BAD COMPANY – A Kyle Ray Rice work of Motorized Art
This issue’s Reader’s Ride belongs to Kyle Ray Rice. The 27-year-old grew up in a motorcycle-riding family in Florida. His mom is into dirt bikes and his dad loves anything to do with bikes and cars. Kyle started riding at the tender age of three (with training wheels of course). Pretty soon the entire family was riding dirt bikes together. He bought his first sport bike at age 18 but was always into Harleys. “I went to the Webster Swapmeet in 2016 and found this 108 cubic inch Shovelhead motor,” Kyle recalls. “It came with a touring tranny and the engine work was already done.”
He mated the engine to an FXR frame and cut the back half of the frame off to build a chrome moly sub frame. “I work as an aluminum fabricator making spiral staircases, railings, and work with stainless steel in the construction trade,” Kyle says. He bought an English Wheel and started hammering out the aluminum sheetmetal for the gas tank, side covers, seat dish and rear fender of the bike he calls Bad Company. Yes, he handled all the artful sheetmetal himself and his dad Kraig made the custom seat with aluminum inserts. Kyle says that his dad was always building cars and doing hot rod stuff. He’s proud to be following in his dad’s bootsteps. “He did a lot of the mechanical work on this bike,” Kyle tells us. “He surprised me with that seat!”
Kyle also handmade the stainless exhaust pipes, which are a work of art all to themselves. Take a good long look at the photos of this stunning Frankensteined FXR because Kyle is going to tear the whole thing down soon and build an entirely different bike out of the parts.
This up-and-coming bike builder would eventually like to create custom scooters for other people for a living and is hoping to start by producing cool custom parts for Harleys. You may reach Kyle at krice37@verizon.net; Instagram – @kylerayrice; Facebook – kylerayrice.
If you’d like to see your gorgeous motorcycle right here in Born To Ride, email photos (300dpi) and contact info to editor@borntoride.com. You might just see your scoot right here on these pages.
—Chopper Daddy Dave Nichols
Photos: Erick Runyon
Kyle Ray Rice
941-806-9457
krice37@verizon.net
Instagram – @kylerayrice
Facebook – kylerayrice
Model Ashley Ayan