When Bike Week rolls through Daytona Beach every spring, Scott Alvarez rides down from his home in the Florida panhandle to sling ink on drunken frat boys and outlaw stockbrokers at Willie's Tropical Tattoo. Scott is the original owner of this '01 XL, and he and his friends did most of the motor and chassis mods personally. Scott is a motivated bikerider, and his rigid girl's bike is a shining example of today's popular no-frills DIY customs.
I bought my '01 XL883 Custom right off the truck in late 2000. It's gone through many phases from stock to flat black with struts to what you see now. By the time you read this it will probably look different. I get bored with stuff real easy. TV generation syndrome. My buddy Fred and I hopped up the motor about nine years ago and it still runs like a champ. I've ridden from Florida to Sturgis and back on this very same engine. Roadside Marty was a big help getting the bike to the point you see it now. He got Bob Bourdeaux at French Kiss Customs to do paint job for my birthday! I love this bike and I ride the hell out of it almost every day. It's small, light and has way too much engine. What's not to love?
I've been involved with motorcycles as long as I've been tattooing. Roughly 14 years. The two kind of go hand in hand. I used to tattoo in Sturgis every year until that place just got too lame. For the past few years I have been working at Willie's Tropical Tattoo in Daytona during Bike Week and Biketoberfest. Kind of a working vacation, if you will. I have a great time tattooing down there during the bike weeks and always come away with new friends. When I'm not tattooing I run an Internet outlaw blog with Roadside Marty called Flat Broke. It's got the same stuff as all the other ones: old bikes, old boobs, Conway Twitty, that sort of thing.
Year, make and model of motor: 2001 XL 883 beefed up with 1203cc Buell Thunderstorm heads, Wiseco 10:1 pistons, Buell X1 cams and a Mikuni 42mm carb
Year, make and model of frame: Paughco frame stock rake, no stretch. We had to straighten the rear legs. It must have been a "Friday" frame
Builders: Tommy Leonard did all the welding and fab work on the dirt floor of his country shop. He also did most of the final assembly and wiring. Roadside Marty provided lots of free parts such as both wheels and the Led Sled oil tank
Shop: Flat Broke choppers, Tommy's shack behind his double-wide in the boonies
NickHaints
BadMonkeyMW
MoK13
dertyD
MegaDON666
TS
bmxatv
Theron
davidabl
version of a bike like this, with the 883 powerplant and call it a 55.
55in more-or-less being 883cc :-)
davidabl
salvarez
ShittySmerf
salvarez
HardLuckDesigns
me
sleethmitchel
rooster52478
got556