Finally. Im sure those who have been following my build thread are going to be happy this review has actually come to fruition. Between all the PMs i get and the inquiries ive gotten on my build thread, i know a lot of you are interested in this.

My build thread: https://www.hdforums.com/forum/dyna-...xrt-build.html

Let me begin by saying this is not how i wanted this review to turn out. Between graduating, working long hours, and not wanting to provide any information until completion (ie; build details, big bear review etc.), this thread is LONG over due. Long over due or not, I still dont want to complete it just yet as i would much rather gather information ive lost. Over the time that has passed since my purchase, my original phone which had call logs and memos i had written about my experience with Big Bear was lost. Over that time, i've also forgotten important dates, timelines and im sure even though I remember most, there are some conversations that have slipped my mind too. You guys have been waiting a long time, and my dumb *** promised it would be done this weekend. However dont lose hope, I remember important details, my over all experience and I do have lots of pictures (thanks to the cloud ). You all should feel special. If your following my build thread closely you'll know my computer was hacked, so in order to get the pictures up, I dug out a computer I built 8 years ago. ****er still works.

One thing I promise to achieve with this review is %100 honesty and being factual with the information. I have no reason to lie to you, slander Kevin Alsop's good name, or try and start a fight (which id win).

Skip all this **** and scroll to the pictures if you dont wanna read. Word heavy, as is all my ****.

with that out of the way.... lets start here. April 16th I flew (from Ohio) to California and stayed in a town 30 minutes from where Big Bear is located. Ive wanted an FXRT since i came out of the womb, and I knew of Kevin Alsop from his short lived fame, Shovelhead build off, and more recently of course his FXRT kits, and other motorcycle related products. I drove to his shop and waited in the small waiting room as people just walked by and didnt offer any help. About ten minutes pass and low and behold Kevin comes walking in holding an old gas tank and asks if we had been helped yet. I told him I was interested in the FXRT kit for my dyna, that i was in town from Ohio and that I would love to check out some of the products he produced before I ordered 5 grand worth of stuff from him. Without hesitation he took me back into the shop where everything was stocked/ worked on. He showed me everything and sold me on it as he spoke of the quality and the workmanship and said multiple times that there's a reason his kit is the "most expensive" on the market. I did get to see an FXRT shell, not painted, but one he was prepping and shipping out to Germany. it didn't contain any of the hinges, doors or holes yet, but it felt of good quality and he assured me everything was made by the best fiberglass guy who has been in the business for 30 years. Also I was able to see a shell (or half) of a slim line bag he had laying there. Most of the tour was showing me other things i wasn't interested in (gauge relocation kits, wiring harnesses, and the inverted front end setup he sells, which looked ****ing wicked by the way.) but i wasn't complaining, I enjoyed every second of it. Being a Harley tech student at the time, i was in heaven, and Kevin gave up a lot of his time to give me pointers on my build as well as take me around the shop. I was sold.

Get back to Ohio next week and order my **** over the phone with Gabriel. Dude was super chill on the phone and helped me get everything squared away. Told me the wait time on all parts is 4 weeks maximum till it ships. **** yea thats not bad at all. I gave him my email, phone number, CC info, everything he needed. $4700 was the total of my first order. Not spare change and definitely not something taken lightly as a student. about 3 days go by and i figure itd be nice to have an invoice of my order, so i could see the breakdown and also have proof of the transaction. Call up Gabriel, he answers, tells me he will email me one right now. A week goes by I didn't get ****. I call him at the end of the week and ask him if he sent the invoice, oh yeah sorry ill send that out to you right away. 13 days. I must have called at least 4 times in that time period, not just asking about the invoice but also asking tech questions. Everytime i spoke with him i felt like he was just hearing about me asking for an invoice for the first time. 13 days, for a $4700 order. Every time I called and spoke to Gabriel he assured me he would get to it right after we got off the phone. The only **** ill dish out in this thread is that Gabriel has the memory of a ****ing gold fish. I dont think ive ever dealt with a more absent minded person in my life, not just based on this experience, but my Big Bear journey as a whole.

