More Harley-Davidsons go under the grinder than any other make of bike. But surprisingly, The Motor Co. seldom commissions customs from big-name builders.
Instead, it has developed the annual Battle of the Kings contest?where dealers customize a bike within a very strict rule set. To get a taste of how hard that is, we flew to Milwaukee for the second Harley-sponsored ?Brewtown Throwdown? event.

The Brewtown Throwdown is a build-off between teams, made up of people from different walks of life. Last year, our team was tasked with building a Sportster café racer. This time around, I was on a new team with a new donor: a fresh-out-the-crate Street Bob.
We had to operate within the BoTK rulebook?which means a set budget, and a specific quota of H-D aftermarket parts. But we only had a couple of weeks to prep, and a mere two and a half days for hands-on wrenching. So it didn’t take long to settle on a team name: Quick ‘n Easy.
My teammates included an X-Games gold medalist, a rock climber-slash-fitness model, a Harley-Davidson engineer, and a couple of guys from Vice. Our HQ was Milwaukee Harley-Davidson, with shop boss Goran Zadrima leading the team, techs John (below) and Carlton showing us the ropes, and Harley PR guy Joe Gustafson keeping a watchful eye over us.
The style brief was simply ?dirt, chopper or track.? We picked track, and started refining our ideas via Skype calls, a Google Drive folder full of inspiration pics, a comprehensive parts list and...