I am interested in building one. J.P cycles has a kit. It is a Milwaukie softail frame. Not sure they are sold as a kit but they have everything their. Anyone build one? Total cost? How good is the frame?

 

I have never tried building a kit bike, but, I have tried building a bike starting from just a frame.......AND let me tell you, unless you are going to make it super different, I would just buy a bike already assembled - WAY more Cost-Effective!

If you are on a budget and can only afford to spend a little bit each month for say a couple of years, then you can do the kit thing, or just save the money you would have spent on each item(s) each month, and buy something complete at the end of a year or how every many years it would have taken to build your kit bike.

That is just my input anyway.

 

I owned a Gilroy Indian. Buy a Harley!

 

I've never built a "kit" bike, but I've built customs from the frame up. It's something you do because you enjoy the process, or because you've got a pile of parts looking for a home.

I probably wouldn't built a bike up from an aftermarket frame, a "special construction" is harder to sell when you're ready to move on to another project. If you build your custom from a clean titled Harley frame, you'll most likely get more of your money back when it's time to sell.

 

i built a big bear choppers bare bones kit bike. rev tech 100 ci, rev tech 6 speed, BDL belt drive, santee frame, ARP fasteners. all quality pieces. the sheet metal, controls, lights, electrical system were all cheap but the bike was under 10K. added a few goodies and chrome and paint for under 13K. came out pretty nice for my first try. the sissy bar was removable as was the fender and lights/license plate holder. it was delivered in a big box by a big truck to my door. this pic is just before the owner came and got it. 6 weeks later he sold it for crack money, six weeks later he was shot by his crack dealer. there were no instructions but i have built several cars so i figured 2 wheels would be half the work. took me about 3 months doing it on the weekends. would i do it again? hell yes.

 

Wish I had the skills and the money. To be able to build a bike the exact way I wanted it would be a dream.

 

Would love to build (with my son) a bike from a kit just to be able to pass it on to him.

 

Keep something in mind with all aftermarket parts and these " Kits " everything must be fitted up and most times tweaked or outright modified to work right & look good when done . Been building sleds from the ground up forever and I strongly suggest you do a complete build of the bike without the final paint job , ride it a couple months do all the mods and changes that will happen for several reasons and then do the paint over the winter . Can't tell how many bikes I've seen done with $$$ paint jobs done first that needed rework on something or another tab welded on somewhere .

 

I had Built One when HD where hard to come by
Be prepared to spend lots time looking at Catalogs
But it's worth it that way you get Exactly watch you one

 

I once took apart the carbs on a real bike and reassembled them incorrectly. Other than that, no.