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The VTX Warrior

Big Al's awesome VTX reflects his love for riding and individuality.

The headlight looks awesome! Custom made for his ride.

With the combined power of the DG 2.5' pipes and the Kuryakyn Hypercharger, this medieval monster screams down the road.

My name is Alvin Thornton. I'm a member of the Arizona Army National Guard going on 27 years of service this year. I have done everything from operating a bulldozer to working on the worlds most advanced helicopters. From the time that I could ride I have always had some sort of motorcycle, whether it was an old triumph, or a dirt bike, too many to list.

I thought for a lot of years that the bike I wanted the most was a Harley Fat Boy. In 2003 while on deployment in Afghanistan I had put a retainer down at the Base Exchange to purchase my dream bike. I was to pick it up at the local Harley shop in Phoenix when I got home in 2004. In the meantime when ever I could get some computer time I would do some research on all the different cruisers out there. There were so many of them that it made my head spin.

With the VTX being fairly new there wasn´t much out there for the bike except the everyday things. Then there was the cost. The first items to swap out was the air breather, and grips and mirrors. Those were the easy things. The rest I figured I could fabricate my self. I removed all the hardware from the chrome engine covers and painted the heads of all the bolts. The Brake calipers and anything else that I could easily remove and replace got painted too. The bike started to evolve. It was time to name her. As I was reassembling the parts that I had removed, it started to look like a medieval Warrior horse ready for battle. That when things really starting to come together.

My steed needed a head dress so I fabricated a cage to cover it. The radiator needed protection, so it got a cage as well. I fabricated a set of hi way bars with running lights out of twisted 1/2 in bar and put some extreme bends to it to make them look mean and wide. The red pearl paint that I used was very bright and deep which accented the factory black paint and chrome.

Now my steed needed to be heard. I purchased a set of straight pipes from the Internet for the sound of a relentless Soldier charging the battle field. The bike still needed some attitude, something to make it intimidating to even the big Harley´s out there. You only get one chance to make a first impression, right?

I set out to make a set of handle bars. Setting on top of 5in risers, they come up another 5 1/2in with a pull back of 13in and the width at the end of the grips is 36in. made out of 1.25in rolled steel and weighted. Along with a set of tribal mirrors they complete the aggressive look I was after.

I removed the stock turn signal/markers and replaced them with bone colored ceramic skulls with LED's in the eyes. The last project that I completed on my VTX Warrior was to fill in the empty space on between the heads on the engine. Keeping with the same tribal art scheme the fabricated piece added some color and depth to that blank area. I still have more project fabrication ideas in my head that I still want to do to my steed in due time.

I bet your wondering why I wrote this piece about my VTX. We all watch the Tuttles, and the Jesse James, and all the others builders out the making unique bikes. But you really never here about the average Joe that just likes to tinker and build stuff to say I did that. There are a lot of us out there that have the imagination and skills to do this kind of work even if it is on just our own bikes.

I´m proud of the fabrication work that I have completed on my VTX WARRIOR even if it´s not perfect. But it's one of a kind.

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