The very long and very low formula of custom TV bikes before baggers reared their crazy big wheel heads is still on many peoples’ minds as the nee plus ultra of what a custom bike should be. Something that’s commanding to ride and where the front wheel reaches the stop sign long before you do. Something that’s going to cause a “Man, that’s a cool bike” comment every time you park it. Something that nobody else has but you. All I know is that every time we post a ride like this, the commenters come out in droves and it’s almost always positive.

    What we’ve got here is typical mid-2000s TV chopper without the commercial theme even though the bike was being used as a commercial pull at the Russ Brown booth when Jack Cofano shot it. Hey, if you want to attract attention to your booth, a bike as wild as this is sure to do it. There’s not a bit of subtlety from the pointy tip on the front fender to the pointy tip on the back fender. Actually, there’re points all over this bike especially on that unbelievable many-layer fuel tank. That thing alone with all its various panels and levels must have been a mindblower when our unknown builder described what he wanted to accomplish. The twin gauges mounted in it look like some sort of alien being about to take you for the ride of your life. All I know is that it’s complicated to build and not something you want to drag the family jewels over on a hard stop.

    The rest of the bodywork is nothing revolutionary, just extremely well done. The fenders feature multiple cuts and points just to make sure you know you’re on something that is not stock. No factory would dare do cuts like that and no lawyers would allow them if they did. The area under the luxurious looking saddle that looks more throne than saddle contains the oil tank and just looks right with the extra sheet metal hiding the ugly Softail connection to the frame. Yeah, it’s a Softail in the best custom tradition of the mid 2000s and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This shielding is a really nice touch, though.

    Speaking of that Softail frame, it sits long and low with a righteous amount of rake for style. Remember, all custom bikes especially those with mid-2000s influences, are all about the look and any added style drama like a pretty rad rake fit the bill perfectly. Everybody dreams about sitting behind those swept back bars and watching a long front end reaching out for the road ahead. As far as wheels go, this ain’t no big front wheel bagger. The big as in fat rear tire is what differentiates a custom like this from a bagger. It’s all part of the expected custom bike demeanor. Sitting cool and looking like you don’t have a care in the world while you’re putting along on your wicked cool chopper. The rest of the world can go to hell, you’ve got your dream chop.

    What differentiates this particular bike from the others out there like it is down to the paint and finish. You have to admit this build has a lot of eyeball going for it and I can’t begin to imagine the amount of time and hard work that went into this. There’s a Spartacus theme in the paintjob that makes you unsure of what is paint and what might be engraving or castings. Intricate doesn’t begin to describe the transformation from raw roller to finished product. Even what you think of as being a simple surface turns out to be far from it the closer you inspect. Oh, by the way, the gold areas are not gold paint, but actual 24-carat gold. Oh, I’m beginning to get nostalgic for the nuttiness of ten-years-ago TV chopper frippery.

   One thing I really wish I knew more about is that throne or saddle or whatever you want to call it. Geez Louise, there’s a ton of leather work that went into that alone. The mix of materials along with extreme leather work in an opulent manner takes this seat to another level of show bike. That thing would look great on a custom bagger as well as this bike it’s so universally pretty. The part that’s so striking to me about it is how well it just blends into the paintjob. Leather and metal have never got along so well together.

   There’s not a lot to say about the engine other than in true TV tradition, that’s not a Harley-Davidson engine you’re looking at. It’s the custom builder’s standby, an engine from S&S Cycles. I can only assume this show-polished where it isn’t chrome engine is a typical big-inch motor putting out tons of power. A show bike like this doesn’t actually need tons of power to get around like it eventually will and a smaller motor might even be better. But, it’s a show bike and show bikes are dream bikes so it’s probably packing a big124 that suggests dreams do come true. It’s not that you can ever really use it, but it’s part of the package to be able to say, “It’s an S&S 124.”

   Just like the casually bragging about the engine without showing you’re bragging is what a ride like this chop is all about. Looking cool and taking no prisoners while putting around town or a nice back road (with not too many curves) on a bike like this could be a day in paradise for a lot of custom bike freaks. Sometimes you get something burned into your brain like your first ride in a GTO or seeing your first radical chopper. Even though it may technically be dated style-wise as far as where the custom motorcycle world has been headed, there’s still a lot of you who have had an image of your dream bike that closely follows this build. There’s nothing wrong with that and the more I ponder the issue of those stuck in a custom bike time warp, it’s great there are builders till out there who think and feel just like you. Nothing would be more boring than all custom bikes looking exactly the same. –