One thing I don’t have to explain if you’ve followed Barnett’s Magazine Online is that this absolutely pristine custom is the work of the Joey Hensley of Back Yard Bagggers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Each Back Yard build is slightly over the top compared to the last Hensley creation and makes me wonder how Joey can keep topping himself bike after bike. You’d think he’d run out of ideas, but no ─ every new one pushes the limits even more than the last one. Don’t believe me? Well click on two previous Barnett’s articles on a Road King makeover and a stunning Tri Glide and see for yourself. Go ahead, I’ll wait here.

 

   Wasn’t lying or exaggerating in any way was I? Same goes for our featured Harley-Davidson Road King that goes where no Road King has gone before. This thing is epic as the kids would say. Matter of fact, I’d need to check the VIN just to make sure it wasn’t a ground-up one-off that happened to have an engine out of a FLHR. It seems to me that the first question to pop up after seeing that thing just sitting on the deck is “How low can you go?” Somehow I think Joey answered that question without saying one word.

 

   Like I said previously, there’s not much Road King DNA left in the this extreme do-over as anything and everything has been removed and replaced or touched and modified so much that it’s unrecognizable as something that once rolled down the York assembly line. Yeah there’s a big skinny wheel up front, but somehow it doesn’t look out of proportion as most do when they’ve got a huge fairing accentuating the look. It’s all airiness up front with even the headlight mounted asymmetrically and low on the air ride forks. The whole back one-piece end looks like it covers a 13-inch car wheel and maybe it does. We’ll never know as I wouldn’t be surprised if a photo of it showed up on a milk carton under a banner of “Have you seen me?”

 

   What really makes this bike for me are the crazy palette of colors I would never have begun to think of that somehow all work together in one daring package. The use of copper and neon lime green on the forks is so out of my personal comfort zone I would have run if my painter ever suggested it to me for my Road King, but here it works and works well. That striking green is tied in nicely with the green graphics on the back end and maybe that’s why it strangely works. The copper touches on the spoked front wheel, bars, engine, dash, controls, and exhaust tips flows from one end to the other and is not visually jarring as I would’ve assumed it would be. Must be the somewhat subtle base flake paint that somehow keeps harmony where there should be chaos.

 

  I love this King just for the sheer show bike shock value and that’s what show bikes are supposed to do. Would I want this bike to ride (like I could ever afford it)? Absolutely not ─ just not my personal thing. Do I enjoy the hell out of looking at it and appreciating the hard work and imagination that went into it? Yessiree Bob! And now Mr. Delany, you’ve got your wish so please stop bombarding me with your emails please.

 

For more info on Joey Hensley and Back Yard Baggers, just click on the link and see what Joey and the boys are up to http://www.backyardbaggers.net/. Especially click on the link if your first name is Michael and your last name is Delany.