It’s no surprise then that owner Drew Barlond knew exactly what he was getting into with this FLHR makeover. Did I mention that Drew is a painter and fabricator at Hot Rods & Handlebars in Battle Creek, Michigan? Uh, no, I conveniently didn’t, but I am now. HRH (as I like to refer to it) is owned by a father and son team, Dan (the dad) and Rob (the son) and even though it’s only been around officially a couple of years give or take, you’d think this well-equipped and very professional shop had been around forever. Everything I’ve seen coming out of that shop looks to be first-class from style to finish. Now what we’ve got is a personal bike built, owned and ridden by HRH’s Drew Barlond and it’s a perfect eyeball grabbing showcase for what the shop can do.

    Anytime a custom bagger hisses its way down in a mechanical-hydraulic limbo version of Chubby Checker’s Limbo Rock ─ “How Low Can You Go?” it’s static drama in full motion. Things get even more interesting when it’s a lay frame version sitting on its slightly protected tubing. That’s how low you can go. It’s also something that a big 30-inch swirling spoke wheel up front only exaggerates the proportions of a bagger with its butt low down on the ground. But, I am absolutely mystified watching a dropped air suspension go through the throes of jacking the bike back to ride height. It’s like magic to me and where the air compressor setup is actually located on this bike is a mystery to me too. Nicely integrated is putting it too mildly.

    Oh yeah, that dual front caliper setup is killer as far as I’m concerned. It doesn’t block the view of the front wheel as much as enhance it to me. The 18-inch rotor with the two splayed out calipers looks like an old church clock works that’s been adapted to stop a Harley. As a point of reference as to how big an 18-inch rotor is, it’s two-inches larger in diameter that the original front wheel that came on the 100^th Anniversary 2003 Road King. Its diameter also helps to keep the size of the front wheel a little more in proportion. Throw in the swirl wheel design with either five swirling spokes or fifteen if you count each single piece separately. I’m sticking with a swirly five. I don’t have the slightest idea what’s going on out back as the rear wheel could be missing for all I can see. Okay, there’s gotta be one there and I’m sure it is but what you see is what you get and I see nothing just like Sgt. Schultz.

   Accommodations that were needed to fit the big wheel involved the usual whacking and welding along with a lot of nice smooth molding to the head stock as befits a show worthy King. Drew was not aiming for anything less than a bagger that was perfect for his show and ride intentions. Anyway, the end result is raked and re-worked to where you can’t see it any other way than this way. The stock has been slapped out of it never to return. I may be wrong, but I haven’t seen any advertisements for kits that will return a radical bagger back to stock and I probably never will.

   The Twin Cam 88A engine has been refurbished and refinished to better than new with custom engine covers and a very heavy dose of black broken up just by polished fin edges and hardware defining the dark engine bay. It’s almost become an interesting two-dimensional line drawing on a black background, Externally there are three special points of interest including the stylistic velocity stack for the EFI to the “Oh it’s a hot rod” 2-into-1 exhaust featuring lovely raw sectioned welding that defines what you see in pieces that work as one but never forgot where it came from. I think the “Hot Rod” part of the business name had a lot to do with the look of this delightfully open reverse megaphone exhaust. The stock wet primary has been ditched for an open belt drive with a black housing that blends right into the black engine like it came that way. It doesn’t look like an add-on like some open belts do, it fits right in and becomes a part of the engine.

    By now I should be used to the locomotive-style headlight nacelles on custom Road Kings, but whenever I see one I check it out like it’s the first time I ever saw one. Maybe it’s just checking out to see if it’s appropriate for the build instead of just a stuck on solution. Maybe it’s the size, maybe it’s the shape, maybe, maybe, maybe. Funny thing is I like them a lot for baggers with a lot of bodywork as the standard nacelle, which I love on an OEM FLHR, looks like a shrunken head of headlights. Plus for all these dropped Kings it gives a feeling of motion to a parked bike. When it’s touching its chin on that tight-fitting front fender that encircles half of that big ass front wheel, it almost looks cute.

    The stretched and reshaped fuel tank almost looks like a smaller version of what we normally see on custom baggers and gives it a sleeker and sportier look to something that definitely is not. But it looks good and that’s all that counts here. Meanwhile the from-the-rear-cylinder-back bodywork looks like TOL Design stuff to me. Extended, curvaceous bags and fender that sweep aft like the wind shaped them. One thing the bags do other than providing style is house some slightly beyond serious sound with not a cubic-inch to share with anything else. Big sound requires big equipment and a big place to store them. Goodbye saddlebags, hello sound check.

   By the way, I should mention that HRH is one of those proverbial one-stop shops where they can not only rework a frame to fit a big wheel or install audio systems that could make your ears bleed, but everything from mechanicals to paint and even upholstery is done on the HRH premises.

    And, speaking of paint, so whaddya think of that paintjob? Different isn’t it? It’s an unusual choice of colors that’s surprisingly grown on me the longer I look at it. Hey, I’m still on the fence about it, but that’s probably good. Like I said it’s growing on me even though if someone ever asked me if I would ever paint one of my bikes in that pink and blue scheme I’d think they were crazy and wouldn’t be afraid to let them know.

      This paintjob is actually the collaboration of Drew and another HRH worker, Art “Guapo” Solis, who does the airbrushing aspect of paint jobs as well as a fabricator too. Drew lays down the base coats and Art breaks out his air brush and makes them pop. The way Art is not afraid to tackle any piece with a shot of graphics like the engine or the front rim as well as the body panels is admirable for its audacity alone. He’s not afraid and apparently either is Drew who looks prouder than a peacock riding this bike. You know, maybe it’s because he is like a two-wheeled version of a peacock on this bike.

One thing I found a bit strange is that it’s also a bit hypnotic if you just lock on and stare. There’re swirls and other worlds going on and the colors seem less shocking the more you look into it. Or is that just my hippie days coming back on me?

    I’m glad we got to feature a bike from Hot Rods & Handlebars especially Drew’s interestingly off-the-wall Road King. Dan and Rob Thompson have gathered together a fine crew of people who love to create and build the finest customs, both hot rods and motorcycles, they possibly can. You can see it in their work and their attitude if you watched the accompanying videos. Matter of fact, everybody there seems to love and appreciate what they do. You can’t ask for more than that out of a one-stop custom shop.

   For more info on Hot Rods & Handlebars visit https://www.hotrodsandhandlebars.com/.