Flat Track racing has played a huge role in Kully Millage’s life. As a kid, he spent his days at the track learning the skills to race and what it takes to build a competitive race bike. During his high school years, he took an interest in fabrication and used the skills he learnt to build his first custom motorcycle.
It wasn’t long before Kully’s first custom was joined by several more and people started showing an interest in his work. Since he was spending a lot of time at American Flat Track events he began building exhausts for race teams; eventually working for the likes of Indian motorcycles own factory race team. Today Kully has his own business, the aptly named Kully Co., which specialises in fabrication work and motorsports equipment sales. In 2021, after deciding to take a break from working with flat track teams, Kully took advantage of the spare time to build himself another custom.
The Kully Co. KC900 street tracker is based around a 1960 XLH Ironhead Sportster motor, but beyond the engine, it’s 100% bespoke.
“I naturally gravitate towards racing-inspired bikes,” says Kully. “I also really enjoy the Flat track geometry specifically, 55-57″ wheelbase, 19″ wheels, 25 deg head angle, etc. My aim with the KC900 build was to push my engineering and fabrication skills as far as possible.”
Kicking off the list of custom-made parts on KC900 is a one-off frame. Built from lightweight titanium the frame uses geometry borrowed from flat track race bikes. Since titanium has excellent corrosion resistance Kully’s decided to leave it bare which in turn exposes his welding skills to the world; luckily he’s a dab hand at it.
Along with designing the frame, Kully’s devised his own suspension formula for bike. At the pointy end he’s installed a set of Ohlins racing forks which are held in place by triple trees he got from the Faxctory Indian Racing Flat Track team. Meanwhile in the back there’s a custom made torsion bar setup that utilises an Ohlins damper and chromoly steel swingarm. “I did a very obscure rear suspension.” he admits. “It was challenging getting the torsion bar setup to operate correctly and deliver the optimal stiffness.” Despite the challenges Kully says the bike now delivers a plush ride which is more than can be said of the Ironhead’s original equipment.
As you’d expect the titanium frame weighs a fraction of a steel alternative, so Kully decided to follow suit with the rest of the project. Starting with the exhaust it’s also made from titanium. Using a pie cut design the front header hooks around the left of the engine while the rear loops around on itself to equalise the lengths. The two pipes meet high on the right of the tail where they converge into a single pipe with a custom made titanium muffler hanging off it.
The bodywork is bespoke and lightweight too. This time Kully utilised aluminium to realise his vision, but shaping alloy isn’t one of his strong points. “The most challenging part of this build was the aluminum body work. I was challenged but very proud of the 5056 aluminum body work I built” he says. Kully’s aluminium bodywork includes the fuel tank that follows the line of the v-twins heads, the flat track inspired tail unit and an oil tank for the dry sump motor. Despite his lack of experience, each piece is meticulously finished and the fit on the frame is millimeter perfect. To finish things off Kully had the tinware painted by Jeff Gjerde custom paint and fitted them with period correct Harley emblems.
Along with traditional fabrication techniques, Kully likes to dabble with modern technologies. As a result there are a several parts here that were created with the aid of a computer. Both the front cowl and air cleaner on this bike have been designed using CAD. They were then realised in black poly using a 3D printer. The foot controls are CAD designed too but they’ve been milled from aluminium on a CNC.
To get the bike rolling again Kully built his own wheels. The 19-inch flat track rims are laced to A&A racing hubs and have been wrapped in Hoosier flat track rubber. The completed bike is impressive to say the least, but don’t just take our word for it. The Kully Co. KC900 took out the Bell Helmets ‘Best of Show’ award at the 2023 Mama Tried Show. We consider that credit where credit is due.
[ Kully Co – Instagram | Photography by Logan Pickner ]