THE FXR EVOLUTION BUILD

You may have heard the rumor that Dennis Kirk’s Garage Build, Cycle Source and Torque Magazine teamed up to build a killer FXR custom. And you may have heard the bike will be given away to one lucky rider at the Iron Horse Saloon at the 2022 Sturgis Rally. Well, all of that is true!

For this project, Chris and Heather Callen sourced a 1988 FXR from a buddy down south, and despite having been “vigorously enjoyed” in its lifetime, it still had lots of life left. Once they got it home, Chris and Heather went straight to tearing it down. As always, this is messy work, but in this case, it was especially so. Not just because it was an FXR (and an older one to boot), but as anyone in the know will tell you, the last thing you want to do is go at this haphazardly and start breaking OG FXR parts. Trust me, the purists will hunt you down and kill you. Even if you’re planning on getting rid of most of them, take them off nicely and put them up for sale.

After five sessions or more, with a degreaser and an additional one or two with kerosene, the bike was relatively clean and in many baskets. The main parts, the motor and tranny were off to Cycle Stop USA, where Torque editor Jason Hallman and company would tear both components down to verify them to be within the acceptable range to use. Of course, a fresh, top end would be on the list, but the great news was the lower end was in good shape after completing the runout test on the pinion shaft and didn’t need to be rebuilt.

Meanwhile, back in PA, the frame was sent off to the sandblaster to be stripped of all coating to see if any weak points needed to be addressed. Seeing that it was in solid shape, the mock-up work commenced.

Chris reworked the used tank and fabricated the side covers, and in true garage-builder fashion he pulled it all together with a used front fork and brakes. A custom seat from Saddlemen, various Arlen Ness parts, including some killer wheels, along with a sick paint job really made the bike come to life.

Check out the interview with Chris below as he talks about the build, along with various videos showing how this awesome custom came together. And make sure your head over to garagebuild.com and ENTER TO WIN!