it up into my house!"

No doubt Jim's wife wouldn't be too crazy about that idea. But then, you could say she was the one who instigated this whole menage-a-trois talk in the first place. Jim had been riding since the late '60's, but he convinced himself several years ago that he didn't need a two-wheeled companion anymore. "I thought I'd lost the passion, and I just sat around annoying my wife until she said, 'Go get another bike!'"

To placate her and quiet his own raging withdraw symptoms, Jim bought himself a 1990 FLTHP. Although the police scooter wasn't his ideal choice, it did rekindle the old spark, and he was happy for a time, tinkering and tuning. But one thing led to another, and he started yearning for the good old days when he built choppers at a small San Diego bike shop. Enter C&C Cycle and the Candy Tangerine FXR.

"The FXR is really more my style," he states. "It's real fast, real light, and real quiet." It's also one of Roy Chamberlin's favorite styles, which led him to build this award-winning near twin of another FXR he'd assembled a few years ago. Like so many other bikes fashioned by the consummate customizer, a lot of creative energy went into the design of this head-turner.

To achieve the desired low and lean FXR look, it was built around a Kenny Boyce rubber-mount frame that's raked 36 degrees. "For putting power down on the road, the FXR rubber-mount system is by far the best," Roy points out. A White Brothers/Porker spring kit was used to lower the front end, while an American Suspension billet shock takes care of the rear section.

The hot rod performance that Jim admires so much starts with the 107" TP Engineering motor palpitating within the frame. Show-polished straight out of the box, the heads and jugs were sent out to Ed's Polishing in nearby Landover to finish the job. :When you polish an engine, it runs hotter, believe it or not," says Roy. To keep it from running too hot, he frenched an air dam into the front of the frame and installed an Earl's oil cooler inside the dam.

Breathability was enhanced with an S&S Super G carburetor coupled to a Yost Power Tube, which delivers a superior fuel mist to the carb. Ignition is provided by a V-Thunder Hyper Fire system, whose advance curves can be adjusted using any of its 16 pre-programmable settings. Gas Vapors are exhausted via polished, stainless steel SuperTrapp headers. The SuperTrapp system was selected for its tunability. If you're tryingto squeak out every bit of horsepower, that's the way to go.

As for the TP mill's formidable 115 horses of raw power, they get transferred to the asphalt by way of a primary chain and final 1" belt drive. The stock 1-1/2" pulley had to be machined down in this case so it could match the belt width. The smooth-shifting, five-speed transmission gets its fluidity from Andrews close-ratio, back-cut gears packed in a polished Delkron case. A BDL clutch was also chosen because its billet aluminum pressure plate with 10 springs - just like the old four-speeds used to have - offers a nice, even push.

Jim cruises the turnpikes and two-laners in comfort on Avon 100/90-19" rubber in front and an Avon 200/55-18" out back. Both are mounted on Sullivan Brothers rims and covered by Jesse James fenders modified by C&C Cycle, with a tag and cat's eye taillight frenched into the rear fender.

When he wants to rein in his steed, he grabs a handful of GMA four-piston brakes, front and back. The rear caliper is hung over the top of the disc behind the pulley, using custoom brackets off the swingarm so that everything is on the left side. According to Roy, one of the real challenges of building this bike was designing a workable swingarm. It's made out of box tubing and cleverly hides the axle and axle adjustors behind the removable cover plate.

The FXR sips gas from a stretched 4.2 gallon tank designed by Roy and sold exclusively by Fat Katz. Ignition coils and relays are concealed in back, while the engine ignition switch is located on the lower right side of the tank. It, too, is hidden from view to afford a cleaner look. The other lifeblood liquid, oil, is housed in a tank built by C&C that's similar in its wraparound design and capacity to a Softail oil tank.

In addition to all these features, Jim mavels at a couple of other details that reinforce the unique character of the bike. One of the things he points out is that the bottom edge of the gas tank is enclosed, so that when you look at the mirror-like rocker boxes, you can't see up into the backbone of the bike. Then there's the trick pullback handlebars that are actually composed of six pieces of tubing. They're tapered from 1-1/2" to 1" and terminate with turn signals housed in the end of the grips.

Jim says that he doesn't have a need to show his curvaceous beauty, but figures he'll lend it to Roy whenever he wants to enter it in competition. And he's not going to take any chances using it as a daily ride. He'll stick to the FL when it comes to rainy days or gravel roads. "It's like the FL's my old lady," he quips, "and the FXR is my mistress!"

written by:

Adrian Blake

photographs by:

Pam Proctor

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