Extravagance is pretty much the American way of life. For instance, even if you have a super-trick ride that you've only just finished building (and spending a fortune on), just do it over-it's only money. Mark Sillitto was faced with just such a dilemma. His R1 had been stretched, chromed, fully customized and painted by Florida's Roaring Toyz, but when it was completed, he felt it could be better. And besides, some new chrome gizmos and more-powerful LED lights had been invented since Bob Fisher finished the bike in 2005.
Sillitto had also grown tired of the red "true flame" paintwork, as it was now becoming last year's look and preferred a complete custom repaint in bright yellow with tribal skull graphics. There was another item on the Roaring Toyz shelf that he simply had to have as well-a ridiculously fat 360 rear tire. That was a must, and it would nicely replace his "undersized" 240 rear end.
Changing the paintwork was relatively easy-just a matter of taking off the plastic panels and fuel tank and handing them over to Ryan Hathaway-RT's resident artist-to work his magic on. Hathaway then swapped to crocodile skin seats dyed red to match the accents on the new paintwork. Similarly, the latest chrome doodads like the engraved fork tops and steering stem nut were merely a matter of "off with the old and on with new."
But the addition of the huge 360 rear hoop was going to be just a little bit more difficult than a straightforward tire swap. Roaring Toyz, being masters of both the long and fat rear end, didn't take too long to figure out what was needed to squeeze the humongous 360 onto the R1. For starters, a new aluminum swingarm was going to have to be designed and fabricated (complete with an underbrace to withstand the rolling torque from the big tire), and the latest duel-chamber air-ride suspension setup was fitted as well. It has the ability to alter the ride height and the degree of "firmness" while the bike is on the move using the two thumb switches on the left handlebar. Roaring Toyz also decided that the bigger footprint of the 360 rear allied to the 12-inch-over stock swingarm necessitated some front-end reinforcement and fitted heavy-duty springs and heavier oil to the R1 forks in addition to reworking the internals.
The left brake disc and caliper were then lost to lighten the load on the front, as well as to improve the aesthetics by giving an unhindered view of the RC Components "Predator" spinner wheel.
It was the rear wheel, however, that was going to cause the biggest problem. Sillitto wanted to stay with the Predator wheels front and rear, but the problem was that RC Components doesn't make a Predator wheel wide enough for the 360 tire. But Roaring Toyz isn't known as the aforementioned masters of the obese ass for nothing. A cunning plan was devised that used the edges of the existing 18-inch wheel, but with the addition of a "blank" 8.5-inch rim that's welded to both sides of the original wheel-making it 13.5 inches wide and a host to the 360. This also required a move that involved making new additions to both sides of the hub to retain the spinners before having the welds machined and the entire unit rechromed.