There are many people building bikes wiser, handier, and just plain smarter than me and Mark Tibbel and Michael D’Atri of Burnout Alley Motorcycle Garage in Aberdeen, North Carolina, are two of them. Our feature bike started out as a spic-and-span stock 2005 Harley-Davidson Softail Standard before the Burnout boys got their groove going and ripped it apart to the bare frame. What they ended up with was a very, very nice custom Softail with 90-plus-per cent of what Barnett’s Magazine Online’s talented photographer, the lovely Jack Cofano, shot when he ran into it at this year’s Smoke Out. Apparently the devil is in the details and the Burnout boys are absotootly detail oriented, so after a bit, it was back into the shop for a final (?) detailing.

 

  Originally built featuring a special silver concoction on the frame, swingarm, motor, primary and numerous other pieces that looks like “plain old flat silver powder coat in the shade, but completely different in the sun” according to the boys. A wicked beefy 59mm inverted fork was fitted up front and the bike lowered two-inches front and rear. Custom cut and chop mods were done to the rear fender and the stock front fender replaced with a tire hugging one. Other mods included a set of Wild 1 Chubby Street Fighter bars, a Fat Boy dash, engine mods, and a bunch of other things too numerous to mention.

 

  Michael shot one of his perfecto paintjobs on the tinwork while Mark got busy with the engine and final assembly and it was a done deal. Ready to rip, but something was bugging them. But, there’s always a but, they felt that something was missing or maybe I should say that something was going to be missing and that was a little too much bling on this build. So the boys dove back in until they had it the way they saw it in their heads.

 

  First off to hit the parts shelf was the rolling stock that consisted of 80-spoke chrome wheels front and rear, the stock H-D rotors, the chrome headlight, and well, basically anything left that seemed the least bit shiny got satinized (is that a word?). The wheels were replaced with all-black fat spoke wheels and the H-D rotors with wheel-matching black ones. The rear fender got bobbed a bit more and the Burnout boys did a really neat number to the modified rear fender strut with a way nicer, basically invisible one. In actuality, the first modified one was just peachy, but this one took it to a whole new level of cool in my opinion.

 

  Getting rid of anything chromey finish-wise from the fat fork to the dash to the bars, etc. really had a dramatic effect on the second time around finish. Now they not only had a mildly hopped-up, nicely customized and beautifully custom painted Softail that was a totally streetable custom, but by getting rid of any shiny bits, they had a second-time- around custom with a more cohesive and gorgeous design (including a few more speed holes) from front to back and top to bottom. Finally, they could call it a day and not have to keep wondering if they only did this or that how much happier they’d be with the final result. Quite unlike me I dare say, so good on you Mark and Michael!

 

  If you’d like to find out more about “The Original” Burnout Alley Motorcycle Garage, click on http://www.burnoutalley.com/ . Oh, by the way, the ‘original’ version of this bike is featured on their website in case you want to compare the differences for yourself.