Optic Nerve

Built for the Builder

Every builder eventually decides to build something for himself. Not for a client, not for a show, not for a commission — just for the pure satisfaction of building exactly what he wants, exactly the way he wants it, with no brief to answer to and no deadline to meet except his own. Optic Nerve was that bike for Doug Keim.

The project started quietly, the way personal builds tend to. Doug knew what he wanted, the team knew what they were doing, and the work began. What Doug did not anticipate was how quickly word would travel.

The Build

Optic Nerve started with a DKCC-spec frame built by Phil Day of Daytec — a 6-forward, 5-up chopper geometry that set the long, raked stance the whole machine would be built around. From there, a custom steel fuel tank was fabricated in-house: super long, super sleek, shaped specifically to follow and cover the extended backbone of the frame without a gap or a compromise anywhere along its length.

The handlebars were hand-crafted DKCC pieces. The exhaust is a set of DKCC CheckMates — a pipe design that suits the chopper proportions of the bike perfectly. Power comes from a full-polish TP Engineering 124-inch V-twin fed by dual Mikuni 42mm carburetors, paired with an open belt drive and a 6-speed transmission. The wheels are Performance Machine, with the rear featuring a drive-side brake assembly that keeps the visual lines clean. Air ride was installed in the rear, giving Optic Nerve the ability to sit exactly where it needs to sit depending on the situation.

The paint is the moment the bike announces itself. A beautiful deep blue with a heavy dark blue flake running through it — the kind of depth that changes in different light — covered with a custom orange sherbet flame. It is a color combination that has no business working as well as it does, and yet it is absolutely right. The contrast between the cool, flaked blue and the warm, glowing orange is striking without being loud. It rewards a long look.

The Buzz — and the Offer

Word got out while the bike was still being laid out. It always does in a tight-knit riding community, and the news that Doug Keim was building something for himself — not a commissioned piece, not a show bike for someone else, but his own personal machine — was exactly the kind of thing that gets people talking. The buzz built steadily, and before long it had a life of its own.

Then the visitors started showing up at the shop. People would come in wanting to get a look at what was being built. Doug kept turning them away. The answer was always the same: you can see it when it's done. Not before. A build in progress is a builder's private business, and Optic Nerve was his. When it was finished, they could see it. Until then, they could wait.

The problem was, the more Doug turned people away, the more they wanted it. Doug finished the bike, got to ride it as a daily rider for a brief stretch of time — and Optic Nerve is, by every account, a genuinely fun machine to ride. Fun, fast, and comfortable in a way that long chopper geometry can be when it's done right. Then one day, one of those interested parties from back when the bike was still being laid out sat Doug down and made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Optic Nerve left the shop. The bike Doug built for himself became someone else's — which, depending on how you look at it, is either the highest possible compliment a build can receive, or the most bittersweet outcome imaginable. Probably both.