After the first two weeks, I called every week till i got my order. I was sketched out by these guys. Everything they would say would never be correct. Week 2 I call just out of curiosity to see how my order is going, Gabe tells me that they are getting the stuff in on Friday and will prep it and have it shipped by Tuesday! Hell yea ill get my **** early. Tuesday comes around, so i called in , he said yea we are looking at this Wednesday for the stuff to come in then we have to prep it. we will ship it by Friday. hell yea ! still early! this went on for weeks, every time Gabe forgot who i was, what i ordered and what the **** he did for a living. Then finally I call in and Kevin picks up, i said its your nightmare from Ohio, hows my order looking. he said he is prepping it now and it should be ready by next week. Ok whatever thats cool but its been 4 weeks at this point. I call in that next week and i speak to Kevin its still not ready. He goes "You know there is a 4 week wait time on this stuff right." Yea no ****. I told him look at the calender its been over 5 weeks. his response was basically oh **** your right ill get right on it.

i know i rambled that whole thing. But you get the point. i had $4700 of my savings just free floating out there somewhere with nothing to show for it. Ive lost count at this point but kevin promised me **** would ship out on a certain day. of course it didnt, so i called in, his wife answered and i asked to speak to kevin. 5 mins go by and she gets back on the phone and says he is working on it at that moment and it will ship tomorrow or the next day. (at this point, i dont have exact dates, but i do know that it still didnt ****ing ship when she said it would either.) It took over 40 Days to receive my parts, and i had to have them next day aired.

Maybe this is not a big deal for many of you and maybe it wouldnt have been for me either if it wasnt for school. i was in a 9 week class where i had to build a custom bike. This included a full tear down, rebuild, body work, paint, and fabrication. I had planned the order to work with my class schedule, but instead i wasnt able to complete the class and had nothing to show for it. I received my Big Bear order with one week of class left. When my custom build instructor and my custom paint instructor saw my Big Bear fairing they where speechless at the horrible quality and even prompted my one instructor to say "who ever robbed you deserves to be shot." Yea the **** was that bad.

before i had received my fairing kit, i had called Big Bear and ordered some suspension components. Another $~1000. I talked to Kevin, told him what i was looking for and he said he would hook me up. wait time was 2 weeks. its not all bad with Big Bear. in fact here is what i had to say in my build thread replying to someone who brought up Big Bears company history :

I still stand by everything I said. Kevin was awesome, he always answered and always had time to answer your tech questions or give his opinion on things. Now its hard for me to say this but if your looking for suspension, I dont think going with Big Bear is the worst thing you could do. I got my suspension from Big Bear on time and its been great so far (ohlins). Also, try to find a better price on Ohlins NIX22 setup (with springs and oil included**). Kevin also did give me his cell phone number so i could text him questions about installing the parts I had received which was nice.

So after all this waiting, calling and then receiving the fairing kit and bags which I still consider to be a joke, I was pissed with Big Bear and rightfully so. I called Kevin the next day and told him he sold me horse **** and i went off. I was pissed and I bitched about his **** to him over the phone. I told him the quality he spoke of didn't exist, it looked like a 5 year old put everything together, and it was absolute garbage. I told him I had no faith in his product and I wanted a full refund. I went on about how he was late with the order (which he denied), and how i wasn't able to complete my class. I also told him i respected him as a builder and looked up to him as a technician but his products didnt reflect what he preached. Not once over the phone did I talk **** about him, just the products he sold me. Now I have to give Big Bear credit here. I did get a full refund from big bear and also a fat bill from UPS for $800 haha. For real though, Kevin stands behind his product no matter what and I think that says something about the company. Not sure what it says, but if he hadn't given me a refund, who ****ing knows what dumb **** i would have done.

The day after I told Kevin i wanted a refund, he called me and said "If you had said that **** to me in person i woulda beat the **** outta you."

all I could think of is what the ****? Thats how you treat your people who buy your **** ? Long story short, the ****er still had my $5000 so I played it cool until I had my refund. Today 6 months later, i dont even give a **** as i have my money, and have much better **** on the way. so follow my build thread.

Theres alot more to add, but ive moved on and im getting tired of regurgitating it to people in person and now with this review. so ill just ramble some more **** before ending with pictures;

• Not All the parts where ready when my order shipped, so Gabe had too over night me the exhaust brackets separate.
  
• Gabe sent the wrong exhaust bracket referenced above, when i sent kevin pictures of how the exhaust bracket fit on my bike (crooked as ****) he assured me it was correct and too just run it. he texted me 5 minutes later and told me it was for a completely different bike. Yay more wait time.
  
• The whole time I dealt with Big Bear i heard over and over that they use the best guy in the industry for the fairings and bags. A guy who has been in the industry for 30 years.
  
• Gabe tried to tell me that because he had never heard of my custom paint instructor, he couldnt possibly be correct in telling me the stuff I received wasnt good quality.
  
