I don’t know much about the history of this two-day event that takes place right after Halloween, but I do know it originated in Mexico and honors friends and family who’ve died. There’s a lot of praying and visiting graves where all sorts of objects are left for the dead, but there’s also a lot of partying too. The best part of the whole thing to me are the makeup and costumes, the art work, and just the bright bizarre colors (especially the combinations of) that are simply stunning to me. Needless to say, my humble stucco home and garage are filled with Day of the Dead photos, sculptures, wall hangings, posters and any other DOTD memorabilia I can get my hands on. Yeah, it’s kind of creepy cool,  but being creepy is what makes it cool.  

 

   After all that jibber-jabber, it probably isn’t a big surprise then that I love the paintjob on Back Yard Baggers’ Day of the Dead Road King. Yes sir, I’m going to be right up front and say that this bagger got my attention in a split second and held it long after for a lot of reasons other than just the paint scheme. If you love custom baggers like I do, you’re probably already aware of all the work of transforming a stock Harley-Davidson tourer into something as unfathomably wild as this big and little wheel bagger.

 

   Technically this is a 2005 Harley-Davidson Road King as far as the title goes, but finding much stock FLHR DNA isn’t the easiest thing to do. What hasn’t been changed is radically modified to the point that you have to accept the engine case, cylinders and heads are the closest things to stock left on the bike that you can easily see. If you could see the rear wheel, that might be dead stock, but who knows unless you sport X-ray vision.

 

    Everything and I mean, everything else within eye sight is straight from the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, custom shop owned by Joey Hensley. Yeah, you’ve read about some of his other builds on Barnett’s Magazine Online before, matter of fact, there’s been so many he’d be a hard guy to miss. Click on the little blue letters to see a diverse bunch of bikes like his Road King Makeover, Bagger without Saddlebags, Boss Board Track Bobber, Rusted Glass Road King, Had to Happen Tri Glide, and Copper Coated Killer Road King. Go ahead, click on them and see what the lads at BYB have been up to before creating this DOTD theme Road King.

 

  Once more we have to unfortunately simplify all the extensive and hard work that goes into a show-ready custom bagger these days. It sits as low as you can go without digging a hole under it courtesy of on-demand air suspension front and rear, got a mandatory tall front wheel from Doug McGoon of Mad Wheels in Orange, California, bodywork from John Shope’s Dirty Bird Concepts, a Butch Watson HighRollers Seats two-tone saddle and more hard hand work just to make it all work. Appreciating all the stuff Joey and his crew sweated over during the build is something most of us just take for granted now as the standards have been raised so abnormally high by so many bagger builders. I’m sticking to changing my oil and thinking about changing my mirrors.

 

   What I’m enamored with and what separates it from other custom baggers (here comes a big surprise), though, is the colors and art work. In particular the air brushing of the über-talented Brain Morgan of BKP Paint in Easley, South Carolina. Old Brian is constantly busy with his spray gun and air brush trying to meet the demands of the many bagger builders who have to have one of his paintjobs. Many, many of the baggers we’ve featured have had BKP Art paintjobs and are some of our most viewed articles. Gee, after looking at this bike I wonder why? The guy’s got golden fingers when it comes to paint and his graphics are eye-catching to say the least.

 

  So it’s another one down off the lift at Back Yard Baggers and onto the show circuit with many more waiting to take its place on the transformation table I would imagine. You know, it really does seem that way as we’ve still got a lot more of Joey Hensley’s creations waiting in Jack Cofano’s photo galleries to have their fifteen minutes of fame. Stay tuned and see what Joey’s been up to. I’m positive he will somehow top himself again and again and . . .

 

  For more information on Back Yard Baggers, check out www.backyardbaggers.net, mosey on over to their Facebook page, or just stay tuned to Barnett’s Magazine Online.