2005 Kawasaki ZX-10 - Sex Machine

It was only a few fingers' worth of years ago that a long-and-low, single-sided sportbike would stop even the most jaded journalist in his tracks. But since then, the custom bike scene has been whored out with subpar, fat-tire stretch jobs that have cheapened the more thorough builds.

In the same way that it takes a true stunner to arouse a well-practiced gentleman's club patron, a stretched and slammed special better have some serious assets if it plans to make an impact in the custom-bike parade.

Eye Candy Custom Cycles is a newcomer to the scene and entered the lineup almost by accident. Shop co-owner Eddie McCoy explained how the company busted onto the stage, "Eye Candy Cycle Designs was started in April of 2006, and prior to that date we would simply make parts for our own bikes to show off at various bike nights. As the bikes got more attention, people began asking us if we could make parts for their bikes. At that point the parts were our basic 'spike' design. We began to get requests from people to customize their bikes, and we expanded from just making parts to doing custom work."

McCoy decided to give his personal 2005 ZX-10 the full treatment, and it moved Eye Candy up from a local shop to a premier showbike builder.

The ZX-10 isn't a common choice to begin with, and when Eye Candy chose to build a single-sided swingarm from scratch, it was do or die for the young company. McCoy explained how Eye Candy attacked the project: "We were already partners in a company producing laser systems for the medical industry and had a complete machine shop at our disposal. We decided that forming another company to produce quality billet custom-bike parts made sense."

McCoy had his own ideas about the build as well, "I went to Florida for the filming of the Metric TV series, and afterward I thought I could make a design that would be stronger and different, plus I wanted to bring the fat-tire look to the West Coast."

After tinkering about with different swingarm designs, the finished result that made it onto the bike had over $1500 in raw material and 156 hours invested in it-and that's prior to fitting the rear wheel, sprockets and the rest of the arrangement. McCoy ultimately chose RC Components' "Raven" wheels to finish off the rolling chassis, and then it was time to get into the engine.

A Muzzy turbo system with a slash-cut pipe for the exhaustive measures got the nod from McCoy, and for good reason, "A turbo would take it that much more over the top."

That's good enough for us.

The up-and-down element is as important as the drive, and poor rhythm can make the ride a bad experience (Are we still talking about the bike? -Ed.). Taking care of the bounce is a Hi-Low Rider air ride suspension, and it's got an extra goody for added pleasure. Hinging on the bottom is a centerstand that lowers with the air ride and allows the bike to sit flat without a traditional kickstand. The arrangement keeps the lines tidy-looking while also offering good stability when stationary.