El Toro

Roger, the master behind Hawaii’s Kustom Fab pointing out where Darren fucked up the rear fender alignment.

How does a bunch of beach going, wave catching, pineapple eaters, come up with calling their latest project “El Toro?” Well, I guess it all started with the man we built the bike for, “Da Bull,” aka Mel. Mel runs the parts side of the shop and is a partner of Kustomfab. We’re calling this a working bike feature, ‘cause most of the shots were taken during the build process. Fortunately Jim Russi is going to shoot the bike for a national magazine and we’ll add some beauty shots down the road, so hang on for the bling. Wait, there’s more. We’re shooting El Toro with an island girl for the Girls of Bikernet section of Bandit’s Cantina. Don’t miss her. In the meantime check this puppy out.

This bike was planned out over the past couple of years. Mel gathered parts for his bike, then sold them for newer and better stuff. “I guess it’s one of the draw backs of seeing the latest and greatest parts that come out all the time,” said Mel, the parts guy. “It wasn’t until Roger and I starting getting the itch to put this bike together for the Winter Fest Bike show, that we started brainstorming. We had exactly one month to make it happen!”

That meant they were under the deadling to fab/assemble and paint, which didn’t leave them much of a f***k factor for errors. “This was going to be even more challenging,” Mel said, “because we were going to use new part sources, out of our comfort zone, and we weren’t sure if they would be able to meet our schedule.”

There’s Darren welding.

Like usual they started by throwing ideas at one another. “We thought out the frame modifications thoroughly,” Mel said. Even though, ultimately, it was a bitch to work out.” They had to give it their Patent K-Fab signature look, which would include a Kool seat mechanism and state-of-the-art design elements and hand fabricated sheet metal. The gas tank would house the fuel pump and all the electrical in a hide-away compartment. The rest of the bike housed some trick details from LED housing on rear fender to LED lights placed in the front of the bike.

Huh, oh, what did Darren do now?

”We were going to keep the paint simple,” Mel added, “and let the lines of the bike do the talking.” The seat pan looks a small, but they also made a bolt-addition that makes the ride a lot smoother. The internal throttle and clutch cleaned up the handlebars, while the Auto clutch assembly makes it a breeze to drive. “We also have to give Bandit his Kudos’ for his influence with the Accurate Engineering Pan,” Mel said, “and getting the motor to us in a timely fashion so we were able to complete the bike on time.”

Da Bull, polishing fins.

”Well let me tell you,” Mel said, “it was worth the long nights and stressful days. The bike turned out better then we thought it would…who needs 3-D cad cams, when you can design things in your head and still make it happen! It’s all good to us, if the final product turns out like this one. Bam!!!”