Ever since the introduction of the rubber-mount Sportster in 2004 the bike’s ability to pile on the miles in comfort was a change for the better even if it did add a chunk of weight with the revised frame. Our own late and lamented Rodent never could stop extolling the virtues of rubber mounting and backed it up with a lot of long distance, high speed riding on his own Corbin-equipped XL1200C bagger.  Smoothing out the basically un-burstable XL Evo engine made this a ride you could spend all your time in the high speed lane of any highway without blocking anybody. That’s not something you could do with the pre-rubber bikes unless you were tougher than nails. Okay, I do know there are some of you who are tougher than nails and might match that feat, but I sure wouldn’t want to be you afterwards.

  So say you’ve got a late model Sportster that you really like and you’d like to make it just a bit more custom and maybe add the terrible practicality of hard saddlebags and a touch of windscreen to the mix. You know, a custom bagger. For not a lot of dosh in the big scheme of things, The builders turned out a mighty fine custom Sporty that can still do serious road miles and probably even more than it did dead stock with the bagger accessories. High-style and high-mile have a similar ring to them and that’s exactly what you’re looking at here.

  The builders, Brice “Bacon” Terry, Bruce Downs, Jason Clement, and Brad Whitfield approach entailed adding a bit of spunk to the mix with a free breathing air cleaner and a bad boy Thunderheader 2-into1exhaust calling the shots. The just-about-all-black engine gets a light pick-me-up contrast from the polished finning on the cylinder, air cleaner and engine covers along with the chromed pushrod tubes. It defines the engine architecture nicely without having to shout for attention like slathered in chrome often does. It’s also kinda hip in a Dark Custom way.

  Keeping the stock (high) ride height is a good thing on this kind of build as absorbing road terrain for hours on end is sure a lot more comfortable with a lot of nice travel in a set of high-quality aftermarket shocks. Up front a major brake upgrade went down with the dual disc setup that looks ready to haul this thing to a stop like the arresting gear on an aircraft carrier if need be. The rest of the running gear is pretty stock including the wheels except for the chain drive conversion. You’d think going from a pulleys and a wide belt would shrink the sprockets a bit, but the result looks more ‘70s dirt bike to me than what you’d expect. Hey, I’m just flibber-jabbering away unintentionally without knowing what sprocket is under the primary cover so I’ll just shut up on this one.

  Style-wise, you can’t go wrong with a Sporty tank, but its size could mean a lot of stops. I’m okay with that as I love stops and any excuse to stretch. Maybe flambooziling a Sportster Custom’s tank in the hopefully allotted space might give you a little more gallonage but with a bit less style. I’m not positive, but I’d say those are old FXRT clamshell bags that have been adapted for this bike. They look the biz as is and wouldn’t mind seeing Harley make something like this an XL option. It looks right. Nice choice on that one.

  Oh I’m gonna get some crap on this one, but there’s a touch of SOA’s bikes to the front end. Go look again if you don’t believe me. I’m just mentioning it, not condoning or condemning anything. Who knows, maybe that’s exactly the look the owner wanted for his own personal reasons. The builders put their own twist on this look with a set of what look like gold anodized Renthal dirt bike bars capped with electric white rubber grips sitting on extremely tall straight risers. There’s a lot of attitude with the bars and the nose cone fairing that fits this build well.

  The wad was blown on the paintjob and it looks like money well spent. The multi-layer green is highlighted by the yellow gold base coming through here and there on the bodywork makes it pop and also ties the new hue of the OEM wheels. The white pinstriping and serious air brush work adds a lot of depth and interest in the paint the closer you look. There’s an Old School feeling about this that doesn’t seem the least bit out of place. It’s not trying to be something else, it just is and looks good for it. That whole paintjob expanded to the bags and fairing really fills the space it lives in. I like it a lot even though I could never own a green bike.

  Brice “Bacon” Terry, Bruce Downs, Jason Clement, and Brad Whitfield has done a great job of packing a lot of useful visual punch into a late model Sportster that not only makes it a custom, but a custom bagger too. Making a unique ride doesn’t have to cost you and arm and a leg or have built-in limitations that take the fun out of it for you. These guys built a wicked cool Sportster bagger with enough personality from a mile away that if you ever lost it in a parking lot of Harleys, you probably shouldn’t be riding anyway.