Unfortunately, in the rush to make the next most outrageous bagger, people are doing much the same things that killed the custom motorcycle industry by taking a bike and festooning it with pieces and parts that make it no more rideable than a raked-out rigid cruising Main Street. Oh yeah, at first it was replacing the 16” FLH front wheel with a skinny 21-incher, then that wasn’t enough so a 23, then a 26, and now a totally over-the-top 30-incher are gracing the front ends of what was once a touring bike and now is a silly custom in my opinion. Hey I’m not against customs, I just have a hard time appreciating a former cross country hauler that now hauls ass on the back of a trailer until it can be rally-ridden up and down Main Street making 180-dgree turns in a parking lot before another short show-off run. Maybe I’m just too old and missing out on what’s really up, but I lust after a serious bagger custom that looks good, cruises faster and longer, and handles, stops, and rides better than a MoCo stocker.

Steve Graham, a member of the Canadian military, apparently rides his 2005 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Classic as he’s gone about making sure his bike won’t get lost in a crowd while keeping all the things that make a dresser a useful and fun machine. First off, the engine is an 88-inch Twin Cam that’s as buttoned up as the day it left the factory. The only deviation from stock is a Vance & Hines’ exhaust which just goes to show Steve might not care about dyno bragging rights, but the man loves the sound of a 45-degree V-twin trying to get all 62 horses at full gallop. Twin Cams have become dare-I-say “Honda-like” in their ability to spin their odos like a slot machine without rider involvement by the side of the road. Service by the book should keep this and any other late model Twin Cam FLHTC there’s also running long after we stop, so why screw with a good thing if it’s not a priority?

Yup, stock wheels and bodywork, no bag or tank extensions that actually do nothing useful need apply. People are always quick to quip that a set of wheels changes a bike more than anything and that may be true. Too bad that the latest trend is apparently who can have the least contact patch on a dresser front wheel with those supermodel tall and skinny front wheels. Seems like it would be a lot easier and cheaper to take an old Wide Glide and add fiberglass bags to it and call it a day. Maybe you can just tell everybody that it was a FLH model that you really customized and this is what you ended up with. Steve wasn’t afraid of bling by any means and did his best to empty the Earth’s crust of its most abundant element with added bits of bling throughout his bike.

Steve’s big personal statement came in the form of a true flame paintjob by Brad Landon that looks like one of legendary daredevil Joie Chitwood’s ’56 Chevys after it had crashed through the wall of fire. Somewhat ghosted into the bags’ sides are depictions of an original ghost rider on horseback on the right with a modern day ghost rider riding a motorcycle on the left and that should explain to anyone capable of finding their way home from work without a map how this bike got to be known as Ghost Rider. Not so subtle is the flaming skull dead center on the fairing. That’s Steve’s favorite part of the bike as he says he loves the look on people’s faces when they look into their rear view mirror and see the skull on the bat wing. Makes sense then why he changed to braided brake lines, not just for their bling-a-liciuosness, but just in case the driver looking into his rear –view mirror gets a wee bit frightened and hits his brakes, Steve’s got a bit more stomp from his factory binders.

So what Steve’s ended up with is not a customized dresser in today’s radical terms, but a personalized tourer that he can be proud of. Riding this bike is still his priority as he’s not gone for a fashionable leather-covered seat pan minus padding, but stayed with the pillowy stocker that Harley felt was just right for butt-crunching miles. Hey, each to their own I guess as far as what makes a bagger a custom, but if you like riding like Steve does, this makes a lot more sense than having a $5,000 30” billet front wheel covered in a non-DOT approved tire that makes it likely you could end up like the painted ghost rider on Steve’s bag. Besides, how many custom bikes come with their own built-in theme song?