Smooth

The Consultation

Smooth began the way the best commissioned builds do — with a client who knew what he wanted but trusted the builder to get him there. The gentleman came in from out of state, and he and Doug sat down more than once to talk through expectations, ideas, and direction. There was no rush to it. The conversations were deliberate, the vision was refined over multiple visits, and by the time they were done talking, both men knew exactly what this machine needed to be.

Clean. Long. Sleek. Elegant. The name came later, but the concept was there from the beginning.

The Build

A DKCC Top Fuel frame was selected as the foundation — the right geometry to carry the long, low profile the build demanded. A custom steel fuel tank was fabricated in-house to reinforce that stretched, sleek silhouette. The seat surround was trimmed with hand-formed sheet metal, and a mid-length rear fender was decided upon and cut from a blank — shaped to complement the lines of the frame without interrupting them.

Some of the gallery photos show Smooth in raw metal, before any finishes were applied. Those images are worth a long look. The metalwork is immaculate — every panel fitted, every transition clean — and that quality of fabrication is what everything else is built on top of. Paint and polish can only do so much. The foundation has to be right first, and on Smooth, it is right in every direction.

Weld wheels were chosen for this build, paired with a DKCC/ProFab TransBrake that cleans up the rear wheel area and keeps the visual lines uncluttered. The handlebars, long tube intake, upper engine mount, and the rest of the DKCC hand-made pieces were fabricated in-house — the details that separate a Creative Cycles build from anything assembled from a catalog.

Power comes from a full-polish TP Engineering 124-inch V-twin. The drivetrain is completed by an open belt drive and a Baker 6-speed transmission. The exhaust is a limited-run DKCC ReachAround — a pipe design that wraps the machine beautifully and is no longer in production, which makes its presence on Smooth all the more fitting. Air ride rear suspension gives the bike its range: slammed to the ground for parked or slow-speed main street cruising, raised to full height for daily riding. Smooth was built to be ridden, and the suspension setup reflects that.

The Finish

The seat is a stunning piece of leather craft from DKCC's own Costa Rican Richie — the kind of work that makes you stop and look twice before you even start the engine.

And then there is the paint. Ultra glassy yellow — deep, rich, and flawless — with yellow flames pulled over the top and a handful of three-dimensional tribal shapes tucked in neatly among them. It is a paint job that rewards close inspection. The more you look, the more you find. But it never shouts. It never competes with the lines of the machine. It simply sits there, gorgeous and composed, doing exactly what great paint is supposed to do.

Clean. Elegant. Smooth. The name was earned.