Robert Fisher from Roaring Toyz has been in motorcycle business for years and has done everything from racing his own bikes to building custom sportbikes. Coming from a racing background Robert has always strived to create custom bikes that not only look great but also are extremely rideable. As time rolled on and his customer base expanded, Robert started to become more interested in cruisers — and when Kawasaki launched the new Vaquero Cruiser at their Dealer Meeting, Robert’s interest in cruisers really peaked. Featuring a 1700 twin cylinder in a custom muscular chassis, Robert saw huge customizing potential in the Vaquero. After some discussions with his team, building a custom Vaquero became the perfect catalyst to launch a new division of his company offering custom parts for the cruiser market: Roaring Twinz.

Before long a brand new Vaquero arrived in at the Roaring Twinz shop in Sarasota Florida with instructions from Kawasaki to have it customized and ready to display at Daytona Bike Week in less than 14 days. Customizing a bike isn’t exactly a quick project, especially when dealing with a brand new bike where all custom parts need to be created from scratch. Robert and his crew of technicians saw the Vaquero project as a great challenge and pulled out all the stops to build it into an amazingly cool bike in just two weeks. Roaring Twinz had a vision for the bike which included fitting a larger 21” front wheel to amplify an already very attractive bike. They also needed to add a whole slew of custom parts, a custom paintjob, airbag suspension and a killer stereo system. All of this using parts that didn’t exist and a deadline that was ambitious to say the least.

With many years in the customizing business, Robert has formed great relationships with other manufacturers of custom bike parts so he got on the phone to get help pulling this whole project together. The first order of business was to find a custom 21” front wheel that would serve as the centerpiece of this custom bike. The team at Performance Machine came through with a set of their new Paramount Platinum Cut 21” Front Wheels and Matching front brake rotors. But, being that there are no fitments for this new bike, Roaring Twinz had to machine a set of Harley hubs and wheels spacers to fit wheel to the Vaquero. They also machined fender spacers to space the stock front fender up to fit the bike.

Performance Machine (PM) also provided a set of black anodized Floor Boards, but again these had to be modified with custom brackets to fit on the Vaquero. Performance Machine also makes a really cool air cleaner assembly so Roaring Toyz machined a backing plate to fit it for the Vaquero. Not only did the intake look great, but it showed a power increase of 8.5 HP on the dyno as the additional air flow helped lean out an already rich fuel curve.

With the bike now rolling on custom PM wheels, Roaring Twinz went to work on the suspension to lower the bike. For this they turned to their friends a Progressive Suspension and ordered a front fork lowering kit and an Air Dragger rear suspension kit. Roaring Twinz had to made a couple modifications for a proper fit and ended up getting a nice low and mean set-up.

Next, the Roaring Twinz crew went to work on getting a custom handlebar set-up. For this they got a set of Burly Brand 13” Bagger Bars. To make them fit they needed some form of handlebar risers and luckily they found a really trick handlebar riser from Roland Sands Design (RSD) that fit great and looked awesome. With the bars higher than stock the switch wires needed to be longer, so the wires were extended and run internally through the bars for a cleaner look. Extended Roaring Toyz Stainless Steel braided brake and clutch lines were made up and wrapped with neon green sheathing. The new handlebar set-up was finished off with a set of Performance Machine black anodized grips and custom machined brake and clutch levers.

Now that the bike had a great foundation it needed some great sound. Bagger bikes have so much room for stereo equipment that the combinations are nearly endless. The final build features a set of 8” three way speakers installed in the rear bags along with a 400 watt JL Audio marine amplifier and a set of JL Audio 5.25” speakers on the dash. An iPod feeds the system with tunes and it’s all controlled through a Kawasaki accessory switch mounted on the left handlebar.

The bike needed a custom paintjob to finish it off and since it’s a Kawasaki Roaring Twinz opted for some Kawasaki green. The bike was painted with custom coat of Candy Lime Green along with some black and grey highlights to break it up. The end result is a spectacular looking bike that’s sure to turn the heads of both sportibke and cruiser riders.

Amazingly, Robert and his team at Roaring Twinz were able to get the custom Vaquero finished in an incredibly short timeframe and debuted at Daytona Bike Week. Most of the riders at Bike Week hadn’t even seen a Vaquero yet, much less a fully customized Vaquero so the bike was a big hit. In the process of creating this custom Vaquero, Roaring Twinz collected dimensions and prototyped parts for the bike that are now in production and available as bolt on modifications to Vaquero owners. Robert is now going full steam ahead with Roaring Twinz and this Vaquero definitely won’t be the last custom Twin to emerge from his Florida shop.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weN-JMnNcMo