Bud Trahan and his shovelhead are regulars at Acme Choppers in Laconia. I met this master welder and his black beauty on a recent press junket through New England, and like everyone else in New Hampshire, Bud and his bike were wicked pisser. Please enjoy Bud's machine. It's mint!

Owner: Bud Trahan

Bike's name: Scrapper

Year, make model of motor, plus engine mods, if any: 1978 FXS

Year, make, model of original frame, plus frame mods, if any: 1978 FXS

Fork spec: 1970 FLH shortened 3 inches

Name(s) of people who helped on the build: Anyone who happened to be standing around at Acme Choppers!

Front and rear wheel rim, tire and hub spec (size, diameter, width, etc.): Stock 16" powder coated to hide 32 years of neglect, rapped in Avon MK2 16" x 5"

In Bud's own words: This bike started life as a 1978 FXS. I bought it from a guy in 2009 as a basket case, then brought it home in the back of my wife's Nissan Pathfinder (she was not impressed). Like most basket cases, half of everything was junk. With help from Jay at Acme we started ordering parts and gathering other bits from all the swapmeet stuff Wayne and Jay have laying around. This bike wasn't supposed to come out this nice—it was supposed to be a rat that I just threw together to ride, But when Acme's involved this is as ratty as it gets. I tried not to make any obvious mods to keep the bike looking old, but like Wayne always says, "You can give ten guys the same pile of parts and every bike will look different." Thanks to everyone at Acme Choppers for lending a hand and letting me hang around the shop.