How I go about prepping for a custom build:

Here's how I approach any build:

Set aside a few hours of time to do this. Get 4 blank pieces of paper and get comfy on the couch, favorite chair, whatever. Get a beverage that you like. Relax and just breathe for a bit. Open your mind to motorcycles. All motorcycles, even hideously raked out chrome plated choppers and scooters.

Use the first page to write down EVERYTHING (and I do mean EVERY-DAMN-THING) you like about motorcycles aesthetically and mechanically even if you could never put it on your bike. This will likely take about 45 minutes or so. Dual-sided swingarms, CF wheels, polished aluminum, clip-ons, simple gauges, chain-drive, shaft-drive, the cornering, wind-in-your-face, windshields, solo-seat bikes, sport-touring bikes, hard aluminum panniers on the BMW GS's...whatever it is you like about bikes, write it down.

Use the second page to write down everything you don't like about motorcycles. This won't take as long I suspect as we really *know* what it is we don't like about certain bikes because it sticks out like a sore thumb when we look at them. i.e.: Springer front-ends, wire-wheels, 360 series rear tires on choppers, flamed out Hayabusa's who couldn't corner to save their immortal soul...whatever it is, write it down. This will be maybe 20 minutes and you don't have to be as thorough on this list.

Move to wherever your bike currently is and pull up a chair for page 3. Before you start writing anything down...just sit and look at the bike for maybe 20 minutes. Get up, move around and look at all angles. What you need to write down on page 3 is what you like about your bike right now. As it is, right now. Don't get caught up in the beauty of whatever you're going to do to it...just a 'snapshot' (if you will) of what it is that you like about your bike right this instant. Lines of the frame, dry clutch, big honkin' brakes, whatever it is....

Page 4 is a bit more difficult: A word on page 4: Page 3 is where your bike is right now. That's the starting point. Simple enough, eh? Page 1 is what you like about all motorcycles including yours. That's the 2nd point as it's what you're trying to do to your bike (make it into something you like more than what you do right now). Try to imagine that you could plot a line from the starting point to the 2nd point. That line is the build but here's the tricky part... Stretch that line BEYOND point 2... Try to envision what you didn't know you wanted and push a little bit to get to it. You won't be able to get much past point 2, but that little bit you are able to get...makes a world of difference in the final product.

Page 4: Go back inside and make yourself comfy again. Take pages 1 and 3 and put them side-by-side. Look at what you love about *any* bike and look at what you love about your bike. There will likely be several items on both lists as you *did* choose this motorcycle for some reason and most likely it's because you like it! Study the two sheets for a bit. Use those to write onto Page 4 what you *think* you would want to include on the build. Love technology and hate the antiquated bits on some bikes? (Use page 2 as a reference here) (analog gauges, standard keys, stock wheels...), then look to the technology to solve those issues and see what's out there now...

When you're done, put all the pages aside and do something else you like for a day or so and then look again at pages 1, 3 and 4. Try to push to a more complete vision on page 4 before you chop, cut, weld anything...

If you don't have a vision on page 4 before you go too deep into this, your final project will lack congruency. It'll be pretty, but eventually...you'll want to re-do it or lose interest and sell it off or ...

As the project gets closer to completion, try to spend some time checking your page 3 against the bike to see how it's coming together. Really look at the lines of the bike, the colors, the components to see if they're working with each other or are there conflicts. Sometimes what we think will go good together in our heads, actually doesn't in real-life.

Try to push to something you will love forever.
--Stuart

PS: YMMV and this is only how I go about this...