Winston had a proper pedigree for making such beautiful and potentially street usable after working with Roland Sands when he was just getting Roland Sands Design off the ground. Needless to say I am an unabashed fan of Mr. Sands too so no surprise that I became a fan of Winston’s as they both tend to customize bikes to look great and ride the crap out of. Brakes and handling are as important as engine performance to both of them and maybe the idea of actually enjoying riding a custom build hard appeals to me as clean design and practical purpose rear their heads in any thoughtful and successful build. There are no unnecessary furbelows on their bikes that get in the way of their intended purpose to look fast and to go fast whether it’s in a straight line or a unending cluster of curves. For some of us, that’s all we want in a performance custom besides the good mechanical looks that follow the purpose.

 

   This build began around one of Harley’s much anticipated, but little understood and underappreciated Rocker for a number of practical reasons. One big was the Rocker’s swingarm was wide enough to fit a 240mm rear tire and it was raked out a wee bit more than the average Softail. Both of these Rocker architecture advantages played deeply in the bike Winston now wanted to build based loosely on his AMD Championship winning drag-inspired Sporty. Going the big block route with an even edgier drag design, the Rocker’s stated differences only made sense for a big fat rear tire and a raked-out drag bike look.

 

   Oh, I should probably make note of the fact that Winston returned to his native Taiwan where he set up shop in Taipei to produce some of the most desirable custom street bikes I’ve seen. One interesting facet of building Harley customs in Taiwan is that it’s technically illegal to perform any frame modifications so one must work around a stock platform and that’s what makes his work so interesting to me. Even Winston seems to enjoy the challenge of making a beautiful and purposeful custom Harley within the government’s strict rules of customization. Personally, I just like the end result no matter what as they look fun to ride as well as looking cool as living hell.

 

   Three’s still plenty of Rocker in the bike, but it’s well disguised just like Harley should have done. Replacing the 240/40Rx18 rear tire with an über-cool 26×8.5×15 Mickey Thompson ET motorcycle slick mounted on a solid wheel worthy of any dragster was a tight fit, but not too tight. Amazingly, even the belt drive still fits where I figured a narrower chain would be a necessity. The wide Rocker swingarm provided just enough room to pull it off without getting the government agents in a hissy fit of regulation-induced bureaucratic smarminess. And. Yes, I should add that the Mickey Thompson slick would not be my first choice of a street tire, but this is a drag-inspired show bike and it fits this design intention without a doubt, but one could certainly retro-fit something more streetable like a 240 if street duty was desired so no-harm, no-foul on this show bike design aesthetic.

 

   Up front, a 23-inch Dunlop road racing-style slick mounted on an RSD Slam wheel keeps the smooth tread look intact while being cradled by a beefy girder fork of Winston’s design. With the Softail sitting low, the short blades of the girder controlled by a coil-over shock buried deep within the legs aggressively angle forward exuding strength and even a hint of streamlining for speed. Personally, I’m a huge fan of girders for their strength, lack of side-play due to additional structure and refusal to dive under hard braking. The legs are not over–the-top wide like a Confederate Wraith where the forks over-dominate the design, but fit in harmoniously with the rest of Winston’s design. Sometimes too much of a good thing is just too much, but that’s not the case here.

 

   The radial mounted dual calipers up front along with the hiding-in-plain-sight rear caliper clamp down hard on the Lyndall Brakes rotors all around that make you wonder if they’re some sort of carbon fiber discs which I’m sure they’re not. If you haven’t sampled the performance of Paul Lyndall’s brake products, you’re missing out on what high performance braking is all about. There’s never any reason to be afraid of high performance brakes, but there is about average or sub-par ones.

 

    As far as the engine goes, there’s not a lot done to the 96-inch Twin Cam as far as I know other than the usual intake and exhaust enhancements. In this case they are also visual enhancements as things like Rough Crafts velocity stack and that absolute knockout of a 2-into-I one-off exhaust that I can’t stop staring at. Plus there are lots of Rough Crafts visual engine enhancements from the lovely ribbed black anodized valve covers to other Rough Crafts engine covers scattered throughout the counterbalanced Twin Cam. Especially those Rough Crafts emblazoned brass push rod tubes that bring a bit of metallic warmth to such a hard edge overall design.

 

   When it came time for body work, the second time around and still not appreciated Deuce tank that came standard on the Rocker was ditched just like Harley’s Deuce and Rocker were. I’m not saying the otherwise factory custom tank was the jinx of these bikes, but you gotta wonder. Either way, it was not part of Winston’s plan so it was ditched for a third time sorta and replaced by a one-off tank with Sportster influences. Maybe this is what both Harley models needed because Winston’s version sure looks good here.

 

   Same goes for the Rocker’s rear fender which wasn’t necessarily too bad when someone put a proper looking fender-hugging seat on it, but Winston’s shortened take with a slight jaunty flip at the back looks perfect without any other adjustments needed. The Rough Crafts Old School-style seat doesn’t try to be anything else but a damn good looking seat with a hint of old. One piece he didn’t change a bit and an item I think was the best looking piece on a stock Rocker was the simple and pleasing ribbed oil tank. I’m sure there’s a reason why it’s never shown up on another Harley model I know, but I couldn’t begin to guess why. It’s a perfect little piece straight from The Motor Company and looks perfect here. 

 

   After what looks like a big dip in a big tank of black, the bike was nicely finished off with some tasteful gold pinstriping in just the exact right amount along with some really nice cast Rough Crafts badging on the sides of the tank and on the headtube. Personally, I love beautifully designed and well made badging like the old metal Harley-Davidson stuff found on ‘60s bikes. It’s just classy looking with a bit of heritage thrown in and oh so much more pleasing than decals or whatever they’ve sunk themselves to lately.

 

  Winston finished it of with items direct from his parts catalogue like the Rough Crafts headlight grill and grilled blinkers doing triple duty as tail, stop, and, yes, turn signals. Topping off the design-mandatory drag bars are Rough Crafts groove grips which are pretty groovy now that I think of it. Maybe that’s exactly the way I feel about this whole build, it’s one groovy trip made for the show, street or strip and I can’t ask for much more out of a custom motorcycle except maybe for the title in my name.

 

   For more info on Rough Crafts, visit http://www.roughcrafts.com/.