First off, the question should be, is this bike a bagger or an all-out custom bike with the silhouette of a bagger?  After checking out Jack Cofano’s photos, I’m going with the latter as this thing sets new standards for what custom baggers can be to me anyway. That’s not a bad thing. Nope, not a bit, but Richard’s bike he calls The Temptress has just become my point man of my new definition of an extreme bagger and then some. Follow along and I’ll explain my reasons.

 

  Most radical custom baggers usually start out with a late model Harley tourer and cut and weld the stock frame to accommodate the de rigueur giant 30-inch front wheel. Not Richard. He fabbed up a one-off frame to his dimensions featuring a single-sided  swingarm. Most custom baggers don’t even involve much with the rear wheel area for the simple reason you’d never see it with all the bodywork especially when they’re sitting on the ground. Not Richard. His saddlebag and fender bodywork doesn’t even take into account any need for luggage space. The right-side bag is simply an empty viewing port to show off the single-sided swingarm and, oh, did I forget to mention the super fat 360mm tire and wheel lurking under there? That’s definitely not something you see everyday on a custom bagger. Lift the right lid and take a peek and it’s show bike gorgeous in there. The left side bag doesn’t even open at all, but swings outward as a single piece to showcase the huge speaker and who knows what might be encased in that bag or should I say “compartment?”

 

   So, I’m saying that Richard’s redefined a bagger’s bags into a lovely saddlebag silhouette that have other things to do besides what saddlebags were intended. Their whole original purpose has been thrown out and replaced with other permanent uses like audio and viewing ports. Whether that technically qualifies as a bagger to you is one thing, but it does have that bagger outline. In the radical custom baggers class, there are no rules, only limitations that can be exceeded or simply blown to smithereens by an imaginative builder.

 

   Like I mentioned, this bike has the mandatory 30-inch front wheel and that’s still pretty much something we rarely see out in the real world so it’s still a bit of a shock. Richard also built a stunning fairing of his own design that looks great on this bike, but there are other people also building or modifying a fairing until it has little to do with a factory unit. Hey, that’s not to demean any of Richard’s thought and hard work, but even custom fairings are slowly becoming the new norm. Where this bike takes a radical turn is in the mid-section where most baggers have a stretched tank and look more reminiscent of a modified stocker. Not Richard. He capitalized on his one-off frame to help him make the skinniest mid section I’ve seen on a show bagger. Yes, his one-off tank is stretched, but with everything being so slim compared to a stocker, the tank finds itself barely there in comparison to stretched stock tanks.

 

   Another item that take this bike to a level that few custom baggers go to is the power plant. Most custom baggers either leave the Harley Twin Cam motor that came in the late model bagger basically stock save for external pieces like intake and exhaust mods and finish. Not Richard. Not only is that engine a huge and extremely powerful 155-inch R&R motor, but he threw a supercharger on it too. Kinda like shooting a rodent with a howitzer. Extreme overkill, but whaddaya gonna do? Thinking about it, I know this is a case of more power than this bike could handle (ya think?), but in something this extreme, some regular old Twin Cam just wouldn’t do. Plus I’d personally be disappointed if that were the case, so supercharged 155 R&R it is.

 

   I should also mention that all this work took place in Richard’s shop from fabrication to fabulosity. Richard prides himself on keeping things in-house including his tasteful paintwork. Farming things out is not part of the Chop Shop’s lexicon. Needless to say, The Temptress is a ground breaker as far as I’m concerned just because of the different, make that totally different, angle Richard took from Day One of this build. I doubt there’s even one Harley piece anywhere to be found on this build and that puts this in a different category by itself. The only question left is where do baggers go from here?

 

  For more info on Richard Wright’s Chop Shop, just click on the link and check it out.  http://www.richardwrightschopshop.com/