And, there’s 285hp lurking in the mainframe waiting to be unleashed. Although this bike is so far from it that it’s probably stupid to even bring it up, but if this was a total rust bucket with 285hp, we’d still be interested. Amazing how overwhelming power will do that to riders who love to whack open a twist grip to the stop. The engine room provides a welcome mechanically-interesting, complex puzzle of a power plant that’s sure to keep the gear heads among us happy.  But, this Harley FLHR custom appropriately called Racestar is so much more than just that.

  Even though the Nick Trask-built, Trask Perfomance turbo- and intercooler-equipped 131-inch engine is a star, the race car inspired styling and that giant 30-inch hoop of a front wheel still dominate the build. Doug McGoon of MAD Wheels Inc. popped out another of his fab front wheels for the build, this time one of his Christopoly models. From the unbelievable number of big wheel baggers equipped with Doug’s wheels he must be running a third shift by now just to begin to keep up with demand.

  Making a big wheel seem a bit bigger are the baby brake rotors that look like they’re just hanging around waiting for someone to make a baby caliper to match. Look closely, though, and you’ll see the hidden calipers that are part of the quick-release axle base on the beefy inverted forks. What a wicked nice touch. Plus with all that power, the sheer strength of inverted forks has to be appreciated even if you’re more of a traditional cowbell kind of guy. Smart engineering often looks right without even trying and it certainly does here. Those mini-rotors are so cute I want to pinch them, but I’ll leave that up to the calipers and the Performance Machine hand controls.

  I’ve got to give Len when it comes to bodywork as each bike somehow gets its own very different look in a field of players who often turn out great work, but really don’t stray too far from the normal custom bagger idiom of huge amounts of swoopy on swoopy. The little racy fairing was an inspired choice for the build that I would have thought would’ve looked out of place on a Road King of all things, but it’s the perfect choice for this build. Not only does it look right, but it covers a race-bike style TransLogic digital dash that gives more programmable choices of LCD display than even Len might need. Just a nice repurposing of a speed info center that looks right on this particular bike.

  Same goes for the fuel tank that takes the long stretched tank you see on many other baggers and tosses it a new one. Yes, it’s curved and a bit swoopy, but the stretched length is a lot less and looks more like a fuel tank than a piece of bodywork that connects the fairing to the rear section. Plus the nicely dished-in knee area adds visual impact that a long, featureless smooth-sided stretched tank does and it gives you a place to bring your knees in out of the breeze when you want to. The bags look amazingly like saddlebags, but with a styled-by-wind look that blends in with the similarly-styled rear fender.

Just like a race car, Racestar has a bucket seat to hold Len in. There may not be side bolsters, but that back hump has got to be worth its weight in gold when Len’s banging through the gears. Plus it looks nice. Taking a different, but much appreciated tack with the handlebars, Len choice is a bit unusual as they’re a low, cross-braced set that you’d normally find on something with big knobby tires. Same goes for the mid-mount foot controls that are rarely seen on any bagger, but they look just aggressively peachy in this application.

  The in-house paint is just enough of everything and still denotes its racy heritage while looking rather elegant doing it. The gloss black is deep and lustrous and augmented by the flat black panels on the bags. What Len did with the normally highly polished MAD front wheel now in gold and black was genius in my opinion. It’s strikingly pretty and somehow loses a bit of visual height, but not all of it by any means. The other gold with red pinstriped panels on the tank, fenders and dash add a bit of wow to what otherwise would’ve been a dark monotone look. Everything’s surprisingly restrained, but definitely eye-catching in a dignified race car way. Like the famous livery of the John Player Special liveried Lotus 72 that later inspired paintjobs like Burt Reynolds’ infamous Smokey and the Bandit Pontiac Trans Am. Black and gold with a touch of red is possibly my favorite combo of colors so maybe I’m a wee bit biased, but I still think it looks just great.

  Meanwhile, as you’ve been reading this, Len’s probably turned out another custom bagger with a whole new direction that I’m sure we’ll be featuring soon. You gotta love a guy that doesn’t do the same thing other than stuff the engine compartment full of horsepower. That’s one ‘sameness’ we all like here at Barnett’s Magazine Online at least. As far as what he’s cooking up, though, we couldn’t begin to guess even if we tried. Just keep your eyes glued here and the unashamed Azzkikr fanboys that we are will present it for your viewing pleasure as well as ours.

    For more info on what Len and the lads at Azzkikr are up to, just punch up http://azzkikrcustombaggers.com  or mosey on over to Facebook.