• Gabe told me once again that the fairing and bags are from the best glass guy in the industry. Kevin calls me and tells me the next day the guy that made my **** was a different guy big bear hired.... mother ****ers youve been telling me for 7 weeks its made by some fiber glass god but all the sudden my **** was made by someone else?
  
• Along with the wrong exhaust bracket, Gabe also sent me one 02 sensor plug, and one 02 sensor 18mm adaptor. The **** was i supposed to do with that.

i could go on. and on. and on.

You know whats sad? Almost everything ive bitched about so far has been logistics. You havent even seen the product yet. that should tell you something. more than half of my review has just been about the everyday dealings with this company, and not the actual product, which could be a whole separate review.
Now unfortunately i do have video of the fairing and bags but i couldn't get them to upload on this computer. The video shows much more of the terrible quality, including the fairing doors falling off when opened.

lets start with the good.

All brackets and hardware were excellent (except my problem with exhaust bracket and bag mounts, see below)

This is the exhaust bracket I was sent which did not fit correctly.


Main FXRT bracket. ****ing beefy, good welds, good coating.


Slim line Bag bracket. once again beefy, overbuilt, in my opinion too heavy. It should be noted that i never got these brackets to work on my bike. the bracket interfered with the fender strut and never sat straight.






Its been awhile since I looked at how this all went together but i believe this is the bracket that mounts where crash bars mount in the hole between the downtubes. it then extends to FXRT fairing on the underside. once again, good construction.


i believe these are the leg lower brackets.


All hardware was stainless steel. All the brackets seemed of good construction and the coating seemed like it would hold up. however keep in mind i never did put any of this to the test so my opinion is purely based on handling these parts and not actual use on how they where intended.

Now lets look at the best of fiberglass. This includes the Leg lowers and the chin spoiler. Im annotating all these pictures. just making observations, just because i point out a small chip or crack doesnt mean im saying its a reason for that particular piece to be returned. alot of what will be showed is considered "ok." im just showing you what 5 grand gets you.

sloppy holes drilled into the top of leg lowers and blotches in the gel coat. not a big deal. like said above, this is the BEST of the glass i received.


small chip and crack. spider webbing everywhere.


spider webbing, hand prints


more blotches on leg lower


finger prints, but over all no imperfections


other side leg lower mounting holes. not in focus on upper corner is lots of rough and uneven areas in gel coat.


by far the nicest piece i received. no imperfections. keep in mind this still needs holes drilled in to be mounted

once again,

 

Now onto the Bags. $1300. thirteen. hundred. ****ing. dollars. how could they even let this **** ship out? currently im rocking $300 bags and they are much better quality in everyway compared to Big Bears. and my $300 bags are shitty. the outside of the bags are self explanatory.

 

Notice the Home Depot piano hinge and the **** cut job.

 

Now onto the inside of the bags. Now im not an engineer, but Ive worked on air planes and motorcycles and this **** is laughable.

Straight as ****.


look at those rivets. FAA would be proud.




those rivets are smashed!









See that support plate? oh you dont? hmm. those rivets will never pull through. notice on the right the hinge pulling away from the bag.


hmm. I guess i dont give a **** if my bag lid slams the ground when i open it. I mean they look like they've been dragged on the ground anyways.

 

Wow. I'm a big fan of Kevin as far as getting walked through his shop. He is very passionate about his products and comes across as a straight shooter.

Sucks that the fiberglass work is so rough and beat up looking

Very nice, well rounded write up covering all aspects. Appreciate the time to type it and good to get some real info out there other than just bashing a company with little supporting reasoning why

 

Finally onto the fairing. $2500. Go buy a sportster.
Most of the problems with the fairing had to do with the doors. they were impossible to open one handed, the latches are junk, felt like a Chinese key chain. the fitment was non existent. one side was gapped the other had no clearance. I have a video of me opening the doors and they just ****ing come off the fairing. notice the craftsmanship, the attention to detail, and the over all quality. But for real pay close attention to the door fitment. I used to work in a body shop and fitment is one of those things that can throw a whole build off.






































who the **** cut this hole? who!?


Rivet pro strikes again.












Someone send me a sticker or something for this review.

 

Thanks man. Honestly i dont know why i got the **** that I did. Kevin knows his **** and makes some bad *** stuff. Thanks for the words, glad its been appreciated.

 

subbed will read later..

 

You can always (and shood) expect to have some level of finish work to do on glass! That being said,my god that’s sloppy work.The hardware looks to be on the cheap side also. Looks like he’s not paying his wetbacks enough cash to give a ****. The car restoration business is full of these guys. Good luck!

 

Big Bear Choppers is the LAST company on earth that I would do business with......The guy's a crook!