American Iron Magazine - May 2000

"Days of Thunder"

Bret has combined the best of both worlds into one machine.

When a child in born south of the Mason-Dixon line, a series of mandatory events take place, one of which is to be christened a Winston Cup fan birth. Once the child is old enough to make a decision, he is then faced with a critical choice. He must decide whether he is going to be a Ford fan or pull for Chevy. Once that is done, the child is taught to hate restrictor plates and always pledge allegiance to the King, Richard Petty. A Southern child must also pick a driver to follow and that person becomes one of the most influential figures in his life.

Bret Bestpitch, now 36, knows what it is like to grow up and make those decisions. He's paid his dues as a Winston Cup fan by wearing his blue bow tie, loathing restrictor plates, and bowing down the honorable Petty. But Bret also loves another American legend, Harley-Davidson. So it was only natural that he would make a sacrifice to the stock car racing gods on behalf of his hero, Dale Earnhardt, once Bret had acquired his first Harley.

Bret, the director of safety and quality control for a mechanical contracting firm, felt that everyone themes his bike after his own personal interests. He was just following the trend by making his custom 1991 Sportster a tribute to his favorite racing car driver. "I just put on the bike what comes natural to me," exclaims Bret. "I've always pulled for Dale since he came onto the racing scene. I think he's the best and in feeling that way, I thinks it's only fitting that I put the image of the greatest racing car driver ever on the greatest breed of bike ever made."

Bret came across the bike in something of a fire sale. The Sportster had been unaltered and was quickly put on the auction block by the original owner, who needed the money to buy a house. When the aspiring Harley owner came across this prospect, he deemed it too good of a deal to let get away. He recalls, "I couldn't let a deal like this pass me by. I knew that I would have a minimal investment and the opportunity to sell it at a profit."

However, somewhere along the line, Bret dropped the idea of the bike being used as a quick moneymaker. He had the idea train churning through his head and before he knew it, he was knee-deep in a potential project that would forever change the look of this two-wheeler.

Bret wasted no time in contacting local bike customizing wizard Roy Chamberlin of C&C Cycle. Bret conveyed his wishes to Chamberlin, who is world-renowed for his fabrication prowess. The first concern in customizing the bike was to accommodate the rider's large size. Secondly, it was important that the 883 Sportster have all the looks of a Big Twin. Thirdly, the ride should look like a graphics masterpiece using Bret's idol Earnhardt as the theme.

To help deal with the first concern, Roy and Bret used a set of running boards to replace the standard peg combination. This allowed Bret to drop his feet closer to the ground. While this would make riding a more comfortable experience, it didn't increase the comfort level during the build. In fact, it would pose some serious problems later on.

Following their plan to bulk up the Sportster, a Wide Glide front end was added, as was a wider set of handlebars, which Roy refers to as mini-apehangers. Bret wanted a different look to his front end so he decided to take a different approach and add two smaller headlights instead of one. A 21" twisted spoke front wheel was also added to complete the redesign of the front of the scoot.

We mentioned early that adding the running boards posed some build problems. The boards had to be specially modified to work around the forward controls, which caused a clearance problem with the exhaust pipes. To correct this, Roy had to use pipes from two different exhaust systems. After much trial and error, he found that he got the clearance he needed if he used a McPherson pipe for the front cylinder and a White Brothers Porker pipe for the rear one.

We all know that hindsight is 20/20, and it was no different for this duo of customizers. Both have agreed that the next time they add running board to a Sportster they'll use a bracket made by a company in California. To bad they found out about this bracket after they had spent all that time and effort making the pipes work the (now) old way.

The rear section of the bike was adorned with a bobtail fender and a solid Fat Boy wheel. This particular Sportster was created in the last year of the rear chain drive, so Bret felt it was in his best interest to convert the bike to a belt drive during the build.

As far as the engine was concerned, with the exception of a Yost Power Tube and torque valves in the new pipes, Bret left the 883's power plant bone stock, saying that "it had plenty enough power for me."

With the alterations complete, attention was turned to making the bike a graphic masterpiece. Roy hooked Bret up with his graphic artist of choice, Gene Garbowski. In the meantime, Mark Bissett was brought in to do the paint on the Sportster and applied the trademark black that adorns the standard Earnhardt racer.

The sheet metal was then taken to Gene, who used a 1/24-scale car and a trading card as models to generate the images. According to Bret, Gene is a master at graphically allowing things to crash through whatever canvas he works on. The completed project blew Bret away. "I can't describe how pleased I am at the job he did. The detail work was immaculate. When a person can paint detail down to a sticker within a graphic, then you're dealing with one bad hombre."

Speaking of bad hombres, Earnhardt has yet to see this scooter, which is graven his image. That doesn't mean that Bret hasn't tried to arrange a meeting. His dream is to have a picture of Earnhardt sitting on the bike. "A friend of mine is a stepbother of Elmo Langley. Elmo got me into the pits at Dover one year. This was when the bike was still in the process of being built. I hung out with Earnhardt's crew and watched them work on his car. Dale once traveled near to me to do a signing, but he was late in arriving and there was no time to show it to him"

However, one Winston Cup driver was able to take a gander at the radical machine. Bret even has a picture with Kyle Petty standing with it. We felt it was best to let Bret explain Kyle's opinion of it. Petty, an avid Harley rider who sponsers a ride across the United States for charity, offered his professional courtesy toward his rival's shrine. "I asked Kyle if he would pose for a picture with it," recalls Bret. "He then asked me what I wanted him to do, and I told him to do whatever comes naturally. He smiled and then gave it the thumbs down, but I expected that. Dale does beat up on them pretty bad."

written by:

Bobby Bennett Jr.

photographs by:

Al Mojica

TECH SPECS