When Craig Keller came to us with the idea of purchasing a "bike-in-a-box" kit, Johnny quickly explained to him that most of those kits are built with parts from overseas where quality is not the utmost priority.

Craig quickly changed tacks and explained what he truly wanted to Johnny, his likes and dislikes and went through the whole process together with the crew at Insane. The guy wanted a dream bike... that is what he got.

With very specific things in mind such as a Springer front end, handlebars void of controls, tight clearances, wide tire and a "fucking cool" (his words, not ours... we would never use profanity...yeah right.) sissy bar, it was clear that Craig's bike would be one cool piece of machinery.

We called on to Denver Choppers, who truly came up with a beauty, a 7" over stock Springer that is a testimony to Mondo's craftsmanship and talent.

You want beefy tires? well, that is we he got! 240, 16x7 in the rear and a 150, 16 x 5 for the front wheel.

Color? Black and more black... the combination of satin black and brush aluminium reminds us that most bikes that were built in garages were flat black.

The motor was a fairly big adventure for Craig, as he wanted a blacked out motor. Since those are pretty expensive, he proceeded to purchase a blonde motor from Insane and took it apart himself and had it powder coated black. Lots of work, but saved himself some dollars in the process.

If you hadn't gotten the point yet, let's just say that Craig touched everything on this bike, his imprint is on every part and he really got himself in the build. Craig works as a RN who works on a 6pm to 6am shift, then would show up at Insane to work on his project.

While Johnny and Insane Custom Cycles were initially hired to work on some fabrication as well as general know-how, Johnny came to like the design so much that he offered to build it for not much more cash. "At the end of the day, this bike shows why I own this business. The love of the machine and the joy of the person getting exactly what they wanted."*

* Excerpts taken from The Horse, Backstreet Chopper Magazine.

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