All of this hubbub centered around a new Harley-Davidson Road Glide that had no idea what lay ahead as it was being crated up at the Harley plant in York, Pennsylvania. If it could think independently (and I believe I’ve owned some that could), it was probably wondering what states it would see, how many off the beaten path places it would go to and what would its favorite national park be? But, change of plans, it gave up a crazy life of interstate touring for a chance at stardom on the show circuit. 

   I don’t have to tell you that the purpose of a show bike or any custom bike for that matter is to grab attention. You have to admit that this Road Glide grabs your attention and your opinion whether it be good or bad. Maybe it’s the old saying attributed to Hollywood, “There’s no such thing as bad press.” The only running tally of yeas or nays will eventually show up on Barnett Harley-Davidson’s Facebook page when this gets posted. Suffice to say, the owner or builder (or both) were looking to amass a high eyeball count and boy did they do just that. 

   As I mentioned earlier “ . . . for once, it has nothing to do with wheel size.” is somewhat wrong in retrospect. Even though it gets a bit lost overall, it’s a huge part of the overall, but not as a flashy design wheel. It’s more important as a canvas for what was to come. Nobody skimped in any way on this build, though, as you know, fitting a 30-inch front wheel involves a lot of time and expense to accommodate it. Frames have to be cut, stretched and welded very carefully. Front ends have to be completely done over for custom looks and a new big front fender installed. Here they wisely stuck with the OEM dual disc setup aided by custom stock size rotors. 

   You’ve probably noticed this FLTR sitting straight up and down on its electric center stand like it’s on its knees or something. Well it is courtesy of the air suspension front and rear. Oh I know it’s nothing custom bagger unusual, but it’s still a lot of work and money to pull off well. Here it’s sitting low, long and defiantly proud of what it’s brung to the table. A quick pump up and it’s back to street ride height once more. I’ve said it before, but I never stop watching bikes bop up and bop down. It’s a few second drama that never gets old.   

   The engine is pretty much factory other than the old Harley One-Two Stage 1 kit for a nice bit of added performance along with a sound that’s music to a hardcore Harley fan’s ear. The “one” part is removing the huge stock air cleaner and replacing it with a small high flow unit for better breathing. The “two” part is the 2-into-1 pipe, a clean setup that keeps the passenger floorboards on board and has an aggressive look and sound whether the floorboard is up or down. Throw in a tune on top and it’s go time for this engine. 

   Body work is all swoopy and flowing like any radical bagger is expected to look if it’s serious about being rad or not. Long graceful bags, long graceful rear fender and a stretched tank blend in nicely with the stock Tour Pak and iconic Road Glide fairing. Lowers for speakers as well as more canvas space fill in any dead spots. All of this extra acreage of bodywork would come in handy when it came time for paint and what a time it was. 

   I gotta admit I was quite shocked when I first saw this bagger and didn’t know what to think. Did I hate it? Did I like it? Did I appreciate it? Did I have the slightest idea what the hell was going on? Man, that’s a lot of questions to think about for somebody of my advanced age, but I got to it. It may have been the most colorfully shocking paint job I’ve ever seen at first glance. But after the initial shock got over I was kinda impressed with the impressive tagging going on here. I almost get dizzy watching the swirling paintwork on the big front wheel, it’s like it’s already in motion. It’s hard to tell if the super low profile front tire has been painted or not and I like that. 

   The deep gloss blue base paint is a great shade of blue that seems like it encourages being tagged. There’s a message to be had in those “spray can” graphics, but it doesn’t matter that much too me as the idea that you’d tag your own beautifully painted bagger. Shades of orange, teal blue, yellow with some white overwhelm the base paint like any good tagger would if given enough time before the cops arrive. Oh it’s shocking and striking at the same time and maybe not understood, 

 “How could they do that to a bagger?” my wife asked and all I could say because they wanted to and could. If they were looking for an attention getter, they got one in my wife as she asked to see all sides of the bagger on the computer screen just to make sure she wasn’t missing something. It’s far from a rattle-can graphic paintjob, though, with many layers of paint and skill needed to pull this off. Like they say, sometimes the hardest thing is to pull off simple and that is well illustrated here. 

   Jumping to conclusions is not always a good thing although it does save a lot of time for us old folk. But, I think I may have jumped prematurely here as this Road Glide is not just a show bike after all. I guess I was so freaked out by the paintjob and the look that I failed to notice its current license plate and a bunch of things that say road use was definitely part of its program. Things like keeping the passenger floorboard, the turn signals, the fully functional Tour Pak that’s not filled with audio electronics, and a stock Harley-Davidson Road Glide two-passenger seat. 

   So what we’ve really got here is a nutty-crazy, attention getting custom Road Glide built for two that can also enter shows and wow the audiences even if it doesn’t win a trophy. But for me, it’s not the bike I find as interesting as the over-the-top extroverts that own and love this bagger. Now there’s an interesting story if there ever was one.